More About Peter
Peter Sommer studied Ancient History and Archaeology at Birmingham University in England before completing a Masters on the archaeology of Central Asia. He fell in love with Turkey in 1994 while walking 2,000 miles from Troy to the battle of Issus, retracing the route of Alexander the Great. For this epic journey he received The Explorers Club of America Young Expeditioners’ award.
He has taught at Birmingham University and Bogazici University, in Istanbul, Turkey. Two years into a PhD. at University College London, on the archaeology of northwest Turkey, he was seduced into television to work on In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (BBC/PBS).
Documentary Filmmaking
An award winning producer/director, Peter has shot around the world for films like Millennium: A thousand years of history (BBC/CNN), and Commanding Heights: the Battle for the World Economy (PBS/BBC). As a development producer he has turned books like Guns, Germs and Steel, and 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, into TV documentaries.
Other credits include Britain’s Finest Castles, Britain’s Finest Ancient Monuments (Channel Five) and Weapons that Made Britain (Channel 4).
His most recent TV series, Tales from the Green Valley, 12 x 1/2 hrs about life on a farm in the year 1620, was shown on BBC2 in the UK in the autumn of 2005, to large audiences and wide critical acclaim.
Travel Writing and Documentary Features
Peter also works as a freelance writer and photographer, and has written on a range of subjects, from travel to history, farming to film-making
Public speaking: talks and lectures
Peter enjoys giving talks to societies and groups large and small about Turkey, travel, and his various documentaries. If you’d like Peter to come and speak, do please get in touch.
Travel and Tour Guide
Peter has led and organised numerous historical cruises and tours in Turkey and beyond and still regularly leads some of our tours in Turkey each year. He is passionate about leading cultural tours and delivering the very finest escorted tours.
Best Guide Nomination
For the tours he leads in Turkey, Peter was nominated for the 2006 Wanderlust Magazine’s best guide award and received a wonderful official nomination award certificate as a result of all the glowing testimonies (Wanderlust’s words) that previous customers sent in.
Planning Archaeological Tours
If you’d like to know how Peter goes about creating our escorted tours around the Mediterranean, you can read an article he’s written about it: How to design an archaeological tour
Picture Acknowledgements:
In addition to Peter’s own photographs, some of the images in our brochure and on our website were very kindly sent in by past clients including Bruce Sutherland, Murray Glover, Fay Sutherland, Ericka Lock, Jeff Buttel, Andrew Wilson, Jacob Gerritsen, Robin Hemphill, Julie Brown, Paul Beston, Gary Kachadurian, Wouter Blitz, Peter Riding, Alicia Smith, David Mansfield, Cem Yucesoy, David Mutlow, Piper Hawes Adrian Martin, Heinrich Hall, Marcello Baglioni, Michael Hanselmann, Nessy Pic, Coby Everdell, and Barbara Fields. Very many thanks to you all.
