High on ice

Ranulph Fiennes is sitting on the edge of a stage at London's Royal Geographical Society. In a few hours the world's most famous living explorer will speak before a packed house about his life, adventures and new autobiography, Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know.

Twenty years after his first memoir (Living Dangerously), Fiennes has a lot of new material to cover: attempts on Everest and the north face of the Eiger, which raised millions of pounds for the Marie Curie Cancer charity; running seven marathons in seven days on each of the seven continents; and losing a number of fingers to frostbite before removing the painful tips with a hacksaw.

'It was very annoying,' Fiennes says. 'Anybody's frostbite happens through stupidity or a mistake. Usually it wasn't me, it was one of the others.'

There are also subjects of a more personal nature to record: the death of Ginny, his wife of 35 years; meeting and marrying second wife Louise; becoming a father for the first time, aged 62. Fiennes might even mention the heart attack that threatened his life in 2003, but which hardly seems to have slowed his work rate.

Fiennes could talk about all this and more. But for the moment, with the auditorium empty save for Louise and myself, he seems far more keen to chat about Bond - James Bond. 'I think the current one is the best,' he says decisively in crisp English tones. 'I know a lot of people prefer Sean Connery.' Fiennes indicates Louise. 'I can't explain it exactly, but I find this one far more deadly. One would be frightened of him.'

007 is a subject that Fiennes has special reason to discuss. Thirty years ago, he nearly was James Bond when producer Cubby Broccoli flirted with finding 'an English gentleman who really does these things'. Fiennes, then just out of the SAS and British Army, seemed an ideal candidate. But then Broccoli chose suave Roger Moore; Fiennes returned to a life of polar exploration and the family's acting laurels were left to cousins Ralph and Joseph.

Given Daniel Craig's muscular triumph in Casino Royale, it's just possible that Fiennes was simply a Bond ahead of his time. Ruggedly handsome, physically intimidating and possessed of a stiff upper lip, he is an old-fashioned English hero after Craig's own heart.