GWR's Craig Glenday reveals his fave memories, celeb tales and 70th anniversary wish list

There isn’t much Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday hasn’t seen in his 20+ years in the world of record breaking.

He’s met the world’s tallest and oldest people, huge celebrities and astronauts, people with impossibly long fingernails, and Oprah Winfrey once gave his number to Barack Obama.

GWR is celebrating its 70^th anniversary this year, and Craig has been looking back over his last two decades at the helm… and forward to the future!

He admits this is a unique kind of job that’s brought him many opportunities he wouldn’t have had otherwise.

And as a lifelong Guinness World Records fan and a self-confessed space nerd, he’s been able to tick a lot of things off his wish list.

He told us: “I was quite lucky that when I started the job, I was able to go through all the people that I wanted to meet from having read the book as a kid, like the guy who ate a plane, and the fingernail people – I really enjoy meeting them and learning about their lives.”

Craig’s first proper encounter with a tallest man was when he popped to the airport to collect Bao Xi Shun, the 236.1 cm (7 ft 8.9 in) tall Chinese man who’d flown into London to officially claim his title.

“It was one of my first things to do as Editor-in-Chief,” Craig said. “It brings it all home that what we do is all about the record holder – it’s meeting them and hearing their stories.

Craig with Bao Xi Shun

“It’s been a pleasure meeting all of the tallest people I’ve met. Measuring Sultan [Kösen] was a real honour.”

Sultan was the first person over 8 ft to be measured in over 20 years.

Craig added: “People like Sultan, you just think, are we ever going to see that again? It’s probably unlikely.

“Another highlight I really enjoyed was meeting the world’s oldest man ever, Jiroemon Kimura.

“I went to his house in Japan and met his family and he’d learned a bit of English so he could say hello.

“He was 116 and the oldest person I’ve ever met.

“He had a big magnifying glass and was sitting reading the paper and he still had so much life in him.”

Meeting A-list stars is another exciting aspect of Craig’s job, and he said he loves getting to experience what a day in their lives is like.

Craig with Jiroemon

He laughed as he told us: “I once got a call from Barack Obama’s team, before he was president, saying ‘sorry to bother you, we got your number from Oprah Winfrey’.

“Why did Oprah Winfrey have my phone number?”

But he always gets the biggest buzz (this will be funny in a second) from meeting astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin, who was part of the first crewed mission to the Moon.

“That’s a big one for me - all the astronauts I’ve been able to meet,” he said.

“Buzz, Al Worden, Tim Peake. In terms of character and determination, all the things they have to do to become an astronaut makes them a unique and very impressive group of people.

“They’ve also got this amazing view of the world and I wish everyone had their sense of perspective.

“I was such a space nerd as a kid so it’s lots of people ticked off my list, including William Shatner, who ended up becoming the oldest man in space, Wil Wheaton, George Takei.”

It’s no surprise that Craig is also very happy to have met many actors from the Star Wars franchise, including Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill… but one has eluded him so far.

“The one I’ve not met is Harrison Ford and that’s annoying – so if you’re reading this, Harrison, I’d love to meet you,” Craig joked.

Craig said the real joy of his job is that every day is different and he never knows what he’s going to see next.

But, if he could choose, Craig says there are a few things he’s never seen and people he’s never met that he’d love to.

He said: “In terms of people I’ve never met, I’d love to meet Sir Elton John, Madonna and Sir Paul McCartney, they have so many impressive records but sadly I’ve never had the opportunity to meet any of them so far.

“If you’re reading, Mr McCartney…”

He added: “I’ve never seen the highest shallow dive in person and I’d love to see that. It looks so insane and impossible that you can’t imagine seeing it with your own eyes.

"I'm a big fan of movie stunts and had the joy of researching the topic for a recent edition of the book. Would love to see more records in this category, and particularly from women. I don't think we've ever had an application for a female full-body burn, for example.

“I would have loved to have been present when Felix Baumgartner did his sky dive from space – that was really impressive.

“I also missed out on star jumping on the lawn of the White House with the Obamas.”

Some of the currently unclaimed records Craig would love to see broken are the heaviest man and woman and the tallest twins and triplets.

And what if he could break a record himself?

“Richest man would be nice,” he laughed

“I always thought it would be amazing to break a record by going to space, maybe I could edit the book up there and be the first person to do that.

“I’d really love to go to Antarctica as well. I came very close once. It’s still on my bucket list to go in a way that’s respectful for the environment.

“This is what this job does, it puts you in places you would never get to go as a tourist.”

Summing up, Craig said: “We’re just the current caretakers of this amazing institution that I know has 70 more exciting years ahead of it.

“I’ve met people who say they got my first book as editor [the 2006 edition] when they were a kid and now they’re adults. I feel old but it’s so lovely.

“And I’ve heard mothers phone into radio shows saying how happy they were that we’d made a book their child would read because they wouldn’t otherwise, and that was so lovely to hear as well.

“I forget sometimes we are part of a family’s Christmas and people’s childhood and that’s something very special.”

Here’s to another 70 years and many more Craig tales.