Anthropology-lite with Barnaby Rogerson of Eland books (Episode #1)

I’m launching my new Personal Landscapes podcast with Barnaby Rogerson, publisher of Eland books.

It’s the only possible way I could open a discussion on books about place.

Eland has been resurrecting lost travel classics and keeping them in print for more than 35 years. 

The legendary travel presenter and Monty Python alumni Michael Palin has said, “It remains for me the quintessential travel publisher.”

It has “one of the very best travel lists,” according to historian William Dalrymple.

The writer Fergus Fleming says, “No British publisher has a list so enticingly eclectic or so consistently rewarding.”

We talk about anthropology-lite, why the post-war period was a golden age for British travel writing, and why some of the 20th century’s most exciting writers were autodidacts.

You can read more about the story of Eland — and find their outstanding catalog — on their website https://www.travelbooks.co.uk/

Eland also offers a helpful subscription service where, for an annual fee, you can get their latest books hot off the presses. Or pick up the entire Eland classics library in one shelf-filling swoop — and donate a set to me. 

I highly recommend signing up to Eland’s excellent free newsletter for excerpts in your inbox and news about their latest titles. You’ll find a sign up box on their home page.

You can also follow Eland on Instagram and Twitter.

Barnaby Rogerson’s website:  http://www.barnabyrogerson.com/

These are the books we mentioned in the podcast:

• A Dragon Apparent by Norman Lewis
• The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd
• Living Poor by Moritz Thomsen
• The Saddest Pleasure by Moritz Thomsen
• Forgotten Kingdom by Peter Goullart
• Brazilian Adventure by Peter Fleming
• The Turkish Embassy Letters by Lady Mary Montagu
• Letters From Egypt by Lucie Duff-Gordon
• West With the Night by Beryl Markham
• Full Tilt by Dervla Murphy
• Warriors by Gerald Hanley
• Stamboul Sketches by John Freely
• Two Cheers for Anarchism by James Scott
• My Traitor’s Heart by Rian Malan
• The Innocent Anthropologist by Nigel Barley
• A Plague of Caterpillars by Nigel Barley
• An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
• The Trouble I’ve Seen by Martha Gellhorn
• Travels With Myself and Another by Martha Gellhorn
• Libyan Sands by Ralph Bagnold
• Time Among the Maya by Ronald Wright
• Cut Stones & Crossroads by Ronald Wright
• Somebody Else by Charles Nicholl
• Borderlines by Charles Nicholl
• Morocco That Was by Walter Harris

Other writers mentioned were:

• Norman Lewis
• Mary Kingsley
• Isabella Bird
• Dervla Murphy
• Gavin Maxwell
• Wilfred Thesiger
• Colin Thubron
• John Simpson
• Nicholas Shakespeare
• Sybille Bedford

You can listen to Personal Landscapes: Conversations on Books About Place on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Podbean, Audible, PlayerFM, and TuneIn + Alexa.

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