Not a Hazardous Sport by Nigel Barley
Not a Hazardous Sport brings to a close Nigel Barley’s series of anthropological journeys that began with The Innocent Anthropologist and continued in A Plague of Caterpillars.
Writer, Explorer and Travel Philosopher
A Plague of Caterpillars
February 20, 2019 by Leave a Comment
A Plague of Caterpillars by Nigel Barley
Nigel Barley returns to Cameroon in this hilarious follow up to The Innocent Anthropologist.
“Returns” is a bit of a misnomer. In truth, he’d only just left.
Getting the Drift in London
February 8, 2019 by Leave a Comment
The Great Court of London’s British Museum…
I’d only been in London for a few hours, and I was already thinking I’d have to scrap a year’s work.
The Innocent Anthropologist
February 1, 2019 by Leave a Comment
The Innocent Anthropologist by Nigel Barley
Nigel Barley was a rather unhappy “desk anthropologist” at a British university.
His fieldwork-hardened older colleagues never stopped reminding him of this, because back in their day, it wasn’t enough to camp out in a library cordoned off by stacks of journals. You had to get out and live with the natives.
Adrift in Berlin
January 12, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Outpost Winter 2019… Berlin, baybee!
The latest issue of Outpost hit newsstands across Canada a few weeks ago.
This time in my Adrift on the Continent column, I’m taking you to Berlin. Well, I suppose I should say “bringing you to Berlin”, since I live here.
The Best Books I Read in 2018
January 1, 2019 by 2 Comments
Best Books 2018
It’s that time again.
I typically read about 100 books a year. Everything from travel literature to poetry, history, psychology, fiction and memoir.
I love reading lists and recommendations, and I bet a few of you do, too. So at year’s end, I like to take a moment to share my top reads of the past twelve months.
A Shift in My Trajectory
December 19, 2018 by 2 Comments
Batten down the hatches… Hate mail on the way…
I’ve started writing a series of articles for an independent Maltese news site called The Shift.
One of the paper’s founders contacted me at the beginning of November to ask if I would comment on things that appear completely bizarre to an outsider, but which are accepted as normal in Malta.
Living the Golden Age of Prank Calls
October 20, 2018 by 2 Comments
I had an unexpected glimpse of a friend from the distant past last week.
I was staying up late watching a French Canadian film called The Decline of the American Empire. Around thirty minutes in, just as I’m taking a sip of Crown Royal on ice, a telephone rings. The character in the shot stiffens in his chair, and then the camera pans to a side table, where we see…
Just Another Berlin Sunday
August 22, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Sunday in the Tiergarten…
Sunday afternoon in the Tiergarten.
A group of four shirtless guys sit on the grass, smoking pot and rolling a soccer ball in listless circles.
An Interview with Lawrence Millman
August 10, 2018 by 4 Comments
At Hellisheidi, above Vindfellsfjall, Iceland…
Lawrence Millman is the author of eleven books, including Northern Latitudes, Last Places, An Evening Among Headhunters, and Lost in the Arctic. His travel articles have appeared in such magazines as Smithsonian, National Geographic Adventure, The Atlantic Monthly, Sports Illustrated, and Islands.
