Outpost
A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth
Dan Richards
“It all had an irksome feeling of déjà vu. This had happened to me in a fashion before - but at least this time I had a working phone and we were below the snow-line.”
Available as Paperback, eBook, Downloadable audio
An exploration of the outposts set along the edges of civilisation and their impact on the human spirit, from the co-author of Holloway
There are still wild places out there on our crowded planet.
Through a series of personal journeys, Dan Richards explores the appeal of far-flung outposts in mountains, tundra, forests, oceans and deserts. Following a route from the Cairngorms of Scotland to the fire-watch lookouts of Washington State; from Iceland’s ‘Houses of Joy’ to the Utah desert; frozen ghost towns in Svalbard to shrines in Japan; Roald Dahl’s writing hut to a lighthouse in the North Atlantic, Richards explores landscapes which have inspired writers, artists and musicians, and asks: why are we drawn to wilderness? What can we do to protect them? And what does the future hold for outposts on the edge?
“There’s a special magic in Richards’ luminous descriptions of nature and place, but also in the stories he tells … Richards has penned a thoughtful and beautifully written meditation on our quest to find spaces in which we can find something unexpected in ourselves and forge a new relationship with the natural world”
guardian
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“Richards’ prose is by turns beautiful, funny, evocative and learned, the pages illuminated by lovely, warming footnotes … [Richards’ voice is] vivid, self-deprecating, literary and very, very funny”
observer
“Dan Richards is a wonderful storyteller, wise, wry and open-hearted, the perfect travelling companion. Outpost tells stories of emptiness, but is bursting with gorgeous life and language. It is a joy to read”
Max Porter
“Vivid, funny and moving – a wonderful stylist”
Sarah Perry
“Fascinating and funny”
financial Times
Dan Richards
Dan Richards is the co-author of Holloway (with Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood), and the author of The Beechwood Airship Interviews, Climbing Days and Outpost. He has written for the Guardian, Economist, Caught by the River, Monocle and Quietus. Dan teaches creative non-fiction at the National Centre for Writing and Arvon Foundation. His next book, Overnight, is set to be published in 2023.
@Dan_Zep
Dan Richards discusses preparing for unexpected meetings with bears in this audio extract from Outpost.
“These isolated, precarious refuges, at once exposed and welcoming, allow Richards to interrogate ideas of home and escape, of safety and adventure, all in a narrative whose principal pleasure is the time the reader gets to spend in the author’s amiable, erudite, Tiggerish company … Richards is often compared to his friend Rober Macfarlane, but his voice is much closer to that of Geoff Dyer: vivid, self-deprecating, literary and very, very funny.”
Alex Preston
Observer
