Travel is not just seeing the world but understanding it...
THE BOOK
A Travel Guide to Connection...
The Spirit of Exploration
"When two beings meet, the formative connection should open pathways of such fascinating exploration that we live our lives in perpetual, empathic amazement."
An inquiry into encounter in its widest sense - between bodies and species, across objects and landscapes, through deep time and the edges of transcendence. It approaches the lived world not as background, but as uncharted territory waiting to be met.
With a sharp eye, he examines connections—between individuals, with the places they go, with the cultures they witness, and, at the core of it all, with themselves.
Signposts - What does it mean to live among those who have different points of view?
"I love the smell of commuters in the morning. Smells like travelling... The static cram of a busy tube train yields time to observe and reflect, absorbing this moment in their world to try and see this journey through their eyes."
Terrain - A Time for First Impressions
“Rather than wonder,
‘Where would I like to go?’,
the traveller could ask ,
‘Where would I not like to go?’ and set off to that other place instead.
Travelling is the practice of leaving where you are, so avoid your usual comfort zones: go to the wrong pub”.
Perspectives - A Time of Adjustment
"We are each a boat made from water moving through an ocean of complex, connective currents - telling small, but significant, stories of our purpose and possibility. Nurture awareness of your location and how you are connected to the multiple histories that gathered you and your surroundings together."
Connections - A Time to Dive into Discovery
"Location is a gathering of histories, a nexus of many other locations. It is a transitory cluster formed from the detritus of prior clustering and dispersal. Through interconnection, we get to glimpse the wonder of our passing. Where I am and who I am are indistinguishable."
Contemplation - A Time for Self-Reflection
"Without the wisdom of kindness, intelligence is a dangerous capacity. Travel into other moral realms is an uncomfortable journey, but resist the temptation to retreat to your own clean, comfortable righteousness."
Onwards - A Time of Settling In
“Whenever I heard of an interesting location where anthropologists had traveled - for example, Ambition, Beds or Comedy - I put them into my imaginary museum. Looking through the museum catalogue, consider how to explore these places and their entangled trajectories of being."
A book to slip into a coat pocket.
Take it on trains, leave it on tables, keep it by the toilet, or open it at random to turn the ordinary day into an expedition.
A daily meditation on our strange, shared world.
REVIEWS
"An anthropological sensibility is exactly what we need
in a time of disconnection and division"
“Newman’s brilliant book is a fun, engaging invitation to see the world afresh. With clarity and wit, it shows how we can meeting difference with curiosity rather than judgment.”
Gwen Burnyeat, University of Oxford
"This exceptional book fundamentally shifts how we experience the ordinary"
“It takes us on a journey of connection with what we thought we knew. This changes everything. Few books so powerfully transform how we perceive the world around us. It is a must-read."
Steffi Bednarek, Centre for Climate Psychology
"Eye-Opening!"
Professor Takamitsu Jimura
Tourism and Heritage
Musashi University
"Curiosity can light the way and kindness guides our steps"
"A reality check to wake the inner self, avoid the trap of the mundane, and recognise that we are all connected, from the smallest microbe to the largest animal. Thank you for this wonderful travel guide.”
Dr. Juliano Riano, Univeristy of Brighton
"Once read, you will see the world differently and it will never leave you"
“This book is brilliant: humorous, thought-provoking, sensitive and surprising. It makes you think differently and challenges prejudices you may not even have realised you held. It invites you to imagine how the dragonfly perceives the world, the messages a chair sends out and what it must be like to exist using only a sense of smell…”
Katherine Richards, Designer
"The perfect antidote to painting by TripAdvisor reviews"
“This enjoyable book has inspired me to go on adventures to unusual places, taking off-the-beaten-track to new levels. Reminds me of Iain Sinclair’s London Orbital.”
"Existential joy"
“I spent the last week at the hospital with my Dad, Your book does make it more interesting there."
"Oblique strategies for anthropologists"
Dr D. Rubyan Ling
"I’m at a 3-day wedding. I have your book with me so I'm occasionally trying to merge into the landscape! " John McCooke
"We were hugely the better for the book during our holiday, and ever since"
"With immense humility, genuine curiosity and true open-mindedness, it encourages us to see everything afresh, take nothing for granted, and above all to listen to the locals we encounter - to see the world through their eyes - instead of stereotyping and demeaning them. This book could definitely make the world a better place"
Carol Stobbie, ADHD Coach, North Berwick
