Gavin Bell (1)
Author of Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Travels in South Africa
For other authors named Gavin Bell, see the disambiguation page.
Works by Gavin Bell
In Search of Tusitala: Travels in the Pacific After Robert Louis Stevenson (1994) 45 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- ukjent
- Gender
- male
- Short biography
- Gavin Bell is a former foreign correspondent of Reuters and The Times, who has found that travel writing is more fun and safer than reporting on wars and coups d’etat. At the last count, he had reported from more than 70 countries from Antarctica to Zanzibar. His assignments have included the Lebanese civil war, the Iran-Iraq war, a Soviet offensive in Afghanistan, revolutions in Madagascar and Fiji, a nuclear test on a French Pacific atoll, the collapse of apartheid, and the release of Nelson Mandela.
His first book, In Search of Tusitala: Travels in the Pacific after Robert Louis Stevenson, won the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book of the Year Award. His latest is Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Travels in South Africa. - Places of residence
- Scotland, UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- Scotland, UK
Members
Reviews
Bell has accomplished the perfect balance between biography, history, travel writing and political and social commentary. None of these elements are strained, they all flow (seemingly) effortlessly into each other. Bell brings an extraordinary cut-through honesty to his task, His writing sparkles and continually engages the reader with stories of simple and extraordinary lives, past and present. This is a superb biography of Robert Louis Stevenson's final years, but it is also an unsurpassed show more introduction to the people and the issues of the Pacific. Very highly recommended. show less
So, so far more than another "travel" book, a paean of praise, a hymn and a poetic rush of prose in the praise of the human spirit. of friendship, of kindness, of the sheer humanity that both author and RLS found in the islands. A simple proposal; to follow the track of Robert Louis Stevenson (the famed Tusitala - teller of tales) around the Islands of the South Seas, leads to deep, soul-felt experiences of romance and interpersonal and geographically awesome relationships.
Gavin Bell, a show more hardened and hard-nosed war correspondent, follows his fellow Scot into the realms of the cultures and fables of the Polynesians and mellows - just as RLS did before him - in their extensive and extending humanity.
Truly, they both find a 'paradise', faults and smells notwithstanding. Home is the hunter, home from the hills and the sailor, home from the Southern Seas.
Highly recommended for both prose and insight. show less
Gavin Bell, a show more hardened and hard-nosed war correspondent, follows his fellow Scot into the realms of the cultures and fables of the Polynesians and mellows - just as RLS did before him - in their extensive and extending humanity.
Truly, they both find a 'paradise', faults and smells notwithstanding. Home is the hunter, home from the hills and the sailor, home from the Southern Seas.
Highly recommended for both prose and insight. show less
Awards
Statistics
- Works
- 2
- Members
- 91
- Popularity
- #204,135
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 2
- ISBNs
- 21