Charles Foster THE EDGES OF THE WORLD with Dan Kieran

Writer, traveller, veterinarian, taxidermist, barrister and philosopher Charles Foster joins us talk about his latest book.

The Edges of the World

We tend to think that everything important comes from the centre: from big cities, from established orthodoxies in the sciences and the arts, from the Establishment in all its forms. We think this because the centre tells us it is so, but it’s a lie. It is only at the edges that we think, innovate and thrive.

This book travels to the frontiers of human culture and consciousness; to the edges of continents, of evolution, of artistic and political movements, and life itself: from a rocky precipice in the Peloponnese where the first human set foot in Europe to an ancient Egyptian temple where monotheism was invented; from St Francis, kissing lepers to the giant bird-eating mice of St Kilda.

Why do we stare at sunsets? Why do we celebrate birthdays and grieve for those who are gone? Why do all adventures begin when we leave and get lost? Who has the better view of reality – the Government or the dispossessed?

And what happens when we live with the knowledge that we’re all teetering on the edge of the dark?

Charles Foster

Charles Foster is aNew York Times bestselling author whose work has been longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for nature writing, and won the Ig Nobel Prize for Biology and the 30 Millions d’Amis Prize. He is a fellow of Exeter College, University of Oxford, and has particular passions for Greece, waves, the Upper Palaeolithic, mountains and swifts.

Dan Kieran

Dan is the author and editor of fourteen books, including the Sunday Times bestseller Crap Towns (the first viral internet phenomenon to turn into a bestselling book), The Idle Traveller (the bestselling Slow Travel: Die Kunst des Reisens in Germany), Three Men in a Float (the story of his journey across England in a 1957 electric milk float also recorded for BBC Radio 4) and Do Start: How to create and run a business (that doesn’t run you). A travel writer for the Guardian, The Times and the Telegraph, he has given talks on a range of subjects including publishing, creative writing, fundraising, entrepreneurship and how to have ideas for places like The Idler, The Do Lectures and The European Parliament.