Cannibals and deserts, polar bears and passion, songlines and shamans – the author of a book on the essential wildness of the human spirit comes to Lancaster in July.
Jay Griffiths, author of Wild: An Elemental Journey
In Wild, which was shortlisted for the Orwell prize in the UK in 2008 and was awarded the 2007 Orion Book Award in the US, Jay describes an extraordinary odyssey, courageous and sometimes dangerous, to wildernesses of earth and ice, water and fire. The book is by turns funny, touching and harrowing. It’s also a journey into that greatest of uncharted lands – wild mind – as Griffiths explores the words and meanings which shape our ideas and our experience of our own wildness.
Wild which was also shortlisted for World Book Day ‘Books to talk about in 2009’, is described as an evocation of the songlines of the earth, the result of long journeys among Native people; meeting cannibals; anchoring a boat to an iceberg where polar bears slept; drinking shamanic medicine with Amazonian healers; visiting sea gypsies and journeying to meet freedom fighters in West Papua.
• Tickets for the event, which starts at 7.30pm, cost £3 (no concessions). Ticket-buyers can get £3 off a copy of Wild – normally £8.99 – on the night of the event. For more information visit www.litfest.org