I’m a writer originally from the UK, but now usually found elsewhere in the world. Currently, I’m based in Sofia, Bulgaria. I have always been fascinated by the subtle art of connecting with strangers, and by the complex ways that human beings forge bonds with those they don’t know. I have an MA in anthropology and a PhD in philosophy. Hello, Stranger is my thirteenth book, and in August 2021 was selected by BBCRadio 4 to be the book of the week.
I wrote
Hello, Stranger: How We Find Connection in a Disconnected World
Tove Jansson’s Moominhouse is the perfect image of hospitality. In Finn Family Moomintroll, Jansson conjures the enchanting image of a place where guests, however strange, are made at home by just “adding another bed and putting another leaf in the dining-room table.”
Muskrat philosophers, mysterious ancestors, troublesome children, unsettling wayfarers: everyone seems to be accommodated, somehow or other. In the chaos that ensues, Jansson writes, “very often unexpected and disturbing things used to happen, but nobody ever had time to be bored, and that is always a good thing.”
Special Collectors' Hardback Editions Lovingly Restored to Original Designs
'I love these editions-so beautifully produced, so solid and permanent, just as Tove Jansson deserved.' Philip Pullman
A beautiful collectors' edition of this classic Moomin story, using original 50s and 60s cover artwork, a fold out map and gorgeous endpapers
In case you didn't know, the Moomins are kind, loyal and welcoming creatures with smooth round snouts, who live in a tall blue house shaped like an old stove in a valley in the forests of Finland. They love sunshine and sleep right through the winter, when the snow turns their…
Homer’s Odyssey is a huge treatise on the art of dealing with strangers. It tells you what to do (invite your guests to leave their spears at the door), what not to do (don’t eat your guests, if you can avoid it), and how to navigate the difficulties of dealing with people we don’t know. And it explores the blurred lines between hospitality and hostility, guests and hostages.
Wilson’s contemporary translation is fun, brilliantly readable, and makes Homer’s classic work feel both contemporary and profoundly relevant.
The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty and power; about marriage, family and identity; and about travellers, hospitality and the changing meanings of home in a strange world.
This vivid new translation-the first by a woman-matches the number of lines in the Greek original, striding at Homer's sprightly pace. Emily Wilson employs elemental, resonant language and an iambic pentameter to produce a translation with an enchanting "rhythm and rumble" that avoids proclaiming its own grandeur. An engrossing tale told in a compelling new…
Our rituals of hospitality often involve gift-giving: a cup of tea, a bottle of wine, a bouquet of flowers for the host. So if you have ever turned up at somebody’s door bearing a gift, and worrying about whether it will be well-received, this is the book for you.
Mauss himself was an extraordinarily gifted thinker: his interests included anthropology, Sanskrit, the religions of India, the Māori language, and amateur boxing. The Gift is an anthropological marvel that revolutionised our understanding of gift-giving.
Since its first publication in English in 1954, The Gift, Marcel Mauss's groundbreaking study of the relation between forms of exchange and social structure, has been acclaimed as a classic among anthropology texts.
A brilliant example of the comparative method, The Gift presents the first systematic study of the custom―widespread in primitive societies from ancient Rome to present-day Melanesia―of exchanging gifts. The gift is a perfect example of what Mauss calls a total social phenomenon, since it involves legal, economic, moral, religious, aesthetic, and other dimensions. He sees the gift exchange as related to individuals and groups as much as…
Dina Nayeri’s powerful book—half memoir and half polemic—challenges us to rethink our assumptions about nations, borders, strangers, and the meaning of asylum.
“Asylum seekers is so mild a phrase,” Nayeri writes. “We weren’t politely seeking, we were ravenous for it, this creature need for the safety for our bodies.” In this hard-hitting book, Nayeri skillfully weaves together stories of exile, asylum, and refuge to ask deep questions about what it means to be at home or not at home, welcome or unwelcome.
What is it like to be a refugee? It is a question many of us do not give much thought, and yet there are more than 25 million refugees in the world. To be a refugee is to grapple with your place in society, attempting to reconcile the life you have known with a new, unfamiliar home. All this while bearing the burden of gratitude in your host nation: the expectation that you should be forever thankful for the space you have been allowed.
Aged eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother, and lived in the…
The idea of cosmopolitanism goes back to ancient Greece when the ancient philosopher Diogenes the Cynic claimed that his home—his city or his polis—was the cosmos as a whole.
In this humane, wise book, Appiah brings together philosophy, literature, and stories from his own life to update the ancient idea of cosmopolitanism, and to ask why it matters today. Along the way, he sets out a vision for how we can live better—more openly and more hospitably—in a world where almost everybody we meet is a stranger.
Drawing on a broad range of disciplines, including history, literature, and philosophy-as well as the author's own experience of life on three continents-Cosmopolitanism is a moral manifesto for a planet we share with more than six billion strangers.
We navigate our interactions with strangers according to a host of unwritten rules, rituals and (sometimes awkward) attempts at politeness. But what if the people we meet were not a problem, but a gift?
When philosopher and traveller Will Buckingham’s partner died, he sought solace in throwing open the door to new people. Now, as we reflect on our experiences of the pandemic and its enforced separations, and as global migration figures ever more prominently in our collective future, Buckingham brings together insights from philosophy, anthropology, history, and literature to explore how our traditions of meeting the other can mitigate the issues of our time.
My book is fantastical historical fiction about two characters who're wrestling with the monstrosity of their grief.
It takes you into London high society, where Ambrose tries to forget about how much he misses Bennett and how much he dreads becoming as cold as their Grandfather. It takes you to the family's country manor house, where Mattie isolates and old ghosts start to come out of the woodwork.
It's a story about loss and depression; it's a story about friends who don't let you walk through the valley of death alone.
Ambrose Bancroft returns to London society with his younger sister, hoping they'll leave ghosts of memory behind. They have only each other left. While Ambrose attempts to draw Mattie out, dragging her to balls and threatening to seek suitors for her, his sister recoils from his meddling. Finally, when Ambrose compels her to attend art class before she's ready, Mattie paints something horrific enough to banish them from society in public disgrace.
At Linwood Manor, Mattie and Ambrose aren't as alone as they think. Taking advantage of Mattie's desperate need to find freedom, a vanishing room lures Ambrose's sister into…
