On the Trail of the Last Human Cannonball: And Other Small Journeys in Search of Great Men

Byron Rogers

2013 թ. մրտ · Quarto Publishing Group USA

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From “a great journalist of the older school,” travel essays chronicling the author’s search for incredible stories about extraordinary people (The Guardian).

Byron Rogers’ latest collection of travel pieces follows the winning formula of his previous book, An Audience with an Elephant, as he goes in search of a remarkable array of quirky, whimsical, and singular individuals. But in addition to meeting a pensioner on a holiday who decided to swim across the Amazon, this book sees Rogers meeting a number of undeniably famous people. But as one might expect, Rogers’ encounters with celebrity have their own unexpected outcomes. Burt Lancaster rants to him about transsexuality, Rita Hayworth is most worried about her neighbor’s TV aerial, and a retired star of the silent screen turns out to live in Henley-on-Thames.

“It is with the delicacy and determination of an archaeologist—and the wit of a publican and far-sightedness of a dreamer—that Rogers excavates people and places.” —Daily Telegraph

“A wonderful writer. Droll, poignant and dreamy.” —New Statesman

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Byron Rogers is a Welsh journalist, essayist and biographer. He has contributed to The Times, the Sunday Telegraph and the Guardian, and was once a speech writer for the Prince of Wales. He is also author of seven books published by Aurum, including: An Audience With an Elephant, one of several collections of his journalism; The Man Who Went into the West, a critically acclaimed biography of the iconic twentieth century Welsh poet, R. S. Thomas, which was awarded the James Tait Black Prize for Biography in 2007; and The Last Englishman, a biography of the quintessential Englishman and celebrated novelist J.L. Carr. Me: The Authorised Biography, was published in 2009. His most recent book is Three Journeys. He currently lives in Northamptonshire and Carmarthen.