The Writers of Wales Database

HARRISON, JOHN A.

6 Albion Close London W2 2AT
Website: www.cloudroad.co.uk, forgottenfootprints.com
Email: cloud-road@hotmail.com
For event booking details click here

Fiction and travel writer John works as a freelance writer, guide and lecturer. His short stories have appeared on the BBC, in New Welsh Review, Planet, The Works, and been collected in A Short Primer in Vice. John has made radio programmes on Easter Island and Antarctica, and published travel articles in the Daily Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, Papagayo, Planet and New Welsh Review.

He has travelled to 60 countries in six continents including Antarctica and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1999. Slide talks are a speciality, and John also has teaching experience from junior school to postgraduate level. He was the winner of the 2004 and 2006 Alexander Cordell Travel Writing Competitions. Where the Earth Ends (John Murray, 2000) was a Sunday Times Book of the Week. Parthian published the paperback of this title in 2006, and have since published Cloud Road: A Journey Through the Inca Heartland (Parthian, 2010), which won the 2011 Wales Book of the Year award. Click here for more information.

Reviews:
With respect to Where the Earth Ends: A Journey Beyond Patagonia (John Murray, 2000) (paperback- Parthian, 2006)

"…fuelled by the skill of a writer from whom, I hope, we shall hear much more…"
Sunday Times

With respect to Cloud Road: A Journey Through the Inca Heartland (Parthian, 2010)

"…His approach is thorough and his excitement contagious…"
The Independent on Sunday


Selected Publications:
Short Fiction
Short Primer in Vice (Red Sharks Press, 1993)

Travel Writing
Where the Earth Ends - A Journey beyond Patagonia (John Murray, 2000) (paperback- Parthian, 2006)
Cloud Road: A Journey Through the Inca Heartland (Parthian, 2010)

History
Full Recovery - Memories and Stories Inspired by Pontypool & District Hospital (artRegen, 2004)
Antarctica: Forgotten Footprints (Parthian, 2012)

 

Cloudroad: A Journey Through the Inca Heartland (Parthian, 2010)

In every atlas there is a country missing from the maps of South America: the Andean nation. For five months John Harrison journeys through this secret country, walking alone into remote villages where he is the first gringo the inhabitants have ever seen, and where life continues as if Columbus had never sailed.
 
He lives at over 10,000 feet for most of the trip, following the great road of the Incas: the Camino Real, or Royal Road. Hand built over 500 years ago, it crosses the most difficult and dangerous mountains in all the Americas, diving into sweltering canyons and soaring up into the snows. 1500 miles, half of it on foot, takes him from the Equator to Cuzco and the most magical city of all: Machu Picchu. He is attacked, gets lost and is trapped by floods, but only when he goes home does he lose what he wants most.

To purchase this title this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover

Antartica: Forgotten Footprints (Parthian, 2012)

Come on a journey to the end of the Earth..

..to hear the stories of the men who went there first.

Forgotten Footprints takes audiences into the heads and hearts of those who were driven to explore this unknown land of Antarctica, led by a man who can’t keep away himself.

This spoken word event features stunning original photography and immersive, atmospheric soundscapes.