  available at amazon  and AbeBooks |
"This is far and away the best book about the Pacific of our times. Julian Evans is the Robert Louis Stevenson of the post-nuclear Pacific" Norman Lewis "This remarkable travel book... Evans' close attention to human detail brings out the complexity of modern Pacific life and offers occasional glimpses of the paradise it might have been" Adam Nicolson, Sunday Times "This gem of a book... Evans describes memorably an assortment of villains and comedians for whom only the South Pacific can provide a home. His prose is magical, his wit gentle, his stories eminently repeatable, his touch sure and graceful" Simon Winchester, Guardian "Julian Evans is a meticulous, vivid writer... honest and shrewd: a first-rate reporter" Michael Thompson-Noel, Financial Times "Brilliant... a wickedly sardonic account... the best travel book I've read in years" Bruce Palling, Tatler "Probably the best modern travelogue about the Pacific" Michelle Bennett, Lonely Planet Samoan Islands "Evans's writing [is] jaundiced but sharp, quick to tick off the mess that's been made of things but still attentive to those too-few moments when the old dream of islands asserts itself... Transit of Venus presents a vivid inventory of corruption and loss" Times Literary Supplement "Transit of Venus is a fascinating and humorous account of life in these delicate and complex island societies" New York Times "The 'noble savages' of the islands of the South Pacific now have money and alcohol, military bases, atomic explosions and a good deal of Christianity.... Traveling on a slow boat through the islands, Evans documents in sorrowful detail, interspersed with excellent historical background, the loss of innocence" Publishers Weekly  |
© Julian Evans 2006-08. Site designed and built by Laurie Harrison
August 2010
José Saramago: a Life of Resistance,
BBC Four film
Making the World Legible,
a new translation anthology free online
see Events and download
"Hooking Reality: Creative non-fiction",
a new course for writers at Glencot House, Somerset, 10–14 January 2011. See Miller's Writers' Retreat for the new season of courses and to book
recent articles
The master of small things, Prospect
Pole positions, Times Literary Supplement
Letter from Odessa, Prospect
Illuminating the human heart, Prospect
Small wonder, Traveller
An eye on the world's absurdity, Guardian
Almost a British Balzac, Prospect
Mysteries afloat, Times Literary Supplement
Damned by his brain, Times Literary Supplement
also download radio features on
Robert Louis Stevenson
F Scott Fitzgerald
Anton Chekhov
Alexander Pushkin
François Rabelais
and listen to the 20-part BBC Radio 3 series on the rise of the European novel The Romantic Road, with interviews with
Henning Mankell
José Saramago
Javier Marías
Michel Houellebecq
Ismail Kadare
Camilo José Cela
Michel Tournier
Dubravka Ugresic
Marcel Möring
Cees Nooteboom
Marie Darrieusecq
Antonio Muńoz Molina
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Claudio Magris
Michel Déon
Harry Mulisch
Ivan Klíma
Dacia Maraini
Antonio Tabucchi
Friederike Mayröcker
Peter Pist'anek
Ludvík Vaculík
Pawel Huelle
Tadeusz Konwicki
Magda Szabó
Péter Esterházy
Andrei Bitov
Julia Latynina
Yuri Andrukhovych
Fatos Kongoli
Ólafur Gunnarsson
Einar Mar Gudmundsson
Per Olov Enquist
Sara Lidman
Slavenka Drakulic
Torgny Lindgren
Jaan Kross
© Julian Evans 1993-2010
