Barnaby Rogerson

Barnaby Rogerson was conceived on the Isle of Wight and born in Scotland. Travel was a vital aspect of his childhood which followed in the wake of his father’s career in the Royal Navy with postings to Gibraltar, Malta, Skye and Virginia. A degree in History from St Andrews University proved to be adequate preparation for work as a barman, tutor for a child star in a film made on a Greek island and a pony boy on a Highland estate. He worked for two independent publishers which led to a job in the press department of the Afghanistan Support Committee. A chance encounter in the Outer Hebrides led to his first commission to write a guidebook to Morocco followed by Tunisia, Cyprus, Istanbul and Libya. Desk work was intermingled with summer jobs helping restore grottoes at Hampton Court, Leeds Castle and Fort Worth, Texas.

Subsequent to the birth of two daughters, Barnaby wrote a History of North Africa, then a Biography of the Prophet Muhammad, then an account of the early Caliphate, The Heirs of the Prophet followed by The Last Crusaders (1415-1580), a collection of sacred numerological traditions of the world, Rogerson’s Book of Numbers followed by In Search of Ancient North Africa.  He has just finished, A House Divided a book looking at conflict zones within the Middle East complicated by the Shia-Sunni schism within Islam. To be published by Profile.

He has also contributed the text for Don McCullin’s photographic study of Roman North Africa and the Levant, Southern Frontiers, co-edited a collection of the contemporary travel writing Ox-Tales for the charity Oxfam, edited a collection of the travel literature of Marrakech, a collection of contemporary travel encounters with Islam; Meetings with Remarkable Muslims, a collection of English Orientalist verse, Desert Air, and a collection of the poetry of place of London. Barnaby was on the advisory board of Critical Muslim, the editorial board of Middle East in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a made an honorary member of The Travellers Club. He is also a lecturer, tour guide, television presenter, journalist and book reviewer with a scrapbook of three hundred articles pasted up on his website, BarnabyRogerson.com.