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From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a fascinating meditation on bridges around the world, exploring how these structures can improve human connection
In a world increasingly preoccupied by borders, bridges celebrate the possibility of connection, allowing the flow of goods, people and ideas. Bridges are among our grandest physical structures with the power of transforming lives and economies, but we also stand (or fall) upon the simple arch of bones in our feet. Text is a bridge between writer and reader, and conversation builds bridges of understanding between minds.
Dr Gavin Francis has spent his life fascinated by the power of bridges to improve human connection. In The Bridge Between Worlds he examines bridges both actual and metaphorical, on a journey through more than twenty countries, across four decades of travel.
From Rome’s Ponte Sant’Angelo to Brooklyn, Victoria Falls to London, Singapore to Siberia, this thought-provoking book reflects on connections between nations and between individuals. Francis demonstrates what the building of bridges has meant to our civilisation, how crossings can enrich our lives, and the price we pay when we tear them down.
“Gavin Francis has written an exquisite book on a human structure we usually take for granted. This is a fascinating and delightful read”
Alexander Mccall Smith
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“Informative, imaginative and hugely enjoyable. Who knew? A bridge can take you anywhere!”
Sara Wheeler
“It’s rare and interesting to see bridges explored both as metaphors and as structures. The Bridge Between Worlds is a valuable reminder that the physical environment we build has immense social and cultural consequences”
Sarah Moss
“Francis writes with energy, flair and empathy: The Bridge Between Worlds opens a marvellously rich seam of inquiry, striking many urgent and timely reverberations”
Marina Warner
“Francis is a thoughtful and engaging writer … there is a lightness of touch to Francis’s prose that is a delight to read”
Doug Johnstone
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Gavin Francis
Gavin Francis is an award-winning writer and GP. He is the author of ten non-fiction books, including Island Dreams which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year 2020; Adventures in Human Being which was a Sunday Times bestseller and won the Saltire Scottish Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award; Empire Antarctica, which won Scottish Book of the Year in the SMIT Awards and was shortlisted for both the Ondaatje and Costa Prizes; and Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence, which was a Sunday Times bestseller. He has written for the Guardian, The Times, the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. His work has been translated into eighteen languages. He lives in Edinburgh , Scotland.