Nigel Barley

Nigel Barley (born 1947 in Kingston upon Thames, England) is an anthropologist famous for the books he has written on his experiences. He studied modern languages at Cambridge University and completed a doctorate in social anthropology at Oxford University. He held a number of academic positions before joining the British Museum as an assistant keeper in the Department of Ethnography, where he remained until 2003.

Barley's first book, The Innocent Anthropologist, was a witty and informative account of anthropological field work among the Dowayo people of Cameroon. Thereafter he published a number of works about Africa and Indonesia in such genres as travel, art, historical biography, and fiction.

Barley has been twice nominated for the Travelex Writer of the Year Award. In 2002, he won the Foreign Press Association prize for travel writing.

Select bibliography

• Symbolic structures. An exploration of the culture of the Dowayos, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1983 ISBN 0-521-24745-4
• The Innocent Anthropologist: Notes From a Mud Hut, 1983. (ISBN 0-8050-1967-7)
• Adventures in a Mud Hut: An Innocent Anthropologist Abroad, Vanguard Press, 1984. (ISBN 0-8149-0880-2)
• A Plague of Caterpillars: A Return to the African Bush, Viking Press, 1986. (ISBN 0-670-80704-4)
• Ceremony: An Anthropologist's Misadventures in the African Bush, Henry Holt, 1987. (ISBN 0-8050-0142-5)
  • A Plague of Caterpillars (US Edition)
• Not a Hazardous Sport, Henry Holt, 1989. (ISBN 0-8050-0960-4)
• The Coast, 1991 (comic novel). (ISBN 0-14-012213-3)
• The Duke of Puddle Dock: Travels in the Footsteps of Stamford Raffles, Henry Holt, 1992. (ISBN 0-8050-1968-5)
• Grave Matters: A Lively History of Death around the World, Henry Holt, 1997. (ISBN 0-8050-4824-3)
• White Rajah: A Biography of Sir James Brooke, Little, Brown, 2003. (ISBN 0-3168-5920-6)
• Rogue Raider: The tale of Captain Lauterbach and the Singapore Mutiny, Monsoon Books, 2006. (ISBN 981-05-5949-6)
• Island of Demons: A novelistic treatment of the life of the painter Walter Spies in Bali, Monsoon Books, 2009. (ISBN 978-981-08-2381-8)
• The Devil's Garden: Love and War in Singapore under the Japanese Flag, Monsoon Books,2011. (ISBN: 978-981-4358-42-2)

External links

• Short biography
• The Innocent Anthropologist
• Rogue Raider
• Nigel Barley: Why human culture drips with blood

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Name	Barley, Nigel
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Date of birth	1947
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