Gavin Francis was born in Fife and now lives in Orkney, where he works as a GP. His interest in history and travel has seen him pass through Europe, India, Africa and South America, as well as spending a year on a remote base in Antarctica. He is currently writing with his wife, Esa, a book based on their journey from Orkney to New Zealand by motorbike.
From reviews of True North:
‘True North is a wonder-voyage – an immrama – out into the landscape of the northern regions, but also down into the mindscape of those many travellers who have been drawn irresistibly northwards over the millennia – Gavin Francis among them. Fluent, subtle, tough and often beautiful, True North stands alongside Peter Davidson’s The Idea of North and Joanna Kavenna’s The Ice Museum, as a significant recent addition to the Arctic canon.’
– Robert Macfarlane
‘A deep empathy with the land and its history runs like a golden thread through every chapter of True North.’
– Sara Wheeler, The Spectator
‘Returning from a frostbitten world, Gavin Francis describes landscapes few of us have seen and narrates stories almost none of us have heard. He is a true traveller.’
– Daniel Kaldor
‘Thank goodness for people like Gavin Francis who are prepared not only to visit our northerly neighbours, but write about them in a way that shows how much of their history is our history too.’
– Roger Cox, The Scotsman