SIMON WINCHESTER HONOURED BY RCGS
Look no further than titles such as Atlantic, Pacific, Krakatoa and The Map That Changed the World (about the world’s first geological map), to see how geography and geology have influenced Simon Winchester, this year’s Royal Canadian Geographical Society Lawrence J. Burpee Medal recipient. He’ll be presented the award at the RCGS’S annual College of Fellows Dinner on Nov. 16. “To be honoured by The Royal Canadian Geographical Society is something that makes me enormously proud,” he says. Winchester was born in London, England, and now divides his time between a hobby farm in the Berkshires and a New York City apartment, but says Canada is “in his blood.” “My first serious trip was to Montreal. It was to see my then girlfriend,” he says. “I was 17 or 18, and I hitchhiked across Canada to Vancouver and then down into the United States, then back to Canada and spent the rest of that summer in a little village in Nova Scotia called Parrsboro.” But the connection doesn’t end there. Winchester returned home, eager to travel again, but red-green colourblindness prevented him from joining the Royal Navy. So, inspired by a poster of a geologist on a mountain, he chose to study geology at Oxford, and upon graduation joined a Canadian mining company searching for copper in Africa. “I liked Africa well enough, I just didn’t see myself as a part of a big mining corporation and I was keen on climbing in those days. I read a book called Coronation Everest by James Morris. I thought ‘My god, this is what I want to be,’ and so wrote to James, who I had never heard of before, and he said, ‘On the day you receive this letter, not next week, not next month, on the day you receive it, resign, come back to London and get a job at a paper and write to me again.’” Now 71, Winchester is still writing. He’s researching for a book about the concept of precision, a book about Oxford University with photographer Martin Parr, and a young adult book to round out a trilogy about nature and geography.