The author was born in Cheshire, educated at the Wirral Grammar School, served on a destroyer in the Mediterranean, read history and archaeology at Cambridge University, and worked there as a research assistant. After experience on numerous excavations in Britain, including as assistant director and director, in 1961 he went to Nigeria, where he spent ten years excavating and on fieldwork. In 1971, he moved to the University of New England in Australia, founding the archaeology department there and later becoming its foundation professor. He returned to Nigerian fieldwork in 1978 and 1981 and subsequently excavated in Egyptian Nubia and Uganda. He also contributed to Australian historical archaeology and founded the journal Australasian Historical Archaeology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, MA (Cantab), D.Litt (UNE), and holds the Order of Australia.
This book is about the author’s time as an academic archaeologist attached to the University of New England, Armidale NSW, and the Australian National University, Canberra ACT, Australia. It continues the autobiographical account in Prelude, published in 2011 and From Cambridge to Lake Chad publi...