Stephen Pern

Stephen Pern
Born
Stephen Antony Nigel Pern

(1950-08-18) 18 August 1950
EducationDurham University
OccupationsTravel writer, documentary maker
Writing career
GenreTravel literature
Notable workThe Great Divide: A Walk Through America Along the Continental Divide (1987)
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch
British Army
Service years
1974–1977
Rank
Lieutenant
UnitParachute Regiment

Stephen Antony Nigel Pern FRGS (born 18 August 1950) is an English travel writer and documentary maker noted for chronicling long-distance journeys on foot.

Early life and education

Pern was brought up on a dairy farm in East Sussex.[1] He graduated from Durham University with a degree in geography and anthropology in 1971.[2]

Career

Early career and military service

After leaving university he worked for two years as a game preservation officer in Nigeria with Voluntary Service Overseas.[3] In 1974 he spent six months in Colombia teaching English as a foreign language.[3]

Later that year he joined the Parachute Regiment of the British Army on a short service commission.[3] His appointment was gazetted with effect from 6 October 1974.[4] He left active military service with the rank of lieutenant on 6 October 1977, transferring to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers.[5]

Travel writing and television

While serving in the army Pern had read Journey to the Jade Sea (1964) by the explorer John Hillaby, which suggested that no one had ever walked around the entirety of Lake Turkana.[6] He set out to be the first to do so, and "accomplished this remarkable trip" in fifty days.[7] His account of the walk became his first book.[6][8] In 1980 he undertook a 500-mile walk from the shores of Lake Chad south along the border of Nigeria and Cameroon to the Benue River, a description of which was later published as The Beach of Morning (1983).[9][10]

He embarked on a trek across the Continental Divide from Antelope Wells, New Mexico to Canada in 1982.[11][12] The resulting book, The Great Divide (1987), is arguably his best known. It has received praise from fellow hikers for being a stylistic departure from more typical backpacking literature, as the writing emphasizes self-deprecating wit and vivid character sketches rather than the emotional "journey of self" prose common to the genre.[13][14] Contemporary reviews were generally positive, with critics highlighting Pern's "irreverent" observations on everyday Americans and interesting descriptions of local ecology.[15][16][17]

In 1990, his long-distance walk through the mountainous spine of Japan was documented in the Granada Television film Down the Spine of Japan.[18] Preferring to see Japan as a "total stranger", Pern deliberately avoided researching the country and as a result the documentary has an "unrehearsed" feel.[19]

Recent activity

In 2012, Pern set out on a seven-month, 3,000-mile walk around Britain, visiting more than 100 bothies. During the journey he installed hooks in the shelters for walkers to hang wet clothing and equipment — having previously noticed from many years of walking that bothies often did not have enough or lacked them altogether.[20] He documented the project in the self-produced film Hooks.[20]

Bibliography

  • Pern, Stephen (1979). Another Land, Another Sea. Victor Gollancz. ISBN 9780575026766.
  • ——— (1983). Masked Dancers of West Africa: The Dogon. Silver Burdett Press. ISBN 9780705407069.
  • ——— (1983). The Beach of Morning: A Walk in West Africa. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 9780340262368.
  • ——— (1987). The Great Divide: A Walk Through America Along the Continental Divide. Phoenix House. ISBN 9780460070119.

References

  1. ↑ Pern, Stephen (1983). The Beach of Morning: A Walk in West Africa. Hodder & Stoughton. p. 227. ISBN 9780340262368 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ↑ "Results of Final Examinations held in June 1971". University of Durham Gazette. XVIII: 14. 30 September 1971. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 "Stephen (Antony Nigel) Pern". Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Gale. 15 August 2002. Gale H1000077458.
  4. ↑ "Supplement to the London Gazette" (PDF). The London Gazette (46542): 4817. 15 April 1975. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
  5. ↑ "Supplement to the London Gazette" (PDF). The London Gazette (47346): 12785. 11 October 1977. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
  6. 1 2 Robbins, L. H. (1980). "Another Land, Another Sea. Walking Round Lake Rudolph, by Stephen Pern". Northeast African Studies. 2 (2): 99–100. JSTOR 43660048.
  7. ↑ Imperato, Pascal James (2006). "Lake Rudolf as an Iconic Geographic Space in East Africa". Ethnohistory. 53 (1): 30. doi:10.1215/00141801-53-1-13.
  8. ↑ Blumberg, Myrna (24 November 1979). "The Times Books of the Year". The Times. No. 60483. p. 27 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  9. ↑ "Travel Abroad". The Bookseller. 13 August 1983. p. 82 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ↑ "World of Books". Manchester Evening News. 29 September 1983. p. 61 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  11. ↑ "Summer Reading: Travel". The New York Times. 5 June 1988. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
  12. ↑ "The Great Divide: A Walk Through America Along the Continental Divide". Kirkus Reviews. 15 May 1988. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
  13. ↑ Mags, Paul (November 1, 2016). "Book review: The Great Divide". PMags.com. Retrieved August 26, 2026.
  14. ↑ "A hiker's library: The Great Divide, by Stephen Pern". Three Points of the Compass. February 20, 2021. Retrieved August 26, 2026.
  15. ↑ Brunhumer, Sondra; Rawlinson, Nora (15 June 1988). "The Great Divide". Library Journal. 113 (11): 58.
  16. ↑ Brough, Harold (4 June 1987). "Divided he walked". Liverpool Daily Post. p. 6 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  17. ↑ Barnes, Robert F. (1988). "Selections from the Bookshelf". Journal of Agronomic Education. 17 (2): 143–144.
  18. ↑ "Down the Spine of Japan". BFI Collections. British Film Institute. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
  19. ↑ Waymark, Peter (10 April 1990). "A life on the open road". The Times. No. 63676. p. 19 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  20. 1 2 McPhee, Rebecca (19 September 2020). "Weekend Warm-Up: Hooks". Explorersweb. Archived from the original on 24 January 2025. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
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