{"id":2,"date":"2009-04-07T04:07:58","date_gmt":"2009-04-07T09:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2023-03-31T14:12:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T13:12:03","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?page_id=2","title":{"rendered":"Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0“Everywhere Thomson goes, he finds good stories to tell”\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span>New York Times Book Review.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

Hugh Thomson is an award-winning writer and film-maker<\/strong>
\nwho believes strongly the world is not as explored as we like to suppose.<\/p>\n

In his last book, One Man And A Mule<\/em><\/a>,<\/strong> Hugh Thomson brought together his interests from
\nhis previous work by having what he calls \u2018a South American adventure in England\u2019. He made
\nthe coast-to-coast crossing from the Lake District to the Yorkshire Moors with his trusty mule,
\nJethro, acting as a pack animal, much in the way Hugh had been used to travelling in the Andes.<\/p>\n

For The Green Road into the Tree<\/strong>s<\/em><\/a>, he first explored England<\/strong> as if it were<\/strong>
\n a foreign country<\/strong>: \u00a0‘An immensely enjoyable book: curious, articulate, intellectually
\nplayful and savagely candid.’ \u00a0The Spectator.
\n<\/em>It won the inaugural Wainwright Prize for Best Nature and Travel Writing<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Tequila Oil: Getting Lost in Mexico<\/em> <\/strong><\/a><\/em>was an account\u00a0of an early\u00a0journey
\nthrough Mexico in a classic Oldsmobile 98.\u00a0 It was serialised by BBC Radio 4<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

His first book,<\/strong> The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/em>, was the\u00a0result of a
\ntwenty-year long quest to explore and understand the Peruvian Andes\u00a0in the area<\/strong>
\n beyond Machu Picchu<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exploration<\/a>:<\/strong>\u00a0 In 2002 he co-led the expedition which discovered the Inca site<\/strong>
\nof Cota Coca<\/strong><\/a><\/em>. The team then returned to Peru in 2003 and made extensive finds
\nat Llactapata<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, near Machu Picchu, showing that this site was far larger and more
\nsignificant than had been previously realised, and included a sun-temple modelled on the one in Cusco.<\/p>\n

These discoveries in Peru<\/strong> – and his interest in the pre-Columbian civilisations that
\npredated the Inca – \u00a0led to his second book on Peru,\u00a0Cochineal Red: Travels through Ancient Peru<\/strong><\/a><\/em>
\n(published as A Sacred Landscape<\/em> in the USA).<\/em><\/p>\n

His interest in mountains<\/strong> also took him to the Himalaya:
\nNanda Devi: A Journey to the Last Sanctuary<\/em><\/strong> <\/a><\/em>(Weidenfeld & Nicolson) is about
\nthe celebrated Nanda Devi Sanctuary on the border between Tibet and India<\/strong>,
\nlong closed to all visitors by the Indian government, but briefly re-opened
\nto the outside world for an international expedition of which he was a part.<\/p>\n

For more on all his books<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hugh has also had a long career as<\/strong> a director and producer of documentaries<\/strong><\/a>,
\n<\/a>of which he is a passionate advocate<\/a><\/strong>: he was a founder member of the group of
\nfilm-makers who established the Sheffield International Documentary Festival<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,
\nthe first festival in the UK to concentrate exclusively on the genre.<\/p>\n

He was BAFTA-nominated<\/strong> for his ten-hour series Dancing in the Street:
\nA Rock and Roll History<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/strong>, which set out to tell the epic story of the ‘devil’s own
\nmusic’ from its beginnings in the 1950s to the present day. It took four
\nyears to make and went on to win numerous awards for the BBC<\/strong> around the world.<\/p>\n

For his next series<\/strong>, Indian Journey<\/a>s<\/em><\/span><\/strong>, again made for the BBC, Hugh collaborated
\nwith William Dalrymple to make three ambitious films about India, winning
\nthe Grierson Prize for Best Documentary Series<\/strong>. \u00a0He later collaborated
\nwith Jonathan Dimbleby to make another major series for the BBC, this time on Russia<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

His many other films<\/strong> have followed<\/span><\/strong><\/a> interests as various as surfing, the Conquest
\nof Mexico, and Oscar Wilde.\u00a0 They have included Pacific<\/span> Hell\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a>(C4), about the epic first
\nsolo crossing of the Pacific in a rowing boat, and Highsmith: Her Secret Life<\/span><\/em> <\/strong><\/a>(BBC)
\non the strange and obsessive world of Patricia Highsmith.\u00a0 He also made a
\nDispatches Special for C4 on Afghanistan<\/strong><\/a>,<\/span><\/span><\/em> travelling across the country from Herat
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>to Kunduz, with\u00a0the Oscar-winning journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His most recent BBC series<\/strong>, Treasures of the\u00a0Indus<\/a><\/em>, with Sona Datta, ranged from
\nthe Buddhist heartland of Gandhara to the city of Lahore and ‘the shadow side’
\nof the Taj Mahal: \u00a0‘Visually rich and intellectually fascinating’ \u00a0 Sunday Times<\/em><\/p>\n

For more on all his films<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‘Hugh Thomson is an adventurer…’
\nTishani Doshi Interviews Hugh Thomson<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"hugh-thomson-author-portrait-in-field-tent-peru-mid-res031\"
in the field tent at Llactapata<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Thomson belongs to a rare species of explorer.
\nHe is a writer who explores and not an explorer
\n<\/strong>who writes.\u00a0 <\/strong>And it is Thomson’s extreme humility
\nin the face of both danger and extraordinary success that places him in the same tradition as Eric Newby.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Geographical Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0“Everywhere Thomson goes, he finds good stories to tell”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New York Times Book Review. . Hugh Thomson is an award-winning writer and film-maker who believes strongly the world is not as explored as we like to suppose. In his last book, One Man And A Mule, Hugh Thomson brought together his interests from his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":130,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3841,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/3841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}