Charles Foster is a New York Times bestselling author whose work has been longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for nature writing, and won the Ig Nobel Prize for Biology and the 30 Millions d'Amis Prize. He is a fellow of Exeter College, University of Oxford, and has particular passions for Greece, waves, the Upper Palaeolithic, mountains and swifts.

In our heavily centralised and conformist world, we sorely need this passionate, imaginative insight into the vital role of life on the borders, the very fringes of the world. Foster makes it clear that the much-vaunted centre is literally a nowhere, a place of soulless self-congratulation and imaginative death. Literal "eccentricity" is where the scientific, artistic and spiritual giants have always found their home. Venture with Foster if you dare, and embrace life.