Barnaby Rogerson was conceived on the Isle of Wight (at Cowes week) and born in Dunfermline, Scotland. Travel was a vital aspect of his childhood which followed in the wake of his father's career in the Royal Navy. A degree in History from St Andrews University proved to be adequate preparation for work as a barman, tutor for a child film star, a pony boy on a Highland estate and working for two independent publishers. The latter role led to a job in the press department of the Afghanistan Support Committee and a chance encounter in the Outer Hebrides led to his first commission to write a guidebook on Morocco and he subsequently wrote further guidebooks for Tunisia, Cyprus, Istanbul and Libya.

Barnaby Rogerson’s first history book was a chronicle of North Africa. This was followed by his acclaimed work The Prophet Muhammad: a Biography. His account of the early Caliphate was called The Heirs of the Prophet. He then published The Last Crusaders which detailed the conflict between the Ottoman and Hapsburg Empires, intertwined with the Portugese invasion of Morocco and the Far East.

2010 saw the publication of Don McCullin's book, Southern Frontiers, a photographic tour across the Roman ruins of the Levant and the Maghreb to which Barnaby has contributed the text, followed a decade later by Don McCullin: Journeys Across Roman Asia Minor, published in 2023.

In November 2013, Barnaby Rogerson's Book of Numbers was published by Profile Books. William Dalrymple wrote: 'Dangerously addictive, wonderfully witty and crazily wide-ranging and erudite.'

In 2017, Barnaby published In Search of Ancient North Africa, a history in six lives, published by Haus.

Closer to home, A Book Full of Rogersons is Barnaby's family record based on stories reaching back over fifteen generations, as related by Barnaby's great aunt Evelyn Victoria Rogerson who was born in 1900.

Barnaby has also written some 350+ travel articles, book reviews and historical essays on various North African and Islamic themes, many of which can be found on this website. His writing has featured in the pages of Vanity Fair, Cornucopia, Conde Nast Traveller, Geographical, Traveller, Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, House & Garden, Harpers & Queen and the TLS.

Barnaby is on the advisory board of Critical Muslim, the editorial board of Middle East in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs. He has been elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and an honorary member of The Travellers Club.

His day job over the last twenty-five years has been running Eland, a publishing house, which specializes in keeping classic travel books in print.

Barnaby's latest work is The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East, described by Rory Stewart as: "A Masterly engagement with the most delicate and important of subjects – filled with gentle empathy, learning and rare balance."

He has also co-edited a collection of the contemporary travel writing Ox-Tales for the charity Oxfam, a collection of the travel literature of Marrakech, a collection of contemporary travel encounters with Islam; Meetings with Remarkable Muslims, a collection of English Orientalist verse, Desert Air, and a collection of the poetry of place of London.

Barnaby is on the advisory board of Critical Muslim, the editorial board of Middle East in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs. He has been elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and an honorary member of The Travellers Club. He is also a lecturer, television presenter, journalist and book reviewer with a scrapbook of three hundred articles pasted up on this website.

His day job is running Eland, a publishing house, which specializes in keeping classic travel books in print, www.travelbooks.co.uk .

Click here for Barnaby's LinkedIn profile.

Click here for interview with House and Garden