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Warwick Cairns

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Warwick Cairns
Born1962 (age 61–62)
Dagenham, Essex
LanguageEnglish
Alma materKeele University; Yale University
GenreNon-fiction
ChildrenTwo daughters
Website
warwickcairns.com

Warwick Cairns (born 1962) is a British author. His three books include: How to Live Dangerously, About the Size of It, and In Praise of Savagery.

Early life and education

Cairns was born in Dagenham, Essex, England. He was educated in English and psychology at Keele University in England and English at Yale University in the United States,[1] where he studied under Professor Harold Bloom.[2]

His first book, About the Size of It (Pan Macmillan, 2007) championed the cause of traditional systems of measurement.[3] His second, How to Live Dangerously (Pan Macmillan, 2008 and St. Martin's Press, 2009) criticised the excessive concern with 'Health & Safety' throughout much of the industrialised world and argued that it is necessary to embrace risk to live life to the full.[4][5] The most frequently-quoted statistic in How to Live Dangerously is described thus by Steven Pinker: "The writer Warwick Cairns calculated that if you wanted your child to be kidnapped and held overnight by a stranger, you'd have to leave the child outside and unattended for 750,000 years unless you live in Detroit."[6] His third book, In Praise of Savagery, tells the story of a 1930s expedition by the British explorer Wilfred Thesiger, and a journey to meet him in a mud hut in Africa towards the end of his life.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ "Warwick Cairns". Pan Macmillan. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  2. ^ "Andrew Lownie Literary Agency :: Authors :: Warwick Cairns". Andrew Lownie Literary Agency. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  3. ^ "Gonna take a centi-mental journey". BBC. 19 December 2008. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  4. ^ Fitzgerald, Mary (17 August 2008). "Review: How to Live Dangerously by Warwick Cairns". London: The Observer. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  5. ^ Jewell, Lisa (19 November 2008). "Live dangerously: it's so much safer". Irish Independent.
  6. ^ "Marcus Gee". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. 3 June 2012. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012.
  7. ^ Byrnes, Sholto (17 May 2011). "In Praise of Savagery, By Warwick Cairns". The Independent. London.
  8. ^ "In Praise of Savagery, By Warwick Cairns". The Independent. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
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