Alan Macfarlane’s Autobiography
Alan Macfarlane: A Life in Twelve Volumes
Get ready to explore the incredible life of Professor Alan Macfarlane, a renowned figure in anthropology and history. His autobiography spans twelve volumes, detailing his journey from growing up in India to studying at prestigious institutions like Oxford and London, and later embarking on a transformative experience in Nepal, and settling down in Cambridge. Through eloquent writing, Macfarlane's autobiography reveals the complexities of a scholarly life dedicated to cross-cultural exploration, promising readers an unparalleled literary adventure into the legacy of an exceptional individual.
Click here to learn more about the author
A lecture given by Alan at Sichuan University in 2016 title ‘How to Understand the World’ can be found here.
India: Beginnings and Endings
This is the first volume of Alan Macfarlane's autobiography, covering the years 1939 to 1947. It covers Alan’s life in India, after his birth in 1941, and is preceded by his mother's return to India in 1939. Much of the earlier part concerns Iris Macfarlane and is based on her diaries and letters. Later, it is based on the letters between Alan's parents and other materials to show the last years of the last period of the British Empire in India.
Click to see more
Dorset Days
This is the second volume of Alan Macfarlane’s autobiography, in which he describes his life in England after he returned from India in 1947. It is set in the rural county of Dorset and describes his life between the age of six and twelve, living mainly with his grandparents. It is largely based on the letters of his mother and other contemporary documents.
Becoming a Dragon
This book is part of Alan Macfarlane's autobiography and describes the years from 1950 to 1955. It is a description of life at a British preparatory boarding school, the Dragon School in Oxford. It is based on letters written from the school by Alan and uses other letters from his mother, school reports, photographs and school magazines. It examines all aspects of a British boys’ boarding education at that time.
Lakeland Life
This is an account of Alan Macfarlane’s life in the Lake District during the second half of the 1950s. Alan was brought up in Wordsworth’s childhood valley and spent an idyllic childhood there, fishing, swimming, walking, learning the guitar and to ride a motorbike. He lived mainly with his grandparents while his parents were away in Assam. This account is based on contemporary diaries, letters, photographs and other materials from the time.
Sedbergh Schooldays
This is volume in Alan Macfarlane's autobiography. It covers the years 1955 to 1960 when Alan went to Sedbergh School now in Cumbria. This was a boys-only English boarding school, set in the beautiful hills of West Yorkshire. It is based on many contemporary documents, including letters, essays, diaries and photographs, and reconstructs Alan’s life from age thirteen to eighteen.
Oxford Undergraduate
This part of Alan Macfarlane's autobiography covers the years 1960 to 1963, when Alan was studying history at Worcester College, Oxford, aged between 18 and 21. It is based on contemporary letters, diaries, essays, reports, photographs and other materials of the time. It covers not only the academic life but the social life, including a number of letters between Alan and his two girlfriends.
Oxford Postgraduate
This is an account of life as a postgraduate student at Worcester College, Oxford, between 1963 and 1966. It is part of Alan Macfarlane's autobiography and describes his work studying for a doctorate on the history of witchcraft in England under the supervision of Keith Thomas. It is based on contemporary letters, notes, essays and photographs and gives a portrait of how you undertake historical research for an Oxford DPhil.
London School of Economics
This is one of the volumes of Alan Macfarlane's autobiography and describes his formal training in social anthropology at the London School of Economics between 1966 and 1968, before he went to do fieldwork in Nepal. It is based on letters, essays, and other contemporary documents. It describes two years in a really exciting period of university life in London, covering protests against the Vietnam War and the last teaching years of several great anthropologists.
Becoming an Anthropologist
This is a detailed description of the process of learning to be a social anthropologist. It is part of Alan Macfarlane's autobiography and describes the years 1968 to 1971. Alan Macfarlane pursued his research in Nepal, where he did fifteen months of fieldwork with the Gurungs in the Annapurna Mountains. The book is based on extensive contemporary materials, including diaries, letters, fieldwork, notes, and links to numerous films.
King’s, Cambridge and the World
This is one of the volumes of Alan Macfarlane’s autobiography. It briefly covers the years between 1971, when Alan came to be a Research Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge, to 2009 when he retired as Professor of Anthropological Science and became a Life Fellow of King’s College. It covers his early education and then looks in detail at the three main activities of a University officer – teaching, research and administration.
A History of My Mind
The title is taken from an earlier title that Descartes considered for his Essay on Method. It recounts the various streams of thought in Alan Macfarlane's life. It is an intellectual autobiography and part of the wider autobiography in a number of volumes. It covers the whole period between his university life in the 1960s to the present and encompasses many of his diverse intellectual interests as a historian and anthropologist.
Enchantment and Modernity
This is a set of reflections looking at Alan Macfarlane's autobiographical project in a dozen volumes and asking what was the question which was central to his life’s search. It starts with his magical and enchanted childhood , proceeds through his growing disenchantment in his formal education and then his re-connection with enchanted worlds in Nepal, Japan and China. Finally Alan looks at our own world to see in what ways we live much of our lives in different forms of enchantment.