The Bridge Between Worlds: A Brief History of Connection

In a world increasingly preoccupied by borders, bridges celebrate the possibility of connection, allowing the flow of goods, people and ideas. Bridges are among our grandest physical structures with the power of transforming lives and economies, but we also stand (or fall) upon the simple arch of bones in our feet. Text is a bridge between writer and reader, and conversation builds bridges of understanding between minds.

Dr Gavin Francis has spent his life fascinated by the power of bridges to improve human connection. In The Bridge Between Worlds he examines bridges both actual and metaphorical, on a journey through more than twenty countries, across four decades of travel.

From Rome’s Ponte Sant’Angelo to Brooklyn, Victoria Falls to London, Singapore to Siberia, this thought-provoking book reflects on connections between nations and between individuals. Francis demonstrates what the building of bridges has meant to our civilisation, how crossings can enrich our lives, and the price we pay when we tear them down.

Reviews of The Bridge Between Worlds: A Brief History of Connection

Wonderful in the truest sense of the word. Thought-provoking and beautifully written. I'm full of admiration for his ability to seamlessly blend travelogue and memoir with a compassionate analysis of human endeavour and behaviour — MARISA HAETZMAN The Bridge Between Worlds is a delight – a memoir of restlessness. Across five decades, Gavin Francis takes us to lands known and unknown, making us wonder on the very links that bind us as beings — JAMES CANTON Praise for Gavin Francis: Gavin Francis is a wonderful writer – thoughtful, engaging, immensely knowledgeable and supremely human — BILL BRYSON Thought-provoking and elegant — HILARY MANTEL Fluent, subtle, tough and often beautiful — ROBERT MACFARLANE Wonderful, subtle, unpretentious . . . produces a kind of complicity between the author, the reader and the subject — JOHN BERGER