Annals of Solitude

Stephen Pax Leonard is Research Professor at Moscow State Linguistic University. Educated at Oxford and the Sorbonne, he previously held positions at Oxford and Cambridge. A writer, linguist, and traveler, he is the author of six other books on the Arctic and sub-Arctic region.

This philosophical travelogue is a record of the joys (and frustrations) of disconnecting from our complicated, modern existence and living, at a time of climate upheaval, a simple life as close to nature as possible. Eager to know what life might be like if we choose another path, Leonard lived for a year in a cabin in the most remote Arctic settlement he could find and discovered how the paraphernalia of modern living conspires to eliminate our dreams. In the manner of a flat-earther, he went to the High Arctic not just in search of the ice edge, but also to examine the boundaries of our human psyche. No longer ruled by time and blessed by transcendences that flashed him the totality of life, he found harmony with the external world led to an inner dialogue that challenged everything he had known before. Whilst sitting aloof at the top of the world watching humanity having gone astray with our actions threatening to literally change the color of the map, he put the small and great into perspective with the aid of a poetry volume.