Talks At Six - Exploring the Land of Fire

Organised by : Talks at Six

Exploring the Land of Fire - Mark Elliott

Author of "the definitive travel guide to Azerbaijan", Mark leads a vicarious tour of the Caucasus' most under-appreciated travel destination, a country of extraordinary contradictions and scenic variety inhabiting a geo-politically sensitive location between Russia, Iran and Armenia.

If you have heard of it at all, you might think of Azerbaijan as home to the amazing Baku Grand Prix, or perhaps as the 'land of fire' and mud volcanoes. It's certainly a place of apparent contradictions: an oil producing country yet host of 2024's COP29 a country portrayed as a beacon of stability in a region of conflict but also as a top-down autocracy whose fight with Armenia has upended the whole society of Nagorno Karabakh.

Mark Elliott, a travel author who has been visiting and writing about the country regularly since 1995, attempts to bring some nuance to understanding this small but fascinating place on Europe's easternmost edge, while whetting your appetite for a visit for this small country packed with a vast range of scenic diversity.

About

Mark Elliott is a Sussex-based travel writer, who has lived and worked on five continents. His first major work, Asia Overland (1997), was an ultra-budget manual for those wishing to cross the continent in the pre-Internet era. It garnered something of a cult following among backpackers of the day as did the 2003 regional follow-up, Southeast Asia Graphic Guide.

Mark has contributed to around 70 Lonely Planet books covering destinations from Bosnia to Belgium, Iran to India but is best known for works about the ex-Soviet countries, especially Azerbaijan.

Chosen charity

Festival of Chichester & Talks At Six

The Festival of Chichester is an umbrella for promoting a smorgasbord of cultural events from talks and concerts and walks and workshops. It takes place every year from mid-June to mid-July but few residents appreciate that it's a charity run on a minuscule budget by a small committee of volunteers. So every penny donated is a real help to keep this great Chichester institution running.

Charity No: 1167936

Bassil Shippam Centre
Tozer Way
Chichester
West Sussex
PO19 7LG