In 2009 Julian Sayarer was working on a documentary in the Andaman Sea, about a community of Moken 'sea gypsies' who live their lives on the water.

There he met the skipper of the boat that had been chartered for the crew. Laurie is a 70 year-old Australian-Brit, five times divorced, and, inspired by reading On the Road, aged 17, having sailed twice around the world; been a smuggler of marijuana; been falsely framed by business rivals as an opium smuggler; crashed into oil tankers whilst falling asleep at the wheel of the boat; been hired as a diver for buried treasure in the Scilly isles.

With his typical elegance and angry grace Julian Sayarer tells Laurie’s life story of adventure and that of the Moken people, alongside the concurrent rise of mass tourism, climate change and the digital and visual culture that dominates our lives. Sayarer paints a troubling picture of two worlds at odds with each other.

‘On The Road for the Occupy generation’

Open Democracy

‘A brilliantly thoughtful writer’

Sara Wheeler