Interview with ‘Tropophiliac’ Alexander Frater

Travel Blog  •  Michael Yessis  •  03.20.07 | 7:33 AM ET

imageAlexander Frater, author of Tales From the Torrid Zone: Travels in the Deep Tropics and self-proclaimed tropophiliac—“a lover of warm, wet countries”—sat for an interview this week on the public radio show On Point. The Washington Times and The New York Times have raved about “Tales.” In the latter, William Grimes calls Frater a “genial tour guide and a stylish writer” who “makes excellent company.”

From Grimes’s review:

In a bar on the island of Paama, he looks up long enough from his book to take in a terrific fight around the pool table, which he recounts economically.

“A huge woman grasped a billiard cue in a two-handed axman’s grip, and, as if splitting a log, brought it down on the bald head of an old, wrinkled man,” he writes. “He went ‘Ungh!’ and slumped to his knees. Both sexes began trading blows, the females punching harder and meaner and lower. Soon the males began limping back to the table where the women, impassive, joined them; quietly they resumed their game.”

Frater has had a life-long fascination with the “Torrid Zone.” He’s the son of missionary parents, born in Vanuatu.

Tags: Life of a Travel Writer


3 Comments for Interview with ‘Tropophiliac’ Alexander Frater

Fernande Wachenfeld 09.12.07 | 12:25 PM ET

Alexander Frater is a world treasure. Having read Chasing the Monsoon several years ago, I picked up Torrid Zone last year and, since then, constantly re-read a chapter here or there from it every single day. Funny and lighthearted as well as so incredibly full of knowledge, he also has a way with words and never takes himself seriously which is an exceedingly endearing trait.
Reading about lying in bed listening to the small waves on the shingles, the glass like tinkling of pebbles being rolled around by the surf, the thud of ripe fruit falling from the trees. I am taken back to Moyenne Island in the Seychelles or to the Maldives or a beach in Southern India and it is a magical feeling.
Thank you Mr. Frater.

Jerrry Littlewood 10.04.07 | 12:43 PM ET

From 1967 to 1972 I lived in the same block of flats as Alexander Frater.  He had a small daughter and I had two small children. We became quite friendly and my then wife and I often joined with Alexander and his wife for dinner, and vice versa.  In early 1973 we bought a house and sadly lost touch with the Fraters.
Alexander was a charming, intelligent and erudite man, whose company was always very interesting and enjoyable.
I am delighted that he has been so successful as an author and journalist.
Should he ever get to read this, I would be delighted to hear from him to compare notes on the intervening years.

Peter Skinner 10.05.07 | 6:27 AM ET

Thank you Mr Frater for Beyond the Blue Horizon - I think I have just finished my third reading since my late Dad gave it to me in 1987!

The greates book ever to read whilst flying!

In any turbulence I now can do no better than to remind myself of your Fokker captain singing the “By the rivers of Babylon…”

I’m about to pass BTBH on to a retired Qantas Jumbo Check Captain - another professional Gypsy!

Thanks again for the effort!

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