Q & A with David Liverman

1. What is your favourite book(s)?

I’m fond of the Patrick O’Brien series that was the basis of the film Master & Commander. I like travel books—favourite writers would be Jonathan Raban and Paul Theroux. I collect cricket books, particularly those on cricket history—David Frith would perhaps be a favourite there. John Gierach is a superb writer on fishing.

2. What are you reading now?

I’ve just finished the remarkable Book of Dave by British novelist Will Self, Absolute Friends by John LeCarre, and reading a whole bunch of articles on “Communicating Environmental Geoscience” for a book I'm co-editing.
 

3. What other jobs have you had besides being a writer?

I’m a geologist by profession, but I have also worked at a variety of other things, including non-executive director of the Internet company CricInfo (http://www.cricinfo.com) and as a student worked as a kitchen porter. I pumped gas, did production line work in a factory, was a laundry worker, and perhaps in preparation for my eventual move to Newfoundland, worked as a labourer in a fish plant in the Shetland Islands.
 

4. What was your first piece in print (book, review, or article, etc)?

A scientific paper on a fascinating lake in the St. Elias Mountains of the Yukon, published in the Canadian Alpine Journal; subsequently I’ve written a lot of scientific papers, but also have done some cricket journalism and written on cricket history.
 

5. What do you like to do in your free time?

I spend a lot of time in volunteer activities, particularly with skating (formerly club president of Prince of Wales Skating club, director with Skate Canada Newfoundland and Labrador) and soccer (volunteer with the NLSA, referee with the St. John’s senior league and provincial level competitions). I help maintain websites for a number of groups, including skating, Canadian cricket, and soccer. I like to fish, particularly for salmon, and tie my own flies. I play the mandolin, although not as much as I’d like these days.

6. What is your favourite food?

Indian food of any description. I developed a fondness for it when traveling in India many years ago.
 

7. What kind of music do you listen to?

Traditional Irish, Scottish, and Newfoundland.

8. What is your favourite movie(s)?

Not a big movie fan—perhaps Days of Heaven (see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077405/). Superbly filmed in southern Alberta.

9. If you could live during any time period and in any place, when and where would you choose?

Right now, and I’d prefer to be mobile rather than stuck in one place!

10. Make a question of your own and then answer it.

How did a Ghanaian born Englishman end up in Newfoundland?

I only lived in Ghana for a couple of months—my father was working for the British Government at the time, so I spent my first twenty years or so in England and Scotland. I went to Alberta to study for a masters degree, returning there later for a Ph.D. after a spell in the British oil industry and eighteen months traveling. I was just finishing up my doctorate when the opportunity came up to work for the Geological Survey of Newfoundland & Labrador. We moved here expecting to stay for a couple of years—twenty years later it is hard to imagine living anywhere else.