Overview

American Nomad is the unfinished story of a journey through three continents and five decades of change in the way people live, think, feel, and dream. Liz Farrow's life began in seventies California, filled with sun and surf; but she also experienced its underside: deprivation, dysfunction, and discrimination. Rebellion and escape attempts came through fashion, music, travel, new cultures, and various scenes: punk, raves, goth, drugs, and, more lastingly, religion and spirituality. She fetched up in the City of Hopeful Night, San Francisco, about to take off into new worlds of entertainment and empowering technology. She played her own part in its live music scene, working for the legendary Bill Graham Presents and enjoying many close encounters with her favorite musicians, including the Cocteau Twins and Joe Strummer of The Clash. Reflecting on the seminal, and once again fashionable, decade of the nineties, she identifies herself as part of the last ""Generation Real,"" known as Generation X, who had to achieve their dreams in the physical world before the Internet took over-a generation drawn to extremes. Whether it's the stark, endless desert or the infinite vastness of the ocean, that same passion for intensity shows in her love for 'extreme' music and fashion-such as post-punk and all things bold-which further captures that dynamic and adventurous spirit. In this century, Liz became a literal nomad. She combined a London-based media career at the BBC with explorations in North Africa and the Middle East. From childhood, she felt a constant urge to escape,banging her head against the walls at school and later in the office struggling to fit in. A deep thinker, always seeking adventure, always questioning and asking why, she did not yet know she was neurodivergent. She ends on a message of hope. Whatever life throws up in problems and demands, memory gives one the power to revive dreams and reconnect with the person who dreamed them. Enriched with her own photographs, Liz Farrow's American Nomad will recapture many memories for older readers and introduce younger ones to the world which shaped their lives. You speak your truth which I think is so unbelievably powerful in this fake digital AI age. People need to read emotionally resonant material to learn how to be human again. - Former Professor, San Francisco State University

Full Product Details

Author:   LIZ FARROW
Publisher:   Liz Farrow
Imprint:   Liz Farrow
ISBN:  

9781919464404

ISBN 10:   1919464409
Publication Date:   10 March 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

CONTENTS Part 1 - Backstage in the 1990s when reality changed In the City of Hopeful Night Escaping From Paradise & the tapestry of Destiny Surfdom & Rebellion 'She's Leaving Home' - But Where's Home? 'Bill Graham Presents' (with a little help from me) Part 2 - Breaking into the Middle Eastern Tapestry A Spiritual Journey Takes Me to the Middle East San Francisco to Tunisia via London - Early 2000s Passage to Jordan Into The Sealed-Off World of Yemen Married Life in London Part 3 - The Media - And Life Afterwards The Thorns of the Media Jungle and the End Now in Sight Then and Now *** Acknowledgements Photo Credits Sources and Bibliography About the Author Media Enquiries Author's Note: This is the first iteration of American Nomad. Others may follow-if life allows! KEYWORDS: GOTH, RAVES, GENERATION X, NEURODIVERGENT, SURFING, TRAVEL, POSTPUNK, PUNK, GENX, CULTURAL IDENTITY, GENERATIONAL MEMOIR, 1980S AND 1990S, 80s KIDS, PERSONAL JOURNEY, SANTA CRUZ & SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA, LONDON, ENGLAND, UK, NORWICH, NORFOLK, CONCERT PROMOTER BILL GRAHAM PRESENTS, LIVE MUSIC INDUSTRY, MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA, BEDOUINS, LEARNING ARABIC, AUTISM, ADHD, IDENTITY, SEXISM, MEDIA CAREER, BBC, SPIRITUALITY, CHRISTIANITY, MOTHERHOOD & MARRIAGES, SEARCHING & DREAMING FOR A PLACE CALLED HOME.

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