Nicholas Coghlan arrived in Bogota in 1997. A political officer for the Canadian government, it was his responsibility to report on Colombia's complex civil conflict, lobby the Colombian authorities on human rights, and provide visible moral support and other assistance to the victims of the war. Soon after he arrived it became apparent that he could not fulfill these functions from the relative peace and security of Bogota and he found himself traveling to remote and sometimes dangerous locations rarely visited by outsiders - the coca fields of Putumayo, the swamps of the Darien Gap, the vast savannahs of the Llano - meeting with everyone from impoverished inhabitants of the barrios to guerrilla leaders, from human rights activists to military commanders.

The Saddest Country: On Assignment in Colombia

Travel

Coghlan, Nicholas

Travel Writing

McGill-Queen's University Press

Oil rich and on the divide between Africa and the Middle East, Sudan is one of Africa's most inaccessible countries. Coghlan takes the reader from Khartoum, former home of Carlos the Jackal and Osama bin-Laden, to the Nubian desert to the rebel-controlled swamps and jungle lowlands of Equatoria. He takes us with him to the mountain ranges of Darfur and the forgotten national park of Dinder and on a fifty-year old steel sailing dinghy racing on the Blue Nile.

Far in the Waste Sudan: On Assignment in Africa

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

The first Canadian diplomat to be posted to war-torn Sudan, Nicholas Coghlan was a natural choice to lead Canada?s representation in the new Republic of South Sudan soon after the country was founded in 2011. In late 2013, Coghlan and his wife Jenny were in the capital, Juba, when it erupted in gunfire and civil war pitted one half of the army against the other, Vice-President Machar against President Kiir, and the Nuer tribe against the Dinka. This action-focused narrative, grounded by accounts of meetings with key leaders and travels throughout the dangerous, impoverished hinterland of South Sudan, explains what happened in December 2013 and why. In harrowing terms, Collapse of a Country describes the ebb and flow of the war and the humanitarian tragedy that followed, the Coghlans? scramble to evacuate South-Sudanese Canadians from Juba, and the well-meant but often ill-conceived attempts of the international community to mitigate the misery and bring peace back to a land that has rarely known it. Coghlan?s stark narrative serves as a lesson to politicians, diplomats, aid workers, and practitioners on the breakdown of governance and relationships between ethnic groups, and the often decisive role of international development representatives. Fast-paced and poignant, Collapse of a Country gives an insider?s glimpse into the chaos, violence, and ethnic conflicts that emerged out of a civil war that has been largely ignored by the West.

Collapse of a Country: A Diplomat's Memoir of South Sudan

After tough assignments as a Canadian diplomat abroad, Nicholas Coghlan and his wife Jenny unwind by sailing Bosun Bird, a 27foot sailboat, from Cape Town, South Africa, across the South Atlantic and into the stormy winter waters around Tierra del Fuego, South America. Coghlan recounts earlier adventures in Patagonia when, taking time off from his job as a schoolteacher in Buenos Aires in the late 1970s, he and Jenny explored the region of southern Argentina and Chile over three successive summers. This time, as they negotiate the labyrinth of channels and inlets around snow-covered Fireland, he reflects on voyages of past explorers: Magellan, Cook, Darwin, and others. Sailing enthusiasts and readers of true adventures will want to add Coghlan's world-wise narrative to their libraries.

Winter in Fireland: A Patagonian Sailing Adventure (Wayfarer)

Sports & Outdoors

Water Sports

University of Alberta Press

Under Wide and Starry Skies: 50 Sailing Destinations in Seas Less Travelled

Adlard Coles

Sailing to the Heart of Japan: A Cruising Adventure and How-To Guide

Select-A-Vision

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Books by Coghlan, Nicholas