BOOKPACKERS is the vision of contemporary educator Andrew Chater.

Andrew is a documentary historian who creates inspiring journeys through past and present cultures. A six-time BAFTA award-winning filmmaker and presenter, Andrew has made over 50 films for prime-time and educational audiences. In the UK, he is known as the creator and presenter of Timelines, a BBC series spanning a thousand years of British history.

Andrew is a Professor of the Practice in the USC Faculty of English.

Andrew’s BOOKPACKING blogs

A Gift of a Day

Exploring the Brooklyn of Betty Smith proves a thought-provoking and joyful bookpacking experience.

The Last Frontier of Bohemia

Faulkner’s early novel Mosquitoes is catty, caustic fun - a savage satire on the bohemian culture of New Orleans.

Abbey's Country

Reading Desert Solitaire in the Canyonlands invites challenging reflections on our relationship with the American wilderness.

Hayduke Lives!

‘The Monkey Wrench Gang’ is a ‘70s eco-activist novel asking prescient questions about the corporate despoliation of the West.

Searching for Buddy Bolden

Andrew reads Michael Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter in Central City, New Orleans.

Portland Dreaming

In Ursula K. Le Guin's classic sci-fi novel 'The Lathe of Heaven', Portland is a dream city, endlessly re-imagined

Vibrations of the Soul

A bookpacking experience in Cajun Louisiana

A Lesson Before Dying

Celebrated author Ernest J. Gaines recalls his sharecropper childhood and escaping the Jim Crow South

The Roar

The political thriller 'All the King's Men' is a cautionary tale for Trump's America

Of Dunces and Daiquiris

'A Confederacy of Dunces' captures the exuberant spirit of Bourbon Street

Lestat's New Orleans

‘Interview With the Vampire’ is a rich slice of gothic - and a perfect guidebook to New Orleans

Death Comes for the Archbishop

The vibrant cultures of Santa Fe come alive in Willa Cather’s brilliant historical novel

In the Pueblos of New Mexico

Native peoples have lived in Ácoma for a thousand years. Bookpacking here proves a surprisingly contemporary experience

PRESS AND MEDIA

American Fictions

In April 2025, Andrew curated a film festival in the UK celebrating great movie adaptations of classic American novels.

Bookpacking Britain

The Telegraph runs with the Bookpackers concept…

NPR - The Grapes of Wrath

Andrew talks all things Steinbeck for an NPR documentary.

andrew’s BOOKPACKING Videos