Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History in South America

Small Earthquakes uncovers the fascinating story of Britain’s forgotten connections with South America, from the Atacama Desert to Tierra del Fuego, Easter Island to South Georgia.

Blending travel writing, history and reportage, award-winning journalist and author Shafik Meghji tells a tale of footballers and pirates, nitrate kings and wool barons, polar explorers and cowboys, missionaries and radical MPs. From a ghost town in one of the world’s driest deserts to a far-flung ranch in the sub-polar tundra; rusting whaling stations in the South Atlantic to an isolated railway built by convicts; the southernmost city on the planet to a crumbling port known as the ’Jewel of the Pacific’, he brings to life the past, present and future of this remarkable continent. He sheds light on Britain’s impact on Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, from sparking wars, forging national identities and redrawing borders to its tangled role in their colonization and decolonization. But it also reveals how these countries, in turn, have shaped Britain in profound and unexpected ways, from Fray Bentos to the Falklands.

Drawing on more than fifteen years of living, working and travelling in South America, Meghji offers a sweeping account of an overlooked--but enduringly relevant--shared history.

Shafik Meghji is an award-winning journalist and travel writer. The co-author of more than forty-five guidebooks, his bylines include National Geographic Traveller, BBC Travel, Lonely Planet, Geographical magazine and The Guardian. His first book, Crossed Off the Map, was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year 2023.