Born in Yorkshire in 1927, Francis J West was Professor of History in Australian and UK universities, Dean of Arts & Social Studies at the University of Buckingham and Dean of Social Sciences and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Deakin University in Victoria.

For Francis West ‘errant’ meant to travel and wander so that it is a book about many places, but not only a travel book about place. It is also about time, about different historical periods and people, and about the changing ideas and actual practice of historians, in a variety of universities’ over fifty years.

It covers several countries, continents, oceans, people, and subjects from the study of medieval history in Leeds, London and Cambridge to Pacific Ocean history and anthropology in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Samoa (amongst other Pacific countries), and eventually to university administration in Australia and the UK.