Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Roff Smith originally trained as a geologist and archaeologist but preferred the world of storytelling to that of science or academia. Over the course of a thirty-year career as a writer and photographer he has covered science, history archaeological stories all over the world winning numerous awards along the way, most recently a British Archaeological Award for his coverage of discoveries made beneath the streets of London during major construction projects. He has a particular interest in Neolithic Britain and has spent several field seasons in Scotland's remote Orkney Islands following the on-going excavation of the 5000 year-old walled temple complex at the Ness of Brodgar - the discovery of which is presently rewriting British prehistory.

 As a lover of literature, he taught himself Old Norse in order to be able to read the Viking sagas in their original language and earned a masters degree in mediaeval history while attending the University of Sydney. He has travelled widely throughout Britain, visited every county, often travelling by bicycle - cycling the length of Hadrian's Wall, exploring Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides and travelling across the Scottish Highlands following the route taken by Alan Breck Stewart and David Balfour in Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Kidnapped. An Australian, he now lives in Hastings, an old seaside town on the Sussex Coast, with his English wife and two daughters.