Mike Pitts: Use Your Voice
In this interview, author Mike Pitts discusses the decades of curiosity and research that led to his new book, Island at the Edge of the World.
Mike Pittsis a writer and broadcaster (a frequent voice on BBC radio), archaeologist (directing excavations at Stonehenge), and one-time museum curator. He has written for The Times, Telegraph, Sunday Times, Observer, and Guardian, and many magazines including Archaeology, BBC History and New Scientist. He edited British Archaeology magazine for 20 years and has written books on topics from the discovery of Richard III’s grave to How to Build Stonehenge, his last title. His original research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature, World Archaeology, and Antiquity. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Follow him on X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.
In this interview, Mike discusses the decades of curiosity and research that led to his new book, Island at the Edge of the World, his hope for readers, and more.
Name: Mike Pitts
Literary agent: Toby Mundy, Aevitas U.K.
Book title: Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island
Publisher: Mariner Books
Release date: January 27, 2026
Genre/category: Nonfiction; history
Previous titles: How to Build Stonehenge; Digging Up Britain; Digging for Richard III: The Search for the Lost King; Hengeworld; Fairweather Eden: Life in Britain Half a Million Years Ago
Elevator pitch: It’s often said of Easter Island that over-exploitation—and too many statues—led to social collapse and failure. In a revisionist history based on deep research, Island at the Edge of the World finds the opposite story: Islanders triumphed in a uniquely challenging location.
What prompted you to write this book?
I wanted to understand the apparently inexplicable explosion of art and engineering that lay behind 1,000 statues on a tiny island in the remote Pacific.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I had the idea for a book while I was among the statues and archaeological remains on Rapa Nui for a month in 1994. I pitched it a few years later, but it was not until 2022, helped by my then-agent Toby Mundy at Aevitas U.K., that I finally had a contract—indeed two, with HarperCollins in the U.S. and Bloomsbury in the U.K.
Over the years there had been a great deal of new research on and about the island. The growth of online resources meant many previously inaccessible historic records were available to read. And I had conducted my own research in the British Museum, leading a revelatory study of the statue there, Hoa Hakananai’a. I had been keeping up with developments, but when I was able to get deep into writing, a number of new angles emerged. The broad idea remained the same—that Easter Island’s story had been misrepresented and that the lost archives of an Edwardian couple who visited in 1914, Katherine and Scoresby Routledge, would be key to unlocking the truth. But decades of new research and my own investigations added a great deal to the story.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
There were many, but one stands out. Though the ecocide theory—the idea that island society collapsed into wars and starvation—remains popular, several academics had debunked it. I agreed, and the more I learnt, the more I could see the theory was false. I had a strong intuition that its origins lay in colonial European interventions, but it was only late in the editing process that the stark truth of this became clear. We were close to final proofing. Separately, I was writing a talk for the future promotion of the book. I thought a diagram showing changes in island population levels and the dates of European visits would be helpful. Only when I drew it, did the absolute connection between these visits and the ecocide theory become clear. Thanks to some patient editors, I was able to add a version of the diagram to the book!
Another lay in the mystery of Katherine Routledge’s archives. Detailed records of her and her husband Scoresby’s hugely significant Pacific expeditions early in the last century, were long known to have been lost, until rediscovery in the 1970s. But her will had set aside a large sum of money for their publication prior to them being given to the British Museum. Why had that not happened? Unravelling this led to a shocking conclusion—and the additional realization that further important records remain lost or inaccessible, even now.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
First, I hope they will enjoy the story! But beyond that, there are two things I’d like to stay with readers. First, a new, and better, understanding of Rapa Nui’s extraordinary history and achievements. I also hope readers will begin to see that the troubled era of European colonialism had a deep impact on how we now picture ancient cultures. This is not a matter for judgments, I argue, but for understanding, a quest in which modern communities, science and museum collections are all critically important.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Writing is one of the things that defines us as humans. For millions of years, we did without paper or editors and called it speech. When you talk to a friend, you don’t think about grammar; you don’t think, plot, reviews, clever words, publishers, puns, sales, TikTok, point of view. You just talk. So, when you write, whatever good advice you follow, never forget the friend listening in, curious, amused, impressed, moved or shocked—but only so long as you don’t bore them. Use your voice.
