Publications
Academic Works
Survey of the Limba people of northern Sierra Leone, Overseas Research Publication No.8, HMSO, 1965, 151pp
Limba Stories and Story-telling, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1967, 352pp. Reprinted, Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1981, 2nd (illustrated) edition, 2012.
Oral Literature in Africa, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1970, 558pp. Reprinted (paperback) OUP, Nairobi, 1976. Japanese translation (chapter 1) 1971; 2nd (illustrated) edition, Open Book Publications Cambridge (World Oral Literature monograph series), 2011
Modes of Thought. Essays on thinking in Western and non-Western Societies (ed. with Robin Horton), Faber and Faber, London, 1973, 399pp.
Oral poetry: Its Nature, Significance and Social Context, Cambridge University Press, 1977, illustrated, 299pp. Paperback, CUP, 1980. 2nd edition, Indiana University Press 1992. 3rd edition 2012..
The Penguin book of Oral Poetry (ed.), Allen Lane, 1978, 548pp, also published as A World treasury of oral poetry, Indiana University Press, 1978. Penguin paperback, 1982, ., new edition in press, 2013.
Essays on Pacific Literature (ed. with Raymond Pillai). Oral Tradition Series, 2, Fiji Museum, Suva, 1978, 122pp, 2nd edition 2012..
Conceptions of Inquiry (ed. with Stuart Brown and John Fauvel), Methuen, 1981, 334pp.
New Approaches to Economic Life (ed. with Bryan Roberts and Duncan Gallie), Manchester University Press, 1985, 566pp., new edition in press, 2013
Information Technology: Social Issues (ed. with G.Salaman and K.Thompson), Hodder and Stoughton, 1987, 314pp.
Literacy and Orality: Studies in the Technology of Communication, Blackwell, 1988, 201pp (also published by Allen and Unwin, Sydney, Australia). Italian translation: La Fine di Gutenberg: Studi sulla tecnologia della comunicazione, Sansoni, Firenze, 1990; 2nd edition, 2012, ., new edition in press, 2013.
The Hidden Musicians: Music-making in an English Town, Cambridge University Press, 1989, 378pp. 2nd edition, Wesleyan University Press (Music/Culture series), 2007; Japanese translation, Hosei University Press, 2011, kindle edition ., in press, 2013.
Oral Traditions and the Verbal Arts: A Guide to Research Practices, Association of Social Anthropologists 'Research methods in social anthropology' series, Routledge 1992, 284pp.
From Family Tree to Family History (ed. with Michael Drake), Cambridge University Press/Open University, 1994, 196pp.
Sources and methods for family and community historians: a handbook (ed. with Michael Drake), Cambridge University Press/Open University, 1994, 2nd ed. 1997, 322pp.
South Pacific Oral Traditions (ed. with Margaret Orbell), Indiana University Press, 1995, 259pp., ., new edition in press, 2013
Tales of the City: A Study of Narrative and Urban Life, Cambridge University Press, 1998, 212pp.
Communicating: The Multiple Modes of Human Interconnection, Routledge, 2002, 336pp., 44 b & w illustrations (short listed British Association for Applied Linguistics book prize 2003, long listed British Academy book prize 2003). Italian translation Comunicare: le molteplici modalità dell’interconnessione umana, Novara: De Agostini, 2009, 2nd enlarged edition in press, Routledge 2013.
(ed.) Participating in the knowledge society: researchers beyond the university walls, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005, 292pp. ISBN 978- 1-4039-3946-3
The Oral and Beyond: Doing Things with Words in Africa, James Currey, Oxford / University of Chicago Press / University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, Scottsville South Africa, 2007, 358pp (honourable mention, African Studies Association Herskovits award 2008).
Why Do We Quote? The Culture and History of Quotation, Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, 2011, 327pp, ISBN 978-1-906924-33-1 (paperback ed), 978-1-906924-34-8 (hardback), 978-1-906924-35-5 (digital ed. – pdf)
Carried by a mystic Wind: B W Andrzejewski on the Somali passion for poetry and language, joint ed. with Martin Orwin and Graham Furniss, special issue, Journal of African Cultural Studies 23, 1 (June) 2011, and, as book, Callender Press, 2013.
Oral Literature in Africa, 2nd (illustrated and expanded) edition, World Oral literature series, Open Book, 2012.
Studying Oral Texts, A Handbook for Researchers, Callender Press, 2013.
Music and Creation, Milton Keynes: Callender Press, 2012.
Peace writing: a selection of texts, Callender Press, 2013. (Ed)
Where is Language? Bloomsbury, 2015.
Entrancement, The Consciousness if Dreaming, Music and The World, University of Wales Press (Ed)
Time for the World to Learn from Africa, Balestier Press, 2017.
Birds and humans: what are we? 2022, Callender Press
Callender Press editions of classical texts in English translation include
​
Cato’s Distichs, the Oldest Latin primer (ed. with introductory essays), 2012.
Catullus Carmina, 2012.
Xenophon on Horsemanship, 2012.
Alexander the Great, 2012.
Varro on Roman farming, 2012.
Greek Lexicon for the New Testament, 2013.
​
Creative Writing
As Catherine Farrar
The Little Angel and the Three Wisdoms, 2012, SBPRA
The Wild Thorn Rose, 2012, Callender Press
Three Ways of Loving, 2012, Callender Press
Lil the Rocker, the Angel’s Little Sister, 2012, Callender Press
The Dragon’s Tale, 2012, Callender Press
As Ruth Finnegan
Black Inked Pearl. A Girl's Quest - a novel, 2015, Garn Press (multi-award)
Pearl of the Seas, a Fairytale Prequel to Black Inked Pearl, with illustrations by Rachel Backshall, Balestier and Callender Press, 2017/18
(prize-winning)
The Helix Pearl, The take if the garrulous wine dark sea, forthcoming 2018.