Rupert Wolfe Murray: Profile and CV

If you’re looking for my CV/Resume you can find it here (updated August 2023). On my CV you can see a list of books I’ve published and documentary films I’ve produced.

Currently I’m doing 12 jobs in 12 months — which will be the title of my next book (I’ve just been doing aid work in Ukraine and am about to go to India to do some PR).

My aim in life is to write books and I’m trying to work out a way of making it pay. Editing reports, articles, websites and strategies has helped me pay the bills. I’ve worked in Albania, Bosnia, Romania, Tibet and, last but not least, Britain. I’m usually on the move and have learned to work anywhere.

I’m also love to help people by fixing and painting their homes, clearing junk and sorting out their gardens. I realise that physical work is much more rewarding than so-called brain work. It’s also more fun, especially if I get to work with a cool team, and I’m happy taking orders from people much younger than myself (unless they’re control freaks).

My Bio

Sometimes I have to write a “bio” about my work experience for big EU projects. Fortunately I am now focussing on writing and gardening/house maintenance but if you really want to offer me insane amounts of money to do some PR consultancy, you’ll want to see how I present myself in the third person:

Rupert Wolfe Murray is a freelance writer and communication expert. Graduating from Liverpool University in History and Politics, Rupert’s key skills are writing, editing, solving PR problems and project management.

After some years in journalism and humanitarian aid, Rupert ran the EU-funded project “Improvement of the Roma Situation in Romania” – a public awareness and legislation-building project for the government of Romania. He went on to work for other EU-funded projects for Romanian government agencies. He also worked for the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID) in Bosnia, Romania and Russia. He worked as a team leader and PR expert. 

Rupert has written several books, produced two documentary films, published hundreds of articles and has useful experience (as editor and PR adviser) in the private sector, including with a global policy-making consultancy, and a leading British rehab (addiction treatment) clinic.

My published books

Himalayan Bus Plunge, and Other Stories from Nepal: I describe a day in the life of my brother, a hyperactive aid worker, travel with a Nepalese brain surgeon who drives like a demon, hang out with a guitar-playing guide from Romania, chat with doctors from Iran and Tibet and meet a man who looks like Saddam Hussein but is, in fact, a tramp.

The Wind and the Castle: a fairy tale that was inspired by Hermann Hesse. It’s a love story within a love story and is set in ancient time. It was my first eBook, also my first foray into fiction, and is quite short.

9 Months in Tibet: described by Alexander McCall Smith, who wrote the intro, as an “adventure, memoir and travel book.” McCall Smith also compared it to the early books of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Laurie Lee. It was published by Scotland Street Press in Edinburgh.

Stephanie Wolfe Murray — a Life in Books: a short tribute to my mother who died (far too early) in 2017. It’s a collection of warm, funny and interesting stories by people who knew and loved her — including family and friends and some well known authors like Alasdair Gray and William Boyd.

IFOR on IFOR and The Road to Peace were two documentary books I did about the aftermath of the Bosnian war (1992-95). It’s a collection of great photos by Steve Gordon and transcripts of interviews by generals, soldiers, translators and cooks. I sold over 20,000 copies of these books and I’m glad to see their second hand price on Amazon is quite high, about £17.

I’ve also published some books that are now out of print and were never online: in Romania, for DFID, I published a book about regional development called Partners for Europe and in Bosnia I published two books that were effectively banned by my main client, the puritanical US Military: Bosnian for Peacekeepers, a cartoon guide; and The Bosnian Joke Book. I’m keen to get these re-published as they’re all interesting and the Bosnian ones are really funny.

My documentary films

I lived in Romania for 17 years and during that time I produced two documentary films with the great Romanian documentary filmmaker Laurentiu Calciu:

The Land is Waiting is a one-hour observational documentary about a Roma family in NE Romania. The kids break Romanian stereotypes by doing what people say Romany gypsies never do: they work hard on their studies and toil on the land.

After the Revolution is made up of people on the streets of Bucharest, just after the 1989 revolution, talking freely for the first time in their lives. It’s a moment of pure chaos that didn’t last and they’re all talking on top of each other about Communism, Democracy, and their fear of the future.

Here’s an article about the other documentary films we made, as well as some relevant articles.

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Do get in contact with me. I’d be really interested to hear from you. Best way to get me is via email on wolfemurray [at] gmail.com and my phone (and WhatsApp) number is +44 (0) 747 138 1973.