“Mars’s autobiography highlights the importance of participant observation, comparison and attentiveness to ethnocentrism as hallmarks of the anthropological method. These are well known, but Mars’s point is that these are acquired on the way to ‘becoming an anthropologist’ which, for him, is a life-long learning process. Mars’s work is accessible to those beginning their journey in the world of anthropology. In reflecting on my sociological apprenticeship in the late 1970s, I know where Mars is going. Those of us who observe the cultural and social recognize the importance of ostensibly mundane practices in the organisation of day-to-day life. This work is highly recommended for individuals starting their anthropological journey or those reflecting back on the many paths they have taken.”—John Phyne, St. Francis Xavier University; Social Anthropology, 26:1 (2018)“Gerald Mars’ memoir is by turns wickedly funny and anthropologically sophisticated. It is both a rich storehouse of hilarious anecdotes and a close analysis of how social life and the crimes and fiddles it affords have changed over the last century. But in each of its moods, it is a delightful read, which every rookie anthropologist should read, even if they may have—as Mars shows—to break the law to get a copy.”—Perri 6, Professor in Public Management, Queen Mary University of London“Growing up in a gossip-regulated street in Manchester and then in a “spiel” incentivised one in Blackpool, before graduating in Workplace Crime Studies during National Service as a storeman in the RAF, Gerry Mars was evidently an accomplished anthropologist long before he found himself at Cambridge University. And, sixty years on, he's still at it!”—Dr Michael Thompson, Senior Research Scholar, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria“By tracing his own biographical history from ‘spieling’ on Blackpool’s Golden Mile to Cambridge University scholar and on to a distinguished academic career, Gerry Mars has demonstrated that anthropology itself reaches far beyond the boundaries of a narrow academic discipline. This is because it is always and necessarily rooted in the spaces in which people talk and think about their lives and—in the hands of a skilful and sensitive analyst—reveal their strategies for navigating through the cut and thrust of the social life of the street.”—Tom Selwyn, Professor of Anthropology of Tourism, The School of Oriental and African Studies, (SOAS), University of London"Becoming an Anthropologist is one of the best autobiographies I have read for a long time. Gerry Mars is the ‘king of the fiddlers’. He has spent his life studying fiddles and knows just how they work – and which ones are accepted as perks of the job and which ones aren't. But what a life he has led! This is a rip-roaring yarn interspersed with nuggets of anthropology and how he learned to fit his experience into his theories."—Andrew Selkirk, Editor-in-chief of Current Publishing and former Vice-President of the Royal Archaeological Institute