Over the course of 15 years, Shafik Meghji traveled repeatedly to South America, falling in love with the continent and in particular with Buenos Aires, which he came to feel was his second home. Traveling from London, Shafik noticed that Britain came up a lot on his travels; the eerie hulk of a Harrods branch in central Buenos Aires, the rusting shells of British buses on the salt flats of Bolivia, and the surnames of the descendants of settlers hanging out in Patagonia. The result is Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History in South America - Published last month by Hurst Publishers, to wide acclaim.
Shafik joins the Travel Writing Podcast to talk about how the book came to be, to geek out on his influences such as Bruce Chatwin, and to bring writers behind the scenes on his publishing journey.