The Wandering Book Collector

Welcome to this special SAFARI edition of The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This podcast is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home.

In this edition, I speak with Geoffrey Kent to discuss his memoir, Safari, a book which opens in Nairobi, Kenya, and follows him on his travels all over the world… from the Nile to Nepal, Brazil to Botswana, Papua New Guinea to the Polar regions, as he built up his business Abercrombie & Kent, the travel company renowned for its meticulous planning, taking travellers into hard-to-reach wildernesses and cultures.

Please consider supporting your local bookshop.

The Wandering Book Collector would like to thank the supporters of this podcast:

Cox & Kings — Arranging captivating travel experiences for over 260 years.

TUMI — Creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials.

Ultimate Library — Creating bespoke book collections to educate and inspire.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love you to leave a rating or a review. To learn about future editions, please subscribe or hit “follow” on your podcast app of choice. Thank you for listening! For more on the podcast, book recs, what books to pack for where’s next, and who’s up next, I’m across socials @michellejchan. I’d love to hear from you.

And if you’ve missed any, do catch up. From Janine di Giovanni to Bernardine Evaristo to Maaza Mengiste.

All credit for sound effects goes to the artists and founders of Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com. All credit for music goes to the artists and founders of Soundstripe.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home.

In this edition, I speak with the travel writer and biographer Sara Wheeler to discuss her book — Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age. Among Sara’s body of work are O My America!: Six Women and their Second Acts in a New World, and books on the polar regions: The Magnetic North on the Arctic, and Terra Incognita on Antarctica. Her book Access All Areas is selected writings across two decades.

Please consider supporting your local bookshop.

The Wandering Book Collector would like to thank the supporters of this podcast:

Abercrombie & Kent — Creating unique, meticulously planned journeys into hard-to-reach wildernesses and cultures.

TUMI — Creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials.

Ultimate Library — Creating bespoke book collections to educate and inspire.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love you to leave a rating or a review. To learn about future editions, please subscribe or hit “follow” on your podcast app of choice. Thank you for listening! For more on the podcast, book recs, what books to pack for where’s next, and who’s up next, I’m across socials @michellejchan. I’d love to hear from you.

And if you’ve missed any, do catch up. From Janine di Giovanni to Bernardine Evaristo to Afua Hirsch to Carla Power to Maaza Mengiste to Kapka Kassabova.

All credit for sound effects goes to the artists and founders of Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com. All credit for music goes to the artists and founders of Soundstripe.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Half-way into the first season, welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home.

In this edition, I speak with the writer and poet Kapka Kassabova whose body of work on the Balkans becomes even more critical and urgent at this time. TO THE LAKE: A Journey of War and Peace explore the shadowlands of the triple border between Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia and Greece. Her award-winning BORDER, A Journey to the Edge of Europe, focuses on the nexus of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. And Street Without a Name is Kapka’s coming-of-age memoir set in Bulgaria, as the country navigates from Communism through the fall of the Berlin Wall and beyond. Beyond seems to be taking on new meaning...

Please consider supporting your local bookshop.

The Wandering Book Collector would like to thank the supporters of this podcast:

Abercrombie & Kent — Creating unique, meticulously planned journeys into hard-to-reach wildernesses and cultures.

TUMI — Creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials.

Ultimate Library — Creating bespoke book collections to educate and inspire.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love you to leave a rating or a review. To learn about future editions, please subscribe or hit “follow” on your podcast app of choice. Thank you for listening! For more on the podcast, book recs, what books to pack for where’s next, and who’s up next, I’m across socials @michellejchan. I’d love to hear from you.

And if you’ve missed any, do catch up. From Janine di Giovanni to Bernardine Evaristo to Afua Hirsch to Carla Power to Maaza Mengiste.

All credit for sound effects goes to the artists and founders of Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com. All credit for music goes to the artists and founders of Soundstripe.com

ENDS

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home.

In this edition, I speak with the most lyrical of writers Maaza Mengiste discussing her latest book The Shadow King, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, as well as looking back to her debut Beneath the Lion’s Gaze. Please consider supporting your local bookshop. And learn more about Maaza’s Project3541, focusing on the 1935-41 Italian-Ethiopian War, bringing together written, visual, and oral histories.

The Wandering Book Collector would like to thank the supporters of this podcast:

Abercrombie & Kent — Creating unique, meticulously planned journeys into hard-to-reach wildernesses and cultures.

TUMI — Creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials.

Ultimate Library — Creating bespoke book collections to educate and inspire.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love you to leave a rating or a review. To learn about future editions, please subscribe or hit “follow” on your podcast app of choice. Thank you for listening! For more on the podcast, book recs, what books to pack for where’s next, and who’s up next, I’m across socials @michellejchan. I’d love to hear from you.

And if you’ve missed any, do catch up. From Bernardine Evaristo to Afua Hirsch to Janine di Giovanni to Carla Power, they’re unmissable.

All credit for sound effects goes to the artists and founders of Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com. All credit for music goes to the artists and founders of Soundstripe.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home.

In this edition, I speak with the dauntless journalist and writer Carla Power discussing her latest book Home, Land, Security: Deradicalization and the Journey Back from Extremism. I also look back to her debut If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran, a National Book Award and Pulitzer Finalist. Consider supporting your local bookshop.

The Wandering Book Collector would like to thank the supporters of this podcast:

Abercrombie & Kent — Creating unique, meticulously planned journeys into hard-to-reach wildernesses and cultures.

TUMI — Creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials.

Ultimate Library — Creating bespoke book collections to educate and inspire.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love you to leave a rating or a review.

To learn about future editions, please subscribe or hit “follow” on your podcast app of choice.

For more on the podcast, book recs, what books to pack for where’s next, and who’s up next, I’m across socials @michellejchan. I’d love to hear from you.

And if you’ve missed any, do catch up. From Janine di Giovanni to Bernardine Evaristo to Afua Hirsch, they're all gripping.

Thank you for listening!

All credit for sound effects: the artists and founders of Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com. All credit for music; the artists and founders of Soundstripe.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, longing and belonging, and home.

In this edition, I speak with the media multi-hyphenate Afua Hirsch whose book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging takes the reader on an emotional personal journey as she grapples with her own sense of belonging “to find the place where my identity could become whole”, while exploring the contemporary crisis in British national identity: “I realise that my struggle was Britain’s struggle.” Afua’s book won the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Prize.

Consider supporting your local bookshop.

The Wandering Book Collector would like to thank the supporters of this podcast:

Abercrombie & Kent — Creating unique, meticulously planned journeys into hard-to-reach wildernesses and cultures.

TUMI — Creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials.

Ultimate Library — Creating bespoke book collections to educate and inspire.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love you to leave a rating or a review.

To learn about future editions, please subscribe or hit “follow” on your podcast app of choice.

For more on the podcast, book recs, what books to pack for where’s next, and who’s up next, I’m across socials @michellejchan. I’d love to hear from you.

And if you’ve missed any, do catch up. From Janine di Giovanni to Bernardine Evaristo to Carla Power, they're all gripping.

Thank you for listening!

All credit for sound effects: the artists and founders of Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com. All credit for music: the artists and founders of Soundstripe.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, longing and belonging, and home.

In this second edition, I speak with writer and journalist Bernardine Evaristo discussing her latest book Manifesto: On Never Giving Up, as well as looking back to her body of work, particularly Lara, a semi-autobiographical novel in verse, and her Booker-winning Girl, Woman, Other.

Also note, in 2021 Bernardine curated a new series called Black Britain: Writing Back (Penguin) of lost or hard-to-find books, now rediscovered, by black writers who wrote about black Britain and the diaspora across the last century. Check them out -- and consider supporting your local bookshop.

The Wandering Book Collector would like to thank the supporters of this podcast:

Abercrombie & Kent — Creating unique, meticulously planned journeys into hard-to-reach wildernesses and cultures.

TUMI — Creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials.

Ultimate Library — Creating bespoke book collections to educate and inspire.

This edition was recorded in Singapore's performing arts centre Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, then I’d love you to leave a rating or a review.

To learn about future editions, please subscribe or hit “follow” on your podcast app of choice.

For more on the podcast, book recs, what books to pack for where’s next, and who’s up next, I’m across socials @michellejchan. I’d love to hear from you.

And if you’ve missed any, do catch up. From Janine di Giovanni to Afua Hirsch to Carla Power, they’re all gripping.

Thank you for listening!

All credit for sound effects goes to the artists and founders of Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com. All credit for music goes to the artists and founders of Soundstripe.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, longing and belonging, and home.

In this first edition, I speak with writer and journalist Janine di Giovanni discussing her latest book, The Vanishing: The Twilight of Christianity in the Middle East, as well as looking back to her The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria and Ghosts By Daylight: A Memoir of War and Love.

Consider supporting your local bookshop.

The Wandering Book Collector would like to thank the supporters of this podcast:

Abercrombie & Kent — Creating unique, meticulously planned journeys into hard-to-reach wildernesses and cultures.

TUMI — Creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials.

Ultimate Library — Creating bespoke book collections to educate and inspire.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love you to leave a rating or a review.

To learn about future editions, please subscribe or hit “follow” on your podcast app of choice.

For more on the podcast, book recs, what books to pack for where’s next, and who’s up next, I’m across socials @michellejchan. I’d love to hear from you.

And if you’ve missed any, do catch up. From Bernardine Evaristo to Afua Hirsch to Carla Power, they’re all gripping.

Thank you for listening!

All credit for sound effects: the artists and founders of Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com. All credit for music: the artists and founders of Soundstripe.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This travel/literary podcast welcomes some of the world's great writers and thinkers and risk-takers, from Bernardine Evaristo to Afua Hirsch to Janine di Giovanni to Carla Power. Hosted by award-winning journalist and author Michelle Jana Chan.

https://linktr.ee/thewanderingbookcollector

Supported by:

Abercrombie & Kent — Creating unique, meticulously planned journeys into hard-to-reach wildernesses and cultures.

TUMI — Creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials.

Ultimate Library — Creating bespoke book collections to educate and inspire.

If you enjoy the podcast, I’d love you to leave a rating or a review.

To learn about future editions, please subscribe or hit “follow” on your podcast app of choice.

For more on the podcast, book recs, what books to pack for where’s next, and who’s up next, I’m across socials @michellejchan. I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you for listening!

All credit for sound effects: the artists and founders of Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com. All credit for music: the artists and founders of Soundstripe.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.