Travel Writing World

When Ben Aitken learned that his father had taken a four-night vacation marketed to seniors that included three-course meals, plenty of beer, and daily excursions, all for about 100 pounds, he signed himself up. Six times.

Ben Aitken joins us today to talk about his book The Gran Tour, which documents his experiences traveling with elders. We also talk about the genre of travel writing, the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, and the importance of spending time with our elders.

Ben is also the author of the travel books Dear Bill Bryson (2015) and A Chip Shop in Poznan (2019).

Learn more about Ben and his work on his website.

Purchase Ben Aitken's Books

If you live in the United States, we urge you to purchase your travel books from Bookshop, an online store that supports independent bookstores.

But, if you decide to purchase your travel books from Amazon, please use our links.

If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you.

More Episodes & Support

Please consider supporting the show with a few dollars a month, less than a cup of coffee, to help keep our show alive and advertisement-free.

You can also support the show by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or in your favorite podcasting app, subscribing to the show, and following us on Twitter & Instagram.

Lastly, consider using our affiliate links to purchase your books. If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you. These funds help keep the podcast alive and ad-free.

Finally, join the Travel Writing World newsletter to receive your free copy of The Travel Writer’s Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports with podcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Thanks for your support!

Listen to the Episode on YouTube

Listen to the episode on YouTube on the Travel Writing World channel. Remember to subscribe to the channel.

Intro Music

Peach by Daantai (Daantai’s Instagram)

Disclaimer

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, this website will earn a very small commission if a purchase is made using these links. Also, "as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases" using the Amazon links on this site.

Every year, Jason Wilson compiles the best examples of travel writing published in the previous year and publishes them in The Best American Travel Writing anthology.

Jason last joined us to talk about the coronavirus pandemic and the future of travel writing back in April. Now he's back to talk about The Best American Travel Writing 2020 (Mariner Books / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2020).

But Jason also gives us a glimpse into the process of editing the anthology, some updated thoughts on the state and future of travel writing during the pandemic, and some reflections on the genre of travel writing.

Jason Wilson is the author of several other books like Cider Revival: Dispatches from the Orchard (2019), Godforsaken Grapes (2018), and Boozehound (2010).

Learn more about Jason and his work on his website.

Purchase Jason Wilson's Book

If you live in the United States, we urge you to purchase your travel books from Bookshop, an online store that supports independent bookstores.

You can also purchase your travel books from Amazon.

More Episodes & Support

Please consider supporting the show with a few dollars a month, less than a cup of coffee, to help keep our show alive and advertisement-free.

You can also support the show by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or in your favorite podcasting app, subscribing to the show, and following us on Twitter & Instagram.

Lastly, consider using our affiliate links to purchase your books. If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you. These funds help keep the podcast alive and ad-free.

Finally, join the Travel Writing World newsletter to receive your free copy of The Travel Writer’s Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports with podcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Thanks for your support!

Listen to the Episode on YouTube

Listen to the episode on YouTube on the Travel Writing World channel. Remember to subscribe to the channel.

Intro Music

Peach by Daantai (Daantai’s Instagram)

Disclaimer

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, this website will earn a very small commission if a purchase is made using these links. Also, "as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases" using the Amazon links on this site.

About every few years, Traveler’s Tales publishes The Best Women’s Travel Writing anthology. 

Joining me today to talk about The Best Women’s Travel Writing, Volume 12 (Traveler's Tales 2020) is Lavinia Spalding, the series editor since 2011.

We talk about the importance and value of reading travel accounts written by women, the art of editing an anthology, getting lost in travel and in writing, and how to submit to the next Best Women’s Travel Writing anthology.

And just a correction: the book’s publishing date has been pushed back a few weeks.

Lavinia Spalding is also the author of Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal-Writing Traveler.

In this episode, we talk about The Best American Travel Writers anthology and a recent webinar by Meera Dattani, Noo Saro-Wiwa, and the British Guide of Travel Writers.

More Episodes & Support

Please consider supporting the show with a few dollars a month, less than a cup of coffee, to help keep our show alive and advertisement-free.

You can also support the show by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or in your favorite podcasting app, subscribing to the show, and following us on Twitter & Instagram.

Lastly, consider using our affiliate links to purchase your books. If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you. These funds help keep the podcast alive and ad-free.

Finally, join the Travel Writing World newsletter to receive your free copy of The Travel Writer’s Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports with podcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Thanks for your support!

Listen to the Episode on YouTube

Listen to the episode on YouTube on the Travel Writing World channel. Remember to subscribe to the channel.

Intro Music

Peach by Daantai (Daantai’s Instagram)

Disclaimer

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, this website will earn a very small commission if a purchase is made using these links. Also, "as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases" using the Amazon links on this site.

Gavin Francis examines our collective fascination with islands in his new book Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession (Canongate 2020). In it, he blends stories of his own travels with psychology, philosophy, and literature, while discussing the importance of islands and isolation in our collective consciousness. 

At a time when more than half of the earth’s population has been forced into isolation, Gavin examines not only the importance of community and connection, but also how valuable isolation can be for rest, recalibration, and contemplation.

Gavin joins me today to talk about these ideas as they relate to life during the pandemic, social media, and of course his experiences traveling.

You can connect with Gavin Francis on Twitter, Instagram, or his website.

More Episodes & Support

Please consider supporting the show with a few dollars a month, less than a cup of coffee, to help keep our show alive and advertisement-free.

You can also support the show by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or in your favorite podcasting app, subscribing to the show, and following us on Twitter & Instagram.

Lastly, consider using our affiliate links to purchase your books. If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you. These funds help keep the podcast alive and ad-free.

Finally, join the Travel Writing World newsletter to receive your free copy of The Travel Book Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports with podcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Thanks for your support!

Listen to the Episode on YouTube

Listen to the episode on YouTube on the Travel Writing World channel. Remember to subscribe to the channel.

Intro Music

Peach by Daantai (Daantai’s Instagram)

Disclaimer

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, this website will earn a very small commission if a purchase is made using these links. Also, "as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases" using the Amazon links on this site.

After the Italian Armistice of 1943, Eric Newby escaped from the prison camp in which he'd been held for a year. A local woman named Wanda, her family, and other anti-fascist sympathizers helped him evade the German army by hiding, feeding, and supporting him in the caves and forests of the Apennine mountains. Newby wrote about his experiences as a prisoner of war and meeting his future wife Wanda in his book Love and War in the Apennines, originally published in 1971.

Joining me to talk about Newby’s Love and War is James March, a freelance writer from Birmingham who has written for publications like Condé Nast Traveler, The Washington Post, and The Telegraph.

This episode is part of Classic Conversations, a series in which I speak with travel writers about their favorite travel books or travel books they've been meaning to read.

More Episodes & Support

Please consider supporting the show with a few dollars a month, less than a cup of coffee, to help keep our show alive and advertisement-free.

You can also support the show by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or in your favorite podcasting app, subscribing to the show, and following us on Twitter & Instagram.

Lastly, consider using our affiliate links to purchase your books. If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you. These funds help keep the podcast alive and ad-free.

Finally, join the Travel Writing World newsletter to receive your free copy of The Travel Book Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports with podcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Thanks for your support!

Listen to the Episode on YouTube

Listen to the episode on YouTube on the Travel Writing World channel. Remember to subscribe to the channel.

Intro Music

Peach by Daantai (Daantai’s Instagram)

Disclaimer

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, this website will earn a very small commission if a purchase is made using these links. Also, "as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases" using the Amazon links on this site.

Photo: Jay Williams

In an old wooden sloop, Philip Marsden set sail along the exposed western coasts of Ireland and Scotland for the Summer Isles, a remote archipelago that holds for him a deep and personal significance. He wrote about his adventures in his new book The Summer Isles (Granta 2019).

Philip Marsden joins us today to talk about his voyage through the seas and through the imagination, the power of myths, and how he wrote his book while also tending to the mental and physical demands of sailing. 

The Summer Isles is out now in paperback (Granta 2020).

Photo courtesy of Philip Marsden

More Episodes & Support

Please consider supporting the show with a few dollars a month, less than a cup of coffee, to help keep our show alive and advertisement-free.

You can also support the show by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or in your favorite podcasting app, subscribing to the show, and following us on Twitter & Instagram.

Lastly, consider using our affiliate links to purchase your books. If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you. These funds help keep the podcast alive and ad-free.

Finally, join the Travel Writing World newsletter to receive your free copy of The Travel Book Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports with podcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Thanks for your support!

Listen to the Episode on YouTube

Listen to the episode on YouTube on the Travel Writing World channel. Remember to subscribe to the channel.

Intro Music

Peach by Daantai (Daantai’s Instagram)

Disclaimer

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, this website will earn a very small commission if a purchase is made using these links. Also, "as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases" using the Amazon links on this site.

In the early 1980s, Ronald Wright traveled throughout Peru, exploring its peoples, politics, and histories, a journey that he documented in his 1984 book Cut Stones and Crossroads. Ronald stops by the podcast to talk about his travels, his insights, and his book, now republished in the United Kingdom by Eland Publishing after nearly 35 years. It is a wide-ranging conversation that covers Peruvian history, Ronald's career as a travel writer, and his travels within Latin America. 

Eland Books is also republishing Ronald Wright's other travel books, Time Among the Maya and On Fiji Islands. Eland now offers annual subscriptions of its paperback publications, seldom fewer than 8 books a year, to readers outside of the United Kingdom. It is a good deal for American and Australian readers in particular, and one that directly supports independent publishers and the authors of travel books.

More Episodes & Support

Please consider supporting the show with a few dollars a month, less than a cup of coffee, to help keep our show alive and advertisement-free.

You can also support the show by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or in your favorite podcasting app, subscribing to the show, and following us on Twitter & Instagram.

Lastly, consider using our affiliate links to purchase your books. If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you. These funds help keep the podcast alive and ad-free.

Finally, join the Travel Writing World newsletter to receive your free copy of The Travel Book Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports with podcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Thanks for your support!

Listen to the Episode on YouTube

Listen to the episode on YouTube on the Travel Writing World channel. Remember to subscribe to the channel.

Intro Music

Peach by Daantai (Daantai’s Instagram)

Disclaimer

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, this website will earn a very small commission if a purchase is made using these links. Also, "as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases" using the Amazon links on this site.

Aatish Taseer left New York City behind and traveled to Varanasi to learn Sanskrit and to connect with the ancient learned tradition of India. Taseer joins us today to talk about his experiences in Varanasi, which he wrote about in his book The Twice Born: Live and Death on the Ganges (FSG 2019) out now in paperback.

In The Twice Born, Taseer uses explores the tensions between tradition and modernity through the lens of Brahmanical culture. 

In the podcast episode, we also talk a great deal about Modi, Hindu Nationalism, their parallels with Donald Trump, and authenticity and fraudulence in travel writing. 

You can connect with Aatish Taseer on Twitter and Instagram.

More Episodes & Support

Please consider supporting the show with a few dollars a month, less than a cup of coffee, to help keep our show alive and advertisement-free.

You can also support the show by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or in your favorite podcasting app, subscribing to the show, and following us on Twitter & Instagram.

Lastly, consider using our affiliate links to purchase your books. If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you. These funds help keep the podcast alive and ad-free.

Finally, join the Travel Writing World newsletter to receive your free copy of The Travel Book Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports with podcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Thanks for your support!

Listen to the Episode on YouTube

Listen to the episode on YouTube on the Travel Writing World channel. Remember to subscribe to the channel.

Intro Music

Peach by Daantai (Daantai’s Instagram)

Disclaimer

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, this website will earn a very small commission if a purchase is made using these links. Also, "as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases" using the Amazon links on this site.

In 1956, Eric Newby quit his job in the British fashion industry to explore Nuristan, a remote region in the northeast of Afghanistan. Newby wrote about his journey in his now-classic book A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, originally published in 1958 to wide acclaim.

Joining me to talk about Newby’s A Short Walk is Aaron Millar, an adventurer and travel writer who has written for publications like National Geographic Traveller. He is the host of the excellent Armchair Explorer podcast.

This episode was prepared alongside a review of Eric Newby's A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.

This episode is part of Classic Conversations, a series in which I speak with travel writers about their favorite travel books or travel books they've been meaning to read.

More Episodes & Support

Please consider supporting the show with a few dollars a month, less than a cup of coffee, to help keep our show alive and advertisement-free.

You can also support the show by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or in your favorite podcasting app, subscribing to the show, and following us on Twitter & Instagram.

Lastly, consider using our affiliate links to purchase your books. If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you. These funds help keep the podcast alive and ad-free.

Finally, join the Travel Writing World newsletter to receive your free copy of The Travel Book Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports with podcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Thanks for your support!

Listen to the Episode on YouTube

Listen to the episode on YouTube on the Travel Writing World channel. Remember to subscribe to the channel.

Intro Music

Peach by Daantai (Daantai’s Instagram)

Disclaimer

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, this website will earn a very small commission if a purchase is made using these links. Also, "as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases" using the Amazon links on this site.

Robin Hemley explores questions of national identity, patriotism, and cosmopolitanism in his latest collection of travel essays, Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood (University of Nebraska Press 2020).

Robin stops by to talk about his new book, as well as the different approaches to creative nonfiction, writing about the self in travel writing, journalism, and memoir, and putting together an essay collection. We also talk about remembering the past and Black Lives Matter in this wide-ranging conversation.

This episode was prepared alongside a review of Borderline Citizen.

You can connect with Robin Hemley on Twitter, see what he's been up to on his website, and look into his writing retreats and services at Authors at Large.

More Episodes & Support

Please consider supporting the show with a few dollars a month, less than a cup of coffee, to help keep our show alive and advertisement-free.

You can also support the show by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or in your favorite podcasting app, subscribing to the show, and following us on Twitter & Instagram.

Lastly, consider using our affiliate links to purchase your books. If you use our links to make a purchase, we will receive a few cents commission at no additional cost to you. These funds help keep the podcast alive and ad-free.

Finally, join the Travel Writing World newsletter to receive your free copy of The Travel Book Guidebook. You will also receive quarterly dispatches & reports with podcast interviews, travel writing resources, & book recommendations. Thanks for your support!

Listen to the Episode on YouTube

Listen to the episode on YouTube on the Travel Writing World channel. Remember to subscribe to the channel.

Intro Music

Peach by Daantai (Daantai’s Instagram)

Disclaimer

*Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, this website will earn a very small commission if a purchase is made using these links. Also, "as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases" using the Amazon links on this site.