Travel Writing World

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.

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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.

Wilfred Thesiger was an explorer and writer who sought to travel through the Rub’ al Khali, the so-called “Empty Quarter” of desert in the Arabian Peninsula in the late 1940s. Thesiger wrote about his journey in his now-classic travel book Arabian Sands, which was originally published in 1959 brought him distinction as an explorer and writer. Thesiger passed in 2003. 

Joining me today to talk about Arabian Sands is the author and scholar Tim Hannigan. We discuss Thesiger’s book in light of his life and his complications as a travel writer with privileged, colonial roots. Archives now keep his photographs, but many are freely visible online (including photos of his companions like bin Kabina). He published some of his photographs in his books, including his wonderful photography book A Vanished World. 

This episode was prepared alongside a review of Arabian Sands.

This episode is also the first in a new series in which I speak with authors and journalists 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.

Have you ever had a profound, mystical encounter with the natural world? Speaking with us from the U.K. is Jini Reddy, whose new book Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape (Bloomsbury 2020) explores and celebrates her connection with the magic of the British landscape. We also talk about cultural identity, the ways in which we can connect with nature, and the difficulties in discussing transcendent experiences.

Jini is a British journalist and author whom National Geographic recently profiled in their Women of Impact series. Wanderland was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for U.K. Nature Writing, 2020.

If you're still curious about Wanderland, please read the questions Jini answered about her book.

You can reach out to Jini Reddy on her homepage, 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.

Stories of migration, nationhood, religious conflict, sex, and violence have preoccupied Europe for millennia. Nicholas Jubber joins us from Dorset, U.K. to talk about the power of storytelling in the European epic tradition, the subject of his most recent book Epic Continent: Adventures in the Great Stories of Europe (John Murray 2019) in which he travels throughout Europe following some of history’s most epic stories like The Odyssey and Beowulf.

Epic Continent was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020. His previous books are also well regarded. The Timbuktu School for Nomads was featured in the New York Times Best Travel Book of the Year in 2016 and The Prester Quest won the Edward Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award in 2006.

You can reach out to Nicholas Jubber on his homepage, on Twitter, and on 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 today's episode, we remember Bruce Chatwin on what would have been his 80th birthday. Jonathan Chatwin joins us again, this time to talk about the life and work of Bruce Chatwin. Jonathan wrote a book on Bruce's work called Anywhere Out of the World: The Work of Bruce Chatwin (Manchester UP 2017).

We also have reflections and testimonials from Nicholas Shakespeare, who wrote the biography Bruce Chatwin: A Biography (The Harvill Press 1999), Susannah Clapp, who worked with Bruce as his reader and editor at Jonathan Cape and wrote the biographic memoir With Chatwin: Portrait of a Writer (Jonathan Cape 1997), Colin Thubron, Bruce's friend and the celebrated travel writer of many books like Shadow of the Silk Road (Harper 2007), Sara Wheeler, author of many wonderful travel books like Magnetic North (Jonathan Cape 2009), and Michael Meyer, the award-winning American travel writer and author of The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed (Walker & Company 2009).

Join us in celebrating and remembering Bruce Chatwin. And, if you have any memories or thoughts about the life and work of Bruce Chatwin, please leave them in the comments section below.

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.