It's one of my favourite genres, with insight and calibre of writing consistently excellent. Just a few names that spring to mind include Bill Bryson, Paul Theroux, Paul Bowles, and William Dalrymple. Still, my favourite author in the area is my compatriot Dervla Murphy, whose output has endured and continued over the last 50 years, managing to give personal perspectives without stooping to condescension.
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Newby, Theroux, Bryson, Raban all get my vote too. Not tried Dalrymple, keep meaning to. Murphy is good, but her antipathy towards cars gets my back up at times.
Colin Thubron is superb on all things Russia and the near east. Wilfred Thesiger is also brilliantly evocative (if you can overlook his slightly creepy love of the ahem, beautiful young boys featured in his tales). Bruce Chatwin was a huge, if all too short lived talent.
Not sure if your Boys Own Adventure type explorer stories could be classed as Travel, but Redmond O'Hanlon is the master of this genre, and Benedict Allen is also very good.
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Travel writing
I wondered about including Kapuscinski, but I've only read Imperium so I wasn't sure what format his other work took.
Tim Moore has written some decent stuff - not fantastic works of literature by any stretch, but ideal smirkworthy holiday reading.
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Travel writing
If Kapuscinski counts, then I add Joan Didion (Miami, Salvador).
Right now I'm reading an essay from Wells Tower about traveling with his father. It's hilarious.
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- Aug 2008
- 25412
- The zero meridian
- Swansea, Gaziantepspor and the Zeugma Franchise
- Bahlsen Choco Leibniz Dark
Travel writing
Philip Marsden's The Spirit Wrestlers is great. Surprised nobody mentioned Bruce Chatwin.
Eric Newby is wonderful I have to add.
I enjoy reading Robert Kaplan even if I disagree with what he writes about Turkey which makes me doubt his opinion on other countries.
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Travel writing
There is a fantastic free podcast on iTunes from the Seattle Public Library, where Paul Theroux gives a great talk on the nature of travel writing - and its relationship with the actual place that's been written about. There's a fair amount of arrogance flying around in most travel writing - writers give their opinions based upon the flimsiest and fleeting experiences and assumptions of places, when summing up the true essence of a place really needs to take into account the cultural, social and religious history. So, because of the absence of these particular contexts, the nature of current travel writing tends to the superficial and banal. And Erwin - your (extremely valid)comment on Bryson may be applied to the majority of those in this particular genre - isn't it all about the person travelling rather than the place itself?
For the record, I think Thesiger was batshit crazy. I really enjoyed Raban in Arabia and around the British coast.
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Travel writing
Great thread, the type which really makes one appreciate this board. Looking forward to exploring many of these recommendations.
Some suggestions in english language travel lit would be Kermit Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route, Chiang Yee's Silent Traveller series (example). Stories from Indian Wigwams and Northern Campfires is a very interesting historic account of life on the northwestern Canadian frontier by a 19th century Methodist missionary. Much less obscure is Anthony Bourdain's book, pretty interesting foodie read (though not if you've seen his shows, which basically play out the same script and narration). Ernst Haeckel's Wanderbilder is (only technically) a bit outside this topic as a collection of travel illustrations but you have to have a few tangents in every good thread.
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Travel writing
Just finished Wilfrid Thiesinger's autobiography The Life of My Choice. He certainly led an interesting life, mostly spent in Africa, but spells in Eton, Oxford and Iraq. Had a rather worrying predilection for dictators though - remarking that they would have supported Franco were it not for the latter being backed by Mussolini, and practically deifying Haile Selassie, even though he presided over a feudal regime, blocked reform and actively neglected his people in the midst of famine.
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- Mar 2008
- 20821
- Black Country Green Belt
- Crusaders FC, Norn Iron, not forgetting Serendib
- Blueberry vodka Jaffa cake on marzipan base
Travel writing
irishreddevil wrote:
Still, my favourite author in the area is my compatriot Dervla Murphy, whose output has endured and continued over the last 50 years, managing to give personal perspectives without stooping to condescension
A place apart?
No, the other nag trailed in sixth.
PS seconded on Charlie Connolly.
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Travel writing
Ek weet nie wrote:
irishreddevil, you may want to get yourself along to this on Sunday 14th.
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Travel writing
I'd read Dalrymple's Age of Kali a while back and for some reason not really engaged with it, but I'm going to give it another go after finishing the excellent Nine Lives.
Two good books recently read:
Call of the Wild by Guy Grieve, a Scot who decided it would be a good idea to try to live in a cabin in Alaska through the winter; once you get past the irritation with the way he abandons his family to chase his fantasy, it's good stuff.
The other is the extraordinary The Places In Between by Rory Stewart, an account of walking through Afghanistan in the winter of 2002.
BS - a belated thanks for the heads up on the Seattle Public Library podcasts. I've finally got around to checking them out and there are some gems in there.
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Travel writing
Sir Reginald Dangleberry wrote:
If you like Bryson you'll possibly like Charlie Connelly. Attention All Shipping is particularly good.
Attention All Shipping, And Did Those Feet and Our Man in Hibernia are all excellent and he ahs also written other football books.
Highly recommended.
Steve.
http://mistrollingin.wordpress.com/
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Travel writing
Read Dom Joly's The Dark Tourist recently.
Off to Kiev at the end of April for Dynamo-Shaktar and thanks to his book I'll be doing a trip to Chernobyl too.
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Travel writing
ChrisJ wrote:
I got one of those Amazon recommends emails today, usually to be deleted, but this book caught my interest - has anyone read it?
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Travel writing
Thanks for that. My suspicions were that it might be a bit too over-romanticised and gushy for comfort; on the other hand
At its best, this book is a delight: witty and wryly contrarian. Farley and Symmons Roberts have conjured a distinctive style for their chosen region: fond, melancholic and glitteringly acute
If I get round to it, I'll let you know, though I'm in the middle of of Patagonian Express and I've got the new Thubron in Tibet lined up after that.
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