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    Travel writing

    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.

    #2
    Travel writing

    I'd like to offer up Patrick Leigh Fermor and Eric Newby

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      #3
      Travel writing

      Jonathan Raban and Pico Iyer

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        #4
        Travel writing

        One I found by an OTF recommendation is Alan Booth. His Looking for the Lost and The Roads to Sata, both about walking around Japan, are among the best things I've ever read.

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          #5
          Travel writing

          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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            #6
            Travel writing

            Jan Morris and Ryszard Kapuscinski.

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              #7
              Travel writing

              irishreddevil, you may want to get yourself along to this on Sunday 14th.

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                #8
                Travel writing

                I love Bryson - very sharp wit. But I do think his pieces are more about him than the places he's in.

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                  #9
                  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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                    #10
                    Travel writing

                    I liked the late Pete McCarthy's stuff - MCCarthy's bar etc.

                    Bryson is fantastic and I'd forgive him his indulgences and tangents because he's genuinely funny and self-deprecating.

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                      #11
                      Travel writing

                      Jan Morris book about Trieste was a good read, very melancholy at times.

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                        #12
                        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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                          #13
                          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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                            #14
                            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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                              #15
                              Travel writing

                              If you like Bryson you'll possibly like Charlie Connelly. Attention All Shipping is particularly good.

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                                #16
                                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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                                  #17
                                  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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                                    #18
                                    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
                                    I saw two horses owned by Dervla running at Market Rasen last week. The winner was named after her most famous book.

                                    A place apart?

                                    No, the other nag trailed in sixth.

                                    PS seconded on Charlie Connolly.

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                                      #19
                                      Travel writing

                                      Ek weet nie wrote:
                                      irishreddevil, you may want to get yourself along to this on Sunday 14th.
                                      Thank goodness for TG4 - when they're on their game, they really are the best Irish TV channel. Murphy came across as fairly eccentric, often doing up to three typing redrafts on her longhand scripts, while her daughter, Rachel, was fairly resentful at times of being dragged along into a bohemian upbringing, and in many ways, it was these personal glimpses that made the documentary so watchable.

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                                        #20
                                        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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                                          #21
                                          Travel writing

                                          Sir Reginald Dangleberry wrote:
                                          If you like Bryson you'll possibly like Charlie Connelly. Attention All Shipping is particularly good.
                                          I love Charlie Connelly's books. Stamping Grounds combines travel with football as it is about the Liechenstein national team, a really terrific book.
                                          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/

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            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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                                              #23
                                              Travel writing

                                              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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                                                #24
                                                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?
                                                Not read it yet, but this Guardian review interested me enough that I probably will.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  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
                                                  sounds intriguing.

                                                  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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