Tag Archives: Travel literature

“Wild Coast. Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge”, by John Gimlette, Profile Books

Posted on March 1, 2018 by

Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana: raise your hands if you can recite, by heart – and no Googling, I can see you – their capitals. Not a clue? Well, I honestly doubt there’ll be many, amongst the few who’ll stumble across … Continue reading →

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“Out of Steppe” by Daniel Metcalfe, Arrow – Random House

Posted on January 6, 2018 by

If the passion for travelling off the beaten path, exploring places that don’t make it on the top-shelf brochure at your local Trailfinders (but, let’s face it, they don’t even make it to the bottom one), was a genetic strand … Continue reading →

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“I have never encountered splendour of this kind before”. Visiting Isfahan with Robert Byron

Posted on September 25, 2016 by

On paper it sounded like a good idea: visiting a country whilst reading about it, journeying through the physical space and the mental one concocted by a great travel writer, attempting to match my experiences to those of the author. … Continue reading →

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“Arabian Sands”, by Wilfred Thesiger, Penguin Books.

Posted on August 19, 2016 by

Italo Calvino once wrote that a ‘classic’ is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. If this is the approved meter of judgement for the category, then I’ve no doubts that Arabian Sands belongs to … Continue reading →

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“Ninety Percent of Everything”, by Rose George, Picador

Posted on April 19, 2016 by

I’m an intrinsically sceptical person, the sort of individual who’s the thorn in the side of marketers, focus group organisers or pollsters. Give an advert saying “The best book of the year” and I’ll immediately think ‘bullshit’. Make me read … Continue reading →

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“Dark Star Safari” by Paul Theroux, Penguin Books

Posted on May 2, 2015 by

Source http://www.paultheroux.com Paul Theroux and I go a long way. I originally picked up his book almost one year ago, in its podcast form, and then – almost immediately – dropped it. The reason? The voice of the reader: whereas … Continue reading →

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“The Lost Heart of Asia”, by Colin Thubron, Vintage

Posted on April 2, 2015 by

Then I heard Pasha calling me to return. It was late and dark, he said, and this was not our country. It doesn’t happen often, for me, to arrive at the last word of a book and think Aw fuck, … Continue reading →

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“Chile – Travels in a thin country”, by Sara Wheeler, Abacus

Posted on November 22, 2014 by

Having spent most of my reading time engrossed in travel literature I think I’m now adequately equipped to put together a brief phenomonology of the writer of this genre that I so much adore. Let’s assume to have a chart, … Continue reading →

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“Terra incognita”, by Sara Wheeler, Vintage

Posted on October 31, 2014 by

Did you ever come across a travel book that you have to read only in tiny bites, small series of pages in order to prevent you from saying “Ah, sod it” and leave the bus-train-metro-sofa where you were reading it, airport-bound? … Continue reading →

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“In the South Seas”, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Posted on August 20, 2014 by

A few weeks ago, browsing through the travel literature section of a book shop, I found a copy of a book I never knew existed. It was named In the South Seas, and the author was a person who, in my … Continue reading →

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