On travel writing

[itsmeagain]

This thread needs bumping up...anyone? Will return to it very soon.

[itsmeagain]

Tried Dervla Murphy, tales from two cities. It concerns the so called race relations in Manningham, Bradford, and Handsworth in Birmingham. She is a travel writer of some good reputation. She writes wittily and eloquently.She talks to Asian people and non Asian people in Bradford, she hangs around the Villa Cross pub in Birmingham, looking at self styled Rastafarians cutting up hash in pubs, etc. Essentially she looks to me to be looking for trouble. Various things irritate me about this book, written in 1986 , about her travels in 1985...how can you not mention the Bradford city fire disaster of 1985 when you lived in Manningham for 6 months and were in the local area when 56 people died?

[SiameseCat]

My favourite just for the style of writing is Bill Bryson's Notes from a Big Country. Well, I like the content too, but travel writing easily makes for dry reading.

[timebug]

I have enjoyed all the Bill Bryson books, and all of the

Mark Wallington ones too. A slim paperback I often

re-read is 'One Man and His Bog' by Barry Pilton.

This is a well written volume, concerning a middle aged

(and out of condition) man's attempt to walk The Penine

Way.Which for those outside the UK, is a mountainous

hike of two hundred and thirty miles (give or take) from

Edale in the Midlands, to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland.

Edited November 20, 2015 by timebug

[simsons]

What are the best travel books?

 

Let's start with best travel book for London?

And any other city's you like

[Flip Martian]

Bill Bryson is my favourite travel writer but if you mean "Guide to..." type books,  I guess Lonely Planet series is good. When going anywhere new I used to just head into a bookshop and scout through the travel section until I found something that had the kind of info I was after - sometimes that was just an AA book or something.

[chesilbeach]

I've merged these two topics, as there are plenty of recommendations already in this thread so it's worth perusing if you haven't already seen it

 

I think the best travel writing can be as good as a guide book in some instances, and years ago I'd have recommend the Eyewitness travel guides for cities, but I wonder how good they are now, as the internet tends to be how I would personally look at where to go and what to see in a city, and would have more upto date information.  I'd be more inclined to read some travel writing about a city or place and then do my own investigations into places to visit.

[itsmeagain]

Tried reading Eric Newby, A short walk in the Hindu Lush.

I had always fancied the Hindu Kush was in India but it's a mountainous part of Afghanistan. Book produced c. 1958 and is disappointing and quite heavy going all told. Oh well another to the list of incomplete reads dumped into a charity shop. Bye Eric.....

Edited August 1, 2016 by itsmeagain

[poppy]

A travel book I read some time ago and enjoyed was Ticket To Ride: Lost and Found in America by Sarah Darmody.

 

Winning a Green Card in the lottery, Australian Sarah decides to take advantage of it by circumnavigating the US in Greyhound buses.

A very funny and readable book.

[chesilbeach]

Tried reading Eric Newby, A short walk in the Hindu Lush.

I had always fancied the Hindu Kush was in India but it's a mountainous part of Afghanistan. Book produced c. 1958 and is disappointing and quite heavy going all told. Oh well another to the list of incomplete reads dumped into a charity shop. Bye Eric.....

 

What a shame you didn't enjoy it.  I wonder if I my reading of Newby starting with Round Ireland in Low Gear which was much later in his writing career, influenced my affection for his writing as I found it a very entertaining read, and followed it up with his second world war memoir Love and War in the Apennines before moving on to a couple of his other books.  I'm not sure any of the ones I've read have been heavy as such, but they are very much of their era, and it was a time when I think travel writing was more serious and perhaps a bit earnest compared to today where there is a lot lighter tone to many of the travel books I read.  

[itsmeagain]

What a shame you didn't enjoy it.  I wonder if I my reading of Newby starting with Round Ireland in Low Gear which was much later in his writing career, influenced my affection for his writing as I found it a very entertaining read, and followed it up with his second world war memoir Love and War in the Apennines before moving on to a couple of his other books.  I'm not sure any of the ones I've read have been heavy as such, but they are very much of their era, and it was a time when I think travel writing was more serious and perhaps a bit earnest compared to today where there is a lot lighter tone to many of the travel books I read.  

Very well summed up.

It's a product of it's time, one I imagine as a time when travel writing was serious and the preserve of middle class people.

Now things have changed.

Wouldn't mind trying a later book by Newby.