A joyful grab-bag of stories and travels.
Feature image credit: Quarto Books
Since humans became travellers, we have wanted to write about it. And since writers first emerged, they have wanted to travel. And for many of us, reading is in itself a form of armchair travel.
Travis Elborough is regarded as one of our great pop culture historians, and has published several quirky books, as well as many freelance articles. In Writers Journeys that Shaped Our World, he has curated 35 trips taken by writers as varied as the travels themselves. Each piece gives some brief biographical information on the writer, describes the journey, and discusses how it influenced the subsequent writing. Every entry contains a map of said journey, along with photos and illustrations.
Interestingly, none of the writers represented here are those known as ‘travel’ writers. No Chatwin, no Morris, no Leigh Fermor. These are writers of fiction and memoire, who were inspired by places. We join F. Scott Fitzgerald on his many visits to the French Riviera. We walk the Carpathians with Bram Stoker as he develops his seminal character Dracula. We pan for gold in the Klondike with Jack London. And we board the Orient Express with Agatha Christie.
Some of the writers here are inextricably tied to their travels. Karen Blixen’s move to British East Africa to marry a farmer, and eventually take over the running of it herself, would give rise to her classic Out of Africa. Antoine de Saint-Exupery lived a dual life as both a writer and an aviator, opening up mail routes from Paris, and writing about flying in works such as Night Flight, Wind, Sand, and Stars, and The Little Prince. Sometimes it is less the place that inspires and more the people within those places. Patricia Highsmith, while holidaying in Positano, spots an interesting young man walking along the beach. That image became the basis of her seminal character, Tom Ripley.
Many of these journeys are long and exotic. Yet others are walks around a certain town. Some are joyful, some horrific. Joseph Conrad’s trip to the Congo was hardly a relaxing holiday, but it gave birth to his most famous work, Heart of Darkness. Along with the better known trips are some that I personally had no knowledge of, such as Grahame Greene in Liberia, or Lorca spending time in New York.
Writers Journeys that Shaped Our World is a delicious lucky-dip of travels, tours, and writing. A terrific writer himself, Elborough manages to encapsulate something about each traveller in a couple of pages, giving us a sense of their work and the inspiration behind it.
This book is a joy for armchair travellers, lovers of literature, and history buffs.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Quarto Books
Released: November 2024
RRP: $32.99
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