I can just about remember Alan Whicker’s TV shows in the 1960s, portraying a world that not many viewers in the UK would be able to visit. No cheap air travel and a £50 limit on how much money you could take with you were the first two hurdles.
Before Alan Whicker, Alec Waugh, Evelyn’s brother, embedded descriptions of long-distance flights, often by seaplane, in his novels. Another pure travel writer with a now more famous brother is Peter Fleming. I have read Brazilian Adventure, published in 1933, and recommend it. In it he comments, “São Paulo is like Reading, only much farther away.” Another favourite in the genre is Into The Heart of Borneo by Redmond O’Hanlon, published in 1984.
Today we can travel anywhere – except , perhaps, North Korea – so is the role of the travel writer becoming like that of the farrier? They still exist but only work for a niche market. No, because good writing is always rewarding to read as the work (and sales) of Bill Bryson and Paul Theroux testify.
So it’s interesting when there is a new entrant into the market. Step forward, Joanna Lumley. Her Trans-Siberian Adventure is being shown on ITV now. The third and final episode filmed in Russia will be screened this evening. She has a gift for talking to her interviewees with warmth and sincerity, listening to them and having a conversation. She is also honest; you have to be these days as too many people will know. She clarifies that although she is filming the train that runs beween Beijing and Moscow she will not be travelling on it because she needs to film interviews along the way. Accordingly, she takes local trains; much more interesting as the Trans-Siberian has almost all tourists as passengers. I was one in 2013.
Thomas Beecham’s quip “try everything once except incest and folk dancing”, encourages me to try travel writing. Today I fly to Oslo and will be telling you what’s going on in Norway in future posts.