Explore Essays and memoir
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Vinyl Road Trip
David Flusfeder
After an unexpected email, David Flusfeder heads to Detroit to discover his father’s history and the world of vinyl manufacturing.
Lindsey Hilsum | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Lindsey Hilsum
‘We need a new genre of travel writing, gleaned from the stories refugees and migrants.’
Well Done, No. 3777!
Xiaolu Guo
‘I grew up in the semi-tropical south, dotted by wet paddy fields, but I always wanted to go to the north.’
On the Road
Janine di Giovanni
‘But I still get homesick, that vast and deep pit in the stomach, every time I go away.’
Ian Jack | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Ian Jack
‘Travel writing of most kinds, not just the humorous, has the history of colonialism perched on its shoulder.’
Pico Iyer | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Pico Iyer
‘The writer on place has to go further inward, into the realm of silence and nuance and personal enquiry.’
Mohsin Hamid | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Mohsin Hamid
‘I have come to believe that we are all migrants, that the experience of migration unites all human beings.’
Eliza Griswold | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Eliza Griswold
‘Even in its subtler forms, the act of looking is an act of self-regard.’
Spiders from Jerusalem
Wioletta Greg
‘When the Holy Family was fleeing from Jerusalem, spiders wove such a thick web around the road that the swords of Herod’s soldiers couldn’t pierce it.’
Best Book of 1766: Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling
Dave Haysom
Dave Haysom on why Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling is the best book of 1766.
Best Book of 1967: Ice by Anna Kavan
Eli Goldstone
‘What a writer, and what a vision. What a perfect book to read in preparation for the end of the world.’
Best book of 1947: L’Écume des Jours by Boris Vian
Xiaolu Guo
‘In those spring nights, I sat by barbecue stalls in the streets of Beijing, reading this novel under dim streetlights while eating lamb skewers.’
