Category: Famous Travellers

Ranulph Fiennes is one of Britain’s most famous expedition leaders, with such feats under his belt as reaching both poles by surface travel, crossing the Antarctic unsupported, and running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. His most recent accomplishment was scaling the notoriously challenging North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland, despite a fear of heights. Fiennes, now 63, describes these adventures and more in his latest autobiographical book: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know. Ranulph found time in between adventures to stop into Stanfords to give some more insights into his fascinating life…

How did it start – who were your heroes as a child?

My dad was. He was killed four months before I was born and my mother brought me up on stories about him and the war. He was commander of the Royal Scots Greys regiment and he was killed in Naples. He was definitely my hero and still is. Continue reading The Ranulph Fiennes Interview

Lyn Hughes and her late husband Paul Morrison launched Wanderlust magazine in 1993 having thought out the project on a flight to Ecuador. It has since gone on to become the UK’s leading publication for independent travellers, and one for which Bill Bryson claimed, “There simply isn’t a better magazine for the serious traveller.”

Since then the couple were also involved in the relaunch of Songlines, the world music magazine, covering everything from traditional and popular to contemporary and fusion. Both magazines are available in Stanfords stores and all good newsagents. You can check out back issues of Wanderlust at their website www.wanderlust.co.uk and get all the latest news from the world music scene at www.songlines.co.uk.

When and where did you first begin travelling and was it clear to you that one day you’d want to make it such a great part of your life?

Believe it or not, I was a late starter. My first long haul trip was Hong Kong when I was 22. But, geography was one of my favourite subjects at school, David Attenborough was my hero, and I devoured any travel book I could get my hands on.

Much like Hilary Bradt, Tony Wheeler and Mark Ellingham who decided to publish guidebooks when travelling, you came up with the idea of creating the magazine en-route to South America. What led to that initial inspiration and when you sketched out your plans did you ever really imagine it would all come about in such a successful way or were you just passing the time on a flight?

My late husband, Paul Morrison, and I were on a flight to South America in late 1992. We were travelling light – hand luggage only – so had no books to read. There was no entertainment on the plane so we had to make our own. There was an in-flight mag so we’d read that from front to back. It got us talking about magazines and why there were no travel magazines for people like us. We borrowed a pen off a stewardess and started planning out our perfect magazine on a sickbag .We argued for years over which of us actually turned to the other and said “We could do this for real.”

What were those first few months like working out of the spare bedroom? I understand you had no real journalism or publishing experience so how scary was it for you and Paul to give up successful careers in pursuit of the dream?

When it comes to life changes, the only scary bit is making the actual decision. That point with us was when, on the eve of us buying our first Apple Mac – the only reason to buy was to run publishing software on it, – I got a phone call from Australia offering me a terrific job. We sat up all night discussing what to do. Our heads said to go Australia, but our hearts told us to stay and launch Wanderlust. So, that’s what we did.

Since then, Paul also relaunched Songlines, the world music magazine, after it was dropped by Haymarket and, like Wanderlust, it appears to have gone from strength to strength. It clearly sits very well with the Wanderlust brand, but how did that all come about?

Paul was a subscriber to Songlines, and was really disappointed when it stopped publishing. Eventually a consortium of five of us got together, including its editor, its founder, and Mark Ellingham, founder of Rough Guides, to rescue it. We set it up as its own company, and it was initially based in the Wanderlust offices. We redesigned it, made it more accessible to non-experts, and focussed on building the subscription base. I hadn’t been as enthusiastic as Paul about taking it on as he was fighting cancer. He was in hospital leading up the launch, and so I used to go visit him in the evenings with all the layouts and reports. I’d then go back to the office at 10pm and put in a few more hours work. Not easy days. But Songlines is now flourishing and has a cracking team. Paul would be really proud.

You’ll soon be relaunching the Wanderlust website. What can your readers expect to find on the new site? And are there any plans to continue to expand your media reach beyond Wanderlust, the website and Songlines?

Our website has long been due an overhaul so we are very excited. There will be a lot more content on there, including an archive of articles from the magazine. And we’ll also be able to be a lot more topical and react to relevant news stories immediately. There will also be a separate but related networking/community site for our readers, contributors and other keen travellers to share experiences, tips, photos and video footage.

We already publish several newsletters and magazines for travel companies on their behalf. Basically, we’ll do anything to do with travel media – as long as we passionately believe in it.

Many of our interviewees come to Stanfords with Travellers’ Tales and you’re also involved with that company while also running Wanderlust’s own writing courses. Why do you think all these great travel writers and photographers want to teach? What do you personally take from the experience? And what is your one big tip to somebody wanting to get published as a writer or photographer?

Travel writing and photography are incredibly competitive and we are getting approached all the time. But the good news is the number of outlets has also grown considerably over the past decade. Most people wanting to break in fall into the trap of thinking that it’s just enough to write up an account of their last trip. It’s stimulating to see some of the participants in the talks and courses really develop and start to see the world from the view of the readers and editors. My top tip would be to join out next course with Travellers’ Tales!

Finally, what is your favourite sort of travel and your favourite destination? What has been your best and worst travel experience? And what are your favourite and most hated aspects of travel?

My loves are wildlife, horses, and big landscapes; a walking or riding safari is probably my dream trip. However, I’m also interested in local culture (I always try and visit a supermarket in any destination!) and relish culture shock.

Iran was one of my best trips; it overturned all my preconceptions and the people were so welcoming.

My least favourite aspect of travelling is often the airport and the flight – the way we are treated is increasingly dehumanising. My favourite aspect is those unexpected encounters and experiences that end up enriching your life for years to come. Author: James Innes Williams

Chris Stewart, the drummer from Genesis’ first album, is today better known as the witty author of Driving Over Lemons, A Parrot in the Pepper Tree and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society. He visited Stanfords, in the company of Travellers’ Tales, to give a small talk on how to write travel books. It was a quick taste of the writing courses he leads for the company near his home in Granada, and gave us a chance to put a few questions to him.

I think it’s fair to say you’ve had quite a varied career, being the original drummer for Genesis, an under pig-man, sheep shearing and drumming with Sir Robert Fossett’s circus before you turned your hand to travel writing. What was it you were looking for in these different roles, what was it that appealed to you about them?

Under Assistant Pig-man as a matter of fact… well, my grandfather worked for the Bank of England all his working life. On the day he retired he told me that he felt as if he had just been released from prison. I never forgot that, and determined that I would be a jolly Jack of All Trades rather than a miserable master of one. And I have to say that each one of the occupations you mention… and there were others too… gave me an awful lot of pleasure.

Just before you started travel writing, you achieved an ambition to move to Spain, to your farm in the mountains near Granada. Firstly, why did you choose Spain and this particular area, and when making the move did you always have the idea of the book, Driving Over Lemons in mind?

I had fallen in love with Spain many years before when I studied guitar in Sevilla, propelled there by Laurie Lee’s As I Walked out One Midsummer Morning. Spain then contained enough wildness and beauty to satisfy my soul… the music, the language, the people, the architecture, the landscape… also there was just a hint of anarchy about the place that appealed to me. And then it was Gerald Brenan’s South from Granada that drew me to the Alpujarra… and once I had seen the place, I decided that here was where I wanted to lay my bones.

Nope… I had not the least intention of writing a book; that idea was foisted upon me many years later… much against my better judgement.

 You have now produced three books. What was it that made you pick up the pen initially? How easy was it for you to put your family and friends in the books? And what do they and the village make of the success?

I was persuaded by my friends [see next question] who reckoned that our story was a good one and worth the telling. I protested that I knew nothing about the business of writing, but they suggested I give it a go anyway. I’m sort of glad I did as it happens… I love writing. Hmm, the family and friends… well, I think they’ve all got used to the idea that they are all material, and in general they don’t seem to mind. I must ask them what they think of it all. The village and its villagers are on the whole ecstatic about the fact that the success of the books has given a bit of a shot in the arm to the economy of the place, which before was a little on the stagnant side. Of course I have my critics and indeed my enemies, but that is only to be expected – all part of the fun.

You were, I believe, the first author published by Sort Of books, seemingly set up for you by Rough Guides’ Mark Ellingham and his wife Natania Jansz. How did that all come about?

Mark sent me to China in 1984 to write the Rough Guide to China… I had met him at a party and told him I could speak Mandarin, which to a certain extent I could. This was in the early days of the RG. We subsequently became good friends, and Mark and Nat came to visit us here at El Valero. That was the beginning of Sort Of.

When you came to Stanfords, with Travellers’ Tales, you were giving insight into how to write travel books and a glimpse into the courses run with you by the company in Granada. What made you want to begin teaching and why in this way? What, for you, are the bonuses in learning in the field and what do they learn on a night like those at Stanfords? And lastly, what’s your one big tip to budding writers reading this?

Ho… you ask questions like a Spaniard. When it’s question time at the book talks I give in this country, it goes on for hours, and each question usually has between five and nine parts, and by the time the questioner has got to the end of his composite question, you’ve forgotten what the beginning was about…

The teaching is a new departure… and great fun; I love it. It’s no bad thing for the poor timid nerd of a writer to be released from the penumbra of his lonely workplace and get out there and strut his stuff for the public once in a while. In my case it’s rather a matter of the blind leading the blind, but I do have an idea or two, and if I can help other aspirants in any way, then I’m pretty happy to do so.

The Stanfords thing… well, I wanted to make it fun and a bit lively, so I fished out a load of offbeat quotations and got the audience to participate as much as possible, which worked well. What did we learn… well, I think my main tips are to write naturally, as you would speak… and to be a listener to other storytellers as much as a storyteller yourself… and of course, read widely.

Finally, what’s coming up next for you? What will be your next book? What’s happening with the farm? And to come full circle, as you’re photographed with your guitar to advertise these events, what’s happening with your music?

More writing… It’s what I love doing best. I cannot describe the pleasure I get from writing when it’s going well… a bit like flying in a sense. I’m just back from Peru, where I spent a month wandering with a friend, Michael Jacobs, who is writing a book on the Andes [Ghost Train Through the Andes]. I hadn’t travelled for many years and sort of wondered if I was still up to it. I was, and though I had no intention of writing a book about it – I was only there for a month – the journey presented me with so much material that I think it might become part of a travel book… perhaps three or five journeys. Who can say? I loved the travel bit of The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society, the chapters in Morocco… I enjoyed writing those most and also reading them, so I think I might move in the direction of travel writing. I can’t keep banging out the same sort of books, I can already hear the critics filing their blades.

Ah, the farm… well, I’ve just been down chopping away with my mattock at the irrigation channels. I love it, but I fear it is a bit of an anachronism… a tremendous amount of work for a miserable return… apart from the incomparable quality of life that the place gives us, of course.

As for music… well, I’ve always been an atrocious musician and not fit to play with proper musicians… that’s one reason why they gave me the well deserved boot from Genesis. I just fool around with a guitar to amuse myself these days, and to annoy the womenfolk.

When Charlie Connelly came to Stanfords to sign copies of his hugely successful Attention All Shipping just prior to the launch of his next book, In Search of Elvis, James Innes Williams was there to catch up his latest exploits including singing Elvis songs live on Uzbek television and being pulled up for being sleazy in his first attempt at romantic fiction.

What are your fondest memories of travel from your childhood?

Not so much a memory but I’m told that the first family holiday we had, when I was really, really tiny we drove to Devon and I thought every animal was a teddy bear. So, we’d go past a few of the cows and apparently I was going, “Teddies, Teddies.” My mum reminds me every time I bring a new girlfriend home. I was always a really shy traveller as a child, so I don’t know how come I ended up doing this kind of thing. 

What were your first influences on you in the way you write? The biography on your website mentions Douglas Adams… Continue reading The Charlie Connelly Interview

Tony Wheeler founded Lonely Planet in late 1973 after a six-month overland trip across Asia that resulted in “Across Asia on the Cheap”. Today the company has become the world’s largest independent guidebook publisher with more than 500 titles in print and over 400 employees. He came to Stanfords to talk about his most recent book, Bad Lands, part travelogue, part social and political commentary.

You seem to have covered vast swathes of the globe even as a child. Where and why did you venture and what was it like at such a young age?

My childhood travels were strictly business, there are embassy-kids, armed forces-kids, airline-kids etc, and I was the latter. So I grew up in Pakistan, the Bahamas and the USA, until I was 16 and finally got back to the UK. I had some great times.

Did you make the trip across Asia with the guide in mind or was it Continue reading The Tony Wheeler Interview

James Innes Williams went to Marrakech in the company of Travellers’ Tales, the travel writing and photography training company. Exploring the souks of the Medina and the vibrant Jemaa El Fna, they then travelled up and over the High Atlas, and made in roads to the desert, all the time practising their writing and photography techniques.

At the end of the week he caught up with the three tutors, Jon Lorie the director and ex-editor of Traveller magazine, distinguished travel and history writer Anthony Sattin and the force behind the BBC Unforgettable series, photographer Steve Watkins.

Here, in the first of a series of interviews, James talks with Jon Lorie.

What was the driver behind forming Travellers’ Tales and leaving Traveller Continue reading The Jon Lorie Interview

As a highlight of Stanfords’ annual Travel Lecture season, Bill Bryson visited London to talk about his writing life and latest travels in front of 2,500 fans. We are delighted to present a full transcript of his live interview, with Douglas Schatz firing the questions.

Introduction

As the cliché goes, of course, our guest needs no introduction, but for the benefit of anyone who has just arrived from another planet and stumbled into the hall here tonight, I can confirm for the record that our speaker, Bill Bryson, is this planet’s favourite travel writer.

It is not only the staggering sales of his six travel books that have earned him this eminence, but also the fact that his books are so accessible, perceptive and most of all, of course, wondrously funny. He is to travel books what Delia Smith is to cookery, or J K Rowling to children’s books. In other words, he is the best.

Continue reading The Bill Bryson Interview