Have you noticed that travelers write about travels, and the main people who read about those who travel, are those who are travelling?
Even foodie blogs write about travels – because many have pictures of food from various countries through which the writer has traveled – not a complaint, because I love to read about other people’s food & travels. My wife’s hobby is cooking, so she collects recipes from around the world, and my hobby is eating, and this makes for a perfect combination!
The seed of travel for me was sown when I was a boy after the war listening to my father’s travels during WW 2. I followed him to sea; he was Royal Navy, I joined the merchant navy.
Combining a love of the sea, with the love of books in my youth, my favourite authors, were C.S Forester, the Hornblower series,
First Edition Cover – 1937
Somerset Maugham short stories of life in the Far East –
The Casuarina TreeThe Gentleman in the Parlour
Eric Newby travel writer, describing his voyage at 18 years of age in 1938.
Joseph Conrad’s novels – such as
Lord Jim,
Rudyard Kipling’s stories & poems of Burma and India.
– Rudyard is the name of a man-made lake in Staffordshire, UK, and Rudyard Kipling was named after this lake because his parents met there in 1863. Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay (now Mumbai).
I first went to Burma (as it was then) in 1965 /6 and it hadn’t changed that much when I visited for a holiday in 2012.
Street cafes in Rangoon 2012
I never did make it to Mandalay!
In my late teens I moved on to Jack Kerouac’s – On The Road – a must read for many a teenager.
As one grows older travel books still have a fascination, but for me I seem to be looking back over my shoulder thanks to Gavin Young’s two books
Slow Boat to China (Pub 1984)
Slow Boat to China
A great book to read while my memories of China where still sharp & Slow Boats Home (Pub 1986) when ships where still ships, and not floating warehouses.
Slow Boat Home
The two books below are travel books, but they’re not . . . they are about a boy living in Singapore and going to school in England – it is the author’s memoirs. For me, they are real memories of traveling fifty years ago.
Both books bring back ‘yesterday’ of life in Singapore & Malaya.
Davison’s memories are not so far back that they are history for for me, because I can remember much of this author’s life experiences in Singapore & Malaya (for me it was Malaysia, but it hadn’t changed that much ).
You can always combine cooking and travel if you try. I bought my wife a Christmas present in 2014
mainly as a present for her, but also for me, because I also wanted to read this book.
The author Ann Mah, travels around France for a year cooking and eating . . . what more could you want?
