LECTURE

NEW DIRECTIONS IN TRAVEL WRITING

Joe Roberts and Jeremy Seal on 4 March 1999

A Bath Literature Festival Lecture

For the third year the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution joined with the Bath Literature Festival to sponsor a discussion. This year the topic selected was travel writing.

Two Bath-based travel writers were invited to talk about how they approach the development of a travel book and to read some excerpts from their latest work.

Joe Roberts whose first book, Three-quarters of a Footprint, was about India, described himself as "an observer who tries to turn the place being considered into a character." He has read widely and revealed some earlier travel writing that influenced him.

Jeremy Seal explained that he typically tries to tell a story using the location as an inherent part of the plot. This gives his book more pace and an overall structure.

Both writers talked about new directions in travel writing and the difficulties involved in `getting into print'.

The large audience asked many questions about the techniques the writers used when actually travelling to capture the spirit and physical qualities of a place and specific questions on the future of travel writing.

Betty Suchar