Published: 3 November 2011
Hardback, Royal Octavo
156x234mm, 448 pages
ISBN: 9781847082572
£25.00
The New Granta Book of Travel
Other Editions
Trade Paperback
Published: 3 November 2011
Trade Paperback, Royal PB
153x234mm, 448 pages
ISBN: 9781847084880
£15.00
Ebook Available
Overview
Granta has long been known for the quality of its travel writing. The 1980s were the culmination of a golden age, when writers including Paul Theroux and Bruce Chatwin, James Hamilton-Paterson and James Fenton set out to document life in largely unfamiliar territory, bringing back tales of the beautiful, the extraordinary and the unexpected. By the mid 1990s, travel writing seemed to change, as a younger generation of writers that appeared in the magazine made journeys for more complex and often personal reasons. Decca Aitkenhead reported on sex tourism in Thailand, and Wendell Steavenson moved to Iraq as foreign correspondent. What all these pieces have in common is a sense of engagement with the places they describe, and a belief that whether we are in Birmingham or Belarus, there is always something new to be discovered.
About the author
LIZ JOBEY is a former deputy editor of Granta. Before joining the magazine in 1998 she was editor of the Independent on Sunday 'Review' and literary editor of the Guardian.More about the author
Reviews
‘A collection of short stories by a select band of acclaimed writers, turns the excitement in taking a vacation 180 degrees, and holds a mirror up to a world of fear and violence, escape and disaster, and sex and desire’ Denise Bailey, Argus
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Reviews
‘A collection of short stories by a select band of acclaimed writers, turns the excitement in taking a vacation 180 degrees, and holds a mirror up to a world of fear and violence, escape and disaster, and sex and desire’ Edinburgh Evening News
‘A hefty collection taken from the last 14 years of Granta magazine, featuring a selection of travel literature's greats, including Colin Thubron, Paul Theroux, Bruce Chatwin and Jonathan Raban’ Traveller
‘Collecting the best of the magazine's travel writings from the last 20 years, this is steely eyed, post safari shorts travel writing - and with a forward row boasting the likes of Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux and Colin Thubron, you know you're getting some heavy lifters ... As greatest hits packages go, this is all killer, no filler’ Tom Hawker, Wanderlust
‘Drawing on 14 years of travel writing from Granta magazine, it includes the work of Bruce Chatwin, Colin Thubron, WG Sebald, Kathleen Jamie and many more’ Bookseller
‘Jobey's judicious selection includes many pieces by newer writers such as Decca Aitkenhead and Kathleen Jamie’ Giles Foden, Conde Nast Traveller
‘Jonathan Raban's introduction is an overture, weaving themes while underscoring the common elements in many of the collection's 23 pieces ... Raban notes that "the travel narrative is not in decline" - Kathleen Jamie with "Airds Moss", Rory Stewart's "Dervishes", Andrew O'Hagan plying the effluent-rich outer reaches of the Clyde in "How it ends" are acute and engrossing. As is "The Paris Intifada" by Andrew Hussey, and Basharat Peer's disquieting "Kashmir's Forever War", riveting writing which makes The New Granta Book of Travel a lethal companion to take to the bedside. You'd never sleep’ Tom Adair, Scotsman
‘Lavinia Greenlaw conjures haunting poetry in her piece on the snowbound immensity of the Arctic Circle. John Borneman, an American caught up in the Sri Lanka tsunami over Christmas 2004, gives a knuckle-whitening account of the disaster and its aftermath. Generally, the anthology is fun to dip into, and offers suitable armchair escapism for the New Year’ Ian Thomson, Spectator
‘The pieces give a good sense of how capacious a category travel writing is. At one end we have sensitive lyrical writing from the poet Lavinia Greenlaw (in the Arctic) and Robert Macfarlane (walking in the mountains at night) and at the other end of travel writing that is indistinguishable from war reportage’ Owen Richardson, The Age
