8: Leaving that Place called Home

Hazel, Jennie and host Philippa explore the art of travel writing with the acclaimed author and biographer Sara Wheeler, and Barnaby Rogerson of the well-loved independent publisher Eland Books. Buckle-up and join us on an audio adventure that takes in a coach trip around England, an Antarctic sojourn, a hairy incident involving a Victorian lady and her trusty tweed skirt and a journey across Russia in the footprints of its literary greats, with nods to Bruce Chatwin, Isabella Bird, Norman Lewis, Martha Gellhorn and Patrick Leigh Fermor along the way. And to bring us back down to earth, there’s the usual round-up of news from back home in Hoxton Square and plenty of recommendations for reading off the beaten track.

The digits in brackets following each listing refer to the minute and second they are mentioned. (Episode duration: 39 minutes; 01 seconds)

Books Mentioned

• Slightly Foxed Issue 62 (2:05)
• The Fountain Overflows, Volume I of Rebecca West’s ‘Saga of the Century’ (2:36)
• Something Wholesale, Eric Newby (4:20)
• Love and War in the Apennines, Eric Newby (4:24)
• Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica, Sara Wheeler (8:00)
• A Dragon Apparent, Norman Lewis (11:49)
• In Patagonia, Bruce Chatwin. Sara Wheeler abbreviates the opening line, which reads in full: ‘In my grandmother’s dining-room there was a glass-fronted cabinet and in the cabinet was a piece of skin.’ (18:39)
• Growing: Seven Years in Ceylon and The Village in the Jungle, Leonard Woolf (19:50)
• Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck (20:35)
• Semi Invisible Man: The Life of Norman Lewis, Julian Evans (21:09)
• Naples ‘44, Norman Lewis (21:31)
• Passage to Juneau, Jonathan Raban (22:24)
• Mud and Stars, Sara Wheeler, published 4 July 2019 (23:27)
• The Saddest Pleasure, Moritz Thomsen (24:29)
• A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water, Patrick Leigh Fermor (25:16)
• Arabs, Tim Mackintosh-Smith (33:32)
• Lost in Translation, Eva Hoffman (34:31)
• A Woman in the Polar Night, Christiane Ritter is currently out of print. The edition with an introduction by Sara Wheeler will be published by Pushkin Press in November 2019 (35:52)

Related Slightly Foxed Articles & Illustrations

• Mood Music, Rebecca Willis on Rebecca West’s ‘Saga of the Century’, Issue 62 (2:22)
• Ire and Irritability, Pauline Melville on Sense and Sensibility, Issue 62 (2:56)
•  Travelling Fearlessly, Maggie Fergusson interviews Colin Thubron in Issue 58 (20:26)
• A Great Adventure, Andy Merrills on Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water, Issue 38 (25:24)
• In Search of Home, Sue Gee on Lost in Translation in Issue 55 (34:31)

Other Links
 

• The Slightly Foxed Podcast website page of episodes and reviews (1:00)
• Independent Bookshop Week 2019, 15-22 June. Follow #IndieBookshopWeek and @booksaremybag online (3:38)
• Eland Books (11:39)
• Katy MacMillan-Scott, Adventures for Harriet: Travelling from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul (31:45)
• Lodestars Anthology, selected issues available to buy from Slightly Foxed here (37:41)
• Rucksack Magazine (37:58)

Music and sound effects
Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No.3 in E Major by Bach
Reading music: Lost Memories courtesy of FreeSfx.co.uk

The Slightly Foxed Podcast is hosted by Philippa Lamb and produced by Podcastable