Journeying in words

Until I became interested in writing creative non-fiction a couple of years ago, I was not a great reader of travel writing - by which I don't mean the guidebooks that sometimes purport to be travel writing, but the works of writers such as Jan Morris, Rory Maclean and Justin Marozzi, books that take you into other places, into new experiences, that alter and enlarge your view of the world. Now they form a substantial part of my reading.

At the moment I'm lucky enough to be reading a manuscript for a friend, an account of an extraordinary journey that will hopefully be published in the next year or so and which will attract, I'm sure, a wide readership. To me it exemplifies the three components which I believe make travel writing so compelling - encounters with the landscape and the natural world, encounters with other people and - most importantly - encounters with the self. Because in making and recording journeys writers inevitably face up to their own strengths and weaknesses, have to deal with new, perhaps unexpected, situations, are in some subtle way changed by what they experience.

My own journeyings have been modest, but for all the long distance walks I've done in recent years (the Severn Way, the Holst Way etc) I've kept journals, supplemented by photographs which my husband has contributed. Several poems have had their genesis in these walks, but I'm now looking back over the journals to identify other areas of potential - and in itself the activity is providing a great opportunity to relive some thoroughly enjoyable experiences!

A stretch of the
Wye Valley Walk