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Journalist Michael Shapiro goes on a pilgrimage to visit the world’s great travel writers on their home turf to get their views on their careers, the writer’s craft, and most importantly, why they chose to live where they do and what that place means to them. A Sense of Place chronicles a young writer’s conversations with his heroes, writers he’s read for years who inspired him both to pack his bags to travel and to pick up a pen and write. Michael skillfully coaxes a collective portrait through his interviews, allowing the authors to speak intimately about the writer’s life, and how place influences their work and perceptions.
In each chapter Michael sets the scene by describing the writer’s surroundings, placing the reader squarely in the locale, whether it be Simon Winchester’s Massachusetts, Redmond O’Hanlon’s London, or Frances Mayes’s Tuscany. He then lets the writer speak about life and the world, and through quiet probing draws out these remarkable people. For Michael it’s a dream come true, to meet his mentors; for readers, it’s an engaging window onto the twin landscapes of art of great travel writers and the world they describe so vividly.
Author of the World’s Cheapest Destinations Tim Leffel writes: “With a title like A Sense of Place, Shapiro couldn’t just phone these interviews in. Though the predictably cranky Paul Theroux answers his questions via email, for the others Shapiro logged some serious frequent flyer miles visiting authors in their homes or where they sit down to write each day. He talks to Redmond O’Hanlon and Sarah Wheeler in England, Tom Miller in Arizona, Jan Morris in Wales, Frances Mayes in Italy, Peter Mathiessen on Long Island, Tim Cahill in Montana, and other dots on each side of the Atlantic.
Michael Shapiro with world’s leading expert on chimpanzees Jane Goodall
“Rick Steves and Arthur Frommer, two men who founded guidebook empires, fret about the sorry state of guidebook writing today—the by-the-numbers approach and lack of personality.”
Sarah Wheeler says about aspiring travel writers, “I’m often shocked at how little people read. You’ve got to read all the time.” Jeff Greenwald adds that they should “take the craft of writing as seriously as they would take learning how to play the oboe.” Tom Miller asks, “What makes your travel so different than anyone else’s? People don’t want to read for the tenth time about Antigua unless there’s something startlingly new.”
Bill Bryson offers a reality check and bats back the myth that it’s nearly impossible to find success as a travel writer. “All the time I get letters from people asking, ‘what’s the secret?’ like there’s some incantation. The secret is you just pound a path to the top of the mountain. You don’t just sort of levitate your way up.”
iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac
Free Delivery Worldwide
Delivery in Australia & NZ
Kindle
Journalist Michael Shapiro goes on a pilgrimage to visit the world’s great travel writers on their home turf to get their views on their careers, the writer’s craft, and most importantly, why they chose to live where they do and what that place means to them. In A Sense of Place chronicles a young writer’s conversations with his heroes, writers he’s read for years who inspired him both to pack his bags to travel and to pick up a pen and write.