Around the world with Hemingway
The inspiration for travel can come to us in many different ways — maybe from hearing friends’ travel tales, or stumbling across maps, or discovering movies set in faraway lands. For me, much of my travel inspiration comes through the books I read. Indeed, it works both ways: books can...
Literary travel: In the City of Bikes
The Netherlands is said to boast one of the highest living standards and quality of life in the world, and many say the Dutch bike obsession contributes to these benchmarks. But this obsession with two wheels has a dark side, one that contributes to stress and anxiety about personal possessions...
5 cafés that inspired the literary world
There’s something undeniably romantic at the thought of a writer sitting in a smokey coffeehouse, hunched over a notebook — or more recently a laptop — sipping from an espresso and penning the next great novel. Some of the most famous books of all time were written not in isolated...
8 non-travel books for travellers
My favourite books are those that create a real sense of place. Perhaps it’s the geographer in me, but the ability of a story to capture my imagination with its narrative as well as its portrait of a place (or places) is what turns me into a one-woman marketing machine...
Literary travel: The Other Side of Paradise in Havana
Havana is a hard city to “get.” I think that’s why I like it so much. It’s not easy for foreigners to climb inside. The government has long put a wall up between locals and tourists; if you’re a visitor, you ride in different taxis, visit different nightclubs, and even...
Literary Travel: Memoirs of a Geisha in Kyoto
The life of a Geisha is mysterious and compelling. When you spot them quickly shuffling to the next tea-house, some carrying an instrument, you feel a sense of awe. Some women want to experience a day in the life of a Geiko (what Geishas refer to themselves as, and how...