Header overlay

Episode 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 balodeck 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.

 


Comments & Reviews

If you enjoy the podcast, why not leave us a review? You can scroll down the page or click here to jump to the comments section.

How to Listen

There are several ways to listen to the podcast. Please choose from the following options

– LISTEN ONLINE. Press the play button on the image above to listen on this page

– SUBSCRIBE for free via:

DOWNLOAD an mp3 file of this episode to your device. NB The file will download automatically on click. Please check your downloads folder.

Show Notes

Please find links to books, articles, and further reading listed below. 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 (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 (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 (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

The Slightly Foxed office dogs: Dusty, Stanley, Chudleigh and Tarka


Comments & Reviews

Leave a comment

  1. Patricia Oley says:

    I just love your podcasts and all the lovely information about books. I always feel as if I am sitting round the table with you all and the dogs and even the background noises, builders and sometimes other things. So glad you sent photos of the dogs. Now I can put faces to the sounds. I’ve been a subscriber to Slightly Foxed for several years now and read it avidly when it comes. You are so generous with all your newsletters etc. I only wish I could manage to find time to read more! You are all very much appreciated. Thank you.

  2. Susan says:

    I’ve been sitting here watching the snow fly and mentally preparing to dig my way out yet again, here in a mountain town in the BC Rockies, all the while revisiting my time in both England and Scotland via house sitting my way in the nooks and crannies I’d otherwise not have experienced. Listening to you all chat, has brought many forgotten tid bits back to mind, and I’ve been stopping and starting the podcast to make notes. There’s something so beautiful about listening to a podcast, it’s like being a silent, unseen guest at the table, tea I’ve poured for myself, chair pulled up just out of sight, sat by the fire, able to listen and reminisce at the same time as nothing witty is expected of me as contribution. I’m free to savour, to pause you and reflect on your words and think of my own experiences and bring them forth from long forgotten dusty drawers in my mind.

    Thank you, but wood needs chopping and snow removed.

    Please give the dogs a biscuit for me and I’ll be back again, the silent one in the room, observing and enjoying.

    Sue

  3. Karen McBride says:

    I’m finally catching up on your podcasts during my daily walks, my escape from home lock-down. Today I reached episode 8, on travel writers. What a delight — old favourites and new temptations. But what made me exclaim aloud through my mask was the recommendation for Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation. Yes! I knew Eva in university in the mid 1960s in Houston, Texas, a place very new to both of us! I had found her book years ago and been fascinated – by her life, her observations, her language fluency. And also, by my realization (yet again) of how little we know of each other’s lives. Thank you for the reminder.

Sign up to our e-newsletter

Sign up for dispatches about new issues, books and podcast episodes, highlights from the archive, events, special offers and giveaways.