Our Travellers’ World
Thirty years ago when I tutored my first travel writing workshop, every single participant was male. Truth was, travel writing had been a male preserve since Herodotus and Pausanias first put pen to papyrus - with notable exceptions including Freya Stark, Dervla Murphy and Sara Wheeler. High-testosterone explorers paddled to the source of the Limpopo; Paddy Leigh Fermor trekked to Constantinople; Bruce Chatwin followed a dinosaur skin to Patagonia and Paul Theroux caught trains to almost everywhere else. When, in the mid-1990s, the first woman joined one of my annual courses, her contribution electrified the workshop. Today it’s men who are in the minority, often courses featuring none at all. Female artists have long battled convention and defied rejection but now women have given themselves permission to claim at least half of the travel writing world. In planning this year’s Sherborne Travel Writing Festival, my intention wasn’t to draw attention to this remarkable development. My intention has always been to choose the most original, inspirational voices, which is why this year seven out of the 12 speakers are women. Together their spellbinding stories and mind-broadening adventures will transport you to the four corners of the globe. Enjoy!
Rory MacLean Festival Curator
Sherborne Travel Writing Festival
Friday 11th April
17:00 – 18:00 Alan Edwards – I Was There 19:00 – 20:00 Victoria Hislop – The Figurine
Saturday 12th April
10:30 -11:30 Ann Morgan – Reading The World
12:00 – 13:00 Nandini Das - How to Greet an Elephant
13:00 – 14:00 Comins Tea
14:00 – 15:00 Barnaby Rogerson – The House Divided
15:30 - 16:30 Kapka Kassabova – Anima: A Wild Pastoral
17:00 – 18:00 Xiaolu Guo – My Battle of Hastings
19:00 – 20:00 Sophy Roberts – A Training School for Elephants
Sunday 13th April
10:30 - 12:00 Jonathan Lorie – A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Travel
13:00 - 14:00 Alexander Christie-Miller – To the City: Istanbul
14:30 - 15:30 Mevan Babakar – The Bicycle
16:00 - 17:00 Horatio Clare – Adventures in a Strange Country
All talks will be held in the Powell Theatre, Abbey Road, DT9 3AP. www.sherborne.org events@sherborne.org
sherbornetravelwritingfestival.com
Friday 11th April
17:00 – 18:00
Alan Edwards
I Was There
In the opening event, Alan Edwards, the godfather of modern music PR, will explore his extraordinary, globe-trotting, rock n’ roll adventures. In celebration of his memoir, I Was There, Alan will share stories of travelling with legends like Bowie, Blondie, the Rolling Stones, the Spice Girls, and more. From the Stones’ private jet to road-tripping across America with Hazel O’Connor, playing football in Jamaica with Bob Marley, and going behind the Iron Curtain with Big Country, Alan offers an insider’s glimpse into life on the road with music’s greatest icons. He’ll also reflect on the beginning of his nomadic lifestyle, when he travelled to India alone at 16 in the early 1970s, following the iconic Hippie Trail to parts unknown.
Friday 11th April
19:00 - 20:00
Victoria Hislop
The Figurine
Victoria Hislop - author of the three-million-copies bestseller The Island - will talk about her new book The Figurine. In conversation with Rosie Goldsmith, she will whisk us around the Aegean and through time to part the mists of mystery that swirl around the unique Bronze Age statuettes. Of all the ancient art that captures the imagination, none is more appealing than the Cycladic figurines that are highly sought after by collectors – and looters – alike. Victoria will shine a light on the questionable acquisition of cultural treasures and the price people – and countries – pay to cling on to them. One of the UK’s most popular novelists, all Victoria’s books have been bestsellers including The Return, The Thread, The Sunrise, Cartes Postales from Greece and Those Who Are Loved.
Saturday 12th April
10.30 - 11.30
Ann Morgan
Reading the World
Folkestone-based Ann Morgan’s work focuses on international storytelling and the way literature travels. In 2012, she set herself the challenge of reading a book from every country. Reading the World has since become a lifelong venture that sees Ann - the first literary explorer-in-residence of the Cheltenham Literature Festival - engaging with writers, translators and book lovers around the globe. In a thrilling, border-jumping conversation with fellow international literature aficionado Rosie Goldsmith, she’ll discuss armchair travel in the broadest sense, and how embracing not-knowing became a revelation in her reading, leading her to develop incomprehension workshops for curious readers and laying the foundation for her forthcoming book Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not-Knowing. Her other work includes the internationally bestselling novels Beside Myself and Crossing Over.
Saturday 12th April 12:00 – 13:00
Nandini Das
How to Greet an Elephant
When Thomas Roe arrived in India in 1616 as James I’s first ambassador to the Mughal Empire, the English barely had a toehold in the subcontinent. At the time the kingdom was beset by inner strife and financial woes, and deeply conflicted about its own identity. In contrast, the court Roe entered was that of the ‘Great Oliphant’, the wealthy and cultured Mughal emperor, whose dominion in India was widely considered to be one of the greatest and richest empires of the world. Roe was an ambassador on the back foot.
Drawn from Nandini Das’s fascinating recent book, Courting India, this is the story of that meeting and others around it, and of the role that memory –both individual and collective – plays in shaping moments of travel encounters.
The House Divided Saturday 12th April 14:00 – 15:00
Barnaby Rogerson’s day job is running Eland Publishing which specialises in keeping the classics of travel literature in print. At the same time his irrepressible energy and sweeping erudition have led to his writing a dozen books about North Africa and early Islam. His latest brings all this together, The House Divided tracing these narratives through the first caliphates and the medieval empires forged by Arabs, Persians and Turks, to the contemporary Middle East. The result is “a masterly engagement with the most delicate and important of subjects – filled with gentle empathy, learning and rare balance,” according to Rory Stewart. In this unique event, Barnaby will be in conversation with Lord Mark Sedwill, cross-bench peer, former National Security Adviser and Cabinet Secretary.
Barnaby Rogerson
Saturday 12th April
15:30 – 16:30
Kapka Kassabova
Anima: A Wild Pastoral
Kapka Kassabova - “the poet laureate of the margins” - is the author of an extraordinary Balkan quartet exploring the human experience through geography, history and nature. Its finale Anima is an intimate portrait of the last highlanders of Europe who link us with both the past and the future. Set on the flanks of Pirin Mountain in Bulgaria, Kapka lived with a pastoral community and explored their relentless but vitalising way of life. In this extraordinary event Kapka - who lives today in the Scottish Highlands - and Rosie Goldsmith will delve into the lives of these shepherds and keepers of earth knowledge, explore why indigenous breeds of sheep, goats and dogs matter, and what it is like to be a livestock breeder in a region renowned for its thriving wolf and bear populations.
Saturday 12th April 17:00 – 18:00
Xiaolu Guo
My Battle of Hastings
In My Battle of Hastings, Xiaolu Guo chronicles - as an author and as a character - her year living by the English Channel, sprayed by grey waves and chilled by icy winds while seeking a deeper connection to Britain. This is a rare opportunity to hear a Granta “Best Young British Novelist of the Year” whose books and dozen award-winning films include How Is Your Fish Today (Sundance Official Selection) and UFO In Her Eyes (Toronto International Film Festival). Her feature She, A Chinese received the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Festival. Her documentary We Went to Wonderland was in the Official Selection of New Directors/ New Films at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Her new novel, a subversive reimagining of Moby Dick entitled Call Me Ishmaelle is published by Chatto this month.
Saturday 12th April
19:00 – 20:00
Sophy Roberts
A Training School for Elephants
Sophy Roberts, author of the Sunday Times Book of the Year The Lost Pianos of Siberia, will celebrate the publication of her bold new book A Training School for Elephants. In the footsteps of a 19th-century colonial expedition, she will unfold a strange untold story, weaving past and present on her journey from Dorset to Tanzania, Donegal, India, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this talk — accompanied by images and film by the American fine art photographer Michael Turek — Sophy will delve into the excitements and challenges of retrieving lost history, remote landscapes, and our broken relationship with animals. A local author who lives in the Marshwood Vale near Bridport, Sophy is a regular contributor on travel and wildlife conservation stories to FT Weekend among other titles.
Sunday 13th April
10:30 – 12.00
Jonathan
Lorie
A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Travel
As one of the UK’s most experienced teachers of travel writing, Jonathan Lorie will share a lifetime’s experience of how to turn your journeys into stories – whether for articles, books, blogs or just for fun. In an extended Sunday morning session, he will draw on lessons from his time as a travel magazine editor, travel writer for national media, and leader of the UK’s only MA in Nature and Travel Writing. He will offer a practical introduction to the craft of travel writing, how to start out and how to get your writing published. This informal and inspiring talk will interest armchair travellers, aspiring writers, and anyone who wants to know how the world of travel writing really works. Bring your enthusiasm, questions and Moleskine notebook!
Sunday 13th April 13:00 – 14:00
Alexander Christie-Miller
To The City: Istanbul
Alexander Christie-Miller’s debut, To the City: Life and Death Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul, is a breathtaking journey through Istanbul’s tumultuous past, vibrant present and imperilled future that unfolds beneath the ruins of its towering Byzantine land walls. A former correspondent for The Times who lived in Istanbul from 2010 to 2017, Alex weaves together momentous events such as its siege and capture in 1453 by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II with the stories of ordinary people living in the impoverished neighbourhoods surrounding the walls today. In conversation with writer and former broadcaster Louise Troup, he will discuss Istanbul, the magnetic pull it has exerted on travel writers for centuries, and the impossible task of capturing the spirit of this ancient capital and modern megacity.
Sunday 13th April 14:30 – 15:30
Mevan
Babakar The Bicycle
The Bicycle is the true story - and subject of a BBC documentary - of how a simple act of kindness changed a young refugee’s life. Born in Baghdad to Kurdish parents, Mevan’s family was forced to flee Saddam’s genocide of the Kurds in the early 1990s. Twenty-four years later she retraced the steps she had taken as a child refugee, her story making headlines around the world when she found and thanked the aid worker who had helped her and her family, gifting her a bicycle when she was a child. In 2023 Mevan was selected as an Obama Leader for Europe. Today she is a writer and social entrepreneur who works at Google. The Bicycle is a moving reminder of how powerful just one act of kindness can be.
Sunday 13th April
16:00 – 17:00
Horatio Clare Adventures in a Strange Country
Everything we know about mental health is changing for the better. But routine treatments for mental illness, and general understandings of why and how we suffer, lag disastrously behind the latest findings. In his new book, Your Journey Your Way – How to Make the Mental Health System Work for You, Horatio Clare - bestselling travel author and presenter of the acclaimed Radio 4 series ‘Is Psychiatry Working?’- explores and explains what we now know about what causes crises, how they are best understood and addressed, and how they can be turned to healing, recovery and posttraumatic growth. Building on his essential, earlier book Adventures in a Strange Country, Horatio will map the troubled mind, revealing startling new vistas and ways of travelling through trauma.
Sherborne Travel Writing Festival
11th – 13th April 2025
Venture on foot, by bicycle, astride an elephant - or even on board the Rolling Stones’ private jet - from Mughal India to modern Istanbul, and from the Bronze Age Aegean to the Battle of Hastings, with the UK’s leading travel writers, historians and broadcasters.
Join Mevan Babakar, Alexander Christie-Miller, Horatio Clare, Nandini Das, Alan Edwards, Xiaolu Guo, Rosie Goldsmith, Victoria Hislop, Kapka Kassabova, Jonathan Lorie, Louise Troup, Ann Morgan, Sophy Roberts, Barnaby Rogerson and Rory MacLean to be transported across the world.
Weekend Festival Tickets (11th – 13th April)
£100 for Sherborne Literary Society members, £120 non-members includes tickets for all 12 travel writing talks and free parking all weekend.
Individual Tickets
From £10 members, £12 non-members
Scan to book
Tickets available from sherbornetravelwritingfestival.com and Winstone’s Bookshop, Sherborne
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