| Travel writing is, famously, a mixed bag of tricks. | | | | traveler as they do the new lands he explores. |
| This versatile medium can be stretched to just about | | | | Darwin's most widely read works are the famed |
| any purpose: scientific endevour, social investigation, | | | | Origin of the Species and Natural Selection titles. It's |
| and personal discovery, to name just a few. Perhaps | | | | his first publication, The Voyage of the Beagle, to |
| as a result, its quality can also fluctuate wildly. Some | | | | which I return most frequently, however. The book |
| of the very best books I've read have been travel | | | | details a five-year trip on the HMS Beagle, during |
| narratives, but then so have some of the worst. | | | | which Darwin basically circumnavigated the world, |
| There are, in that bag of tricks, a few names that | | | | making extensive land trips as he went. It's a |
| can do no wrong. Pick up a book by any one of the | | | | fascinating and readable account of one man's |
| following authors, and you're assured a ripping good | | | | scientific conviction and sense of adventure that |
| read. You'll also know that, in one way or another, | | | | testifies to his mantle as the Original Modern Travel |
| the book you're reading not only changed the way | | | | Writer. |
| we perceive travel writing, but also the way we go | | | | Bruce Chatwin |
| about travel in the first place. | | | | Bruce Chatwin did for social anthropology what |
| Charles Darwin | | | | Charles Darwin did for scientific anthropology, only |
| If you thought Darwin was the preserve of | | | | 150 years later. His beautifully rendered narratives |
| anthropologists and lab-room scientists, think again. | | | | delve into the history of tribes and ways of people, |
| His writing is as captivating and adventurous as it is | | | | often finding insight in areas where others have been |
| scientifically acute, and his three main publications | | | | quick to overlook. Chatwin's most famous works are |
| each provide as fascinating insight into the life of a | | | | In Patagonia and The Songlines. |