By the time Tony co-founded Lonely Planet Publications in 1973, he already had the travel bug. And ever since, travel and discovery have been at the heart of his life and career.
I was sent a copy of Peter Fiennes wonderful literary exploration of France and asked to provide a quote:
‘The best books are always starting points, they inspire you to head out and read other books. En Route certainly did that for me, gave me a reading list of authors I’m ashamed not to already be familiar with. But hey, this is also a travel book, so I’ve also added a bucket list of new places to visit.’ Tony Wheeler, the co-founder of Lonely Planet
In En Route ‘Fiennes drinks with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in the bars of Rouen and Le Havre, follows Edith Wharton’s Motor-Flight along the Loire Valley to the home of George Sand, and explores the beaches of the south with Colette and Katherine Mansfield. He lingers in Bordeaux with François Mauriac, canvasses the foothills of the Alps with John Berger and follows Colette to the trenches at Verdun, before finally heading to Paris, where he consigns Guy de Maupassant to an asylum and Sartre to his grave.’
His travels certainly gave me lots of ideas for exploration and certainly left me ashamed of the yawning gaps on my reading list. I’ve now got a major Maupassant collection to investigate and I have already read Katherine Mansfield’s The Garden Party & Other Stories.
En Route led me to Peter Fiennes’ earlier book Footnotes, which follows a similar literary exploration of Britain. Chapter 1 looked at Dorset from the perspective of Enid Blyton, a perfect beginning since I was heading to Sherborne in Dorset for Rory Maclean’s annual travel writing weekend. But was Enid Blyton – beloved by so many children and detested by so many critics – the BBC in particular – really so awful? Well she did overuse ‘lovely,’ everything was likely to be ‘lovely’ in an Enid Blyton book. Plus one of her daughters was not at all sure that mummy was so lovely.
My particular Footnotes find was the extraordinary Celia Fiennes. I’ve already been travelling in her footsteps – well her horse’s footsteps since she explored England riding side saddle in the late 1600s. I’ll be blogging about her soon.
I was sent a copy of Peter Fiennes wonderful literary exploration of France and asked to provide a quote: ‘The best books are always starting points, they inspire you to head out and read other books. En Route certainly did that for me, gave me a reading list of au...
I’d learnt that the Orkney Islands is the correct term for those north Scotland Islands and I soon learnt that it’s the Isles of Scilly – not the Scilly Islands or the Scillies. After a brief stop in Penzance our group – Maureen and me and seven friends – took the Sci...
In Nigeria – Michael Palin visited Nigeria with a film crew to make a three-part TV series released in early 2024, so just before I was in Nigeria. And now – two years later? – there’s a rather brief, rather badly designed (in my view) and rather disappointing book on...
I’ve certainly been hitting the islands this year – Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling, out in the Indian Ocean off Australia and Indonesia. Then a brief stop and a walk on Sharp Island in Hong Kong, on a stopover between Australia and the UK. A visit to the wonderful...
In Part 1 of my Greenland travels I arrived in the capital Nuuk, it’s only a two hour flight from Iceland, and continued north across the Arctic Circle to Ilulissat, the iceberg tourist centre of Greenland. Then I returned to Nuuk and continued south to Qaqortoq, the ...
▲ Yes dozy Don, also known as Taco Trump, the shambolic President of the USA does have bad intentions for Greenland. I posted a blog in January about why it might be a good idea to visit Greenland now, before the US invades. In June I finally got there and visited fou...
The wildlife is often a big part of the travel experience. This year I’ve had black tip and white tip reef sharks when I’ve been snorkelling and scuba diving at Christmas and Cocos Keeling Islands, plus a very nice manta ray encounter. Birds have been a big part of ...
▲ Approaching Athens Airport over Lemos – with my Greek Islands travel companion Nick Varian I’d flown into Athens and took a taxi to Piraeus ▲ Ferry activity in the port of Piraeus from the Hotel Mitsis N'U It’s the port for Athens and for most visitors that’s ...
◄ Having been to the Orkney Islands and definitely liked that strange collection of windy Scottish outposts I read two Orkney books. I really enjoyed Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun – Orkney girl abandons dull island life, moves to London, gets into partying, clubbing and a...
I’m clearly on an island roll. First I was out in the Indian Ocean from Australia at Christmas Island and then the Cocos Keeling Islands. That was followed by a short visit to Hong Kong and a walk on Sharp Island. Next I travelled by train and ferry to the Orkney Isla...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013