‘No Particular Place to Go’: A BBC Radio Celebration of Great Works of British Travel Literature

Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 06.13.07 | 4:40 PM ET

It’s a feast of British travel writing this week on BBC Radio 3. The program The Essay is featuring audio essays by modern travel writers about great works of travel literature written by British authors—“books that changed the way we saw the world and the art of writing about it,” according to the promo copy. It started Monday with William Dalrymple discussing Fanny Parkes and her book about India, “A Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque.” The rest of the schedule:

Tuesday: Tahir Shah discusses Bruce Chatwin’s “The Songlines.”

Wednesday: Colin Thubron celebrates Robert Byron’s “The Road to Oxiana.”

Thursday: Joanna Kavenna focuses on Louis MacNeice and WH Auden’s “Letters from Iceland.”

Four of the authors featured by BBC Radio 3 made World Hum’s list of Top 30 Travel Books: Thubron’s Behind the Wall placed No. 23, Dalrymple’s City of Djinns finished No. 16, Chatwin’s The Songlines ranked No. 12 and Byron’s The Road to Oxiana took the runner-up spot.