The journalist and travel writer Shafik Meghji is the latest guest on the Colombia Calling podcast, hosted by the Anglo-Canadian journalist Richard McColl. He talks about his new book, Small Earthquakes (Hurst), in which he journeys from the Atacama Desert to Tierra del Fuego, Easter Island to South Georgia, exploring Britain’s impact on, and lost connections with, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.

The book has been winning praise from reviewers. In The Sunday Times this week, James McConnachie said it offered “writing full of rust, wind and sadness. It captures splendidly the air of South America and the long, withdrawing roar of an empire whose influence once reached far beyond its political borders.”