It’s coming up to 20 years since the death of Eric Newby (on October 20, 2006), the most successful travel writer of his time. But just what did he bring to the trade? That’s a question addressed by Jules Stewart in the March issue of Geographical magazine.
Newby’s influence, he says, “can be traced through generations of travel writers who came after him: those who favoured candour over bravado, humour over grandeur and observation over expertise. He helped establish a distinctly British tradition of travel writing that prized understatement and self-deprecation, where the traveller is as much the subject of scrutiny as the place itself. In this lineage, the reader is invited not to marvel at the author’s prowess, but to recognise their own fallibility reflected back at them.”