Interview with Patrick Barkham. Issue 4 (2nd October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hannigan, Tim
• Is Part Of: Studies in travel writing. Volume 21:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 429
• Page End: 440
• Publication Date: 2017-10-02
• Subjects: Patrick Barkham -- travel writing -- new nature writing -- representation -- Hebrides; Travelers' writings -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; 820.9355
• DOI: 10.1080/13645145.2017.1412092
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1755-7550

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In conversation with Tim Hannigan in Norwich on 10 March 2017, Patrick Barkham discusses his work and the relationship between the so-called "new nature writing" and the wider travel writing genre. Reflecting on his own changing approaches across his four books, he talks of his anxieties about representing people in the "peripheral" places he visits as a travel writer, and considers the parallels with colonial travel writing identifiable in some British nature writing. Discussing his most recent book, Islander, Barkham describes his approach to the ethics of representation, seeking dialogue with the people he represents and feedback ahead of publication, and talks about the problematic asymmetries of power that impact on travel writing about peripheral parts of Britain, as they do on travel writing about "foreign" places.