"Teacher, environmentalist and campaigner, Alastair Sawday has spent his life travelling. In his charming memoir, he will share with Carol Ackroyd his gradual awakening to the fragility of everything we love through contemplative, consciously slow journeying.
Every visit uncovers difference – from France profonde to the darker side of Sicily, and to the flora, fauna, and silence of rural Britain. He’ll give voice to those of us who have climbed no mountains or discovered no rivers, but who yearn to understand the world and make sense of its infinite variety.
The founder of Sawday’s Travel Guides, he will be celebrating regional character, respecting the environment and absorbing the landscape."
Do you know those serendipitous moments when someone talks about something that is in your thinking that day?
Well, it happened twice in Alistair Sawday's talk...
Firstly he mentioned Ladakh in N. India...so hot foot across to the Instagram feed <<<<< and there you will see that I have been posting some of the Kayaker's pictures of Ladakh in connection with my Snow Leopard week (blame Jackie Morris for that, more soon). I was immediately tuned in.
And then mention of Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor and the beautiful prose therin when I have just turned to it having finished A Time of Gifts.
Born in Kashmir in 1945, Alistair Sawday talked us through his journeys to extraordinary places but with some perceptive questions from chair Carol Ackroyd we all learned a great deal about the perils of mass tourism.
"Tourism tends to destroy that which it loves.. the beast that turns a blind eye to its own excesses" and with it came fascinating insights into the travel business today and the damage being done. It is clear we need to rethink the way we travel, where we go, why we go, and how we go.
And who knew about "tourismophobia" ...communities campaigning about mass tourism. However many thousands of people visited Venice last year, it was a lot, and the checks and balances need to be considered with care and consideration for those that live in the midst.
One of the things that struck me most about A Time of Gifts was Patrick Leigh Fermor's ability, as a young man to travel without anxiety, with no fear about finding a bed for the night. Alastair Sawday suggests the latter day narrative of travel needs to be re-written, we are becoming risk-averse...
I wonder what you think?
I'm as guilty as the next person these days...flying long haul to New Zealand, wanting to know where I will be sleeping that night. We were almost room-less in Inverness last year and that wasn't funny.
I suspect this spontaneity gets more difficult with age. I'm sure, in fact I know, that it never worried me when I was younger.
There was much talk about ethical business models, greed and expectation and extractive practices, versus giving back to the community and employee ownership. It's not hard to see which is fairer but also rarer.
All in all so much to think about that my head was spinning, but that is what the best literary festivals offer, along with Earl Grey tea and the best cake (Posh Nosh are doing Budleigh proud in the marquee) then it was off to hear Dame Hilary Mantel.
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