The Essence of Travel Fiction

Whenever I am asked what I write, the mention of travel fiction always raises eyebrows. Travel may be a minor component in many forms of fiction but escalating it to the primary genre is something relatively uncommon.

I never had any inclination to become a writer, but I was changed by my experiences travelling. The standard approach may have been to start a travel blog, but there were already so many out there, that I felt there was little I could add. The same applied to travel guides, had I chosen that. Essentially, neither option really offered the opportunity to tell the stories that stood out to me. No city was going to change a person through its sights and attractions, it was the human stories within them that I really wanted to tell.

It was in Saint Petersburg, Russia, when the idea of a travel novel first came to me. Everything I had seen and done in the city had been fascinating, but the sight of a struggling woman in a doughnut shop brought all of those experiences into a single human face. Survival in Saint Petersburg was conceived. I know nothing of the real woman who inspired it, but the character I composed by intertwining everything I had learnt in the city, and the woman whose presence had fascinated me, told the story of that city better than any travel guide ever could. Three years from the seeds being planted in my mind, the story is still yet to be released, but it has shaped how I have looked at cities ever since.

There is a great quote from 14th Century explorer Ibn Battuta. “Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” Nothing sums up my experiences on the road more eloquently than this. I love the discovery that comes from travel, and I love telling the stories of these discoveries.

Every place I have been is unique, yet the commonality of human experience is always on display. So much of life is spent reflecting on difference. From the nomadic Bedouin tribes in the Arabian desert to the people in fast-paced New York City, people are all seeking the same things. Happiness, peace, knowledge, comfort, and a better life for their children. How we all go about attaining these things differ, and each place you visit highlights this, but no more than that similar set of goals shines through.

When I look at what people in my life tend to read most commonly, crime fiction and true crime are at the top of the list. From this, it makes sense to me that what fascinates us in the real world is also likely to appeal to people when written as fiction. Travel books fill many of the shelves in most bookstores, but these are generally travel guides. I want my books to serve as a guide to cities, but I want that to be just a small part of their legacy. I want people to read them and be inspired to visit. More than that, I want people’s minds to be opened to the humanity that underpins every place.

All of us experience the world through the paradigm of our own lives. Our attitudes are shaped by what is around us. Each of us only ever sees through a microscopic window on the world. Travel opens our eyes and our minds to a wider view. Books that tell stories of this wider view can go some way to helping achieve this for some people. I hope that anyone who reads any or all of my travel novels will have their minds open to the world beyond what they know. I hope you find them enriching and inspiring, and that they help put you on the path to travelling more, and to looking more deeply at what you find when you do so.