Log in

goodpods headphones icon

To access all our features

Open the Goodpods app
Close icon
headphones
Books And Travel

Books And Travel

Jo Frances Penn

Unusual and fascinating places alongside the deeper aspects of travel
Share icon

All episodes

Best episodes

Top 10 Books And Travel Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Books And Travel episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Books And Travel for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Books And Travel episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.” Galileo Galilei

So much of the joy of travel is eating and drinking and I certainly love to try local wines when I visit new places!

In this interview, Caro Feely talks about why she and her husband gave up successful careers to take on a rundown vineyard in a new country, the struggles they went through to build up the business — even down to their blood shed on the land itself. There are a surprising number of ways to die in a vineyard! We also talk about the importance of terroir — the unique taste of a place due to environmental factors — and the different wines they produce at Chateau Feely.

Caro Feely is a certified wine educator writing part-time from the organic biodynamic vineyard and wine school in Saussignac, France that she owns and runs with her husband, Sean. Part Irish, part South African, and now part French, she is passionate about wine and life. Her books include memoir About the Vineyard Life, and a nonfiction book, Wine: The Essential Guide to Tasting History, Culture, and More.

Show notes

  • Giving up the corporate life for a tumbledown French vineyard
  • The challenges of starting a vineyard
  • The surprising ways to die amongst the vines
  • Terroir and the importance of the land
  • The different wines of Chateau Feely
  • Recommended books about vineyards

You can find Caro Feely at ChateauFeely.com

Transcript of the interview

Joanna: Caro Feely is a certified wine educator writing part-time from the organic biodynamic vineyard and wine school in Saussignac, France that she owns and runs with her husband, Sean. Part Irish, part South African, and now part French, she is passionate about wine and life. Her books include memoir About the Vineyard Life, and a nonfiction book, Wine: The Essential Guide to Tasting History, Culture, and More.

Welcome, Caro.

Caro: Thank you, Jo. It’s a pleasure to talk to you today.

Joanna: I’m so excited. As I said before recording, I wish I was there in your vineyard, and we were talking over a glass of wine.

Caro: For sure. That would be good.

Joanna: That would definitely be my favorite way of doing this. But we’re on Skype, so, for now, we’ll just get into it.

You and I share a background in business consulting, which is so interesting. I was also at Accenture and briefly IBM.

Tell me, why did you give up the corporate life for a French vineyard?

Caro: It’s quite a story. I guess it goes back pretty far. Sean and I met in Johannesburg back in 1993, and we pretty quickly said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to go wine farming?’ He had grandparents that were vine growers in Stellenbosch in South Africa near Cape Town.

Vineyard of Chateau Feely. Photo used with permission from Caro Feely

I had shared a house with a guy that was a master of wine, so we both had this passion for wine. We were both in completely different careers at the time. Sean was a journalist, and I was an economist, but just starting work for IBM as a consultant.

We started to cook up this idea of going wine farming, following our passion, and we moved to Cape Town, and it was kind of a long shot. It was clear that we had to pay off our student loans before we had any chance of going wine farming. But work actually then took us to Dublin, and we both have Irish roots.

We visited France on a wine holiday, and we totally fell in love. And that was the start of, ‘Maybe, we’ll go to France to follow our vineyard dream and not back to South Africa.’

And, of course, at that stage, we were both still in other careers, Sean in finance and me still in consulting. But we had this dream, this idea that we wanted to pursue, and we kept our heads down, saved every penny that we had, and slowly moved towards our goal.

It was dream about it first, start think about, ‘Well, what can we do? We can’t do it right now, but what can we do to kind of prepare ourselves for this?’ And that was things like, you know, learning French, visiting France for research purposes to taste wine of course, and slowly bringing it together.

We were preparing ourselves doing things like learning French, learning about wine, visiting France to learn more about it, and slowly moving ourselves closer to the goal of moving to France and following this dream. Bu...

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Mumbai is a fascinating city with diversity in religion and architecture, and in this interview, Vikram Chandra talks about the colonial impact of the Portuguese and British, as well as the Zoroastrian, Muslim, Hindu and Christian holy places in the city.

It’s also a feast for the senses, as Vikram evokes the taste of seafood from the harbor and the chaat street food on the beaches, the clang of ships in the dock, as well as the action spectacle of Bollywood films, and the multi-lingual speech of Hindi, Punjabi, English and Bombay slang.

We discuss how Vikram feels at home both in Mumbai where he grew up and in the Bay area, California, where he now lives and teaches, and he gives some book recommendations if you want to read more about the city.

Vikram Chandra is the multi-award-winning author of Red Earth and Pouring Rain, which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for best first book as well as Love and Longing in Bombay and Sacred Games, adapted into a successful Netflix series set in Mumbai, which has just been listed on ‘The New York Times’ list of the 30 best international TV shows of the decade.

Show notes

  • On the cultural history of the name Mumbai — and why some still call the city, Bombay.
  • Impact of colonial history — Portuguese and British — on the architecture of Mumbai
  • Religious diversity
  • Bollywood and modern Indian films
  • Influence of the coastal environment
  • Food and restaurant recommendations
  • Tips for getting around the city
  • The challenge of representing the multilingual nature of India in fiction
  • Recommended books set in Mumbai

You can find Vikram Chandra at VikramChandra.com.

Transcript of the interview

Joanna: Vikram Chandra is the multi-award-winning author of Red Earth and Pouring Rain, which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for best first book as well as Love and Longing in Bombay and Sacred Games, adapted into a successful Netflix series set in Mumbai, which has just been listed on ‘The New York Times’ list of the 30 best international TV shows of the decade, which is amazing.

Welcome, Vikram.

Vikram: Hi. Pleasure to be here.

Joanna: I’ve been so excited about this because I love India so much.

Tell us a bit more about your multicultural background and your connection with the city.

Vikram: My father was a corporate executive, so we’d moved all over the countryside when I was a kid. And then when I was in 11th grade, we moved to the city and we’ve been there ever since.

I came to the United States in my second year of college and I’ve been going back and forth ever since. All of my work has to do with Bombay as you can tell from the titles of at least one of my books. And my immediate family and a lot of my friends are there.

Joanna: Fantastic. I haven’t been but I did want to ask you because it’s so interesting, I always say Mumbai because I thought that’s what we have to say now. But you use the term Bombay in your book title.

What is the cultural history of the name Mumbai/Bombay?

Vikram: There are various stories about how the city got its name. So there are texts written in the early 16th century which refers to the city as Mumbai. And then there’s a local community of fisherfolk who’ve been there since antiquity who have a goddess named Mumba Devi.

One story is that the city gets its name Mumbai from the goddess. And then the Portuguese arrived in India and in the area and when they saw the amazing natural harbor, they called it Bombahia as in good harbor, which then the British are said to have changed to Bombay.

Gateway Of India, Apollo Bandar, Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Photo by Raj Rana on Unsplash

And then the city has a vast number of immigrants from other parts of the country. From the north, the people who come there refer to it as Bombay.

It’s a multicultural city with as many names it seems as the communities of people who live there. And then recently in the ’90s, a local political party changed the name of the city officially to what they ...

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

In today’s episode, we’re heading north for cross-country skiing under the aurora borealis, sailing amongst the Baltic islands, and silence amongst the Finnish forests.

I worked in Helsinki one summer in my twenties. The nights were bright and we drank vodka in the sauna and then jumped in the Baltic to cool off. I remember how musical the Finnish language sounded in the dusk of the midnight sun and I always intended to go back. But that was the late 90s, and I haven’t returned to Finland, so it was wonderful to talk to Helena Halme about her native country.

We talk about the introvert nature of Finns, why the landscape might be the key to happiness, the unusual Aland Islands, and how Finland’s history of occupation still shapes the country today. Plus, Helena’s view of the English as an ex-pat.

Helena Halme is the award-winning author of contemporary Nordic romance with a hint of noir. Originally from Finland, she now lives in the UK.

  • On the happiness and good work-life balance in Finland
  • Why saunas are important to Finnish culture
  • Why cross-country skiing is so popular in Finland
  • The Aland Islands, summer sailing and inspiration for a romance novel
  • Finland’s rocky history with Russia
  • Finnish food and book recommendations

You can find Helena Halme at HelenaHalme.com

Transcript of the interview

Joanna Penn: Helena Halme is the award-winning author of contemporary Nordic romance with a hint of noir. Originally from Finland, she now lives in the UK. Welcome to the show, Helena.

Helena Halme: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

Joanna Penn: It’s great to have you on the show. Now I want to start with this hilarious thing. According to the World Happiness Report for the last two years, Finland is the happiest country in the world.

I want you to tell us, why is Finland the happiest country?

Helena Halme: You tell me. It always makes me laugh as well, because Finns can be really miserable.

If you go to Finland and you don’t know anybody, they are really hard to get to know. But once you do know them, somebody told me that Finns are like puppies. Once they get to know you, they’ll never leave your side. But the Finnish are really private people.

They are very outdoorsy. They love the forest. 65% of the country is covered by forest, and they like being on their own.

There is a really successful set of modern books called Finnish Nightmares. And it’s all about this character, Matti, it’s drawings about situations that most people really in the Western world, find to be fine. For Finns, it’s a little bit painful. Like if you live in this in a block of flats and somebody who lives opposite you opens the door at the same time, you don’t really want to see them. Or if somebody sits next to you on the bus.

And it’s full of these awkward moments that Finns really find difficult because they’re so used to not really having many people around, so I don’t know why they’re so happy.

Joanna Penn: It’s interesting, as you mentioned, 65% of the country is forest. Maybe that’s got something to do with it.

Time spent in nature is one of the things we are all encouraged to do to be happy.

Helena Halme: Yes. And joking aside, It is a wonderful lifestyle. They have very short working hours. They seem to be very efficient at what they do even though they work very short days. They have long holidays, three or four weeks in the summer is not unusual.

And they seem to have got the balance of working and leisure time sorted. Their schools are excellent. Child-care is excellent.

I don’t know why I left.

Joanna Penn: Now you’re talking yourself back into it!

I did spend one summer in Helsinki and I’m so glad it was the summer. It was light all the time. I was in my twenties so I enjoyed some vodka. And the people were wonderful and friendly and just lovely. But I was quite shocked by one of the communal saunas, where people I actually worked with were naked in the sauna.

I want to ask you about the sauna. What part does that play in Finnish culture?

Helena Halme: Well. It is a complete contradiction. I think the country is a contradiction because ...

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

New Orleans is one of those cities that has a special place in the imagination of a traveler, even if you haven’t been there. It’s famous for loving life — for Mardi Gras parades, a vibrant music scene, drinking and eating and gorgeous architecture in the French Quarter — but it’s also known as the City of the Dead, with cemeteries, Voodoo, ghost stories, vampires, and of course, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

In today’s episode, native New Orleanian Laura Martone and her husband, Dan, talk about the history of the French Quarter and some of the haunted buildings there, the best cemeteries to visit, vampires, voodoo and Creole cuisine.

Laura and Daniel Martone write fiction in multiple genres including space opera, post-apocalyptic and urban fantasy. They lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans for many years and produced several audio walking guides. Laura has also written a guidebook to the city and they now live in their RV, Serenity, and travel between New Orleans and Michigan, USA.

  • The various pronunciations of New Orleans
  • Why the French Quarter has mostly Spanish influenced architecture
  • Interesting cemeteries in the city
  • Why vampires are associated with New Orleans
  • How and why Catholicism and voodoo are so entwined
  • The importance of music and its influence on the culture in New Orleans
  • The different parades at Mardi Gras
  • Seafood boils as social occasions
  • The beautiful natural ecosystems that surround the city

You can find Dan and Laura Martone at TheMartones.com

Transcript of the interview

Joanna: Laura and Daniel Martone write fiction in multiple genres including space opera, post-apocalyptic and urban fantasy. They lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans for many years and produced several audio walking guides. Laura has also written a guidebook to the city and they now live in their RV, Serenity, and travel between New Orleans and Michigan.

Welcome, Laura and Dan.

Daniel: Hey Jo.

Laura: Hey, it’s so good to be here.

Joanna: It’s great to have you on the show. Before we get into the questions, I have to ask about the pronunciation of New Orleans because I think I got it from the song, House of the Rising Sun. But when I was there with you guys people pronounce it differently.

So let’s start with pronunciation.

Laura: Okay. The funny thing is Dan always makes fun of me that I don’t have a New Orleans accent, and I don’t, but my whole family does. But I definitely have been there long enough to know New Orleans is how I think most people pronounce it. That’s how I say it.

But people do say New Orleans. The thing that I think a lot of natives hate is n’awlins because n’awlins is like this sort of a hybrid. It’s definitely more of a manufactured thing. You know, some people say it jokingly, but I think New Orleans is pretty standard.

Joanna: Fantastic.

New Orleans French Quarter. Photo licensed from BigStockPhoto

Start by telling us a bit more about your links to the city and how you both came to live and work there.

Laura: I was born and raised there. So it’s my hometown and it’s my favorite American city. It always has been.
We’ve both traveled a lot throughout the US and other countries. So, we’ve had a lot to compare it to and there’s no place like New Orleans. I left for college when I was 17 and ended up at Northwestern University in the Chicago area.

Dan’s a little older than me, but we met in a job and we stayed in Chicago for a little bit and then hit the road the first time in another RV and ended up settling in Los Angeles because we both interested in being in the film industry as screenwriters and filmmakers and so we were there for several years.

Then Hurricane Katrina hit and it destroyed all but one of my childhood homes. And I just felt this pull, that it was time to go back. So we went there and we started a film festival to bring some awareness to what was happening to the city and try to be a part of the rebirth of the city and Dan just fell in love with New Orleans. It suddenly became his favorite place and definitely his home.

He’s an incredible cook. So as you would imagine New Orleans is an amazing place for a cook to be and he has completely embraced the cuisine of the region and everything. So that’s how we ended up being there and then we ende...

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Books And Travel - Walking The Camino De Santiago With Ashlee Cowles
play

10/03/19 • 44 min

“Solvitur ambulando: It is solved by walking.” St Augustine

We live in a mostly sedentary world, with our days seated at a computer working, and our evenings in front of streaming entertainment. This life shows in our physical and mental health, but since much of our modern malaise can be solved by regular walking in nature, how much more could walking hundreds of kilometers solve?

The Camino de Santiago, or The Way of St James, is a Catholic pilgrimage with a number of routes across Spain from southern France, southern Spain, and Portugal. The most famous is the Camino Francés, the French way, and in today’s episode, Ashlee Cowles talks about her background growing up in a military family and how that has shaped her transitory moves, why the Camino is like the Hero’s Journey and how that shaped the way she wrote her novel, as well as why embracing the pilgrim’s spirit and letting go of detailed planning was one of the most challenging aspects of walking several hundred kilometers. We also talked about the idea of pilgrimage when you are not religious — I consider myself spiritual but I don’t subscribe to any particular religion. The Camino is a Catholic pilgrimage but you certainly don’t need to be Catholic to do it. Any long walk is going to break you down in so many ways and everyone seems to be transformed by the Way.

Ashlee Cowles is the award-winning author of YA novels Beneath Wandering Stars and Below Northern Lights as well as Wisdom for The Way: A Camino de Santiago Guidebook for the Pilgrim’s Soul.

  • Growing up on military bases and moving a lot
  • On the Camino de Santiago and it’s history
  • How Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey is built into the geography of the Camino
  • On the different routes within the Camino experience
  • Beautiful historical sites just off the beaten path
  • Tips for dealing with the physical and mental challenges
  • The difference between a long walk and a pilgrimage
  • Recommended books about the Camino and pilgrimage

You can find Ashlee Cowles at AshleeCowles.com.

My book, Pilgrimage, Lessons Learned from Solo Walking Three Ancient Ways, is out now.

My book, Pilgrimage, Lessons Learned from Solo Walking Three Ancient Ways, is out now

Transcript of the interview

Joanna: Ashley Cowles is the award-winning author of YA novels Beneath Wandering Stars and Below Northern Lights as well as Wisdom for The Way: A Camino de Santiago Guidebook for the Pilgrim’s Soul.

Welcome to the show, Ashlee.

Ashlee: Thanks so much for having me, Jo. It’s great to be here.

Joanna: Thanks for coming on.

Tell us a bit more about you and your own geographic history.

Ashlee: Sure. Like you said I’m an author mainly of young adult and historical fiction and a lot of my writing is rooted in my early life experiences growing up in a military family. I was born in the United States and I currently live in northern Michigan, which is where all my extended family is from going back to the late 1800s.

But this is actually the first time I’ve lived here. I’ve never actually lived anywhere for more than three years. At one time that’s actually the usually the tour or the assignment length in a military family. You rarely live anywhere for longer than three years and I’ve just continued that into adulthood.

About three years I get the itch to go somewhere else and that’s usually about the time we end up making the change. I’m still trying to beat that three years, to see if I could ever get past that a three-year mark.

My dad was an officer in the US Army. He was a medevac helicopter pilot so I ended up spending my formative adolescent years living abroad in Germany and that’s where I fell in love with Europe and with history and with learning about other cultures. That eventually led me to study abroad in Spain as a college student. I have an aunt who married a Spaniard and lives in Madrid so it was great to be able to spend that you’re living with her.

I then pursued an internship at a peacemaking organization in Belfast and the...

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
Books And Travel - Traveling By Train Across The USA With J Thorn
play

09/19/19 • 36 min

Traveling by train is fantastic because you can watch the world go by from the carriage, sometimes for days on end, and you have somewhere to sleep and wash and eat while you travel.

You can catch glimpses of places you might never visit as the train passes through and you arrive in the heart of the biggest cities relaxed and ready to explore.

In this interview, J.Thorn gives some tips about the best routes to travel with Amtrak in the USA and what you can expect from the service, as well as some thoughts on why train travel is so romantic and some book recommendations, plus we talk about our experience co-writing Sacrifice en-route from Chicago to New Orleans.

J.Thorn is a dark fantasy, post-apocalyptic thriller, and horror writer as well as a musician, podcaster, editor, and coach at TheAuthorLife.com.

  • Why J loves train travel and how it helps him write and see more of his own country
  • The Amtrak train network, where it goes and some of the best routes
  • The different classes of travel, amenities and what to expect, especially if you are used to train travel in Europe or other places where it’s more commercial as opposed to government-run
  • J’s best memories of traveling by train, particularly on the California Zephyr which runs west and south from Chicago
  • How we included aspects of our trip to New Orleans in our co-written supernatural thriller, American Demon Hunters: Sacrifice — it was a lot of fun!
  • The mindset you need to adopt if you’re going to enjoy train travel — relax! Enjoy the slower pace.
  • Recommended books about USA life and travel

You can find J Thorn at TheAuthorLife.com and on Twitter @jthorn_

Transcript of interview with J Thorn

Joanna: J. Thorn is a dark fantasy, post-apocalyptic thriller, and horror writer as well as a musician, podcaster, editor, and coach at TheAuthorLife.com.

We co-wrote American Demon Hunters: Sacrifice with two other authors based on our journey by train from Chicago to New Orleans. And today we’re talking about aspects of traveling by train in the USA. So welcome J.

J. Thorn: Thanks, Joanna. It’s so great to be on the podcast.

Joanna: It’s really good to have you on the show. So first up, tell us a bit more about your geographic history.

Where are you right now in the world and where do you call home?

J. Thorn: Currently I reside in Cleveland, Ohio, which is technically the midwest of the United States but I am not from here. I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I left there at age 23 and haven’t lived there since. And since that time, I’ve lived in five different states and I’m guessing 14 or 15 different addresses and that included New Jersey, the New York area, Tennessee and now Ohio.

JThorn on Amtrak train. Photo by JFPenn

I’ve been here in Cleveland for the past 15 years because my wife and I now have two teenage kids and we wanted to stay put for a little while, while they were going school to give them some stability.

Joanna: You’ve lived in all these different places in the US and you and I knew each other before we got on the train but you do get the train a lot.

What is it about train travel that you love?

J. Thorn: There’s this very romantic sense of adventure, there’s no question about it. I think it’s the romantic notion we all have in our heads before we step on the train for the first time. But for me, it’s been reinforced.

And just so there’s some context here, I was doing a little work in a spreadsheet and I do this for fun. There’s really no other point to it. But the Earth’s circumference is about 24,901 miles at the equator. And I’ve calculated since 2014, I’ve ridden about 31,946 miles on domestic rails here in the U.S. so I’m it’s something I really love.

I think what’s what makes it really exciting for me or more enjoyable is that it’s the pace. It’s a very low-stress environment, compared to air travel, for example. There’s not the same level of security. The security is more like stepping on a bus than it is a plane. And once you’re on the train there’s not much else for you to do. So you don’t have to worry about too much other than just occupying your own mind.

And because of that, I really like to ride the train alone and I know as a fellow introvert you can probably identify with that....

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

The north-east of England combines the ancient history of Viking raids and English castles, with the stark beauty of Lindisfarne island cut off by the tides, and the vibrant city of Newcastle linked by its seven bridges.

In today’s episode, mystery author, LJ Ross talks about love of home, why she sets her books in the area, and tips for visiting.

LJ Ross is the internationally bestselling author of the DCI Ryan mystery series set in the north east of England including UK number one bestseller, Holy Island.

  • Why Louise feels that Northumberland will always be home, even as she and her family travel away and back again. The emotional resonance of where we have memory and family.
  • Are there geographic personalities? On the possible differences between the north and south of England
  • Lindisfarne, the Holy Island, and tips for visiting so you don’t get stranded by the tide as well as nearby Bamburgh Castle
  • Cragside and Victorian history
  • The city of Newcastle, seven bridges and the Victorian tunnels
  • How Louise is entwining her international travels into the upcoming Dr Alexander Gregory series, whose work as a psychological profiler takes him around the world
  • Recommended books set in Northumberland

You can find Louise at www.LJRossAuthor.com and on Twitter @ljross_author

Lindisfarne, Holy Island features in my travel memoir/solo walking book, Pilgrimage: Lessons Learned from Solo Walking Three Ancient Ways.

My book, Pilgrimage, Lessons Learned from Solo Walking Three Ancient Ways, is out now

Transcription of interview with LJ Ross

LJ Ross is the internationally bestselling author of the DCI Ryan mystery series set in the north east of England including UK number one bestseller Holy Island. Hello Louise. It’s so good to have you on the show.

First of all, tell us a bit more about you and your exciting geographic history because you’ve tried a lot of places, haven’t you?

[LJ Ross] I haven’t done too badly! I was born and grew up in Northumberland so I was there until I was 18 and then I went off to university in London and I was down in London on and off for about 12 years. I also did just under a year in Paris and then I did a few months in Florence as well so I hopped, skipped and jumped a little bit and throughout that time my family had actually relocated to Cornwall for about eight years as well so while I was in London I then got to vicariously explore Cornwall. I have a younger sister who’s twelve years younger as well so I would get back quite frequently and see them. So that was quite nice as well to get out of the city during that period. And we travel quite a lot.

My then partner, now husband, James and I, we traveled quite a bit during that time before we had a son. And then after London, after Ethan was born, I think both of us having been brought up in the country, we’d enjoyed our time in London, but we were coming to a point where we needed to smell the fresh air again.

So we moved outside and took a tentative step outside of London to Hertfordshire because at that time James still needed to get back into London for work. We were there for about a year and then we moved over to Bath, which is where we met actually. We loved our time in Bath, it’s a very beautiful city. We were there just under two years. Then we came back around full circle and we wound our way back up to Northumberland now which is where I’m speaking to you from.

JF Penn with LJ Ross, London 2018. Photo by Jonathan Bleier

[Jo Frances] I wanted to talk to you partly because of this idea of traveling out from home, and you’ve basically returned home after so long.

Do you now see Northumberland as home? The South is quite different. What does it feel like to be home?

[LJ Ross] Well I think I say this with the benefit of hindsight. I would generally say you know home is wherever you and your loved ones put your heart, as it were.

I think that is genuinely true, if you are happy within your own skin, you could probably make a home anywhere. I think that there’s a good level of truth to that but in terms of Northumberland, I think it’s also safe to say that I think Northumberland is always going to be home to me. Even when I wasn’t living there, I set my books there and I would get back as often as I could. I would just for my own pleasure be seeking out new plac...

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Berlin is a modern city with vibrant street art, a growing tech scene and world-renowned museums and galleries — but it also has the dark history of the Nazi Third Reich and the Berlin Wall. In today’s episode, American thriller author Rebecca Cantrell talks about her love of the city and how it features in her historical mysteries.

In the intro, I mention my own trip to the city when I visited the murals on the ruins of the Berlin Wall, and the Ishtar Gate at the Pergamon Museum, once an entrance to the ancient city of Babylon, erected by King Nebuchadnezzar in 575 BCE, and now in full splendor in Berlin.

Rebecca Cantrell is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning thriller and mystery author. Her books include the supernatural Sanguine series co-written with James Rollins, the Joe Tesla technothrillers, and the Malibu Mysteries co-written with Sean Black. Today we’re talking about Berlin, the setting for her Hannah Vogel historical crime thrillers.

  • How Rebecca fell in love with Berlin as a young American from Alaska
  • Where the past and present collide in modern Berlin — Nazi Germany and the Berlin Wall
  • Street art, murals and modern, arty Berlin
  • Fascinating museums
  • Recommended food
  • Books about the history of Berlin
  • Why Becky loves to travel

Find Becky at www.RebeccaCantrell.com or on Twitter @rebeccacantrell

Transcription of interview with Rebecca Cantrell

Jo Frances: Welcome, Rebecca.

Rebecca: Thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.

Jo Frances: Thanks so much for coming on the show. First up, you’re American.

Tell us why you decided to write about Berlin. What’s your history with the city?

Rebecca: Well, I had a random history with Berlin. I was an exchange student from a little town called Talkeetna, Alaska, and I went to Germany. When I filled up my application, the board said, ‘Where do you want to stay?’ I said, ‘I’d like to stay in a small town because that will be most similar to where I’m coming from and I feel like it will be a little bit more manageable.’

So they sent me to Berlin, which that’s how that works! At the time, it was a city of about two and a half million people surrounded by a wall in the middle of communist East Germany.

It was fantastic! I was blown away with how different things were and it was an amazing, artistic, wonderful place to be. History was right there and very, very real.

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin. Photo by JFPenn

When you went to East Berlin, you could see piles of rubble from when they had knocked it down to build the wall. When you went to look at the museums of East Berlin, they still had bullet holes on them from when they had been strafed by Russian artillery during the fall of Berlin in 1945.

That was just amazing. I went back again for a year in college. I went to the Freie Universität. Then I wanted my son to get a taste of Europe before he grew up, so we moved there when he was 12 and lived there for 4 years. We’re just back in the United States for almost three years now.

Jo France: Wow. I had no idea you moved from Alaska.

Rebecca: Very different weather-wise.

Jo France: Different in so many ways.

Is there a culture shock that you think Americans get when they hit Europe? Berlin is very European.

Rebecca: Part of it is just that everything is different. In Berlin, for example, I had public transportation, which, of course, I didn’t have in Alaska. That meant that as a teenager, I could go anywhere. I had a little bus pass and the subway and the S-Bahn, which is like an aboveground subway. The buses in Berlin go everywhere. For example, when my son went there at age 12, he could go to the movies by himself with his friends.

When you go on the subway, you’ll see little kids going to school, like six or seven-year-old kids will be on the subway going to school. They’ll have their big backpacks on their back and they’ll just get off at their stop and then go on to their class. For my son, it was a huge amount of freedom. When he came back here and he was 16 and he didn’t have a driver’s license yet, it was this reverse culture shock where he’s been used to having all this freedom and then he didn’t have it anymore.

Jo France: You talked about freedom there, and, of course, Berlin had its Wall and you write about Nazi history in your Hannah Vogel books.

In Nazi Germany, freedom was out of reach for so many. What remains of ...
bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Today I’m talking about The Myth and Reality Of Travel, and focusing on Venice in particular, as well as giving you some tips and book recommendations if you are going to visit.

There is a problem inherent in travel, especially in a world of filtered Instagram photos, social media bubbles and glossy travel magazines.

There are some places in the world that are so famous it can be difficult to know whether they live up to the hype or not. There is the myth and then there is the reality, so how do you manage the two? How do you decide to go in the first place in case it doesn’t live up to the myth, and how do you deal with the reality if you have to face up to it?

In this episode, I’m talking about Venice, which is definitely one of those places. I’ve been to Venice three times under very different circumstances and today, I’ll share some of my thoughts on the myth versus the reality.

The myth of Venice

What does the word Venice evoke for you, regardless of whether you’ve been there or not?

Arched bridges over deep blue canals, slender glossy gondolas passing underneath with handsome gondoliers and couples kissing while the sun dapples the water. The sweeping curves of the grand canal, the inspiring architecture of St Mark’s Basilica and art — so much art.

Perhaps you think of Casanova, Shakespeare, Tintoretto or Veronese? Or the famous movie scenes of James Bond in Casino Royale, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, or The Tourist? You will certainly have some image in your mind because Venice is a mythical city.

“Venice, its temples and palaces did seem like fabrics of enchantment piled to heaven.” Percy Bysshe ShelleyClick To Tweet

There’s no doubt that Venice is special, made up of over 100 small islands separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The lagoon and some of the city are marked as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has been inhabited since the 10th century BC but became more well-known in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance when the Republic of Venice was a powerful city state, possibly the first real international financial centre with trade all over the Mediterranean.

That money built its grand churches and palaces, enabled patronage of the arts and made the city a magnet for the writers and painters who romanticised it over time.

“It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.” Erica JongClick To Tweet

But I’m a writer too. I know how to use language to embellish and obscure reality, to curate the aspects that capture the imagination. It’s human nature to make more of the places we visit even if they are disappointing. If we spend time and money visiting somewhere, we need evidence that it was worthwhile, that we had a fantastic time and that others should be jealous.

And in Venice, the myth is all about romance.

Venice — not quite the city of romance for me

I first visited Venice in 2004. I was going through a divorce and I entered La Serenissima, the city of love, with my Dad, my step-mum and my teenage sister. We walked the tourist-trodden paths from St Marks to L’Accademia, and drank overpriced prosecco. I wallowed in my grief and swore that I would go back someday with a man I loved. I wanted the myth in all its glory.

So, I returned to Venice in December 2009 with Jonathan (still my wonderful husband!). We’d been married just over a year and flew from Brisbane, Australia for Christmas with my family in the UK and then to Venice for New Year before heading south to Rome and then back down under.

Winter in flooded Venice by J.F.Penn

We left the sun of Australia for cold and wet winter in Europe. It didn’t stop raining for days and inevitably, Venice flooded. It’s not a secret that Venice floods but it’s less well-known that the flooding occurs a lot in winter and at other times of the year as well depending on weather conditions.

Acqua alta, high water, was mid-calf height while we were there which meant we could wade through the streets in the gumboots provided by the hotel. Venetians have to pump water from their houses and shops every morning as water rots away the foundations slowly. Th...

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Adventure is a mindset. You can find it in a pocket of wilderness in your local area just by doing something different and seeking out the unusual — or you can find it by running Great Britain barefoot, cycling the Andes, and running the length of New Zealand!

In this interview, adventurer Anna McNuff talks about the definition of adventure, finding the element of the unknown, encouraging young people to explore, and the acceptance that change is the only constant.

Anna McNuff is a British adventurer, professional speaker, and author named by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the 50 most influential travelers of our time. And by The Guardian as one of the top modern female adventurers.

Show notes

  • What is ‘adventure’?
  • The changing motivations for adventure travel
  • Cultivating a voice that supports adventure
  • Stepping into the unknown
  • Running from Scotland to London barefoot
  • Change is a constant
  • What travel might look like in the future
  • How adventure travel is actually about storytelling
  • How moments from our young lives shape us

You can find Anna McNuff at AnnaMcNuff.com and on Instagram @annamcnuff

Photos used with permission from Anna McNuff.

Transcript of the interview

Joanna: Anna McNuff is a British adventurer, professional speaker and author named by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the 50 most influential travelers of our time. And by The Guardian as one of the top modern female adventurers. Welcome to the show, Anna.

Anna: Oh, thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be on.

Joanna: I’m so excited to talk to you. I’ve been following you on Instagram, reading your books. And we’ve known each other for a while now. I really wanted to talk to you about adventure because the word adventurer can mean so many things.

What does adventurer mean to you and how does that definition shape how you choose to travel?

Anna: I think it’s changed over the years. Adventurer used to be a term that was kind of solely reserved for the Shackletons of the world and the people who went off and did brave and daring things in far-flung places.

But now I think the more adventures I do, and the more I adventure in between myself big ones and do little things around and close to home, I think I realized it really is a mindset.

Adventure is just about trying to see something, and it could even be something that you thought was familiar, but you see it through a new fresh set of eyes. So it is just about trying to experience something new and see how you feel in that landscape or experiencing that culture or eating that food.

That is what adventure is to me. And the beauty is that it’s a personal thing. So what is new and exciting and intriguing to one person might be completely different for someone else. And also, you don’t have to go very far to do it.

So yes, you can have an adventure on the other side of the world. But you can also have a great adventure across the road in your local hill, checking out bluebells and finding new trails there. So that is what adventure means to me, seeing something new.

Joanna: I go up the hill, our local Solsbury Hill, for example, and I don’t think that’s an adventure, but for example, going at night with a head torch, I would probably be quite afraid. You go sleep on hills a lot and that to me is slightly scary.

Anna McNuff running the length of New Zealand

Do you think there needs to be an element of fear or apprehension for it to be an adventure?

Anna: I think to call it an adventure when it’s going to be an adventure because you feel it, you feel that thing and it goes, ‘Let’s go on an adventure.’ Or ‘I’m going on an adventure,’ and there’s sort of a buzz in your veins.

I think there does have to be an element of the unknown in it. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be 100% fear. There’s probably a tiny bit of fear there because that’s what happens with the unknown, we are fearful of it. But there can also be a lot of excitement. And I think an adventure probably ranges on that scale.

Sometimes it’s a little bit too scary and sometimes it’s just 100% fun and excitement.

But yes, there’s definitely an element of fear, I think in some adventures, but it doesn’t have to be terrifyi...

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Show more best episodes

Toggle view more icon

FAQ

How many episodes does Books And Travel have?

Books And Travel currently has 95 episodes available.

What topics does Books And Travel cover?

The podcast is about Places & Travel, Society & Culture, Podcasts, Books and Arts.

What is the most popular episode on Books And Travel?

The episode title 'Druids, Freemasons and Frankenstein. The Darker Side of Bath, England' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Books And Travel?

The average episode length on Books And Travel is 38 minutes.

How often are episodes of Books And Travel released?

Episodes of Books And Travel are typically released every 14 days.

When was the first episode of Books And Travel?

The first episode of Books And Travel was released on Feb 21, 2019.

Show more FAQ

Toggle view more icon

Comments