The Spoken Word: Travel Writers

This two-disc set features some of best known literary adventurers and explorers of the twentieth century in their own words. The recordings—mostly sourced from the BBC Sound Archive and never before published—are a mixture of radio broadcasts, live talks, and readings. In one of the earliest recordings, made in 1943, Leonard Hussey recalls Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition of 1914–17. In the most recent, from 1973, Geoffrey Moorhouse speaks about his near fatal attempt to cross the Sahara by camel. Others included are Peter Fleming, Laurie Lee, Ella Maillart, Eric Newby, Sacheverell Sitwell, Freya Stark, Wilfred Thesiger, Laurens van der Post, Rosita Forbes, and Jan Morris.