The MARKLANDS archive: themes and authors
I'm opening up the archive of travel blogs to paying subscribers. Here are some of the destinations, themes and authors I've covered.
The author in Hamburg, covering an old John Lennon pose
I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to write when I started the blog in January 2020. I knew what it wouldn’t be: a guidebook-style list of recommendations. That’s the dominant form of travel writing and a lot of people do it very well. You don’t need a blog giving you more Top Tips. Apart from anything else, that would require hours of details checking. I did a consultancy job with Lonely Planet and have boundless respect for what they do, But I don’t have their resources.
So what is MARKLANDS?
I hope what follows doesn’t sound pretentious. I’m interested in the meaning of places: how they got to be the cities and countries they are and where they are going next. That requires me to look into the history and politics of a place as well as seeing what it’s like first- hand. I am also very interested in national identity and the business of branding places and travel experiences. That is a different focus to most travel blogs and stems from the years of work I’ve done on the other side of the fence, working with companies like British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Best Western, Mandarin Oriental, WWF and a whole lot more.
I started the blog just as the COVID crisis was beginning (it’s now four years since the WHO declared it a pandemic). Even before that, we’d been thinking a lot about why we travel – and should we travel – as flight shaming and overtourism dominated the 2019 travel agenda. Reflections on these things shaped the early blogs – and it’s not as if those issues have gone away.
COUNTRIES
Australia
Walking through Melbourne in winter
Why Australia does tourism marketing better than anyone
Austria
Klagenfurt: lakes and hankie shops. (TBC)
Bhutan
To a once-in-a-lifetime destination – twice
Channel Islands
Canada
Are the locals really local in Prince Edward County?
China
Hong Kong: the Party ordains that the city is now happy
When Xian was the best city in the world
Egypt
What Sharm el-Sheikh would be like if we met our climate goals
England
Cambridge: why is Britain embarrassed by its success?
The Ridgeway and the meaning of life
Oxford and the meaning of travel
The Chiltern Hills: you’ll never want to leave
Finland
Meet the happiest people in the world.
France
How belle was Paris in the 1890s?
Georgia
Foreign influences
Germany
Why Weimar deserves its peaceful era
How Jurgen Klopp rebranded his country
Greece
The best time to visit Athens: 500 BC
India
Delhi smog, then the clean air and green hills of Meghalaya
Iraq
Home to the greatest city that ever was
Ireland
A cliched night out in the south-east
Japan
When Tokyo was Edo – and just astonishing
Norway
A voyage to Tromso and Bergen and why it’s time the country had a new name
Oman
To Salalah and the Empty Quarter
Qatar
One world cup and how many tourists?
Russia
Scotland
Orkney and Shetland and slippery notions of time and also here
The Berwickshire coast: forever home and Am I a local here?
Spain
Everything is getting better in this mountain village, and the world
When Barcelona was top of the world
Syria
The footballer who tried to become a stowaway
Taiwan
Is it a country? It’s a very fine one if so
USA
Books and films about Niagara Falls
Wales
Laugharne and memories of my father
THEMES
AIRLINES
British Airways: The last flight of Concorde.
British Airways. Backwards in time and a crazy NYE trip.
Qantas, Cathay and BA: reviews of a mega trip to Hong Kong, Australia and within Oz.
Ryanair. Not your usual tirade.
ALCOHOL
Dry January, the Middle East and other inhibitions.
ARCHETYPES
The five immortal and unchanging species of traveller.
DOGS AND TRAVEL
Why canines make great travel writers.
Huskies in summer.
DULL PLACES
Why a town in Austria earned the right to be boring.
ENVIRONMENTALISM AND TRAVEL
The multiple ironies of attending a COP climate conference.
The era of the car draws to a close.
ETHICAL TRAVEL
Does whether a country is ‘good’ influence your travel choices?
Should we have boycotted Dubai?
THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL
The 2030s will be great.
THE PAST OF TRAVEL
HEALTH
How we see places differently after an illness.
HOSPITALITY
Why a hotel is never a home.
INFRASTRUCTURE
HS2: greed and insanity
INFLUENCERS AND INSTAGRAM
Has the most powerful tool in modern travel changed our idea of beauty?
My powerful and thoughtful words versus a three year old influencer video.
LITERATURE AND TRAVEL
THE MEANING OF TRAVEL
Is it the search for the sublime?
Everyone in travel in on the blue pills.
MUSEUMS
How a school in Okinawa changed my view of nuclear war.
NATIONAL BRANDS AND IDENTITY
The Queen and the essence of Britishness.
What makes a country?
Why you should love your national cliches. That includes tartan and lederhosen.
New Zealand nails it.
Dubai’s masterplan (and a lame slogan).
OVERTOURISM
Is the whole thing overblown?
POLITICS AND TRAVEL
New Labour v The Countryside Alliance; and the Right to Roam.
The rewilding issue.
Trump and tourism.
Georgia turns its back on Europe, foreigers and vibrancy.
SPORT
Football tour of north-east India
England’s most intrepid football team.
But, look, it’s also a personal record of people and places who’ve meant something to me. When I was commissioned travel stories, that, more than anything, was what I was after. Which brings me to writers.
The following is a list of writers I have quoted in the blog. That primarily in two regular sports: Envy Corner and A Last Word…. But I also include lyricists in this list. In the other regular slot. Songs that Take You Places, I like to big up songs which capture the essence of a place or a travelling experience.
WRITERS ON TRAVEL
Tove Jansson: she’s in
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook
Robert Mcfarlane and also here and here
I’ll update and publish this index in all future issues of MARKLANDS, as well as linking to the Songs that take you places playlist.