Comments on: The Indrawn Heart: An Estonian Journey by Max Boyle

By: Max Boyle

Max Boyle — Wed, 27 May 2015 14:41:31 +0000

The Indrawn Heart has been favourably reviewed by the illustrious American journal World Literature Today. Scroll down to the fourth review on:

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2015/may/nota-benes-may-2015

By: Maxwell

Maxwell — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 19:03:29 +0000

OK, thanks for clarifying.

By: Travelling Book Junkie

Travelling Book Junkie — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:03:22 +0000

In reply to Maxwell (Max Boyle).

Yes I think it is important to describe your surroundings so that your readers can fully envisage for themselves the area, place or atmosphere. In a time however, where many are choosing to research a place in more depth before visiting they are often looking for short, snappy narratives. This is not to say that I did not enjoy your book, it was more a point for note – if you are not an individual who enjoys long narratives this many not be a book for you. It was an honest observation – I also highlighted that I found your work thought-provoking and at times humorous.

By: Maxwell (Max Boyle)

Maxwell (Max Boyle) — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:05:09 +0000

Sally Shalam, in ‘Tips for Travel Writing’, states that ‘what sets good travel writing apart is detail, detail, detail. Which cafe, on what street, overlooking what view?…Paint an evocation of where you are so that we can experience it along with you.’
In the same online piece, Benji Lanyado notes that that his golden rule when writing a travel piece is ‘to include as much visual description as possible. It’s easy to presume a lot, but your readers don’t know what you’ve seen.’ He continues: ‘To say a building is ‘old’ isn’t good enough: explain the colours, the peeling stucco, the elaborate, angular finishes on windowsills, the cleaning lady in a faded blue smock who was leaning out of a second-storey window with a cigarette dangling from her mouth.’
With these points in mind I must quibble with the penultimate section (and so, to a degree, with the credibility) of the Travelling Book Junkie review of The Indrawn Heart. Describing ‘surroundings in full to try and help you envisage these places for yourself’ is, rather than ‘laborious’, precisely what travel writers should be doing.
Though this is the Internet age, with arguably an ever-shortening reader attention span, I think most of the book-buying public can cope with, and appreciate, a little more than merely barebones descriptions in travel literature.

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2011/sep/23/travel-writing-tips-expert-advice