Cut Stones and Crossroads by Ronald Wright
Ronald Wright traveled Peru in the 1970’s and 80’s, fresh from university with a degree in archaeology, feeding an obsession with the Inca Empire sparked by a random adventure novel he’d read in his teens.
Ryan Murdock
Writer, Explorer and Travel Philosopher
Happy Canada Day
July 1, 2020 by 2 Comments
Happy #CanadaDay2020 to all my friends and family back home.
One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in two decades of travel — having lived in 3 other countries, and traveled and written about close to 80 more — is that we’ve got it very good back home.
Geographies of memory shape today
June 15, 2020 by 2 Comments
The St. Lawrence downriver from my hometown, and the islands I knew…
We talked about ‘spirit of place’ in my last blog — locations and landscapes that hold an almost mystical resonance for each of us. We connect to such places on a deep level. They feel intimately familiar even when visiting for the first time.
Do you believe in the spirit of place?
June 9, 2020 by 9 Comments
The desert is my personal landscape — what’s yours?
The novelist and island writer Lawrence Durrell believed we are each aligned with certain places.
This is where we do our best work because we resonate with the Spirit of Place.
Hands up everyone who does this
May 29, 2020 by 4 Comments
Put a bookmark here…!
It’s been brought to my attention that I might be somewhat strange.
Surely I’m not the only one who rotates their bookmarks?
It’s not as though I collect bookmarks.
I’m not a member of the International Friends of Bookmarks, either (yes, that’s a real thing).
Why worry about things you can’t control?
May 26, 2020 by 4 Comments
“But Antoine, why worry about things you can’t control…?”
My last blog on conspiracy theories sparked an interesting discussion on Facebook.
My friend Nathan pointed out that I failed to draw a clear distinction between all too real large scale actions perpetrated by governments and the sort of “Lobby of the Unhinged” conspiracy theories I was talking about.
What do you think of the ‘deep state’?
May 19, 2020 by 8 Comments
Spies everywhere…
A friend asked me this week, “What do you think of the ‘deep state’?
The short answer is, “I try not to.” Mostly because it has no meaningful impact on my life.
‘Deep state’ is the idea that some sort of shadow government made up of rich, powerful actors wields power, either within or behind the legitimately elected government.
Words That Piss Me Off: The Sequel
May 8, 2020 by 11 Comments
Words That Piss Me Off: The Sequel
I never would have guessed when I sat down to write Words That Piss Me Off in March 2010 that I was creating a smash hit.
Many of the words and phrases which sparked that furious rant were irritating proliferations of business English that made their way into daily use.
Planet of the Humans
May 4, 2020 by 8 Comments
Planet of the what…?
Let’s talk about Planet of the Humans, the controversial new documentary produced by Michael Moore.
I figure we might as well talk about something, since travel’s off the cards for the foreseeable future. Rather than vanish into sedentary obscurity, I decided to use the blog to write about whatever crosses my desk: current reading, current events, the distant past, or the afterglow of an interesting film.
Will travel writing survive COVID-19?
April 28, 2020 by 2 Comments
The travel section of London’s Skoob books…
The future looks bleak for travel writing — at least, for the highly commercialized side — but I don’t think this is true for travel literature. They aren’t the same thing.
