I have always been a Burgess fan. Novelist, composer, linguist, talk show guest, interviewee and general polymath, Burgess’s greatest legacy for me was his essay writing. Happily, many of his best pieces on literature, language and other subjects can be found in his collections of essays “Urgent Copy” and “But Do Blondes Prefer Gentlemen?” (also known as “Homage to Quert Yuiop”), and the posthumous “One Man’s Chorus”, “The Ink Trade” and “The Devil Prefers Mozart”. And of particular interest are his articles on travel. These were often one-off essays, usually after a visit somewhere, that he’d write up for The Observer, The New York Times or The Listener.
Burgess’s travel essay
Most travel writing tends to be either practical guide of things to see and do (these date pretty quickly), or otherwise a series of personal anecdotes in the style of Bill Bryson. Burgess was never one to dumb down – indeed he liked to show off – and his short essays touch on culture, history and language with just enough personal detail to really bring them to life.
A library of travel writing
In addition to his two-volume autobiography in which he discussed many countries in passing, and his many wonderful articles on France which were more about the cultural differences with Britain than travel writing as such, he wrote several standalone articles on a wide range of places – primarily in Europe. He also penned a handful of general articles on travel – “never again, again”, “thoughts on travel” and “small things count” .
Burgess’s main themes
I’m sure Burgess didn’t actually work like this, but it is as if he had a checklist of points to consider when preparing these essays, which he would then embed in flowing prose as naturally as possible. So what would such a checklist look like? I had fun reading through all of the above essays again to identify the recurring topics.
Every point he made was, when possible, made with reference to some piece of music, work of art or literature, and the essay would usually conclude with a comment on his emotional attitude to the place. When we travel somewhere new, we too can always think about these themes.
Where to start
The only article I could find that’s free (at the time of writing this) is his short article on Trieste, so that would be a nice start :
But the main collection to get your hands on would be “One Man’s Chorus”, whose first section (“genius loci”) is devoted to travel.
Though decades old now, Burgess’ essays still capture the essence of the places he visited and still entice you to retrace his steps. This surely stands him amongst the finest travel writers of all time.
Happy reading.