Microtravel

‘In keeping with its subject, Microtravel notices details that often go overlooked and recognises heterogeneity in an area supposed by casual observers to be homogeneous. Its topic and approach make this volume a rich and nuanced study, one that expands our understanding of both travel and writing.’ — Tim Youngs, Emeritus Professor of English and Travel Studies, Nottingham Trent University ‘This book turns travel on its head. Opening our eyes to the world doesn’t always mean covering long distances. Here we follow travellers and travel writers who move vertically, rather than horizontally, explore endotic rather than exotic geographies, stretching their powers of observation and imagination. Like all the best travel writing, this book is full of insights and delights.’ — Richard Phillips, Professor of Human Geography, University of Sheffield ‘A timely collection that boldly raises important questions and coaxes from its contributors refreshing new readings of what they demonstrate is a substantial body of texts with a long history. These finely contextualised case studies are sure to provoke renewed critical attention to modes of microtravel writing hitherto neglected and under-theorised.’ — Alasdair Pettinger, co-editor of The Routledge Research Companion to Travel Writing  ‘This is a fascinating and timely contribution to the scholarship of travel and travel writing. At a time when the experience of enforced states is still fresh in many minds, the pieces collected here compel us to reconsider the parameters of travel itself, and to focus less on the far horizon, more on the granular and immediate detail.’ —Tim Hannigan, author of The Travel Writing Tribe and The Granite Kingdom and Lecturer in Writing and Literature, The Atlantic Technological University Sligo ‘This stimulating collection of essays opens up new possibilities for understanding both the phenomenon of “microtravel” and its associated travel writing. Focusing on travel with limitations – of speed, of radius, of confinement, of immobility – the authors range widely and helpfully across historical periods, geographical locations and cultural contexts.’ —Betty Hagglund, University of Birmingham