My travel writing came about due to the illness of my cousin Jan some years ago. During that time, I emailed her frequently whilst I was hiking and cycling, mainly in Europe. This was to let her know what I was up to and hopefully to distract and entertain her during her ordeal. She seemed to appreciate it.

 

Gradually I added other family members and friends as recipients to these brief travelogues. Distribution was by way of email which I preferred because of its directness – a message from me to you. 

 

Over the years I have written quite a few of these travelogues and, flatteringly, many readers have urged me to more widely publish them and so, by way of this blog, I do.

 

Though the connection between travel writing and design work may not be immediately apparent, it has been actually been quite useful to my design work. This is because the task of writing requires me to focus on and think about what I am seeing and what there is of interest in it. And to see other possibilities.

 

On reading them you will see that they are quite brief and variable but essentially I just write about what I see that interests and engages me; namely, the natural world, the arts and architecture – I have no formal training in any of these fields, but I hope my perspectives may be sufficiently interesting to give the reader a measure of pleasure. 

 

Derek Schapper