3 Day Workshop €100

Max 15 participants per workshop
Dates: 9:30 - 12:30, Monday 4th - Wednesday 6th July
Venue: Ard Scoil Phobal, Bantry, Co. Cork
Please note that all participants are asked to bring their own materials for workshops eg. pens, paper etc. 

Despite Manchán Magan's description of him in the Irish Times as 'one of the truly mythical heroes of travel writing', Tim is as solidly unmythical as the rest of us – and all too aware that the secret of good travelling and good writing tends to be hard slog, not heroics. In these workshops he will pass on tips to make the hard work easier, whether you're writing 1,000 words on what to see in your hometown or penning your personal Odyssey (Tim's last book took him to places as far apart as Guinea and Guangdong; his most recent published piece is about the view from his window). We will look at some of the greats and not-so-greats of travel literature, and at a few tricks of the travel journalism trade. We will also do some field- and homework, so bring a pen and your five senses, all suitably sharpened, a notebook and – unless you're an optimist – an umbrella.

'I read and felt that I was there,'  Tennyson said of Edward Lear, and this is the catchphrase for this workshop, during which you will look at passages from the masters and mistresses; write short journalistic pieces; prepare a traveller's tale to tell, and learn how best to pitch an article or book proposal in these very competitive times.  There will also be fieldwork, an image-associations session (like word-association, but with an overhead projector) to massage your metaphors and stimulate your similes, and you’ll get to tell your stories – travel and otherwise, verbal and written, and engage in some helpful
 role-play (authors vs agents/editors). You don’t need to be a travel writer for this fun workshop – but you’ll come away with a sharp grasp of how best to describe and evoke a setting, whether in fact or fiction.

Tim's first book, Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, won the 1998 Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award, and is now regarded as a classic. His three books about the 14th-century Moroccan judge, social climber and serial marrier, Ibn Battutah of Tangier – Travels with a Tangerine, The Hall of a Thousand Columns, and, in 2010, Landfalls, were received to huge critical acclaim. Tim also presented a BBC documentary series on Ibn Battutah’s travels. He is still recovering at home in Yemen from the research trip for Landfalls, which took him from Zanzibar to the Alhambra via China and Timbuktu.
‘Another triumph: travel writing of the very highest order.’ Spectator