Experiments in style: The inspiration for the travel diary version

PLUS: Why the experiment is potentially infinite

A few weeks ago I published a version of my story ‘A Bang on the Head’ in the style of a travel diary. Here’s how it begins:

By 2am it was clear that things were unlikely to go according to plan. I’d spent the day before getting everything ready in my rucksack: laptop, notebook and pen, digital camera, a riot of assorted chargers, a bus timetable, and a small amount of cash just in case.

As it happens, I don’t tend to read travel articles or books, because the blogs I’ve come across in the genre seem unutterably boring. No doubt I’ve been exposed to the wrong kind of article, you know, the ones that are full of gushing “look at me” prose. “This is me in front of the Taj Mahal”, they write, and I’m thinking, I’d rather see the Taj Mahal. I’m referring to the kind of travelogues that regard every wonderful location in the world as a suitable background for a selfie.

However, there is a book I came across years ago that has changed all that, and which proved the inspiration for the travel guide version.