JOIN USUnravelling a fascinating world
British poet and novelist Adam Foulds and novelist and travel writer Joanna Kavenna gave an insight into their books and their style of writing to the audience in Bangalore at an interactive session held at the British Council recently.
The Granta authors were in conversation with poet and novelist Anjum Hasan.
While Adam was quite influenced by poet John Clare and his understanding of the nature and how the countryside is being destroyed, Joanna’s work is all about travel writing and her escapades in northern Europe.
“My current novel is not a historical book, it’s a novel set in the present. However, some of my earlier works has been influenced by John Clare and his poems about the landscape and how the countryside is being destroyed. His work is very piercing. Three
of my books in the past have been historical in nature,” he explained.
“My current work is based on the Second World War and the plot is set in Sicily. After
I got deeper into the subject, I was compelled to draw connections to Afghanistan, Iraq and also to the present world,” he added.
Joanna talked about her non-fiction book on travel and entertained the audience with stories from her journeys in some of the coldest parts of the world.
She also talked about the difficulties and challenges that travel writers often face. “I always wanted to explore and after wandering to the United States of America and working there for a while, I returned to Europe. I explored Norway and Iceland and then ran out of money and came back home. People I really followed there were the Norwegians as they really know northern Europe very well,” she said.
When asked if the characters in some of her books was herself, she said that she tried to be neutral when portraying her characters.
The audience comprised of people from all age groups. Many interested young writers were also present at the event. Rajesh BS, who attended the event, noted that he is interested in penning down a book and meeting the young authors gave him the inspiration to do so.
“I want to write a travelogue and attending this event has been very helpful for me. As Joanna is a travel writer, her inputs have been extremely helpful. Also, such meets
inspire young writers to write on topics that they really want to write on,” he said.