Series
That special place: Writers on what takes them back to where they love
Memories are made of many things; a song that summons a new-year romance, the book that captures a youthful trip, or the music that screams of a city in flux. In this series, Anna Funder, André Dao, Charlotte Wood, Bram Presser, Laura Jean McKay, Jessie Stephens and Maxine Beneba Clarke take us on their journeys.
The boat was taking on water, and there was I, falling in love
That New Year’s Eve party could have ended badly. Instead, it was just the beginning.
- Anna Funder
At 22, I was looking for oblivion. But would Mongolia help me forget?
With notebook lost and photographs ruined, there was nothing left but unreliable memories from a trip on the Trans-Mongolian Railway.
- André Dao
Lured by the music, I entered a place where mystery dwells
I had loved Jerusalem Bay the album for 25 years. Then one day I discovered where the name came from.
- Charlotte Wood
In Boston, I met the stranger I had loved all along
Our connection began years before on the other side of the world but my brother and I might well have passed each other on the street.
- Jessie Stephens
Like Kafka’s The Castle, Prague is both welcoming and entirely elusive
Initially disappointed that the Prague of my pre-Velvet Revolution childhood had succumbed to unfettered commercialism, my disappointment soon passed.
- Bram Presser
London calling: My quest to understand a cold, distant land
I went to London seeking traces of the bleak grandeur that was so important for the punk bands of the 1970s, such as the Clash and X-Ray Spex.
- Laura Jean McKay
Fake dreadlocks and Caribbean crooks: It’s time to rewrite the story
The weight of slavery and clueless cultural tropes can no longer hold us down.
- Maxine Beneba Clarke
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