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 Listen to Excess Baggage for
25 November听2006
John McCarthy meets three travellers who travelled to South America for very different reasons.
Retired teacher, Marion Burdett鈥檚 visit to South America was part of a much longer trip hitch-hiking on her own round the world.
Michael Jacobs鈥檚 grandfather also spent four years of his life in the Andes as the engineer constructing a railway from the coast in Chile to the heights of the mountains in Bolivia. Michael has been tracing his grandfather鈥檚 experiences there with a journey of his own.
Screen writer Edward Canfor-Dumas has recently returned from a trip to Bolivia and Peru where he has been looking at some of the work done by the charity CARE with prisoners, child labourers and conflict resolution.
Presented by John McCarthy
Photo: Musician in Tirani, Bolivia - courtesy of Edward Canfor Dumas (copyright)
This week's guests:听
In the early seventies Marion Burdett wanted to escape from her job and when someone at work offered his unwanted sleeping bag for 拢1 she took the unexpected decision to hitch-hike around the world.听 After handing in her notice, Marion started her journey on the M1 slipway with her thumb in the air heading for Le Havre.听
After France, Spain followed then Morocco, Sicily, Italy, Greece, Turkey (Istanbul), Israel (where Marion stayed on a Kibbutz), Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Burma, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Timor, Australia (Darwin), NZ, Easter Island, Chile, Peru, Argentina, West Indies, USA (New York), Canada (west coast).
Michael Jacobs is a Senior Honorary Research Fellow in the Hispanic Department of the University of Glasgow and a travel writer.听 He lives in southern Spain but is equally at home in South America. Michael鈥檚 latest book Ghost train through the Andes starts with Michael鈥檚 memories of his grandfather.听 Eventually Michael would inherit several of letters from Bethel to Sophie, Michael鈥檚 grandmother, many of which were written when he was away in Bolivia building a railway.
Ghost Train Through The Andes
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN: 0719561795
听is an award-winning TV scriptwriter and novelist. Edward wrote the highly-acclaimed 大象传媒 documentary drama Pompeii: The Last Day and followed this in 2005 with Supervolcano. He branched out into novels in the same year, with the successful modern story The Buddha, Geoff and Me. He is also active within the pressure group Ministry for Peace, which campaigns for a ministry within government dedicated to working for peace at home and abroad.
While sitting in a traffic jam with his family discussing where they鈥檇 like to go in the world and he, having had a yen to visit Machu Picchu since childhood, said South America. He was astonished to return home to find an email inviting him to visit some of the work carried out by the aid agency听 - in South America! Sponsored by the International Broadcasting Trust and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, Edward went in August this year - his first visit to the continent.
Edward Canfor-Dumas听 through Bolivia and Peru visiting Care鈥檚 work in August 2006The 大象传媒 cannot be held responsible for
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| PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES |
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 Sandi Toksvig:
The daughter of a foreign correspondent, Sandi has been travelling all her life more info |
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John McCarthy is a widely travelled journalist and presenter with a particular interest in the Middle East.
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