There are certain much-quoted pieces of advice that were spoken or penned by great writers and intended to set the authors of the next generation on the right path. Maxim Gorki, for example, advised the young Isaac Babel to ‘get out and about more’ and Stéphane Mallarmé recommended that his disciple Paul Valéry seek solitude…
‘Freedom was the priest riding past on his bicycle with his cassock flapping in the wind.’
Lieve Joris and Back to the Congo Two out of the four great contemporary Dutch travel writers – Cees Nooteboom, Adriaan van Dis, Carolijn Visser and Lieve Joris – are women, and they are by no means the least intrepid travellers. Carolijn Visser (1956-) travelled all through China, unhindered by officialdom of any kind, and…