Event Details
This event will be held in The Mendip Room at The Princess Theatre on the ground floor.
Over the last twenty years, writer and academic Tom Sykes has been lucky enough to travel all over the world. But his trips have often been marred – if not ruined – by anxiety. Part travelogue, part wellbeing memoir, The Years of Travelling Anxiously recounts jittery visits to Nigeria to get married and undergo IVF treatment, stressful encounters with bigots and bureaucrats in France, the Philippines and the USA, and what can be learned about mental health on the road from a baby with an inspiringly calm attitude to travel.
Tom will discuss what inspired him to write the book, the unusual way in which he wrote it and how being candid on the page about his mental distress has helped him become a less anxious traveller.
Dr Tom Sykes is the author of several memoirs including, most recently, The Years of Travelling Anxiously which has been featured on BBC Radio 5 Live and in the Metro. His Realm of the Punisher (2018) earned good reviews in the Times Literary Supplement and the London Magazine. A regular contributor to Private Eye, Tom’s shorter work has also appeared in the Independent, New Statesman, Telegraph and many other outlets. He has published academic analyses of life writing and teaches the subject in his capacity as Associate Professor in Creative Writing and Global Journalism at the University of Portsmouth.
Related Events
