Wander woman: How to take the reader on a journey

Photographer, journalist, author, podcaster; Phoebe Smith is the consummate adventure story-teller – in all forms of media

Cover image © Zak Bentley

Phoebe Smith is an adventurer, photographer and author. We spoke to her about senses – of achievement and of place – and the oddly significant object that is the tent peg.

When you first became involved in travel, who or what inspired you and who or what inspires you now?

I first became involved after reading Bill Bryson’s Notes on a Small Island; funnily enough it describes the coast of North Wales where I grew up. It was the way he was able to make me laugh about somewhere that I knew very very well but also be able to see it in a completely different light – I thought there was a real skill to that. It made me realise that you didn’t have to go far to write about travel but it is  just about seeing things in a different way.