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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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Exploring music, history, science, philosophy, film, visual arts and literature.

In-depth documentaries which explore music, history, science, philosophy, film, visual arts and literature.

Sunday Feature: Way off the Beaten Track

Factual: Travel

18/11/2012

Way off the Beaten Track

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Way off the Beaten Track

Stephen Smith asks if it matters if travel writing is unreliable.

Stephen Smith asks if it matters that many of the most admired and popular travel writers have been revealed after their deaths as unreliable narrators.

Many of the most admired and popular travel writers of recent times have been revealed after their deaths as distinctly unreliable narrators, from Norman Lewis to Ryszard Kapuscinski.

Newsnight's Culture Correspondent Stephen Smith sets out on a journey to ask if it matters. Don't their polished yarns improve on reality, by giving the reader a better insight than more workaday and ambiguous 'truth' can offer? And aren't their worked-up stories simply more fun, better page-turners? 

As a reporter and a travel writer, Stephen has grappled with the ethical and literary dilemmas of telling it like it is. But have other writers been as worried about such dull things as facts? He goes on a journey to explore the work of both past and present travel writers.

Producer: Charlotte McDonald.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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