The politics of investigative travel writing: an interview with George Monbiot.

George Monbiot is a prominent writer, environmentalist and campaigner for social justice whose columns for the British newspaper, The Guardian, are widely read across the world. In this interview he speaks candidly about the experiences that led to the publication of his first three books: Poisoned Arrows: An Investigative Journey through Indonesia, Amazon Watershed: The New Environmental Investigation and No Man's Land: An Investigative Journey through Kenya and Tanzania. Significantly, whilst each of these volumes is a work of investigative travel, Monbiot states that he never saw himself as a travel writer. Indeed, Monbiot is rather dismissive of recent British travel writing in general, with the notable exception of figures such as Bruce Chatwin, Charles Nicholl and Wilfred Thesiger, whom he met in Kenya in 1994. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]