Travel

The material in this sub-collection was found scattered across Sewell's papers and brought together during the process of cataloguing. It relates to his travels and consists of entries he made in his journals, the articles he wrote, and some related materials which document the places he visited. Sewell often used the information he recorded in the journals as a basis for his travel articles, and when all of this is considered together, the material provides much information about popular tourist destinations, historical sites, museums, galleries, and travel during the 1970s to 1990s.

Travel played a large part in Sewell's life for many years. His first major excursion took place in 1955 when he joined fellow Courtauld Institute of Art students on a Grand Tour of Europe. They drove from London, through France and onto Italy, stopping at locations visited by the Grand Tourists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (related material can be found in BS/1/1/5 - Biographical Material: The Courtauld Institute of Art). Following this, he continued to travel extensively for pleasure and work, and visited many locations, sometimes with friends or colleagues. He also returned to places on numerous occasions, in particular Turkey, and he became very knowledgeable about this country.

As his career in journalism developed in the 1980s, Sewell's interest in travel and his skill as a writer led to his articles being published in many newspapers and journals. The publications for which he wrote include The Sunday Times, Departures, Cornucopia, The Telegraph, and the Evening Standard. The articles ranged from short and amusing pieces, to specially commissioned extended features: the latter involved much research and were often illustrated with colour photographs.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, Sewell wrote and presented two television series in which he travelled throughout Europe. Related material concerning these programmes can be found in BS/7/8 - Television: The Naked Pilgrim; and BS/7/9 - Television: Brian Sewell's Grand Tour.

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