Travel writer Horatio Clare presented a pair of extraordinary new books at Hay Festival Winter Weekend in conversation with the Creative Wales Hay Festival International Fellow Dylan Moore.
While on the surface his twin new works tackle two very different topics, their conversation illiumiated their dual message: the importance of our connection to the outdoors, and how the world around us is deeper and broader than we can ever know.
In his travelogue Something of his Art: Walking to Lübeck with J S Bach, Clare recreates the walk that J S Bach, then an unknown composer and organ teacher, made in the depths of winter in 1705 across Germany to Lübeck. This was the pivotal point in the young composer’s life, when he began his journey to becoming the master of the Baroque.
"As long as there is humanity, we will listen to Bach,” he said. “This journey for him was undoubtedly formative. There is no better way to come close to a country than walking across it.”
In his second 2018 publication, The Light in The Dark, he offers a moving and lyrical evocation of a British winter and the feelings it inspires. Drawing on his own experience of Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), the writer raises a torch against the darkness, illuminating the blackest corners of the season, and delving into memory and myth to explore the powerful hold that winter has on us.
Both teachers and travel writers, the conversation between Moore and Clare explored the rising levels of anxiety among young people, and the humbling lessons taught be a life of exploration.
"Students I teach often have bad anxiety. How dare anyone call them 'snowflakes'. They are mighty,” Clare said. "I dropped my smartphone in the loo earlier this year. It's changed my life. Social media, particularly Instagram, is crucifying young people.”
"As a travel writer you see things that science cannot explain. There are more things in earth and heaven than we can ever know," he said. "We live in a compound time. A depthless moment. The world is atoms in flux; it’s energy and matter. Reality is much deeper and broader than we give it credit for..."
Audio from Hay Festival Winter Weekend events will be available on Hay Player.