041 From Scottish Mountains To The Mayan Underworld: JENNIFER WALLACE talks about Academia and Beyond

Travelling Through... London, the World and Life

JENNIFER WALLACE is a literature academic and an author of fiction and non-fiction. Her most recent works are Digging The Dirt, Digging Up Milton (brilliantly imagined from minimal primary information, and set in London’s St Giles, Cripplegate in the heart of the Barbican, and Tragedy Since 9/11.

Jennifer splits her time between writing in London and fulfilling her role as Director of Studies in English at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge. Her doctorate studies were in Romantic Hellenism and she has a particular love of the writings of Shelley, Byron and Keats - all of whom have led her on many a travel adventure following in their footsteps – and in her words, “poets who thought poetry could change the world”.

Jennifer was born in London but her formative years were spent in Edinburgh where her love of walking in Scotland was first kindled and, as she admits in our podcast chat, “I find my mood lifting just being on the summit of anything.”

Alongside her husband, photo-journalist Robert Wallis, Jennifer visited and interviewed various members of the indigenous tribes in the state of Jharkhand in northeast India culminating in an exhibition at SOAS entitled A Disappearing World showcasing the destruction of the landscape and lives of these tribal groups by coal mining and industrial development.

While carrying out primary research for her book Digging The Dirt, Jennifer was fortunate enough to be taken to a newly discovered archaeological site in Belize, considered to be one of the entrances in to the Mayan Underworld.

Enjoy listening to Jennifer’s thoughts on London, the world, and life.

TO GET IN CONTACT WITH JENNIFER AND BUY HER BOOKS:

https://jenniferwallaceauthor.co.uk

Email Jennifer at: [e-mail]

TO KNOW MORE ABOUT JENNIFER IN RELATION TO ACADEMIA:

https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/people/Jennifer.Wallace

Facebook @Jennifer Wallace

Twitter: @jmbwallace1

TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOUR PODCAST HOST: www.travellingthrough.co.uk

THANKS AS ALWAYS TO MARISKA @mariskamartina for creating the PODCAST JINGLE