Comments on: Travel Writer Clichés: 14 – “The New…”

By: Tim Richards

Tim Richards — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:30:10 +0000

You’ll notice, of course, that no-one is ever keen to claim to be “The Milton Keynes of the South”, or “The Canberra of the West”, or some such.

By: David

David — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:22:17 +0000

Curse you Tim… I’ve already got that one lined up for another Travel Writer Cliché

Birmingham, of course, is the Venice of the north.

By: Tim Richards

Tim Richards — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:21:09 +0000

This reminds me of an allied cliche, though it’s a little old-fashioned now: “The Paris of the (fill in geographical indicator here)”, ie “The Paris of the South”. Always very lazily applied. A variant is “The Venice of…” for places with canals.

By: Hal Peat

Hal Peat — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:15:39 +0000

Oh GOD, yes – I was channeling “Borstal Boy” and somehow that became “Walsall Wanker”. How embarrassing…:)

By: David

David — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:38:26 +0000

Thanks Hal. You might be confusing Walsall and Borstal there, but that’s easily done… I think even the most optimistic PR would struggle to come up with much hyperbole for Walsall.

By: Hal Peat

Hal Peat — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:17:50 +0000

Hi David,
Just started to follow you on Twitterland and then clicked on this. Albeit I’m in a very different part of the world, the mention of Walsall in your post here made me laugh on an otherwise boring Friday with happy (distant) recollection of Walsall being home to some kind of British reformatory. And yes, there’s nothing new under the sun in terms of adjectives and “the new X” destination. That’s why I don’t bother myself with editing out quite a few fake PR comparisons and hyperbole when I incorporate some of their releases. Aside from the fact that they pay slave wages and I’d really rather be locked up in Walsall than blogging for them forever. Love your grumpy voice though.

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:50:38 +0000

Good Lord! And I thought Portsmouth was the New Sydney!

By: David

David — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:56:26 +0000

My inner tabloid man is coming out here – I quite like The Gnomes Strike Back…

Then again, my favourite headline ever was on an interview with Blockbusters host – and the second man to ever play James Bond – Bob Holness: “The Man With The Golden Run”.

As for your Twitter stream – I know the sort of thing you mean, and the culprits. I simply unfollowed them – life’s too short.

Now then, back to writing up the Top Ten Dutch Ski Lodges.

By: Matthew Teller

Matthew Teller — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:50:22 +0000

This comes from the same school of travel writing as the ‘Top 10 Places to Visit Before you Feed the Cat’, ‘Best 50 Family-Friendly Boltholes in Haiti’ etc etc. Twitter (or my Twitter stream anyway; maybe I’m unlucky) is full of this brainless, meaningless noise.

Talking of editors killing a piece with a lazy headline, a few years ago I wrote what I thought was quite a nice, considered short piece for a business-travel mag looking at how Zurich was reinventing itself and getting a reputation for being quite a stylish, design-conscious city with good new hotels, decent bars and clubs and a buzz in the air. Published headline? “The Gnomes Strike Back”. Gawd.