ABSTRACT
The Significance of Travel and Mobility Introduction Most people spend a substantial part of their life engaged in travel of some kind or another. Apart from those too infirm to move from their bed or chair, daily mobility is, and has always been, the normal experience for people in all cultures and time periods. The attraction of travel, and of writing about travel, is well embedded in English literature, exemplified by the works of authors including Defoe, Cobbett, Priestley and, more recently, the popular writings of authors such as Hunter Davies and Bill Bryson. But such travel writing represents only a small portion of the sum total of everyday mobility that occurs. Most people can travel only occasionally over long distances and rarely have the luxury (or even inclination) to meander slowly and write about their experiences. However, everyday journeys – to school, to work, to visit friends and relatives, to shop, for leisure and pleasure – all form part of the fabric that constructs our everyday existence. Without such trips life as we recognise it would not be possible and, to some extent, our very identities are constructed through the everyday mobility that we undertake.
