Feature Interview: Liz Boulter

From studying a degree in languages to working in insurance, starting her journalism career as a trade magazine reporter and then progressing to the business section of The Observer, I had lunch with Liz Boulter to find out what it entails to get to the position she has achieved as a travel writer and sub-editor for the Guardian.

Sat in the corner of a bustling London Café, a mere fifty metres from the towering head offices of The Guardian I wait apprehensively for Liz to join me at our table. The lively sound of conversation and the clash of cutlery fill the air as I observe the hectic lunchtime rush, an insight into the working day of employees situated on York Way, Kings Cross.

I find Liz to be at ease when she sits down opposite me, confessing that her path to where she is now was not at all planned, ‘I did a language degree, not a journalism one. I just wanted to come to London so I got a job working in insurance in the city which as you can imagine is deadly boring.’

After four years of tolerating the insurance industry Liz eventually left and began working for a trade magazine, ‘it doesn't exist any more, it was called Solid Fuel, but it was brilliant because there was only two of us, me and the editor so we did a bit of everything, the layout, took our own photographs and went out to do our own interviews.’

She explains to me how the experience taken from working in such a niche market gave her the skills she needed to advance in her career, ‘I began working at the Observer on the business section because I've been in trade mags so it made sense for me to go into the business side of things’ which leaves me asking the question as to how she ended up being the sub-editor of the travel section, ‘I just fell into it really, it was just around the time when the budgets really started to be cut and it was the travel insurers who didn't have enough money to pay a load of people to fill up the travel section, I remember my boss just started asking people if we wanted to do anything in particular and that’s where travel writing began for me!’

Liz explains to me that for people to read your work ‘you must have an angle’ it has to be interesting, different and creative with ‘a bit of personality in it’ so readers wont flick over the page to a different article or story. Modestly she adds ‘I'm not kidding myself people don’t regularly read or recognise my style or anything like that but I think it needs an edge otherwise it can just read like a guidebook or something!’

Liz is no stranger to negative comments, working in the field of journalism you learn to have a thick skin but I wanted to know how she dealt with this aspect on a personal level, ‘Oh I don’t let it bother me, I just let it slide, I'm quite surprised at myself because I am sort of insecure and a bit pathetic sometimes but you just think that those people who are trolling online need to get a life. You just have to think whose reactions you care about, and really ignore the rest. People very rarely read something again; they think ‘oh that was good’ and move on to the next thing.’

After building up a reputable range of articles I can see the nostalgia appear on Liz’s face as I begin asking her about her trips, watching her re-live those memories made me only more curious to find out what it entails to be a travel writer. ‘Being the Guardian the sort of things you need are the authenticity, the traditional values and the community involvement rather than the cruising or golf and we rarely do luxury hotels unless there’s some other reason for doing it. We aim for more budget level travelling as well because we are obviously aimed at a certain readership’.

Attributed to Liz Boulter 

I find it refreshing on how Liz approaches her articles and what she determines will engage the readers interest, ‘You have to go and see the sights, you have to do those things as they are great to see but I find it just as interesting to walk down the streets and look at people’s houses, local markets and peoples everyday living, stuff like that. Its finding things that people haven’t experienced before’

As well as enlightening her readers, Liz herself has had her fair share of new experiences travelling to places such as Asia which she admits ‘ I don’t think I’d ever have gone to otherwise, but contrary to my initial perception I thought it was wonderful and I've absolutely fallen in love with South East Asia, I've been back three times!’ I ask Liz about her favourite trip and I can see her reminiscing over Asia once more ‘I would have to say Thailand was the best as id never been to Asia before then so I had no idea what to expect, we went to Bangkok and then went to the north where we stayed in the tribes lodges which was an amazing experience in itself.’

Attributed to Liz Boulter
Liz kayaking at Funaura Bay

Along with the good experiences, you also get the more challenging as Liz began to describe her memorable trip to Cuba ‘You read about the green eco-tourism and places but I've never stayed anywhere quite as basic as this as obviously a lot of Cuba is very poor and undeveloped.  I remember having to go up to what had previously been a farm, up in the mountains which is now run by the government and was mostly done by the state so there were no luxuries at all, there was no hot water, there was a bit of running water but it was cold, there might have been some electricity if you were lucky and there were just a load of mattresses you could sling out on the veranda and that was your bed for the night. It definitely was the experience I went for.’

Attributed to Liz Boulter

I asked Liz what her favourite piece she had written was to which she paused, clearly deep in thought, this question deserved a well refined answer ‘Definitely the Vietnam piece, I loved doing it and that got a lot of comments, you know I was doing it for the trade craft and they were extremely pleased with it so that was very gratifying. They also had it framed and it’s now up in their offices in the trade craft headquarters in the north east, so that is probably my favourite.’

It is obvious to me that travel writing is Liz’s passion and that she thrives off of feature writing and editing but I'm keen to know if she would ever consider moving to another position or publication,  ‘travel writing is what I know and it’s what I enjoy so probably not at this stage. I'm a sub editor most of the time and I do maybe four or five trips a year but you would have to be very, very skilled to make a living just from travel writing, you’d have to be able to go to say Thailand and in your fortnight there be writing for at least four different publications’. 

Working at the Guardian would be an aspiring journalist’s dream opportunity but what I wanted to know from Liz is what you can expect when working for such a huge publication, ‘Yes it can seem very, very big, it’s a huge organisation and you can feel a bit invisible within in but also mainly it’s just quite nice if you’re at a party and someone says oh what do you do and you say you work at the Guardian it’s just quite a nice thing to be able to say really, so I do get a bit of a kick out of that. It helps that people are pretty friendly and inclusive here. It does mean once you’re within a big organisation when you've got your foot in the door, you’re pretty much set’

So, the much anticipated question from a budding journalist: how do you get into the industry? ‘Just try and find some way of getting into an organisation really, it was different in the 80’s where you could open the guardian and see lists of editorial assistant jobs. I would recommend going through the website as it is quite labour intensive and the Guardian will take on quite a few young people. You have to be passionate and also prepared to put the time and work into achieving what you want. I mean there’s someone working on travel who works two days a week at the moment who came in through doing stuff for the website, it can happen for you if you put in what you want to get out.’