'In The Spotlight' interview with BGTW member Roger Norum

What's your earliest memory of travel?
A trip to London with my parents when I was just three - a trip which I later learned never happened! I suppose this says more about my escapist imagination than my razor-sharp memory.

Which is the place you haven't been to yet but would most like to visit?
Svalbard, Norway. I almost visited once when I was an undergraduate studying in Tromsø, but had to cancel the trip because of a polar bear attack on another tourist that week. A close second would be the Imam mosque in Isfahan. Unfortunately, being American these days doesn't exactly facilitate travel to Iran.

Where would you never want to go to again?
San Francisco, but that might just be because I'm a New Yorker.

What's the best travel advice you've ever been given?
"È brutto mangiare solo" - "Never dine alone," council offered by a young Sicilian starlet sitting at the other end of the otherwise empty Palermo restaurant. We ended up dating for a year.

How has the Guild been most helpful?
Well, my dues have already paid themselves back in the writing work I've been commissioned for since joining, but the best part about the Guild has been making close friends with several other like-minded members who pretend to get my sense of humour.

Everyone gets it wrong sometimes, so what's the biggest travel blunder you've ever made?
About to fly out of the Almaty airport in Kazakhstan (my visa had expired a few hours earlier because I'd miscalculated my travel dates). I handed my passport to the female immigration official, putting on my best smile and complimenting her finely pressed shirt. Unfortunately, a $20 bill had accidentally wedged itself in between some of the passport pages, and it tumbled out when she opened to the visa. I was detained by her entourage for two hours, forced to sulk in the corner as everyone else got on the plane. She finally, reluctantly let on minutes before we took off. The entire planeful of passengers applauded as I walked down the aisle to my seat.

Who, outside of your own family, would you most like to go travelling with and why?
Tyler Brûlé, founding editor of Wallpaper magazine. The guy's rolodex must be chock full of business cards for managers of the swankiest hotels and restaurants on the planet.

Which travel destination has taken you most by surprise and why?
Calcutta, India. Reading Geoffrey Moorhouse's Calcutta on the train ride there from Delhi whetted my appetite for the city, but my own experiences in many ways completely contradicted much of what Moorhouse wrote about. When I got there, I fell head over heels with everything about the place and ended up spending three months there trying to learn Bengali. Today I'm left with the fondest of memories and the ability to give directions to most Bangladeshi taxi drivers in New York City.

Three Desert Island Discs for your Ipod?
Rufus Wainwright, Want One/Two;
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Ella & Louis;
Aimee Mann, Magnolia Soundtrack

And a favourite book to pass the journey?
Can I give two? The Subterraneans, Jack Kerouac and The Razor's Edge, W. Somerset Maugham