A Sentimental Journey: Martin Rowson and Iain Sinclair

Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, his final work and published in the year of his death in 1768, has been somewhat neglected of late in favour of his earlier The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Narrated by Yorick, one of the dramatis personae of the earlier book and a barely disguised self-portrait of Sterne himself, A Sentimental Journey is marked by the author’s trademark sharp wit, good humour and sense of irony. 250 years after its first publication, this landmark in the history of travel writing was discussed by the writer and traveller Iain Sinclair and the cartoonist Martin Rowson, author of a graphic novel adaptation of Tristram Shandy and illustrator of a new edition of A Sentimental Journey produced by Uniformbooks for the Laurence Sterne Trust, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

This event took place in partnership with the Laurence Sterne Trust.

Martin Rowson photo © Emyr Young