Review: 'Interpretive Theme Writer's Field Guide'

How to craft strong themes from Big Idea to presentation

John Kohl, Bloomsbury Press 2026 (available through major booksellers including Bookhero)

Jon Kohl's latest guide explores one of interpretation's most fundamental, and often misunderstood, skills: developing strong interpretive themes. Lynda Burns reviews a practical handbook aimed at interpreters, trainers and visitor experience professionals.

Cover (left) and Astronaut in space (right). 'I am a single self-aware being floating untethered in space; but strong interpretive themes can reconnect our separate selves to higher truths about humanity and Nature so that we may sew ourselves back into the fabric of the evolving universe.' ('Trailhead' xxvi)

Reviewed by Lynda Burns

Interpretation training and project consultant, Onsite Interpretation

When I first opened Jon Kohl’s field guide, I wondered how anyone could write an entire book on developing themes. Although theme development is an important and often overlooked part of interpretation, I had thought Sam Ham’s Interpretation: Making a Difference on Purpose had the last word on the subject. Not so. In this eloquent guide, Kohl offers theory, reflection, and practical techniques to improve interpretive delivery.

I recommend this guide for anyone teaching interpretive techniques to curators, designers, historians, tourism operators, or park professionals. Organisations with visitor experience or interpretation teams would find it a valuable reference, and visitor-focused academic researchers will discover useful sources.

A central argument of the book is that developing interpretation requires more than simply drafting and stating a theme. Kohl argues that the Big Idea must come first: the underlying message that gives the theme its purpose. The theme then becomes the vehicle for communicating that Big Idea.

His second key point is that the theme is initially written for you and your colleagues as the holders of the story and idea, then adapted into a form that works for visitors. This gives language to a process many of us probably already use. After all, how often does a theme appear as the heading on an interpretive panel?

For interpretation practitioners

Check out:

Examples of universal values (page 30)
Theme development approaches – mind mapping, irony revelation, free writing and multiple perspectives contemplative writing (page 43 Stop 4)
Team approach to developing a Big Idea (page 49 – see Stonehenge example below)
Tips for writing clarity (page 73)
Empty calorific words (page 79)
Formats for interpretive presentations – chronological, scientific argument, categorical, parallel, enigma revealed and cognitive dissonance (page 106)

Illustration from page 49 'Team approach to developing a Big Idea'

For trainers

The book functions as a practical manual, offering a wide range of exercises and suggested responses. In my work as an interpretation planning and guide trainer, it will prompt me to spend more time with students on crafting themes and Big Ideas, and to place greater emphasis on the broad, diverse research needed to develop them.

The guide is too long to absorb in one or two sittings, unlike the classic Interpreting Our Heritage (Freeman Tilden 1951). However, it is packed full of useful content, from Ham’s list of 3000 useful verbs to the themes of the world’s great literature. Well worth diving into and having on your virtual shelf for inspiration.

And finally, as Kohl puts beautifully:

'Insatiable curiosity characterises the best well-rounded wordly interpreters.'

Lynda Burns has had a lifetime career in interpretation in parks, heritage sites and museums. As founding chair person of INNZ she is committed to mentoring and training the next generation of interpreters within Aotearoa. Currently Lynda manages an interpretation training and project consultancy – Onsite Interpretation, based in Te Tai Tokerau.