Classic travel writing Books
Pan Macmillan Poems for Travellers
Book SynopsisPaul Theroux has written many works of fiction and travel writing, including the modern classics The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, My Secret History and The Mosquito Coast. He divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian islands.
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Hindoo Holiday
Book SynopsisA highly entertaining and moving journal chronicling J. R. Ackerley''s time in IndiaIn the 1920s, the young J. R. Ackerley spent several months in India as the Private Secretary to the Maharajah of Chhokrapur. Knowing almost nothing of India, he discovers Hindu culture, festivals and language, and reveals the fascinating attitudes of the Palace staff on women, marriage. the caste system and death. At the heart of Hindoo Holiday is the wonderfully unpredictable figure of his Highness the Maharajah Sahib who, ultimately, just wants ''someone to love him''.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Toujours Provence
Book SynopsisA second idyllic helping of rural life in France from the bestselling author of the classic A YEAR IN PROVENCE. Skulking through customs with a suitcase full of truffles, toads singing the Marseillaise, taking pastis lessons and finding gold at the bottom of the garden, you might think there is little time left for pleasures of the table.TOUJOURS PROVENCE proves that while you might not be able to get away from it all, you can have fun trying.''Peter Mayle''s idyllic portrait makes you almost taste the wonderful food and wine, feel the sun and balmy breezes'' Sunday Express''Anyone with any feel for the land and the people who lead their lives close to it will be enchanted'' Yorkshire Evening Post''Splendidly amusing... filled with things which will help you to understand, at least in part, the glory of this wonderful place'' Dirk BogardeTrade Review"* 'Peter Mayle's idyllic portrait makes you almost taste the wonderful food and wine, feel the sun and balmy breezes Sunday Express * 'Anyone with any feel for the land and the people who lead their lives close to it will be enchanted' Yorkshire Evening Post * 'Splendidly amusing... filled with things which will help you to understand, at least in part, the glory of this wonderful place' Dirk Bogarde"
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Down and Out in Paris and London
Book SynopsisGeorge Orwell''s vivid memoir of his time living among the desperately poor and destitute, Down and Out in Paris and London is a moving tour of the underworld of society.''You have talked so often of going to the dogs - and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them.'' Written when Orwell was a struggling writer in his twenties, it documents his ''first contact with poverty''. Here, he painstakingly documents a world of unrelenting drudgery and squalor - sleeping in bug-infested hostels and doss houses of last resort, working as a dishwasher in Paris''s vile ''Hôtel X'', surviving on scraps and cigarette butts, living alongside tramps, a star-gazing pavement artist and a starving Russian ex-army captain. Exposing a shocking, previously-hidden world to his readers, Orwell gave a human face to the statistics of poverty for the first time - and in doing so, found his voice as a writer.Trade ReviewThe white-hot reaction of a sensitive, observant, compassionate young man to poverty -- Dervla MurphyOrwell was the great moral force of his age * Spectator *
£7.59
Blue Crow Media London Alleyways Map
Book Synopsis
£9.50
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Guide (full
Book SynopsisA facsimile edition of Bradshaw’s fascinating guide to Europe’s rail network. Bradshaw’s descriptive railway handbook of Europe was originally published in 1913 and was the inspiration behind Michael Portillo’s BBC television series ‘Great Continental Railway Journeys’. It is divided into three sections: timetables for services covering the continent; short guides to the best places to see and to stay in each city; and a wealth of advertisements and ephemeral materials concerning hotels, restaurants and services that might be required by the early twentieth century rail traveller. This beautifully illustrated facsimile edition offers a fascinating glimpse of Europe and of a transport network that was shortly devastated by the greatest war the world had ever seen.
£25.65
HarperCollins Publishers Three Men in a Boat
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.That''s Harris all over so ready to take the burden of everything himself, and put it on the backs of other people.'Three late-Victorian gentlemen, George, Harris and the writer himself as well as their fox terrier Montmorency take a trip in a boat along the River Thames to Oxford. What ensues is a hilarious journey through the English waterways full of anecdotes, and farcical incidents with Montmorency wreaking havoc along the way.
£5.62
Penguin Books Ltd The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other
Book Synopsis
£13.49
Faber & Faber Europe
Book SynopsisEurope has been widely acclaimed as among the finest achievements of 'one of our greatest living writers' (The Times). A personal appreciation, fuelled by five decades of journeying, this is Jan Morris at her best - at once magisterial and particular, whimsical and profound. It is a matchless portrait of a continent.Trade Review"'This is Jan Morris's finest book.' Michael Leapman, Country Life 'At the height of her incomparable form... Imagine listening to a great raconteur on a good evening. The contributions are cogent, pertinent and articulate, controversial but never overbearing... Who would not wish to be of the company?' Michael Dibdin, Sunday Times"
£11.69
Faber & Faber Reflections on a Marine Venus
Book SynopsisLose yourself in this classic travelogue evoking the Greek island of Rhodes after World War II by the king of travel writing and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu. ''A magician ... Durrell enchants.'' The Times ''A lovely book ... Makes people feel happy ... [So] pleasurable.'' Observer ''A poet's intoxication with landscape, a humanist's appetite for history, and an eye for character worthy of a novelist He excites a longing to leave for Rhodes at once.' Sunday TimesWorld War II is finally over, and after four torturous years serving the Crown in Egypt, Lawerence Durrell seeks peace in the landscapes he has loved ever since his youth in Corfu: Mediterranean islands. He is posted to the Greek island of Rhodes, and from his first dip in the dazzling blue Aegean - which jolts his soul awake for the first time in years - he immerses himself in the rhythms and moods of localTrade Review'Our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean.' - Richard Holmes'Masterly ... Casts a spell.' - Jan Morris'Incandescent.' - Andre Aciman'Invades the reader's every sense ... Remarkable.' - Victoria Hislop'A poet's intoxication with landscape, a humanist's appetite for history, and an eye for character worthy of a novelist . He excites a longing to leave for Rhodes at once.' - Sunday Times
£9.49
Icon Books Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island
Book SynopsisFROM THE AUTHOR OF THE ACCLAIMED THE GRAN TOUR AND THE MARMALADE DIARIESAn irreverent homage to the '95 travel classic.'It would be wrong to view this book as just a highly accomplished homage to a personal hero. Aitken's politics, as much as his humour, are firmly in the spotlight, and Dear Bill Bryson achieves more than its title (possibly even its author) intended.' Manchester ReviewIn 2013, travel writer Ben Aitken decided to follow in the footsteps of his hero - literally - and started a journey around the UK, tracing the trip taken by Bill Bryson in his classic tribute to the British Isles, Notes from a Small Island.Staying at the same hotels, ordering the same food, and even spending the same amount of time in the bath, Aitken's homage - updated and with a new preface for 2022 - is filled with wit, insight and humour.Trade ReviewIt would be wrong to view this book as just a highly accomplished homage to a personal hero. Aitken's politics, as much as his humour, are firmly in the spotlight, and Dear Bill Bryson achieves more than its title intended. * Manchester Review *
£10.44
Vintage Publishing The Road to Oxiana
Book SynopsisRobert Byron was born in England in 1905 into a family distantly related to Lord Byron. He attended Eton and Merton College, Oxford, and wrote several other travel books before his untimely death in 1941 when his ship to West Africa was torpedoed while serving as a correspondent for a London newspaper during World War II. Among his other books are The Station (1928), The Byzantine Achievement (1929), and First Russia, Then Tibet (1933).Trade ReviewA brilliantly-wrought expression of a thoroughly modern sensibility, a portrait of an accidental man adrift between frontiers * New York Review of Books *The Road to Oxiana is part travelogue, part aesthetic manifesto and part social observation; it remains the most thoroughly readable of all books. And Byron is the ideal companion, witty, charming, irascible, and content to leave and be left alone * The Times *The Road to Oxiana is an informed, somewhat high-flown account of the early Islamic architecture of Persia and Afghanistan wrapped in a comic narrative that ensured a far wider readership... Funny, didactic and biting, Byron's masterpiece transports us across the world and, better still, across the decades to splendidly alien lands * Independent *My favourite travel book is Robert Byron's The Road To Oxiana, which started a new wave of travel writing. I took it on my first trip to Iran. I always take books about the places I'm visiting: I sat in a ruined mosque now populated by sheep and read Byron's wonderful descriptions of it. I think that sowed a seed for the Travel Bookshop -- Sarah Anderson, founder of The Travel BookshopI love literary travel books and this is the best one in the English language. Scholarly, eccentric and wildly opinionated -- Tudor Parfitt * Geographical *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Pictures from Italy xxxvii Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisA delightful travelogue in the unique style of one of the greatest writers in the English language In 1844, Charles Dickens took a break from novel writing to travel through Italy for almost a year and Pictures from Italy is an illuminating account of his experiences there. He presents the country like a magic-lantern show, as vivid images ceaselessly appear before his - and his readers' - eyes. Italy's most famous sights are all to be found here - St Peter's in Rome, Naples with Vesuvius smouldering in the background, the fairytale buildings and canals of Venice - but Dickens's chronicle is not simply that of a tourist. Avoiding preconceptions and stereotypes, he portrays a nation of great contrasts: between grandiose buildings and squalid poverty, and between past and present, as he observes everyday life beside ancient monuments. Combining thrilling travelogue with piercing social commentary, Pictures from Italy is a revealing depiction of an exciting and disquieting
£10.79
Penguin Books Ltd Rural Rides
Book SynopsisTravelling on horseback through southern England in the early 19th century, William Cobbett provides evocative and accurate descriptions of the countryside, colourful accounts of his encounters with labourers, and indignant outbursts at the encroaching cities and the sufferings of the exploited poor. Ian Dyck''s new edition places these lively accounts of rural life in the context of Cobbett''s political and social beliefs and reveals the volume as his platform for rural radical reform.
£11.69
Bradt Travel Guides Journey Through Southern India
Book SynopsisJourney through Southern India: a delightfully irreverent yet insightful travel narrative about a backpacking exploration of southern India by two retirees. From Mumbai to Chennai, via Goa and Coimbatore, the duo's adventures take in speaking at a political street rally, the cricket world cup, an experimental township and lots of yoga.
£9.49
Atlantic Books Other Rivers
Book SynopsisPeter Hessler is a staff writer at the New Yorker, where he served as Beijing correspondent from 2000-2007 and Cairo correspondent from 2011-2016. He is also a contributing writer for National Geographic. He is the author of River Town, which won the Kiriyama Book Prize, Oracle Bones, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, Country Driving, and Strange Stones. He won the 2008 National Magazine Award for excellence in reporting, and he was named a MacArthur fellow in 2011.
£21.25
Alma Books Ltd Pictures from Italy
Book SynopsisIn the summer of 1844, taking a break from novel-writing, the thirty-two-year-old Charles Dickens embarked on a journey to Italy with his wife, his five children and his young sister-in-law. Struck by the scenery and the rapid diorama of monuments and novelties around him, the celebrated author of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol captured his experiences and impressions in vivid detail. The result is a travelogue like no other, written by one of the finest writers of all time. Abounding in colour and humour, and interspersed with unforgettable set pieces, such as an eyewitness account of the beheading of a robber in Rome and a hilarious description of a tour guide’s ruinous tumble down the slope of Mount Vesuvius, Pictures from Italy is further proof of Charles Dickens’s genius and versatility.
£7.59
Everyman A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland &
Book SynopsisWhen James Boswell persuaded Samuel Johnson to embark on a tour of Boswell’s native Scotland in 1773, the adventure resulted in two magnificent books, Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and Boswell’sJournal of a Tour to the Hebrides. Johnson offers a magisterial account of what was then a remote and rugged land, while Boswell throws further light on the friend and mentor whom he immortalized in his biography. Together, they make up a brilliant portrait of two very different and very remarkable men exploring a feudal world which was soon to pass away for ever.
£12.34
Chiselbury Publishing Spanish Practices
Book SynopsisSpanish Practices weaves together nearly half a century of observations by Rico, an Englishman married into an eccentric family who run a wine business in a left-behind corner of Spain. It illuminates the idiosyncrasies of Spanish ways and exemplifies the travails of a society in the throes of wholesale transformation.
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Bradshaw’s Handbook
Book SynopsisA facsimile edition of Bradshaw's Handbook of 1863, the book that inspired the BBC television series 'Great British Railway Journeys'. When Michael Portillo began the series 'Great British Railway Journeys', a well-thumbed 150-year-old book shot back to fame. The original Bradshaw's guides had been well known to Victorian travellers and were produced when the British railway network was at its peak and as tourism by rail became essential. It was the first national tourist guide specifically organized around railway journeys, and this beautifully illustrated facsimile edition offers a glimpse through the carriage window at a Britain long past.
£12.34
Tricorn Books Polar Eskimo
Book SynopsisAfter a huge storm destroyed their intended route to the North Pole in the darkness of winter, instead of retreating, a small expedition team decide to explore the beautiful but unforgiving region of Avanerriaq, the home of the Polar Eskimos. What followed was six months of harsh education, gripping adventure and...twenty unruly sled dogs.
£11.40
Daunt Books They Went to Portugal: A Travellers' Portrait
Book Synopsis
£11.69
Eland Publishing Ltd An Ottoman Traveller
Book Synopsis'Evliya Çelebi was the widest-eyed, most intensely curious … and prolific travel writer the Ottoman world ever produced. A learned and perceptive gentleman-observer from courtly Istanbul at the height of its power, Evilya's work records and preserves an entire world otherwise lost to history. A proper edition of his massive work has long been overdue, and Robert Dankoff magnificently translates the highlights … a book which is likely to change for ever our perceptions of the Ottoman Empire.' — William Dalrymple
£21.25
Everyman Marco Polo Travels
Book SynopsisMarco Polo set off on his travels from Venice as a young man in 1271, and returned home in 1295 after spending 24 years away, 17 of them in China. He isone of the few early adventurers whose name nearly everyone knows. His book was one of the best-loved works of the Middle Ages, and has remained popular ever since. At a time when China is again assuming global importance, his account of China under the Mongol emperor Khubilai Khan - the dazzlingly splendid capital in Beijing, the great southern metropolis of Hangzhou - is a classic reminder of the antiquity of Chinese power and civilization.Marco Polo also portrays countries and cities all along the trade route from the Mediterranean to Mongolia. He reminds us that Iraq's present suffering is not unique by relating the story of the attack on Baghdad by Mongol forces in 1258. He conveys the daunting prospect of the deserts of central Asia and the distant charms of Yunnan. And he reminds us of the huge merchant ships dominating China's trade with foreign countries, ships that far outstripped their European counterparts. He even writes about Japan, the first European to do so. His book was often thought of as a book of marvels, but one of its striking features to a contemporary reader is its clarity, realism and tolerance. As this new edition shows, he sometimes exaggerates, but his reputation for making things up is quite unfair, as Colin Thubron makes clear in his introduction. The original manuscript of Marco Polo's book is lost, and in the many later versions names and other details have become so garbled that it has been said that his itineraries are impossible to follow. This new Everyman edition shows this need not be so. It explains clearly all the references in the book, and shows in detail with new maps the routes described from Venice to Beijing, from Beijing to Burma, and from Beijing to south-east China. It also provides an up-to-date history of the book and the controversies surrounding it.
£14.39
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Bradshaw’s Canals and Navigable Rivers: of
Book SynopsisA facsimile edition of Bradshaw’s Canals and Navigable Rivers of England and Wales. In the Victorian era, the name Bradshaw became synonymous with reliable information on travelling the nation's blossoming network of railways. Published in 1904, Canals and Navigable Rivers was the first guide to planning journeys on the inland waterways of England and Wales. Noting bridges, locks, distances and commercial use, it explores the routes, operation and history of the network, and gives commentary on the areas through which it passed. Compiled at a time when the railways had largely supplanted the waterways, it paints a fascinating portrait of the Edwardian canal system as it began to fall into gentle decay. This facsimile edition of the original book now offers a different perspective for canal boaters and walkers, and gives invaluable information about waterways now lost.Trade Review'Congratulations to [Old House] on republishing this, which is the most important source book for all canal historians. And at such a low price too - only GBP15 - which is only a fraction of the amount I paid for my copy twenty years ago.' --Peter Brown, Railway & Canal Historical Society
£14.24
HarperCollins Publishers The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.''We said there warn''t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don''t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.''Huck Finn escapes from his drunken father by faking his own death and so begins his journey through the Deep South. On his travels Huck meets Jim, a runaway slave, and together they journey down the Mississippi River in a quest for independence and freedom.With timeless issues of prejudice, bravery and hope at its heart, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was and still is considered one of the great American novels.
£7.99
Penguin Books Ltd A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain
Book SynopsisBritain in the early eighteenth century: an introduction that is both informative and imaginative, reliable and entertaining. To the tradition of travel writing Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime''s experience as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist and spy, and his Tour (1724-6) is an invaluable source of social and economic history. But this book is far more than a beautifully written guide to Britain just before the industrial revolution, for Defoe possessed a wild, inventive streak that endows his work with astonishing energy and tension, and the Tour is his deeply imaginative response to a brave new economic world. By employing his skills as a chronicler, a polemicist and a creative writer keenly sensitive to the depredations of time, Defoe more than achieves his aim of rendering ''the present state'' of Britain.
£13.49
Random House USA Inc Eighty Days Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bislands
Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLEROn November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young female reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by train—was a young journalist from The Cosmopolitan magazine, Elizabeth Bisland. Each woman was determined to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg and circle the globe in less than eighty days. The dramatic race that ensued would span twenty-eight thousand miles, captivate the nation, and change both competitors’ lives forever. The two women were a study in contrasts. Nellie Bly was a scrappy, hard-driving, ambitious reporter from Pennsylvania coal country who sought out the most sensational news stories, often going undercover to expose social injustice. Genteel and elegant, Elizabeth Bisland had be
£14.24
Sam Manicom Distant Suns Adventure in the Vastness of Africa
Book Synopsis
£13.99
John Murray Press The Valleys of the Assassins: A John Murray
Book SynopsisINTRODUCED BY MONISHA RAJESH, award-winning author of Around the World in 80 Trains'If I were asked to enumerate the pleasures of travel, this would be one of the greatest among them - that so often and so unexpectedly you meet the best in human nature.' Growing up in near-poverty and denied a formal education, Freya Stark had nurtured a fascination for the Middle East since reading Arabian Nights as a child. But it wasn't until she was in her thirties that she was able to leave Europe. Boarding a cargo ship to Beirut in 1927, she went on to became one of her generation's most intrepid explorers - her adventures would take her to remote areas in Turkey, the Middle East and Asia. The Valleys of the Assassins chronicles Stark's treks into the wilderness of western Iran on the hunt for treasure and in an attempt to locate the long-fabled Assassins in Alumut, an ancient Persian sect. Entering Luristan on a mule, draped in native clothing, Freya bluffs her way past border guards and sets off into uncharted territory; places where few Europeans, and no European women, had ventured. Stark was a woman of indefatigable energy, who often travelled with only a single guide and on a shoestring budget, and who was undeterred by discomfort and danger. Hailed as a classic upon its first publication in 1934, The Valleys of the Assassins is an absorbing account of people and place. Full of wit and rich in detail - and also in humanity - her writing brings to vivid life the stories of the ancient kingdoms of the Middle East.
£11.69
The New York Review of Books, Inc Afloat
Book SynopsisAfloat, originally published as Sur l’eau in 1888, is a book of dazzling but treacherously shifting currents, a seemingly simple logbook of a sailing cruise along the French Mediterranean coast that opens up to reveal unexpected depths, as Guy de Maupassant merges fact and fiction, dream and documentation in a wholly original style. Humorous and troubling stories, unreliable confessions, stray reminiscences, and thoughts on life, love, art, nature, and society all find a place in Maupassant’s pages, which are, in conception and in effect, so many reflections of the fluid sea on which he finds himself-happily but forever precariously-afloat. Afloat is thus a book that in both content and form courts risk while setting out to chart the meaning, and limits, of freedom, a book that makes itself up as it goes along and in doing so proves as startling and compellingly vital as the paintings of Maupassant’s contemporaries van Gogh and Gauguin.
£13.49
The New York Review of Books, Inc Original Letters From India
Book SynopsisEliza Fay’s origins are obscure; she was not beautiful, rich, or outlandishly accomplished. Yet the letters she wrote from her 1779 voyage across the globe captivated E. M. Forster, who arranged for their British publication in 1925. The letters have been delighting readers ever since with their truth-is-stranger-than-fiction twists and turns, their earthy humor, and their depiction of an indomitable woman. When the intrepid Mrs. Fay departed from Dover more than two hundred years ago, she embarked on a grueling twelve-month journey through much of Europe, up the Nile, over the deserts of Egypt, and finally across the ocean to India. Along the way her party encountered wars, territorial disputes, brigands, and even imprisonment.Fay was a contemporary of Jane Austen, but her adventures are worthy of a novel by Daniel Defoe. These letters—unfiltered, forthright, and often hilarious—bring the perils and excitements of an earlier age to life.
£14.39
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Story of the World in 100 Moments: Discover
Book Synopsis'Oliver is an evocative storyteller, vividly bringing his tales to life' BBC HistoryFrom Genghis Khan's domination on earth to Armstrong's first steps on the moon, discover the 100 moments that defined humanity and shaped our world forever.Neil Oliver takes us on a whistle-stop tour around the world and through a million years to give us this unique and invaluable grasp of how human history pieces together.From the east to the west, north to south, these 100 moments act like stepping stones allowing us to make sense of how these pivotal events have shaped the world we know today.Including many moments readers will expect - from the advent of the printing press to the birth of the internet - there are also surprises, and with them, some remarkable, unforgettable stories that give a whole new insight on our past.From the bestselling author of The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places, this is outstanding new history of how our world was made from 5000 BC to the present.*********************Praise for Neil Oliver'Neil Oliver writes beautifully - bringing the past to life and letting us see ourselves in a new light.' - Professor Alice Roberts'Brilliantly demonstrates Neil's mastery of the broad sweep of British history and landscape.' - Dan Snow'Highly-crafted...a vivid, pungent history.' - TLS'Compelling' - Daily MailTrade ReviewFascinating...This reminds us of the great, enduring importance of looking back at the past in order to better understand the present and help us in the future. A must-read this year. * This England *Oliver continues to write his beautiful, lyrical stories, and refuses to be anything other than himself. Maybe the people who persist in throwing ideological toilet paper at him could learn something from that. Meanwhile, for the rest of us, the best way to see Neil Oliver as he really is, is to read his books. -- Helen Dale * Law & Liberty *
£10.44
The Self-Publishing Partnership Ltd Soul Of A Nomad: The Journey Continues
Book SynopsisThe Journey Continues ... Traversing Canada, rounding Cape Horn, riding the Patagonian Pampas and Mongolian wilds. From Greek Islands to North Cape, through Thailand or along the Silk Road, Letson’s journeys reflect her curiosity and adventurous spirit. Readers meet characters imagined and real: ancestral ghosts, the author’s intrepid parents, lighthouse keepers, an Auschwitz survivor, gauchos, Roma and nomads. Set within historic and literary contexts, Soul of a Nomad shares sixty-five years of journeys and revelations. Evocative descriptions nestle amongst hair-raising anecdotes, every page encouraging the reader to explore further. The English word nomad derives from the ancient Greek νομαδ, referring to those who roam or wander in search of pasture for their livestock. Modern-day nomad, Kim Letson also searches - always seeking new vistas and fresh perspectives - on a lifelong journey that never fails to delight the reader. James Deutsch, George Washington University lecturer, folklorist, author. All lives are special, but some are more special than others. This delightful autobiography encompasses a life, a career and best of all, an exciting guide to those who are more interested in “otherness” than in exporting and expecting Canadian values when abroad. With boisterous good spirits and self-depreciating humour, Letson brings us with her to many of the world’s “roads less travelled” and describes for us the good, the bad and the ugly. Rick Steeves, watch out! Chris Harker, safari guide, fellow adventurer, author. Soul of a Nomad takes us from the Yangykala Canyon of Turkmenistan to the Alaskan Coast and from Florence in Tuscany to Ushuaia in Patagonia. At every juncture, Letson reflects on the significance of place, time and those she encounters. She describes her diverse travels through the eyes of a child, a young soldier on a peace keeping mission and an intrepid retiree. Ever the cautious interloper as she considers her role as “Other” and “outsider,” Letson is a keen observer of new ways, and new cultures. A highly recommended read for all observers of humanity and those with an interest in travel. Christine Dickinson, historian, author. Soul of a Nomad recounts a lifetime of exploration in remote corners of the world. Rich with sensory memories of the author’s childhood in snowy Ontario and family sojourns in England, as well as glimpses of her close bond with her parents, this is the story of how one person grows into the habit and practice of adventure. Going out to meet the world requires courage, flexibility, and humility. Every encounter described by Letson reveals the dual nature of her learning: while other cultures always have much to teach her, the journey is also a mirror of her own self-discovery. This memoir is an interesting blend of many different genres, as Letson also weaves history into her accounts of different countries and regions. For the reader, the pleasure of following the author on her adventures is akin to watching a child grow up to be fearless and confident, full of delight in the mystery and varied beauty of the world. Margo McLoughlin, storyteller, teacher, author.
£16.14
Duckworth Books Georgia in the Mountains of Poetry
Book SynopsisGeorgia in the Mountains of Poetry is essential reading for anyone interested in this fascinating region, as well as for students and researchers looking for an insight into life after the collapse of the old Soviet order in the richest and most dramatic of its former republics.Trade Review'Elegiac, quirky, readable, deeply knowledgeable... the best cultural-historical introduction to that tempestuous land' Daily Telegraph'The best book on post-Soviet Georgia' Independent'Indispensable to all serious travellers to the Caucasus' Times Literary Supplement'Nasmyth is an ideal chronicler... read his quirky, entertaining, sometimes surreal book' Literary Review
£11.69
Oxford University Press South Sea Tales
Book SynopsisTrade Reviewa real treasure. ... RLS at his most serious and playful. * Daily Telegraph Arts and Books section, 19 July 1997 *Table of ContentsThe Beach of Falesa; The Bottle Imp; The Isle of Voices; The Ebb-Tide; A Trio and Quartette; The Cart-Horses and the Saddle-Horse; Something In It.
£9.49
Anthem Press London: A Pilgrimage
Book Synopsis'London: A Pilgrimage' was conceived in 1868 by the journalist and playwright Blanchard Jerrold. Accompanied by the famous artist Gustave Doré, Jerrold prowled every corner of the heaving metropolis, sometimes with plain-clothes police for protection. 'London: A Pilgrimage' is a forgotten classic of social journalism, a frank and brutal look at the poverty striken, gin-swilling London of the nineteenth century, written in a perceptive, bold and gripping style.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations; Introduction by Peter Ackroyd; Preface; Introduction; I: London Bridge; II: The Busy River-Side; III. The Docks; IV. Above Bridge towards Westminster; V. All London at A Boat Race; VI. The Race; VII. The Derby; VIII. London on the Drowns; IX. The West End; X. In the Season; XI. By the Abbey; XII. London, Under Green Leaves; XIII. With the Beasts; XIV: Work-A-Day London; XV. Humble Industries; XVI. The Town of Malt; XVII. Under Lock and Key; XVIII. Whitechapel and Thereabouts; XIX. In the Market Place; XX. London at Play; XXI. London Charity
£9.99
HarperCollins Publishers Literary Landscapes Paris Embark on a captivating
Book SynopsisFrom Voltaire to Verlaine and from Hugo to Hemingway, these are the Paris locations that have influenced modern literature.The book is an elegant photographic stroll around the bookshops, famous literary restaurants and storied streets of Europe's favourite tourist destination.Literary Landscapes: Paris takes this major European city and with picture perfect photography, compiles an album of memorable views linked to the words of Parisian authors, or writers who made Paris their home. It looks at places where books were written, discussed over dinner, and where ultimately the books are sold.There are the theatres of Molière, Dumas and Beaumarchais along with the incredible Palais Garnier opera house and the legend of Le Fantome by Gaston Leroux.There are the revered bookshops of the Latin Quarter including the idiosyncratic Shakespeare & Co.There are the classic grand structures referenced in Victor Hugo novels (and still there) or the mean streets of George Orwell's Down and Out in Pa
£17.00
Penguin Books Ltd A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and
Book Synopsis
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Waugh in Abyssinia Penguin Modern Classics
Book SynopsisA witty account of Waugh''s time in Abyssinia as a war correspondentIn 1935 Italy declared war on Abyssinia and Evelyn Waugh was sent to Addis Ababa to cover the conflict. His acerbic account of the intrigue and political machinations leading up to the crisis is coupled with amusing descriptions of the often bizarre and seldom straightforward life of a war correspondent rubbing shoulders with less-than-honest officials, Arab spies, pyjama-wearing radicals and disgruntled journalists. Witty, lucid and penetrating, Evelyn Waugh captures the dilemmas and complexities of a feudal society caught up in twentieth-century politics and confrontation.
£10.44
Oxford University Press The Oregon Trail
Book SynopsisThe Oregon Trail is the gripping account of Francis Parkman''s journey west across North America in 1846. After crossing the Allegheny Mountains by coach and continuing by boat and wagon to Westport, Missouri, he set out with three companions on a horseback journey that would ultimately take him over two thousand miles. In the course of his travels, Parkman encountered numerous Indians, living among a Sioux tribe for a time, as well as meeting traders, trappers, and emigrants searching for a new life. His detailed description of the journey, set against the vast majesty of the Great Plains, has emerged through the generations as a classic narrative of one man''s exploration of the American Wilderness. It is a journey which has shaped our picture of mid-nineteenth-century America and which has influenced our perception of American civilization. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewThe book, in brief, is excellent and has the true wild game flavor. And amazingly tickled will all their palates be, who are so lucky as to read it. * Herman Melville *
£9.49
Oxford University Press Domestic Manners of the Americans
Book Synopsis''it appeared to me that the greatest and best feelings of the human heart were paralyzed by the relative positions of slave and owner''In Domestic Manners of the Americans, Frances Trollope recounts her travels through America between 1827 and 1830, describing her voyage up the Mississippi from New Orleans, a two-year stay in Cincinnati, and a subsequent tour of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. A transatlantic best-seller on publication in 1832, its forthright criticisms of American manners encompassed spitting, religious extremism, ladies'' dress, the relentless pursuit of money, and the unequal treatment of women, slaves, and Native Americans. Witty, satiric, and hugely entertaining, Trollope also had a serious purpose in warning her compatriots of the consequences of democratic freedoms at a time of great social change in England. Deploring slavery and the hypocrisy that sanctioned it, she fuelled abolitionist debate on both sides of the Atlantic and so impressed Trade ReviewIt's a hugely entertaining and informative read, and the new Oxford World Classics edition has all the extras youd expect from this publisher, including an excellent introduction and notes, and even some of the illustrations from the original 1832 edition. Splendid stuff. * Harriet Devine, Shiny New Books *Published in 1832, this feisty journal of a three-year spell in America remains delectably hilarious. * Christopher Hirst, Independent *
£10.44
Oxford University Press The Uncommercial Traveller Oxford Worlds Classics
Book SynopsisIn this series of sketches Dickens brings the city of London and its inhabitants vividly to life. His travels take him to the workhouse, the theatre, and further afield to the Liverpool docks and the Paris morgue. Combining autobiography with reportage, the book showcases Dickens's characteristic wit, humour, and social concerns.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Charles Dickens THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER Map: Dickens;s London Appendix: Textual Variants Explanatory Notes
£9.49
John Murray Press Through Khiva to Golden Samarkand
Book SynopsisINTRODUCED BY CAROLINE EDEN, award-winning author of Black Sea, Red Sands and Samarkand''Medieval pomp, splendour, and picturesqueness... a life that one can hardly even realize.''In 1912, Ella R. Christie - a veteran Scottish traveller who had made expeditions to Kashmir, Tibet, Malaya, Borneo, China, Korea and Japan - steamed across the Caspian Sea to explore Central Asia. Her travels through the Russian Empire took her to the Silk Road cities of Tashkent and Samarkand, and she became the first British woman to visit the Khanate of Khiva. Eschewing the cloak and dagger intrigues of a previous generation of Great Game spies, Christie was a meticulous observer of the everyday - whether meeting khans, dining with generals or vividly chronicling market life - shortly before war and revolution swept that world away.
£11.69
Little, Brown Book Group Madrid
Book SynopsisThe charm of Madrid is elusive, but for those who know how to find it, Madrid has magic. Its magic can be found in the shadow cast over the present by the past. In this Traveller''s Reader, a city that was once the seat of power for perhaps the most ambitious political enterprise the western world had seen since the fall of Rome, the Spanish Empire, is brought to life in vivid diaries, letters, memoirs and histories.The Earl of Clarendon describes seventeenth-century bullfights; Salvador Dali plays a surrealist joke on a snooty barman at the Ritz; Rubens visits the Alcázar; Manet is at the Prado; generals and anarchists meet in the Puerta del Sol. The many stories included here evoke for today''s tourist the dramas and personalities of a city''s past, by drawing on the eyewitness accounts and commentaries of visitors and residents of earlier centuries. Hugh Thomas has chosen these and other vivid snapshots of Madrid''s history from diaries, letters, memoirs and novels acrossTrade ReviewIdeal for the cultured tourist . . . a vivid portrait * Times Literary Supplement *A fascinating companion * Tablet *
£12.34
Short Books Ltd The Interior Silence: 10 Lessons from Monastic
Book Synopsis"Inspirational" - The Daily Mail"Sarah Sands has written about stillness with an eloquence that fizzes with vitality and wit. This wonderful book charts a journey to some of the most beautiful and tranquil places on earth, and introduces us to people whose inner peace is a balm for our troubled times. I loved every page of it." - Nicholas HytnerSuffering from information overload, unable to sleep, Sarah Sands, former editor of the BBC's Today programme, has tried many different strategies to de-stress... only to reject them because, as she says, all too often they threaten to become an exercise in self-absorption.Inspired by the ruins of an ancient Cistercian abbey at the bottom of her Norfolk garden, she begins to research the lives of the monks who once resided there, and realises how much we may have to learn from monasticism.Renouncing the world, monks and nuns have acquired a hidden knowledge of how to live: they labour, they learn and they acquire 'the interior silence'. This book is a quest for that hidden knowledge - a pilgrimage to ten monasteries round the world.From a Coptic desert community in Egypt to a retreat in the Japanese mountains, we follow Sands as she identifies the common characteristics of monastic life and the wisdoms to be learned from them; and as she discovers, behind the cloistered walls, a clarity of mind and an unexpected capacity for solitude which enable her, after years of insomnia, to experience that elusive, dreamless sleep.Trade Review'Inspirational' * Daily Mail *'Sarah Sands has written about stillness with an eloquence that fizzes with vitality and wit. This wonderful book charts a journey to some of the most beautiful and tranquil places on earth, and introduces us to people whose inner peace is a balm for our troubled times. I loved every page of it.' * Nicholas Hytner *'This book shows that tranquillity of spirit is worth searching for.' * John Humphrys *'This is a book which goes beyond history to the needs of human nature. It is a balm for our times.' * Elizabeth Adenkule, Archdeacon of Hackney *'In tumultuous times, monasteries are the ideal place for believers and non-believers alike to seek peace and reflection. Sarah Sands is the perfect guide to these sites of solace, a Patrick Leigh Fermor for the soul.' * Matt d’Ancona *'A fascinating journey, from the cauldron of the newsroom to the peace of monasteries.' * Alice Thomson *'Magical... Bright... Captivating.' -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *'I loved the mix of far-off destinations and the spiritual journey. This is a brilliant book and an antidote to our 24/7 culture.' * Melanie Mcdonagh *'Gripping... Witty... Poignant, and a fable of our times.' -- Dan Hitchens * UnHerd *'A charming and quirky homage to A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor... The pulling of [Sands'] natural twinkling merriment against her genuine desire to explore spirituality and silence is what makes this book so lovable.' -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * The Spectator *'An engaging and satisfying book challenging us to consider the priorities each of us have chosen, and inviting us to consider how best we can find the interior silence by which we can know ourselves and the world around us better.' -- Reverend Marcus Walker * The Times *'A beautifully written, self-deprecating, self-doubting, and fortunately timed book.' -- William Cash * Catholic Herald *
£10.44
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Persian Pictures: From the Mountains to the Sea
Book SynopsisGertrude Bell's fascinating account of a lifetime of travel and a lifelong enchantment of Persia. 'Are we the same, I wonder, when all our surroundings, association, acquaintances are changed? I conclude that it is not the person who danced with you at Mansfield St who writes to you today from Persia. Yet there are dregs, English sediment at the bottom of my sherbet, and perhaps they flavour it more than I think. I write to you of Persia: I am not me, that is my only excuse. I am merely pouring out for you some of what I have received in the last two months.' When Gertrude Bell's uncle was appointed Minister in Tehran in 1891, she declared that the great ambition of her life was to visit Persia. Several months later, she did. And so began a lifetime of travel and a lifelong enchantment with what she saw as the romance of the East, which evolved into a deep understanding of its cultures and people. This vivid and impressionistic series of sketches, her first foray into writing, is an evocative meditation that moves between Persia's heroic past and its long decline; the public face of Tehran and the otherworldly 'secret, mysterious life of the East', the lives of its women, its lush, enclosed gardens; from the bustling cities to the lonely wastelands of Khorasan.Trade ReviewIn British diplomatic group photographs of the early twentiethcentury Middle East, amid the plumes and uniforms and the calm paraphernalia of an empire going to hell in a bucket, there is often a solitary female. The woman is slim, with a head of luxuriant hair, and neatly dressed in billowing muslins or in the pencil silhouette and cloche hats of jazz-age Baghdad. The woman is Gertrude Bell. -- James Buchan * The Guardian *Her remarkable intellectual abilities and masculine demeanour make Persian Pictures, her first publication on an Eastern subject, all the more interesting. -- Geoffrey NashTable of ContentsPreface 1. An Eastern City 2. The Tower of Silence 3. In Praise of Gardens 4. The King of Merchants 5. The Imam Hussein 6. The Shadow of Death 7. Dwellers in Tents 8. Three Noble Ladies 9. The Treasure of the King 10. Sheikh Hassan 11. A Persian Host 12. A Stage and a Half 13. A Bridle- Path 14. Two Palaces 15. The Month of Fasting 16. Requiescant in Pace 17. The City of King Prusias 18. Shops and Shopkeepers 19. A Murray of the First Century 20. Travelling Companions
£999.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Wild Women: A collection of first-hand accounts
Book SynopsisA collection of the greatest women's travel writing selected by journalist and presenter Mariella Frostrup. From Constantinople to Crimea; from Antarctica to the Andes. Throughout history adventurous women have made epic, record-breaking journeys under perilous circumstances. Whether escaping constricted societies back home or propelled by a desire for independence, footloose females have ventured to the four corners of the earth and recorded their exploits for posterity. For too long their triumphs have been overshadowed by those of their male counterparts, whose honourable failures make bigger news. In curating this collection of first-hand accounts, broadcaster, writer and traveller Mariella Frostrup puts female explorers back on the map. Her selection includes explorers from the 1700s to the present day, from iconic heroines to lesser-known eccentrics, celebrating 300 years of wild women and their amazing adventures over land, sea and air. Reviews for Wild Women: 'A stirring whistle-stop tour, led by women who often risked disapproval in leaving home to roam the world' Vanity Fair 'Like any good travel book, Wild Women succeeds in casting the reader's mind off on journeys of its own, inspiring fresh plans and what the Germans call Fernweh, or a longing for faraway places' TLS 'Required reading for anyone who assumed that 'the road less travelled' was a solely masculine preserve' Sunday IndependentTrade ReviewRequired reading for anyone who assumed that "the road less travelled" was a solely masculine preserve * Dublin Sunday Independent, Must Reads of 2019 *This fine anthology brings a female voice to a subject too long dominated by men... It curates some incredible tales' * Wanderlust *At a time when #MeToo is striking rather a strident note, these insights into the peculiar experiences and observations of courageous and articulate women in a male-dominated world are a joy to read * Country Life *Like any good travel book, Wild Women succeeds in casting the reader's mind off on journeys of its own, inspiring fresh plans and what the Germans call Fernweh, or a longing for faraway places * TLS *A stirring whistle-stop tour, led by women who often risked disapproval in leaving home to roam the world * Vanity Fair *
£17.00
