Ever since Roman tourists scratched graffiti on the pyramids and temples of Egypt over two thousand years ago, people have travelled far and wide seeking the great wonders of antiquity. In From Stonehenge to Samarkand, noted archaeologist and popular writer Brian Fagan offers an engaging historical account of our enduring love of ancient architecture-the irresistible impulse to visit strange lands in search of lost cities and forgotten monuments. Here is a marvellous history of archaeological tourism, with generous excerpts from the writings of the tourists themselves. Readers will find Herodotus describing the construction of Babylon; Edward Gibbon receiving inspiration for his seminal work while wandering through the ruins of the Forum in Rome; Gustave Flaubert watching the sunrise from atop the Pyramid of Cheops. We visit Easter Island with Pierre Loti, Machu Picchu with Hiram Bingham, Central Africa with David Livingstone. Fagan describes the early antiquarians, consumed with a passionate and omnivorous curiosity, pondering the mysteries of Stonehenge, but he also considers some of the less reputable figures, such as the Earl of Elgin, who sold large parts of the Parthenon to the British Museum. Finally, he discusses the changing nature of archaeological tourism, from the early romantic wanderings of the solitary figure, communing with the departed spirits of Druids or Mayans, to the cruise-ship excursions of modern times, where masses of tourists are hustled through ruins, barely aware of their surroundings. From the Holy Land to the Silk Road, the Yucatan to Angkor Wat, Fagan follows in the footsteps of the great archaeological travellers to retrieve their first written impressions in a book that will delight anyone fascinated with the landmarks of ancient civilization.

Isobel Wylie Hutchison was many things: a botanist, traveller, poet and artist. She travelled solo throughout the arctic collecting plant samples, wrote and published extensive volumes of essays and poetry, and was - in short - one of the most remarkable Scottish figures of her time. However, since her death in 1982 her legacy has been forgotten compared with her male counterparts. Now Isobel can speak for herself again. While better known for her solo journeys across the Arctic, these essays detail Isobel's journeys across Scotland, including visits to Skye, John O' Groats and the various literary shrines across the country. Written with characteristic wit and a keen interest in both science and myth and folklore, the essays serve as important cultural markers not just of Scotland as it was and has developed, but of a woman's experience of travelling alone and a testament to the importance of cultural connection, exploration and communication.

One morning Carolina wakes up, determined to change something in her life. She has had enough of living her monotonous daily routine and craves something else, something unusual. How about a trip around the world? Her adventure takes her to the Middle East, Africa and Oceania. During her travels she encounters endangered mountain gorillas, walks with wild lions, and flirts with adrenaline boosting activities like bungee jumping. But what does this experience bring her spiritually?

In June of 1922, Marguerite Harrison, and American journalist and spy embarked from North America on what was to be an epic journey to Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia and Siberia. It was in Siberia that she was arrested by the Bolsheviks, sent 4,000 kilometres to Moscow and imprisoned there, first in the notorious Lubyanka and later in Butrykra Prison. She was threatened with a charge of espionage which could carry the death sentence or at a minimum, ten years' exile in Siberia. Ultimately, the US Government interceded and she was released. Red Bear or Yellow Dragon is one of the finest sources on Japanese society and culture in the 1920s and also offers a rare glimpse into life in the Asian steppes. Harrison undertook a highly dangerous 1,400 km trip from Beijing to Mongolia's capital, Ulan Bator, through the Great Khingan Mountains and over the Gobi Desert to Chita in Siberia. She wrote: 'Most of the roads I followed were bloodstained road - some grim reminders of the World War and Revolution, others with fresh traces of blood shed since the peace.' Marguerite undertook this arduous journey to chronicle the peoples and politics of what she sensed as a stirring of new movements in Asia - the eternal sphinx - that were to severely challenge the West in the coming decades and which continue to do up to the present age.

The diary of Anton Reiff Jr. (c. 1830-1916) is one of only a handful of primary sources to offer a firsthand account of antebellum riverboat travel in the American South. The Pyne and Harrison Opera Troupe, a company run by English sisters Susan and Louisa Pyne and their business partner, tenor William Harrison, hired Reiff, then freelancing in New York, to serve as musical director and conductor for the company's American itinerary. The grueling tour began in November 1855 in Boston and then proceeded to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati, where, after a three-week engagement, the company boarded a paddle steamer bound for New Orleans. It was at that point that Reiff started to keep his diary. Diligently transcribed and annotated by Michael Burden, Reiff's diary presents an extraordinarily rare view of life with a foreign opera company as it traveled the country by river and rail. Surprisingly, Reiff comments little on the Pyne-Harrison performances themselves, although he does visit the theaters in the river towns, including New Orleans, where he spends evenings both at the French Opera and at the Gaiety. Instead, Reiff focuses his attention on other passengers, on the mechanics of the journey, on the landscape, and on events he encounters, including the 1856 Mardi Gras and the unveiling of the statue of Andrew Jackson in New Orleans's Jackson Square. Reiff is clearly captivated by the river towns and their residents, including the enslaved, whom he encountered whenever the boat tied up. Running throughout the journal is a thread of anxiety, for, apart from the typical dangers of a river trip, the winter of 1855-1856 was one of the coldest of the century, and the steamer had difficulties with river ice. Historians have used Reiff's journal as source material, but until now the entire text, which is archived in Louisiana State University's Special Collections in Hill Memorial Library, has only been available in its original state. As a primary source, the published journal will have broad appeal to historians and other readers interested in antebellum riverboat travel, highbrow entertainment, and the people and places of the South.

Explore the landscapes and places that inspired great art: find peace in Monet's lily-filled garden oasis, climb Mount Fuji on a printmaker's pilgrimage, sail with Gauguin to the South Pacific to stretch your imagination, or contemplate light and the changing seasons on Chelsea Embankment. Artistic Places is a stunningly hand-illustrated, visionary guide for seekers of beauty, rare tales and cultural riches. Find yourself instantly transported to the places where great artists have sought refuge, found their inspiration and changed the course of art history forever. Susie Hodge, bestselling author and art historian, presents 25 famous and forgotten artistic destinations around the world, and connects these to the artists they inspired. In keeping with the Inspired Traveller's Guide series design, each entry is accompanied by specially commissioned illustrations from Amy Grimes which perfectly evoke the wonders that first attracted the masters, while Hodge delves into each location's curious history with insightful stories both in and beyond the canon. So take a leaf out of your favourite artist's sketchbook and discover the places they loved best. Artists and locations include: J.A.M Whistler in London, England John Constable in Suffolk, England Barbara Hepworth in St Ives, England Paula Rego in Cascais and Estoril, Portugal Pablo Picasso and Guernica, Spain Salvador Dali in Catalonia, Spain Claude Monet in Giverny, France Vincent van Gogh in Arles, France Rene Magritte in Brussels, Belgium Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland Michelangelo in Florence, Italy Canaletto in Venice, Italy Johannes Vermeer in Delft, Netherlands Anni Albers in Dessau, Germany Caspar David Friedrich in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, Germany Gustav Klimt and Lake Attersee, Austria Edvard Munch in Oslo, Norway Hilma af Klint and Lake Malaren, Sweden Henri Matisse in Tangier, Morocco Hokusai on Mount Fuji, Japan Paul Gauguin in Papeete and Papeari, Tahiti Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York, USA Grant Wood in Iowa, USA Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico, USA Frida Kahlo in Coyoacan, Mexico Each book in the Inspired Traveller's Guides series offers readers a fascinating, informative and charmingly illustrated guide to must-visit destinations round the globe. Also from this series, explore intriguing: Spiritual Places, Literary Places, Hidden Places and Mystical Places.

A 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.

A 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.

Lose yourself in this dazzling travelogue of the idyllic Greek Islands by the king of travel writing and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu. 'Incandescent.' Andre Aciman 'A magician.' The Times 'Invades the reader's every sense ... Remarkable.' Victoria Hislop 'Nobody knows the Greek islands like Durrell.' New York Times White-washed houses drenched in pink bougainvillea; dazzling seascapes and rugged coastlines; colourful harbours in quaint fishing villages; shady olive and cypress groves; terraces bathed in the Aegean sun ... The Greek islands conjure up a treasure-chest of images - but nobody brings them to life as vividly as the legendary travel writer Lawrence Durrell. It was during his youth in Corfu - which his brother Gerald fictionalised in My Family and Other Animals, later filmed as The Durrells In Corfu - that his love affair with the Mediterranean began. Now, in this glorious tour of the Greek islands, he weaves evocative descriptions of these idyllic landscapes with insights into their ancient history, and shares luminous personal memories of his time in the local communities. No traveller to Greece or admirer of Durrell's magic should miss it. 'Masterly ... Casts a spell.' Jan Morris 'Charming ... Delightful.' Sunday Times 'Our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean.' Richard Holmes 'Like long letters from a civilized and very funny friend - the prose as luminous as the Mediterranean air he loves.' Time

In 1598 merchants of the City of London paid for a Present to be given by Queen Elizabeth to Sultan Mehmet III of Turkey. In return the merchants hoped to secure trading concessions, and the Virgin Queen to turn the Sultan's military might on her Spanish enemies. The Present was a carved, painted and gilded cabinet about sixteen feet high, six feetwideand five feet deep. It contained a chiming clock with jewel-encrusted moving figures combined with an automatic organ, which could play tunes on its own for six hours - or by hand to the point of exhaustion. The Present was dismantled and dispatched on a merchant ship early in 1599. It took six months to get from London to Constantinople. With it went four craftsmen. They were Thomas Dallam the organ builder, John Harvey the engineer, Michael Watson the carpenter and Rowland Buckett the painter. Dallam was just twenty four years old. On their odyssey they encountered storms, volcanoes, exotic animals, foreign food, good wine, pirates, brigands, Moors, Turks, Greeks, Jews, beautiful women, barbarous men, kings and pashas, armies on the march, janissaries, eunuchs, slaves, dwarves and finally the most powerful man in the known world, the Great Turk himself. Faithfully translated into modern prose, unembellished and unedited, this illuminating historical source reads as if its Elizabethan author were alive today.

'All those interested in South Asia and its complex politics and culture should read this book' - Pankaj Mishra The demise of Pakistan - a country with a reputation for volatility, brutality and radical Islam - is regularly predicted. But things rarely turn out as expected, as renowned journalist Declan Walsh knows well. Over a decade covering the country, his travels took him from the raucous port of Karachi to the gilded salons of Lahore to the lawless frontier of Waziristan, encountering Pakistanis whose lives offer a compelling portrait of this land of contradictions. He meets a crusading lawyer who risks her life to fight for society's most marginalised, taking on everyone including the powerful military establishment; an imperious chieftain spouting poetry at his desert fort; a roguish politician waging a mini-war against the Taliban; and a charismatic business tycoon who moves into politics and seems to be riding high - till he takes up the wrong cause. Lastly, Walsh meets a spy whose orders once involved following him, and who might finally be able to answer the question that haunts him: why the Pakistanis suddenly expelled him from their country. Intimate and complex, unravelling the many mysteries of state and religion, this formidable book offers an arresting account of life in a country that, often as not, seems to be at war with itself. 'Thrilling, big-hearted' - Memphis Barker, Daily Telegraph 'Sets a new benchmark for non-fiction about the complex palace of mirrors that is Pakistan' - William Dalrymple

This summer holiday vintage classic exploring the mystery of a buried Cornish hotel invites us to solve the puzzle as detectives: perfect for Agatha Christie fans, with a dash of Richard Osman ... 'I am loving it!' Nigella Lawson 'Hilarious and perceptive ... Perfect.' Daily Mail 'Entertaining, beautifully written, and profound.' Tracy Chevalier 'Tense, touching, human, dire, and funny ... A feast indeed.' Elizabeth Bowen 'Kennedy is not only a romantic but an anarchist.' Anita Brookner 'Oh boy, what a treat; wonderfully sharp and funny ... Page-turningly good!' Lissa Evans 'So full of pleasure that you could be forgiven for not seeing how clever it is.' Cathy Rentzenbrink (foreword) Cornwall, Midsummer 1947. Pendizack Manor Hotel is buried in the rubble of a collapsed cliff. Seven guests have perished, but is it murder, and what brought this strange assembly together for a moonlit feast before this Act of God - or Man? Over the week before the landslide, we meet the hotel guests in all their eccentric glory: and as friendships form and romances blossom, sins are revealed, and the cliff cracks widen .. Reader Reviews: 'One of the best books I have ever read ... Viva Ms. Kennedy, you were truly marvellous!' ***** 'The best book I've ever read. Yes, I know that's a big statement! Kennedy is quickly becoming my all-time favorite author ... A first-rate literary genius.' ***** 'This is bar none, one of the best books I have ever read.' ***** 'Offers us the chance to solve a very unusual kind of mystery ... An unexpectedly engaging literary game.' **** 'A magnificent rediscovery ... Kennedy's masterpiece is a searing and unflinching look at postwar England ... Elegantly and tartly written, this smart and haunting novel offers one of the most unforgettable endings ... A brilliant and moving literary feast to be enjoyed without any moderation! ***** 'I'm longing to read this again! Clever Kennedy! Is it a thriller? Is it a morality play or an exploration of divine justice? Or is it a family/village saga and maybe even a romance? ... Terrifically readable with a marvellous cast.' ***** 'Such a good idea, and brilliantly executed ... I was unable to stop reading, absorbed completely in the company of the motley group. It's almost like you're eavesdropping on them. After finishing it, I find myself still thinking about it ... A fabulous read.' ***** 'One of my favorite kinds of books: a forgotten treasure..' *****

In 1878 a young man named William Pryer was sent to North Borneo (now Sabah) to 'establish' the British North Borneo Company there. In 1894 his wife Ada published her account of his early years as an administrator along with some sketches of their life together. The memoir has unique value both as a travel narrative in its own right and for understanding the international politics of the British takeover of North Borneo. The new edition will reproduce the text of the original 1894 edition, including an introductory essay as well as annotations to explain and contextualize references of historical and biographical significance.

In 1951 the Australian writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston left grey, post-war London for Greece. Settling first on the tiny island of Kalymnos, then Hydra, their plan was to live simply and focus on their writing, away from the noise of the big city. The result is two of Charmian Clift's best known and most loved books, the memoirs Mermaid Singing and Peel Me a Lotus. Mermaid Singing relays the culture shock and the sheer delight of their first year on the tiny sponge-fishing island of Kalymnos. Clift paints an evocative picture of the characters and sun-drenched rhythms of traditional life, long before backpackers and mass tourism descended. On Hydra, featured in the companion volume, Peel Me a Lotus, Clift and Johnston became the centre of an informal community of artists and writers including the then unknown Leonard Cohen who lodged with them, and his future girlfriend Marianne Ihlen.

The explorations of 18th-century travellers to the "European frontiers" were often geared to define the cultural, political and historical boundaries of "European civilization". In an age when political revolutions shocked nations into reassessing what separated the civilized from the barbaric, how did literary travellers contemplate the characteristics of their continental neighbours? Focusing on the writings of British travellers, we see how a new view of Europe was created, one that juxtaposed the customs and living conditions of populations in an attempt to define "modern" Europe against a "yet unenlightened" Europe.