Unpublished for 90 years, Agatha Christie's extensive and evocative letters and photographs from her year-long round-the-world trip to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America as part of the British trade mission for the famous 1924 Empire Exhibition. In 1922 Agatha Christie set sail on a 10-month voyage around the British Empire with her husband as part of a trade mission to promote the forthcoming British Empire Exhibition. Leaving her two-year-old daughter behind with her sister, Agatha set sail at the end of January and did not return until December, but she kept up a detailed weekly correspondence with her mother, describing in detail the exotic places and people she encountered as the mission travelled through South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada. The extensive and previously unpublished letters are accompanied by hundreds of photos taken on her portable camera as well as some of the original letters, postcards, newspaper cuttings and memorabilia collected by Agatha on her trip. Edited and introduced by Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, this unique travelogue reveals a new side to Agatha Christie, demonstrating how her appetite for exotic plots and locations for her books began with this eye-opening trip, which took place just after only her second novel had been published (the first leg of the tour to South Africa is very clearly the inspiration for the book she wrote immediately afterwards, The Man in the Brown Suit). The letters are full of tales of seasickness and sunburn, motor trips and surf boarding, and encounters with welcoming locals and overbearing Colonials. The Grand Tour is a book steeped in history, sure to fascinate anyone interested in the lost world of the 1920s. Coming from the pen of Britain's biggest literary export and the world's most widely translated author, it is also a fitting tribute to Agatha Christie and is sure to fascinate her legions of worldwide fans.

Cornish-born writer, traveller and controversialist James Silk Buckingham (1786 1855) spent much of his early life as a sailor in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and went on to publish accounts of his extensive travels to India, Palestine and Persia. His criticisms of the East India Company and the Bengal government led to his expulsion from India in 1823. In the 1830s he became a Member of Parliament and campaigned for social reforms. He founded several journals, including the periodical The Athenaeum. This illustrated two-volume work, published in 1829 and reprinted here from its second edition of 1830, recounts Buckingham's journey through Assyria and Persia en route for India, giving vivid descriptions of its ancient sites and his views on the modern inhabitants of the region. In Volume 1 he starts his narrative at Baghdad, describing Isfahan and the Achaemenid capital, Persepolis, before arriving at Shiraz.

The Scottish twin sisters Agnes Lewis (1843 1926) and Margaret Gibson (1843 1920), heiresses of an extremely wealthy man, between them learned numerous languages, including Modern Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Syriac, and became pioneering biblical scholars and explorers at a time when women rarely ventured to foreign lands. Their initial desire to travel to the Holy Land was encouraged by their Presbyterian minister. Setting out with their former teacher, Grace Blyth, in 1868, they travelled across Europe to Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Palestine. In this 1870 account, Lewis vividly describes the discomfort of long-distance travel, especially for women, and their encounters with the people they met on the way. At Constantinople they were struck by the beauty of Hagia Sophia, and saw whirling dervishes. They had some difficulties with their guide in Egypt, but this did not deter them, and they continued on to Palestine before returning to Europe.

Moritz von Kotzebue (1789 1861), son of the German dramatist and an experienced seaman and soldier, who had faced Bonaparte's troops on the battlefield, travelled to the court of Fath Ali Shah Qajar (1772 1834), the king of Persia, with a Russian embassy in 1817. His account of the journey was published in German in 1819, and an English translation was published in the same year, claiming to offer a different perspective from the ordinary run of British writings on Persia. Covering the journey from St Petersburg through the Caucasus and down to Soltaniyeh, where the embassy meets the Shah, the work is a compilation of day-to-day observations on people and events. The author is astute and witty, and the book is not only an interesting read but also a useful source for the region's social history; a lengthy description of the Shah's court is particularly impressive.

Clarke Abel (c.1780 1825) was Chief Medical Officer accompanying Lord Amherst's unsuccessful diplomatic embassy to China in 1816. Encouraged by Sir Joseph Banks, he acted as official naturalist to the expedition, which penetrated further into China than had been possible for previous western visitors. Although most of his large collection of botanical and mineralogical specimens was lost during the return voyage, survivals included several new species, some of which were named after him. This work, published in 1818, made Abel's reputation, and he was elected to the Royal Society the following year. His geological survey of the Cape of Good Hope, studied on the outward journey, is particularly impressive. Abel's account of Chinese society and culture is an important record of a country which was then largely inaccessible to Europeans. An appendix by Robert Brown (Banks' botanist) lists the specimens that survived the shipwreck, which is itself dramatically described.

The Scottish twin sisters Agnes Lewis (1843 1926) and Margaret Gibson (1843 1920) between them spoke modern Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Syriac, and were pioneering biblical scholars and explorers at a time when women rarely ventured to foreign lands. The sisters made several journeys to the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai, discovering ancient biblical manuscripts, and their first two visits there were described in the 1893 publication How the Codex was Found (also available in this series). Lewis' In the Shadow of Sinai of 1898 was composed as a sequel to this work, dealing with the third and fourth journeys to Sinai, in 1895 and 1897. She gives a vivid account of the practicalities of desert travelling, as well as the excitement of the sisters and their academic colleagues as they recognised the significance of their discoveries in the monastic library.

This English edition of the work of the Arab traveller usually known as Ibn Battuta (1304-68/9) was translated by Rev. Samuel Lee (1783-1852), Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge, from 'the abridged Arabic manuscript copies, preserved in the Public Library of Cambridge', and published in 1829. Lee's work sparked widespread European interest in Ibn Battuta, who had set off from his native Morocco on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325, and kept travelling for the next twenty-four years, reaching as far east as China and as far south as Zanzibar, as well as visiting parts of Spain and the Byzantine Empire. On his return, he dictated an account of his travels; Lee translated an abridged version, but fuller versions were later discovered. There is doubt as to whether Ibn Battuta actually saw everything he described, but this account gives a fascinating world-view from the medieval period.

Sir Adolphus Slade (1804 77), British naval officer and author, documents his experiences crossing Europe to Turkey in these detailed and richly worded travel journals. Having joined the Royal Navy at a young age, he was promoted to Lieutenant in 1827. Subsequently, he was posted on several missions to Turkey and Greece, in between which he would take the opportunity for personal travel and writing. This is one among several works recording his travels across Europe; he was later appointed administrative head of the Turkish Navy (his history of the Crimean War is also reissued in this series). This collection of accounts, first published in 1840, has a remarkably broad scope. Slade covers peculiarities and specificities of tradition, landscape, class, politics and architecture, often describing encounters with individuals. He draws comparisons with England, presenting the reader with a double cultural insight in a fascinating example of nineteenth-century travel writing.

Originally published in 1913, this edition of Fielding's Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon contains the complete text of the Journal together with an introduction and notes. The Journal provides a brief record of Fielding's journey of seven weeks between Rotherhithe and Lisbon, in search of a cure for his deteriorating health. Fielding died in Lisbon during 1754 and the work was first published shortly after his death. It is a unique and fascinating document created at a late stage in the author's life, which will be of value to anyone with an interest in eighteenth-century literature and travel writing.

This four-volume edition of the Arabic text of the Journey of the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta (1304-68/9), with a French translation, was published in 1853-8. In 1325, Ibn Battuta, who came from a family of Islamic jurists in Tangier, set out to make the pilgrimage to Mecca - the beginning of a journey that would last for twenty-four years and take him as far as China. In Volume 3, having decided to visit the court of the Turkic sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq at Delhi, he travels via Bukhara and Samarkand to Afghanistan and then across the Hindu Kush into India. At Delhi, he was given the post of Judge by the sultan, and he stayed at the court for six years. He provides a history of the kingdom of Delhi and an account of Tughluq's reign, describing both his wisdom and generosity and his 'acts of violence and criminal deeds'.

This four-volume edition of the Arabic text of the Journey of the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta (1304-68/9), with a French translation was published in 1853-8. In 1325, Ibn Battuta, who came from a family of jurists in Tangier, set out to make the pilgrimage to Mecca - the beginning of a journey that would last for twenty-four years and take him as far as China. In Volume 4, the sultan of Delhi asks Ibn Battuta to lead an embassy to China, during which he suffers difficulties, including attacks by Hindus, and shipwreck. He eventually reaches China via Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Philippines; he then performs a fourth hajj before returning home, after twenty-four years' absence. He sets out again, to visit first Muslim Spain and then further regions of Africa, as far south as Timbuktu and down the river Niger, before returning home to dictate an account of his travels.

This two-volume English translation of part of a longer travel narrative by the Ottoman aristocrat Evliya Celebi (1611-c.1680) was translated by the Austrian scholar Joseph von Hammer (1774-1856) and published in 1834 by the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, set up to make 'Eastern' texts more widely available in English. Celebi was highly educated, had served the Ottoman court both as a diplomat and as a soldier, and as he says, had in his travels 'seen the countries of eighteen monarchs and heard 147 different languages'. His lifetime encompassed the highest point of Ottoman expansion into Europe, and his indefatigable curiosity about everything he saw makes this work a fascinating assemblage of topics varying from the fountains of Istanbul to a journey to Georgia. Volume 1 includes a short biography of Celebi and accounts of the history and architecture of his native city.

This two-volume English translation of part of a longer travel narrative by the Ottoman aristocrat Evilya Celebi (1611-c.1680) was translated by the Austrian scholar Joseph von Hammer (1774-1856) and published in 1834 by the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, set up to make 'Eastern' texts more widely available in English. Celebi was highly educated, had served the Ottoman court both as a diplomat and as a soldier, and as he says, had in his travels 'seen the countries of eighteen monarchs and heard 147 different languages'. His lifetime encompassed the highest point of Ottoman expansion into Europe, and his indefatigable curiosity about everything he saw makes this work a fascinating assemblage of topics varying from the fountains of Istanbul to a journey to Georgia. Volume 2 includes Celebi's eye-witness account of the siege and conquest of Canea (Khania) in Crete in 1645.

The Scottish twin sisters Agnes Lewis (1843 1926) and Margaret Gibson (1843 1920) between them spoke modern Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Syriac, and were pioneering biblical scholars and explorers at a time when women rarely ventured to foreign lands. The sisters made several journeys to the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai, and their first two visits there are described in this 1893 publication. Using her sister's journals, Margaret Gibson tells how Agnes discovered a version of the Gospels in Syriac from the fifth century CE. This text is immensely important, being an example of the New Testament written in the eastern branch of Aramaic, the language that Jesus himself spoke. Meanwhile, Margaret Gibson studied other manuscripts in the library and photographed them; the sisters later transcribed and published many of these. Controversy over the circumstances of the discovery led to Margaret publishing this account in 1893.

Robert Edwin Peary (1856 1920), the distinguished American Arctic explorer, is usually credited as the first person to have reached the geographic North Pole, in 1909. First published in 1898, this two-volume work recounts Peary's expeditions across the interior ice-cap of Northern Greenland in the years 1886 and 1891 7. It describes Peary's contacts with the local Inuit tribes and the valuable scientific discoveries he made in geography, and natural history. Peary also documents the discovery and conveyance to the United States of the Cape York meteorites, from which the Inuit had extracted iron, but whose whereabouts had been a secret. In Volume 1, Peary recounts his first two expeditions in Greenland. On the first, in 1886, he travelled over the Greenland ice sheet for 100 miles. On the second, in 1891 2, he and seven companions (including his wife) sledged 1300 miles to North-East Greenland.

Robert Edwin Peary (1856 1920), the distinguished American Arctic explorer, is usually credited as the first person to have reached the geographic North Pole, in 1909. First published in 1898, this two-volume work recounts Peary's expeditions across the interior ice-cap of Northern Greenland in the years 1886 and 1891 7. It describes Peary's contacts with the local Inuit tribes and the valuable scientific discoveries he made in geography, and natural history. Peary also documents the discovery and conveyance to the United States of the Cape York meteorites, from which the Inuit had extracted iron, but whose whereabouts had been a secret. Volume 2 recounts Peary's later expeditions in Greenland, including a 25-month stay in which he first attempted to reach the North Pole. Peary's wife, Josephine, who accompanied him on many of his expeditions, gave birth to their daughter less than 900 miles from the Pole in 1893.

Ornithologist and clergyman H. B. Tristram (1822 1906), who became both a Fellow of the Royal Society and Canon residentiary of Durham, began his literary career with an account of his ventures into the desert of Algeria, where he had travelled seeking a salubrious winter climate. This subsequent book, published in 1865, narrates his journey through Palestine in 1863 4. An engaging account, written for a popular audience, it combines detailed observations of antiquities, geography, and the native wildlife with scriptural quotations; its stated aim is to demonstrate that the Bible accurately describes the region. Tristram was one of the earliest public supporters of Darwin's theories, noting their relevance to his own studies in his 1859 paper 'On the Ornithology of North Africa'. This book, and his later work of 1873 The Land of Moab (also reissued in this series), illuminate the complex contemporary relationship between religion and the natural sciences.

First published in 1896, this work by Agnes Bensley (d. 1900), wife of the Orientalist and biblical scholar Robert Bensly (1831 93), describes the journey undertaken by a party of scholars to St Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1893. In the previous year, sisters Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson had discovered the Sinai Palimpsest, the earliest-known Syriac version of the Gospels. The purpose of the Bensly's mission was to aid them in transcribing and deciphering the Palimpsest. Beginning with the party's arrival in Cairo, the book describes the preparation for the trip, their journey across the desert, and life in the monastery. However, relations between the members of the party deteriorated; Gibson and Lewis wrote their own accounts of the expedition (also available in this series), and Mrs Bensly's narrative is defensive of the role of her husband, who died days after their return to England.

Sir Thomas Graham Jackson (1835-1924) was one of the most distinguished architects of his generation, particularly renowned for his work in Oxford for the University and the Military College. Jackson was also a prolific author, producing numerous books relating to the history of architecture, often illustrated with his own sketches. Originally published in 1923, this book is formed from a series of personal accounts describing experiences during the author's extensive travels. The text also contains illustrations by Jackson from a wide variety of locations. This is a highly readable volume that will be of value to anyone with an interest in travel writing and architectural history.

William Scoresby junior (1789-1857), explorer, scientist, and later Church of England clergyman, first travelled to the Arctic when he was just ten years old. The son of Arctic whaler and navigator William Scoresby of Whitby, he spent nearly every summer for twenty years at a Greenland whale fishery. He made significant discoveries in Arctic geography, meteorology, oceanography, and magnetism, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1824. First published in 1823, this book recounts Scoresby's voyage to Greenland in the summer of 1822 aboard the Baffin, a whaler of his own design. On this journey, his penultimate voyage to the north, he charted a large section of the coast of Greenland. His narrative also includes descriptions of scientific observations and geographical discoveries made during the voyage, and the appendices includes lists of rock specimens, plants and animal life, and notes on meteorological and other data.

In 1860, Charles Francis Hall (1821-71), the American polar explorer, embarked on the first of two voyages to the Canadian Arctic region aimed at investigating the fate of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition of 1847. During his time in the Arctic, Hall lived amongst the Inuit community, learning their language and embracing their everyday life. First published in 1864, Hall's recollections remain of great interest to anthropologists, sociologists and geographers. His eye-witness accounts of the indigenous people's dwellings, interpersonal relationships, hunting pursuits, birth and death rites, methods of transport, and survival strategies in severe weather conditions provide an insight into Inuit culture in the nineteenth century. Volume 1 describes Hall's journey north, arrival at Holsteinborg, the Danish administrative centre in Greenland, and onward voyage to Baffin Island, where his search for traces of Franklin, and his experience of Inuit life, began.

In 1860, Charles Francis Hall (1821-71), the American explorer, embarked on the first of two voyages to the Canadian Arctic region aimed at investigating the fate of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition of 1847. During his time in the Arctic, Hall lived amongst the Inuit community, learning their language and embracing their everyday life. First published in 1864, Hall's two-volume work remains of great interest to anthropologists, sociologists and geographers. His eye-witness accounts of the indigenous people's dwellings, hunting pursuits, birth and death rites, transportation, interpersonal relationships, and survival strategies in severe weather conditions provide an insight into Inuit culture in the nineteenth century. In Volume 2 he tells of his discovery in Frobisher Bay of artefacts from Martin Frobisher's sixteenth-century mining venture; the survival of these relics, together with his understanding of Inuit memory systems, convinces him that traces of Franklin and his crew may yet be found.

In 1895, naturalists Henry J. Pearson (1859-1913) and Colonel H. W. Feilden (1838-1921) set out to Norway for the first time, aiming to study Arctic bird life, geology and botany. This book, first published in 1899, is a collection of their diary entries and papers. Full of humour and written almost novelistically, Pearson's diary describes his ornithological findings and the other noteworthy features of their voyages - he includes an anecdotal account of the process of catching a whale, and describes their own less than ideal ship, and the many difficulties of travelling in the often inhospitable and little-explored North. In the second half of the book, Feilden focuses on geology and botany in three technical papers accompanied by his own photographs. A remarkable account of an ambitious project, this book forms part of the nineteenth-century genre of scientific travel literature, and contains still-relevant information about the Arctic environment.

The archaeologist D. G. Hogarth (1862 1927) was, when he died, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and president of the Royal Geographical Society. He was instrumental in launching T. E. Lawrence's career, employing him at Carchemish and encouraging him to learn Arabic. This book, published in 1896 and described by Lawrence as 'one of the best travel books ever written', relates a journey through Ottoman Turkey, with additional chapters on Egypt and Cyprus. It combines a highly readable account of the practicalities and pitfalls of archaeology with Hogarth's (often unsympathetic) opinions on political problems of the area, including the position of the Armenians and Kurds. Hogarth subsequently became acting director of the Arab Bureau in Cairo during the First World War, and attended the Versailles peace conference. This book illuminates the experiences that developed Hogarth's political views and the close relationship between archaeology and politics in the Middle East in the period.