Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

A Turn in the South is a reflective journey by V. S. Naipaul in the late 1980s through the American South. Naipaul writes of his encounters with politicians, rednecks, farmers, writers and ordinary men and women, both black and white, with the insight and originality we expect from one of our best travel writers. Fascinating and poetic, this is a remarkable book on race, culture and country. 'Naipaul's writing is supple and fluid, meticulously crafted, adventurous and quick to surprise. And, as usual, there's the freshness and originality of his way of looking at things' Sunday Times 'Naipaul writes as if a modern oracle has chosen to speak through him. It is a tissue of brilliantly recorded hearsay, of intense listening by a man with a remarkable ear' New York Times Review of Books 'This is a journey below the Mason-Dixon line into a society riven by too many defeats; the broken cause of the old Confederacy, and the frustrated anger of Southern blacks whose power is circumscribed . . . It is the best thing outside fiction that I have read on the Old South pregnant with the new since W. J. Cash's The Mind of the South published over fifty years ago' Sunday Telegraph

The New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss embarks on a rollicking intellectual journey, following in the footsteps of history's greatest thinkers and showing us how each-from Epicurus to Gandhi, Thoreau to Beauvoir-offers practical and spiritual lessons for today's unsettled times. We turn to philosophy for the same reasons we travel: to see the world from a dif ferent perspective, to unearth hidden beauty, and to find new ways of being. We want to learn how to embrace wonder. Face regrets. Sustain hope. Eric Weiner combines his twin passions for philosophy and travel in a globe-trotting pil grimage that uncovers surprising life lessons from great thinkers around the world, from Rousseau to Nietzsche, Confucius to Simone Weil. Traveling by train (the most thoughtful mode of transport), he journeys thousands of miles, making stops in Athens, Delhi, Wyoming, Coney Island, Frankfurt, and points in between to recon nect with philosophy's original purpose: teaching us how to lead wiser, more meaningful lives. From Socrates and ancient Athens to Beauvoir and 20th-century Paris, Weiner's chosen philosophers and places provide important practical and spiritual lessons as we navigate today's chaotic times. In a "delightful" odyssey that "will take you places intellectually and humorously" (San Francisco Book Review), Weiner invites us to voyage alongside him on his life-changing pursuit of wisdom and discovery as he attempts to find answers to our most vital questions. The Socrates Express is "full of valuable lessons...a fun, sharp book that draws readers in with its apparent simplicity and bubble-gum philosophy approach and gradually pulls them in deeper and deeper" (NPR).

By a winner of the Stanford Dolman Award for Travel Writing "Sayarer is a precise and passionate writer . . . We need writers who will go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a marvellous example" HORATIO CLARE On the eve of its centenary year and elections that will shape the coming generations, Julian Emre Sayarer sets out to cycle across Türkiye, from the Aegean coast to the Armenian border. Meeting Turkish farmers and workers, Syrian refugees and Russians avoiding conscription, the journey brings to life a living, breathing, cultural tapestry of the place where Asia, Africa and Europe converge. The result is a love letter to a country and its neighbours - one that offers a clear-eyed view of Türkiye and its place in a changing world. Yet the route is also marked by tragedy, as Sayarer cycles along a major fault line just months before one of the most devastating earthquakes in the region's modern history. Always engaged with the big historical and political questions that inform so much of his writing, Sayarer uses his bicycle and the roadside encounters it allows to bring everything back to the human level. At the end of his journey we are left with a deeper understanding of the country, as well as the essential and universal nature of political power, both in Türkiye and closer to home.

The story of the Giro d'Italia - Italy's equivalent of the Tour de France, and its superior in the eyes of many - is as dramatic and full of extraordinary characters as the story of Italy itself. Heroism, suffering, feuds and betrayals, tradition under threat from modernity all play out against a timeless landscape. The iconic riders, mythical stories and career defining exploits are conveyed in rich, vibrant prose.

You have either experienced unemployment or know someone who has. But what is it like to endure joblessness in a foreign country in the middle of an economic crisis? How would one survive cash-strapped circumstances for close to a year? In his beautiful and intelligently written travel memoir, Aponte tackles these questions as he tells his intimate, first-person, true story about triumphing over adversity, in the form of being poor and American, in Japan, during the countrys worst recession, since the second world war. Wayne Lionel Aponte's gift of observation, subtlety, and wry humor make THE YEAR OF NO MONEY IN TOKYO an extraordinary pleasure to read.

The little cottage stood out against a bleak skyline, forlorn, empty, neglected and overgrown. After a three-year search, could it be just what a retired English couple were looking for as a holiday home of their own? A magical holiday to rural France some years before had sowed the seeds of a daring plan for Brenda and Ray Barrington - to spend the early years of their retirement buying and restoring a cottage in the French countryside for use as a maison secondaire. Their budget and time were limited, but their enthusiasm and determination were boundless. The couple soon found themselves deeply engrossed in their dream project and discovering the full ramifications of owning a rural property deep in the land of wine and haute cuisine.

The idea of a journey without companions is too daunting for most travelers. Not so the women of this collection. These contemporary pioneers savor the ultimate freedom of solo travel. Marybeth Bond discovers the dubious pleasures of desert camel-riding when she decides to follow an ancient Indian trading route. Faith Adiele, a black Buddhist nun, enters a deserted train station at 3:00 a.m. in a Thai village controlled by armed bandits. Ena Singh negotiates with Russian police to visit the blue-domed city of Samarkand. In A Woman Alone, these women and others tell their funny, thrilling, occasionally terrifying, ultimately transformative stories of navigating some of the most unusual destinations on the globe.

As spring and summer vacations beckon, this book invites and incites a whole new approach to travel. "Postmarks from a Political Traveler" is a series of travel recollections confronting the troubling topics of roots and racism, polar bears and climate change, anti-Americanism, and the war in Afghanistan. The book opens with the story of the author s experience growing up in the Jim Crow South, traveling in apartheid South Africa, and living in the post-apartheid South Africa of 2009 and 2010. It explores the not-so-dissimilar roots and racism of the United States and South Africa, as well as the cross-fertilization of ideas between the two countries. The next installment chronicles two trips to Churchill, Manitoba, where the planet s largest population of polar bears congregate each October. It recounts the dramatic changes that have occurred in both the human and the polar bear communities in just the last decade and shows how the bears have become an Arctic version of the proverbial canary in the coalmine. Then the book shifts to the author s journey back to the United States on a German freighter with a rabidly anti-American captain. Woven into this account of life aboard a long haul ship are threads of the author s travels and anti-American encounters over a decade of living in Africa and Asia. The book concludes with reflections on trips to Afghanistan in 2004 and in 2012, describing the effects of war and conflict zone politics on women, education, refugees, and aid workers. What ties these episodes together is the author s commitment to social justice and to changing the world through travel and writing that is, affirming travel as a political act."

This comprehensive planning guide to 4x4 travel through eastern Africa (Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia) is based on first-hand travel experience. Introductory chapters give detailed general information and guidance on itineraries, what to take, potential costs, fuel availability, road conditions, security issues, requisite documentation, medical precautions, check lists, bush recipes and more. This is followed by descriptions of the routes traversed by the author and her party through six countries. Route maps and detailed, sensible advice equip future travellers with all the necessary information required to plan and carry out out a trouble-free trip through the region. Originally self-published under the title Beware of Falling Mangoes, this handy companion has easy, bulleted text and contains numerous photographs. An invaluable guide for 4x4 explorers to these less-travelled – but hugely rewarding – parts of our continent.

'Slowly Down the Ganges' is seen as a vintage Newby masterpiece, alongside 'A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush' and 'Love and War in the Apennines'. Told with Newby's self-deprecating humour and wry attention to detail, this is a classic of the genre and a window into an enchanting piece of history. On his forty-forth birthday, Eric Newby sets out on an incredible journey: to travel the 1,200-mile length of India's holy river. In a misguided attempt to keep him out of trouble, Wanda, his life-long travel companion and wife, is to be his fellow boatwoman. Their plan is to begin in the great plain of Hardwar and finish in the Bay of Bengal, but the journey almost immediately becomes markedly slower and more treacherous than either had imagined - running aground sixty-three times in the first six days. Travelling in a variety of unstable boats, as well as by rail, bus and bullock cart, and resting at sandbanks and remote villages, the Newbys encounter engaging characters and glorious mishaps, including the non-existence of large-scale maps of the country, a realisation that questions of pure 'logic' cause grave offense and, on one occasion, the only person in sight for miles is an old man who is himself unsure where he is. Newby's only consolation: on a river, if you go downstream, you're sure to end up somewhere...

The Pilgrimage paved the way to Paulo Coehlo's international bestselling novel The Alchemist. In many ways, these two volumes are companions--to truly comprehend one, you must read the other.

Step inside this captivating account of Paulo Coehlo's pilgrimage along the road to Santiago. This fascinating parable explores the need to find one's own path. In the end, we discover that the extraordinary is always found in the ordinary and simple ways of everyday people. Part adventure story, part guide to self-discovery, this compelling tale delivers the perfect combination of enchantment and insight.

When Russell Nash was asked to move out to China to commission a mill in Shanghai, he had no idea that it would be the start of a whole new life in the Orient. After having worked for more than twenty years in the animal feed business and watching his children grow up, Russell found himself in a dull life and a stagnant marriage. It was time for a change and a business trip to China was to be the catalyst for Russell's personal revolution. Despite the noise, strange food and the lack of proper queuing etiquette, Russell slowly fell under China's spell and before long found himself returning to the great nation...for good! Entranced by the women, of whom he has plenty of stories to tell, and mesmerised by the unique culture, Russell's adventures abroad are certainly exotic and a world apart from the safe predictable life he'd known in Britain. Funny, cutting, vivid and often explicit, Yellow Fever is the story of Russell's first three years in China and the women who made him want to stay.

Further adventures in extreme (and not so extreme) sports, from the bestselling author of ANGRY WHITE PYJAMAS. Having learnt Aikido with the Tokyo riot police (ANGRY WHITE PYJAMAS) and hunted for the world's longest snake in the jungles of the Far East (BIG SNAKE), Robert Twigger now turns his attention to other traditionally male pursuits and pastimes (some of which are fairly close to home, some of which are more extreme), and looks at the questions these raise about masculinity and the role of man in modern society. BEING A MAN features Twigger participating in, and writing on: the informal rules and thrill seeking of solo climbing, bullfighting in Spain, the 'illicit pleasure of buying my first gun', and the rules of survival with a tribe of Naga headhunters - the sort of activities and pursuits often scorned in the modern, interiorised office-based world.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

As spring and summer vacations beckon, this book invites and incites a whole new approach to travel. "Postmarks from a Political Traveler" is a series of travel recollections confronting the troubling topics of roots and racism, polar bears and climate change, anti-Americanism, and the war in Afghanistan. The book opens with the story of the author s experience growing up in the Jim Crow South, traveling in apartheid South Africa, and living in the post-apartheid South Africa of 2009 and 2010. It explores the not-so-dissimilar roots and racism of the United States and South Africa, as well as the cross-fertilization of ideas between the two countries. The next installment chronicles two trips to Churchill, Manitoba, where the planet s largest population of polar bears congregate each October. It recounts the dramatic changes that have occurred in both the human and the polar bear communities in just the last decade and shows how the bears have become an Arctic version of the proverbial canary in the coalmine. Then the book shifts to the author s journey back to the United States on a German freighter with a rabidly anti-American captain. Woven into this account of life aboard a long haul ship are threads of the author s travels and anti-American encounters over a decade of living in Africa and Asia. The book concludes with reflections on trips to Afghanistan in 2004 and in 2012, describing the effects of war and conflict zone politics on women, education, refugees, and aid workers. What ties these episodes together is the author s commitment to social justice and to changing the world through travel and writing that is, affirming travel as a political act."

This book considers how contemporary travelers from Latin America write their journeys at and about home. How do Latin American writers of the late twentieth-century negotiate the hybrid and volatile category of travel writing, which has been shaped in large part by myriad Euro-American travelers? How do they engage with the enduring myths about the region perpetuated by their imperial/ist predecessors? And, if not journeys of expansion or exploration, on precisely what kinds of travel do their own journeys rest? Drawing on ideas from many disciplines, including anthropology, philosophy, sociology, literary and cultural studies, this book considers contemporary journey narratives from Latin America through a series of case studies concerning four key sites of travel, each of which engenders particular forms of travel and travel narrative: Patagonia, the Andes, Mexico and the Mexico-US border. This book thus explores the complex practice and representation of journeys in the region by writers including Luis Sepulveda, Mempo Giardinelli, Andres Ruggeri, Ana Garcia Bergua, Silvia Molina, Maria Luisa Puga, Ruben Martinez and Luis Alberto Urrea. In doing so, it explores questions relating to mobility, representation, and globalization that are of widespread concern across the world today."

An important work for the nineteenth century history of East Africa. It contains a new introduction with a biographical sketch of Krapf.

Undertaken for the purpose of promoting legitimate trade in Central Africa, the Richardson mission was a compound of philanthropic and diplomatic interests advocated by Richardson. His main targets were the Sahara, Bornu and the Sudan.

No other vessel-sail or power driven-had ever passed through the dangerous straits of the Northwest Passage and completed a voyage round the world before David Scott Cowper's daring journey in the converted RNLI life boat Mabel E. Holland. David Scott Cowper vividly describes his four year circumnavigation by way of the Northwest Passage, detailing his recovery of a boat sunk by Arctic ice and the adventure and hardship of a grueling non-stop voyage across the Pacific in a small power boat. In the annals of small-boat voyages, this one stands out by any measure; not only because of the enormous difficulties and the tenacity with which they were overcome, but because of the extraordinary fascination and unspoilt beauty of the Arctic. The book is enhanced by Scott Cowper's photographs taken during the journey.

We meet Freddy, Phil and Don - the hilarious, yet deep thinking, tales of three retired men determined to keep hiking to the bitter end in their beloved Peak District - but each for very different reasons...Phil - a former air-traffic controller and the group's self-appointed leader - is on a mission not to grow old. He believes his combination of obsessive physical exercise and the latest health supplements will hold back time. Freddy - a shambolic slacker who prefers to stroll and smell the flowers. Freddy's eternal mission is to find the meaning of life. Until he does, he takes consolation in outmanoeurvring the vulgar, aspirational world around him Thankfully they have Don to calm the waters. All Don asks for in return is some peace, tranquility and perhaps a decent pint when they reach their destination.

San Pedro is Bolivia's most notorious prison. Small-time drug smuggler Thomas McFadden found himself on the inside. Marching Powder is the story of how he navigated this dark world of gangs, drugs and corruption to come out on top. Thomas found himself in a bizarre world, the prison reflecting all that is wrong with South American society. Prisoners have to pay an entrance fee and buy their own cells (the alternative is to sleep outside and die of exposure), prisoners' wives and children often live inside too, high quality cocaine is manufactured and sold from the prison. Thomas ended up making a living by giving backpackers tours of the prison - he became a fixture on the backpacking circuit and was named in the Lonely Planet guide to Bolivia. When he was told that for a bribe of $5000 his sentence could be overturned, it was the many backpackers who'd passed through who sent him the money. Written by lawyer Rusty Young, Marching Powder - sometimes shocking, sometimes funny - is a riveting story of survival.

Among the Believers is V. S. Naipaul's classic account of his journeys through Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia; 'the believers' are the Muslims he met on those journeys, young men and women battling to regain the original purity of their faith in the hope of restoring order to a chaotic world. It is a uniquely valuable insight into modern Islam and the comforting simplifications of religious fanaticism. 'This book investigates the Islamic revolution and tries to understand the fundamentalist zeal that has gripped the young in Iran and other Muslim countries . . . He is a modern master.' - Sunday Times 'His level of perception is of the highest, and his prose has become the perfect instrument for realizing those perceptions on the page. His travel writing is perhaps the most important body of work of its kind in the second half of the century.' - Martin Amis, author of Time's Arrow.

From one of Germany's most beloved celebrities, a cross between Bill Bryson and Paulo Coelho.
It has sold over 3 million copies and been translated into eleven different languages. Pilgrims have increased along the Camino by 20 percent since the book was published. Hape Kerkeling's spiritual epiphany has struck a nerve.
Overweight, overworked, and physically unfit, Kerkeling was an unlikely candidate to make the arduous pilgrimage across the French Alps to the Spanish Shrine of St. James, a 1,200-year-old journey undertaken by nearly 100,000 people every year. But that didn't stop him from getting off the couch and walking. Along the way, lonely and searching for meaning, he began the journal that turned into this utterly frank, engaging book. Simply by struggling with his physical limitations and the rigors of long-distance walking, he discovered a deep sense of peace that transformed his life and allowed him to forgive himself, and others, more readily. He learned something every day, and he took to finishing each entry with his daily lessons.
Filled with quirky fellow pilgrims, historic landscapes, and Kerkeling's self-deprecating sense of humor, "I'm Off Then "is an inspiring travelogue, a publishing phenomenon, and a spiritual journey unlike any other.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.