An award-winning writer reveals a changing China-one conversation and adventure at a time. When Stephan Orth lands in China, he knows it's his last visit, having lied about his job as a journalist to get into the country. So, he makes the most of it, couch-surfing with locals instead of hitting the nearest hotel. Starting in Macau-a former Portuguese colony and now gambler's paradise-Orth takes on the world's biggest casino. Next, he visits Shenzen, where more than 200 million sidewalk cameras monitor citizens who win and lose points on Sesame Credit, an app that sends data to Alibaba-and to the government. As his adventure continues, Orth encounters a bewildering mix of new tech and old traditions. Over a steaming bowl of hot pot, he learns ancient chopstick etiquette from a policewoman who later demos the facial recognition app she could use to detain him. He eats dog meat as a guest of honor one day-and finds himself censored on live TV the next. He even seriously considers joining an outlawed sect. Self-deprecatingly funny, compassionate, and observant, High Tech and Hot Pot is a formidable addition to a well-loved series, and offers a timely travelogue of an enigmatic country poised to become the world's next superpower.

The nation's favourite idiot is back. Safely home from his latest travels, Karl has decided it is time to share his hard-earned wisdom of the world. Taking the Bucket List of '100 Things to Do Before You Die' as his starting point, Karl combines brilliant stories from his recent adventuresto Alaska, Siberia and beyond with entertaining, highly-opinionated views on what other people aspire to do with their lives. * Why on earth would anybody want to run with the bulls in Pamplona? * Go 'storm chasing' through Tornado Alley? * Have lunch with the Queen? * Or touch hands with the Pope? The Further Adventures of An Idiot Abroad is a fitting finale to two years of eventful globe-trotting. Frank, funny and strangely inspiring, this is Karl's final word on travel.

As the nation's oldest serving detectives, we know more about London than almost anyone. After all, we've been walking its streets and impulsively arresting its citizens for decades. Who better to take you through its less savoury side? We'll be chatting about odd buildings, odder characters, lost venues, forgotten disasters, confusing routes, dubious gossip, illicit pleasures and hidden pubs. We'll be making all sorts of odd connections and showing you why it's almost impossible to separate fact from fiction in London. With the help of some of our more disreputable friends, each an argumentative and unreliable expert in his or her own dodgy field, we'll explain why some streets have genders, why only two Londoners got to meet Dracula, how a department store and a prison played tricks on your mind, when a theatre got stranded in the past, how a building vanished in plain sight, what excited Charlotte Brontë about the city and where the devils hide in London. We hope to capture something of the city's restless spirit by wilfully wandering off course, and it goes without saying that we'll bluff and bamboozle you along the way but that's all part of the fun. History is what you remember. London is what you forget (and we've forgotten a lot). So please do join us on this magical mystery tour of our city. Who knows where we'll end up?

After going on a journey of discovery in The Moaning of Life, the enlightened one - otherwise known as Karl Pilkington - finds himself back on the road. In his search for the answers to life's big questions, Karl has therapy in Tokyo to try and reduce the size of his head, spends time in California with a man and his five wives, tries his hand at painting with his own vomit in New York, and travels to Berlin to have his future predicted by a blind man, via his bum cheeks. Will his travels around the world bring him any closer to the meaning of life? Find out in his hilarious new book.

"New York Times Book Review" Notable Book of the Year
A "Boston Globe" Best Book of 2010
A "Christian Science Monitor" Best Book of 2010
A "San Francisco Chronicle" Top 10 Books of 2010
A" Washington Post" Best Book of the Year
A "Kansas City Star "100 Best Books of 2010
A" St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Best of 2010
In this astonishing new work from one of our greatest and most entertaining storytellers, Ian Frazier trains his perceptive, generous eye on Siberia. With great passion and enthusiasm, he reveals Siberia's role in history--its science, economics, and politics--and tells the stories of its most famous exiles, such as Dostoyevsky, Lenin, and Stalin. At the same time, Frazier draws a unique portrait of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, and gives a personal account of adventure among Russian friends and acquaintances. A unique, captivating, totally Frazierian take on what he calls the "amazingness" of Russia--"Travels in Siberia "is "a masterpiece of nonfiction writing--tragic, bizarre, and funny" ("San Francisco Chronicle").

Rory Stewart explores his love for the UK in this account of history, memory and landscape as he traverses the the borderlands between England and Scotland. 'This beautifully written book is a haunting reflection of identity and our relationships with the people and places we love' Daily Mail His father Brian taught Rory Stewart how to walk, and walked with him on journeys from Iran to Malaysia. Now they have chosen to do their final walk together along 'the Marches' - the frontier that divides their two countries, Scotland and England. On their six-hundred-mile, thirty-day journey - with Rory on foot, and his father 'ambushing' him by car - the pair relive Scottish dances, reflect on Burmese honey-bears, and on the loss of human presence in the British landscape. Travelling across mountain ridges and through housing estates they uncover a forgotten country crushed between England and Scotland: the Middleland. They discover unsettling modern lives, lodged in an ancient place, as their odyssey develops into a history of the British nationhood, a chronicle of contemporary Britain and an exuberant encounter between a father and a son. And as the journey deepens, and the end approaches, Brian and Rory fight to match, step by step, modern voices, nationalisms and contemporary settlements to the natural beauty of the Marches, and a fierce absorption in tradition in their own unconventional lives. 'Suggests an open-mindedness in Stewart, a tolerance and flexibility that could make him an exceptional politician while it also continues to define him as a writer' New York Review of Books 'Travel writing at its best' Guardian

The Manga is one of Africa's most remote and wild regions: a hostile and unforgiving landscape inhabited by nomads like the hardy Tubu. Situated in south-eastern Niger, and in the shadow of the Old Salt Road, it has been mislaid by the modern world; no Caucasian had been seen there in living memory. The Nomad's Path is an account of a journey across this inhospitable region with former Tubu rebels at a time of Tuareg insurgency, when explosions from landmines rocked towns, mountains were overrun with militia and journalists were being thrown into desert prisons for speaking to rebel leaders. Framed against this volatile atmosphere, The Nomad's Path is the beginning of a wider enterprise: the exploration of the region's history and the ongoing consequences of the Tuaregs' 1885 disenfranchisement. It explores the centuries-old link between the Barbary Coast and the Sahel along the Old Salt Road, once trodden by corsairs and slaves, camels and the armies of empires, while conjuring to life a lost wilderness and those who survive within it. At its heart, however, is a journey across the Sahel with the Tubu nomads. It is their tale and a window into the nebulous Manga. Carr perceptively observes Tubu culture, their harmonious relationship with Islam and their interaction with the Manga's other peoples: the Fulani, Kanuri and Arabs. Woven with tales of rebellion, lost settlements and civilizations, explorers - both intrepid and mad - and an epic seventeenth century odyssey, Carr captures a sense of the intangible nature of the Sahel's Manga. It is a timely and evocative portrait of the Tubu and their world - a people living on the tide-line of the Sahara and the edge of the world.

_______________ 'A beautiful, strange, intoxicating and utterly unique story' - Philip Pullman 'The memoirist's challenge ... is simple: "Give a true account of yourself". The Fish Ladder accomplishes this brilliantly' - Horatio Clare, Sunday Telegraph 'A beguiling amalgam of personal anecdote, travelogue and family history ... Norbury attains a wonder-struck prose poetry' - Independent _______________ SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD TELEGRAPH BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Katharine Norbury was abandoned as a baby in a Liverpool convent. Raised by loving adoptive parents, she grew into a wanderer, drawn by the beauty of the British countryside. One summer, following the miscarriage of a much-longed-for child, Katharine and her nine-year-old daughter Evie decide to follow a river from the sea to its source. But a chance circumstance forces Katharine to the door of the woman who gave her up all those years ago. Combining travelogue, memoir, exquisite nature writing, fragments of poetry and tales from Celtic mythology, The Fish Ladder is a captivating and life-affirming story about motherhood, marriage, family, and self-discovery, illuminated by the extraordinary majesty of the natural world. _______________

For decades, Colombia was the 'narcostate'. Now it's seen as one of the rising stars of the global economy. Where does the truth lie? How did a land likened to paradise by the first conquistadores become a byword for hell on earth? And how is it rebuilding itself after decades of violence? Writer and journalist Tom Feiling has journeyed throughout Colombia, down roads that were until recently too dangerous to travel, talking to people from former guerrilla fighters to nomadic tribesmen and millionaires. Vital, shocking, wry and never simplistic, Short Walks from Bogota unpicks the tangled fabric of Colombia to create a stunning work of reportage, history and travel writing. Books of the Year 2012 Boyd Tonkin, The Independent 'Creates a portrait of Colombia that is perceptive, unsensational, and full of humanity ... Feiling is a brilliant reporter, lucid, unflinching, morally engaged, and with an occasional deadpan sense of humour .. one of the most consistently intelligent and compelling books to have appeared on any South American country in recent years' Michael Jacobs, Independent 'Tom Feiling takes us on an enlightening journey through a changing country that few understand' Rachel Aspden, Observer 'A deeply political account of one man's journey to the violent heart of modern, rural, Colombia ... a must read' Kevin Howlett, Colombia Politics 'Feiling... venture[s] into areas that have been off limits for decades ... the sense of a vibrant nation worth discovering peeks out' Siobhan Murphy, Metro 'The best British travel writers like Norman Lewis or Bruce Chatwin give the reader more than simple travellers' tales. Feiling is of their company ... a brilliant, penetrating and highly readable account' Robert Carver, Spectator Some of the best insights in the book come from the people Feiling meets, and memorably portrays ... a well-written, thoughtful book David Gallagher, Times Literary Supplement Dramatic and captivating Wanderlust 'Elegantly written and knowledgeable. Feiling writes with the eye of a seasoned journalist and the style of a travel writer' Carl Wilkinson, Financial Times Tom Feiling spent a year living and working in Colombia before making Resistencia: Hip-Hop in Colombia, which won numerous awards at film festivals around the world, and was broadcast in four countries. In 2003 he became Campaigns Director for the TUC's Justice for Colombia campaign, which organizes for human rights in Colombia. His first book was The Candy Machine: How Cocaine Took Over The World, which was based on over sixty interviews with people involved in all aspects of the cocaine business and the 'war on drugs,' and was published by Penguin in 2009.

Much more than a travel narrative 360 Degrees Longitude: One Family's Journey Around the World is a glimpse at what it means to be a "global citizen"--a progressively changing view of the world as seen through the eyes of an American family of four. After more than a decade of planning, John Higham and his wife September bid their high-tech jobs and suburban lives good-bye, packed up their home and set out with two children, ages eight and eleven, to travel around the world. In the course of the next 52 weeks they crossed 24 time zones, visited 28 countries and experienced a lifetime of adventures. Making their way across the world, the Highams discovered more than just different foods and cultures; they also learned such diverse things as a Chilean mall isn't the best place to get your ears pierced, and that elephants appreciate flowers just as much as the next person. But most importantly, they learned about each other, and just how much a family can weather if they do it together. 360 Degrees Longitude employs Google's wildly popular Google Earth as a compliment to the narrative. Using your computer you can spin the digital globe to join the adventure cycling through Europe, feeling the cold stare of a pride of lions in Africa, and breaking down in the Andes. Packed with photos, video and text, the online Google Earth companion adds a dimension not possible with mere paper and ink. Fly over the terrain of the Inca Trail or drill down to see the majesty of the Swiss Alps--without leaving the comfort of your chair.

When Jessa Crispin was thirty, she burned her settled Chicago life to the ground and took off for Berlin with a pair of suitcases and no plan beyond leaving. Half a decade later, she's still on the road, in search not so much of a home as of understanding, a way of being in the world that demands neither constant struggle nor complete surrender. The Dead Ladies Project is an account of that journey-but it's also much, much more. Fascinated by exile, Crispin travels an itinerary of key locations in its literary map, of places that have drawn writers who needed to break free from their origins and start afresh. As she reflects on William James struggling through despair in Berlin, Nora Barnacle dependant on and dependable for James Joyce in Trieste, Maud Gonne fomenting revolution and fostering myth in Dublin, or Igor Stravinsky starting over from nothing in Switzerland, Crispin interweaves biography, incisive literary analysis, and personal experience into a rich meditation on the complicated interactions of place, personality, and society that can make escape and reinvention such an attractive, even intoxicating proposition. Personal and profane, funny and fervent, The Dead Ladies Project ranges from the nineteenth century to the present, from historical figures to brand-new hangovers, in search, ultimately, of an answer to a bedrock question: How does a person decide how to live their life?

Drawing upon his own travel experiences and those of others, Keith Forrester interrelates travel writing, tourism and serious commentary to produce an account of the delights, challenges and excitement of visiting old and new India. Banyan Tree Adventures: Travels in India is not the usual travelogue or tourist guide to India. It is a book that not only discusses the Indian experiences and views of non-domestic travellers in their explorations and adventures, but also a text that helps understand the simple question of why tourists keep returning to the country. What is it about India that prompts the interest and loyalty of returning tourists? Where do they go and why? What areas do tourists visit and what aspects of Indian culture, policy and history interests them? How do overseas tourists cope with and understand the shocking evidence of poverty while travelling around the country? Few countries embody the blending of tradition and the ancient with the new and the modern. So yes, it is a good time to be interested in and thinking about India. It's an even better time to be travelling around the country.

'A perfect read for a Mediterannean beach' Daily Telegraph When Chris travelled from Sydney to Dublin, he never dreamed his life was about to change forever. There he meets Daniela - one L, smile as you say it to pronounce it correctly - and it's amore at first sight. Before he can say si, he's uprooted to follow her to her sun-kissed hometown of Andrano, Puglia, tucked in the heel of southern Italy. The whitewashed houses, olive groves and cobblestone lanes are beautiful, but soon Chris is getting to grips with everyday Italian life. There's infuriating bureaucracy, an anarchic road system and - biggest challenge of all - Daniela's mamma, who's determined to convert him to the Catholic faith and build an extension on her house where the couple might live la dolce vita. WINNER OF THE GROLLO RUZZENE FOUNDATION PRIZE

The author brings together in Delicious travel a collection of her culinary wanderings through some of the most remote and unchartered parts of South Africa - places we thought we knew - in different and completely unexpected ways. The author has an eye and ear for the idiosyncratic and the quirky, in her quest for great cuisine, she uncovers the eccentricities of the people who live - and cook - in the countryside. 'Great cuisine' isn't necessarily haute cuisine, but rather the ingredients, chefs and places, all conspiring to make an experience memorable. It rediscovers bits of history and paints vivid pictures of people and their stories as it traces culinary treasures down hidden paths. This is intelligent travel with a twist! We learn how to make mealiepap pie in Victoria West, and conversely, the most sublime of seared tuna with a tantalising Far East-flavoured topping in a remote Eastern Cape town. We discover how, just outside De Rust, Jans Rautenbach, the godfather of Afrikaans film, got to sport a cathedral window in his house; how the breeding of Arabian horses on a stud farm influences the cuisine in the area and what really happens at a Karoo cattle auction when everyone buys jerepigo in support of church coffers. We discover how Mpumalanga's Robbers' Pass got its name; how the creative writing process imposes on cooking; and we find out why writer/artist Braam Kruger is more famous for his perfect fish and chips than for his art and possibly most importantly, how to mix the perfect Bloody Mary or Martini.

This is a book for people who are interested in statues . . . and for people who aren't. It explores those immortalised in marble and bronze - and what the rest of us think about them. As Roger Lytollis travels Britain he encounters a man at Liverpool's Beatles statue convinced that Rod Stewart was in the Fab Four. In Edinburgh he walks into a row over Greyfriars Bobby's nose and in Glasgow learns why the Duke of Wellington wears a traffic cone on his head. London brings a controversial nude statue and some hard truths about racism. Elsewhere, Roger sees people dancing with Eric Morecambe, finds a statue being the backdrop to a marriage proposal and, everywhere he goes, pigeons. Always pigeons . . . On a Pedestal is the first book to examine public statues around the nation. It looks at their emergence into our culture wars; the trend for portraying musicians, sports stars and comedians rather than monarchs, politicians and generals; the amazing tales of many of those commemorated on our streets. It also features interviews with sculptors, including Sir Antony Gormley, telling the stories behind some of our most popular modern statues. Part history book, part travelogue, On a Pedestal brings statues to life. Informative and entertaining, it's a book that - ultimately - is more about blood than bronze.

**THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER** 'An inspirational study in leadership and a powerful testament to the human spirit at its very best.' - Mail on Sunday 'The energy of the book gives it pace and you whip through, rather as Purja nips up verticals... Whether or not you are a lover of the mountains, you will marvel at his tenacity, his fearlessness. No one can fail to be inspired by what he achieved.' - The Times 'Not only does Nims have exceptional physical stamina, he's also a leader with great skills in financial management and logistics.' - Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb all fourteen highest mountains in the world 'The magnitude of his achievement is astonishing.' Soldier Magazine 'A Living Legend.' Trail Magazine *** Welcome to The Death Zone. Fourteen mountains on Earth tower over 8,000 metres above sea level, an altitude where the brain and body withers and dies. Until recently, the world record for climbing them all stood at nearly eight years. So I announced I was summiting them in under seven months. People laughed. They told me I was crazy, even though I'd sharpened my climbing skills on the brutal Himalayan peaks of Everest and Dhaulagiri. But I possessed more than enough belief, strength and resilience to nail the job, having taken down enemy gunmen and terrorist bomb makers while serving with the Gurkhas and the UK Special Forces. Throughout 2019, I came alive in the death zone. Soon after, I was showing the world a new truth: that with bravery and enough heart and drive, the impossible was possible...

Soon after the Anglo-Irish agreement, Colm Toibin travelled along the Irish border from Derry to Newry. In this work he tells of fear and anger, and of the historical legacy that has imprinted itself on the landscape and its inhabitants.

A transformational journey through Italy, India, and Bali searching for pleasure and devotion--the massive bestseller from the author of "The Signature of All Things"
This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom "Booklist" calls "Anne Lamott's hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister") is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

Harriet's parents hoped that, after leaving boarding school and doing `the Season', she would meet and marry a suitable young man. But she was to disappoint them. Just after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, she set off for Peshawar to see for herself the plight of thousands of displaced Afghan refugees. Determined to do something about their dire situation, Harriet set up a small silk weaving project for illiterate Turkmen refugees, and was sent by UNESCO to Mazar-i-sharif to work with Afghanistan's last remaining silk ikat weavers. During those years she was arrested by the KHAD, narrowly missed being blown up, survived acute bacterial meningitis in a Kabul hospital, and rescued an abandoned pi-dog puppy who became her devoted companion. At the end of the first Gulf War she travelled with the Peshmerga in the newly-liberated Iraqi Kurdistan. Then in 1994 she joined a group of unemployed builders and decorators driving convoys of food and aid from Croydon to the Muslim enclaves in Bosnia Herzegovina. Much has been written about conflicts in these countries, by war correspondents, diplomats and military personnel, but this is a different story. It is about young woman from a sheltered and privileged background travelling and working alone, in and around war zones, frequently with no financial or practical support, at a time of increasing Islamic fundamentalism. Harriet left her traditional, comfortable home and chose to live a life of adventure and danger helping refugees who had nowhere else to turn. She continues to raise money for charity through her business selling oriental textiles and remains friends with the refugees she helped in Afghanistan. However, she is now married, to just the sort of husband her parents always hoped for.

Colin Thurbon's beautiful prose unfolds along the Silk Road, unearthing a richly layered past on his most ambitious journey. On buses, donkey carts, trains, jeeps and camels, Colin Thubron traces the drifts of the first great trade route out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey. A magnificent account of an ancient world in modern ferment, Thubron covers over 7000 miles in eight months enduring a near-miss with a drunk-driver, incarceration in a Chinese cell, and undergoing root canal treatment without anaesthetic, along the way. VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

For its twenty-fifth anniversary, a new edition of Bruce Chatwin's classic work with a new introduction by Rory Stewart

Part adventure, part novel of ideas, part spiritual autobiography, "The Songlines" is one of Bruce Chatwin's most famous books. Set in the desolate lands of the Australian Outback, it tells the story of Chatwin's search for the source and meaning of the ancient "dreaming tracks" of the Aborigines--the labyrinth of invisible pathways by which their ancestors "sang" the world into existence. This singular book, which was a "New York Times" bestseller when it was published in 1987, engages all of Chatwin's lifelong passions, including his obsession with travel, his interest in the nomadic way of life, and his hunger to understand man's origins and nature.

The story behind the best-selling book One Man’s Wilderness and how author Sam Keith and Dick Proenneke met and forged an everlasting friendship. “Sam, you know right well you don’t want to leave this country. Don’t give up on it. Me and you got to figure something out.� After serving as a US Marine during World War II and attending college on the GI Bill, Sam Keith decided to seek adventure in Alaska as a laborer on the Adak Navy base. There he befriended Dick Proenneke, whose shared love of the outdoors, hard work, and self-reliance quickly bonded an alliance between the two. Together they explored the wilds of South Central Alaska while working on the Navy base, hunting and fishing with friends and breathing in the great outdoors. Keith was ready to leave after three years of finding almost everything he sought—not realizing then how his fate was intrinsically tied to his friend’s and how it would lead to writing the best-selling book One Man’s Wilderness. Sam Keith passed away in 2003. But in 2013, his son-in-law and children’s book author/illustrator Brian Lies discovered in an archive box in their garage a book manuscript, originally written in 1974 after the publication of One Man’s Wilderness. First Wilderness is the story of Keith's own experiences, at times harrowing, funny, and fascinating. Along with the original manuscript are photos and excerpts from his journals, letters, and notebooks, woven in to create a compelling and poignant memoir of search and discovery. Foreword by Nick Jans, one of Alaska's foremost authors and photographers, and Afterword by Keith’s daughter Laurel Lies.

Delhi claims a noble history as the site of at least seven capitals dating from before the time of Alexander the Great. The glorious Mogul Empire brought great riches to the city and to Agra, where the world-famous Taj Mahal has excited awe in visitors for over 380 years. This Traveller's Reader is an indispensable and fascinating companion for the traveller who wants to understand the history of both cities, and who seeks the true spirit of the places. Delhi & Agra is a topographical anthology that explores the cities' sites of interest and recreates the key events, customs and lives of the past, drawing on diaries, letters, memoirs and commentaries written by residents and visitors over the course of 600 years. Extracts include Tamerlane's account of the sack of Delhi in 1398; descriptions of Shah Jahan building the Taj Mahal; recollections of Jesuits and mullahs debating the relative merits of their religions before the great Mogul emperor, Akbar; reports of cruelty and creativity, of addiction to drink and drugs; descriptions of elephant fights, suttee, the life of the bazaar and vice-regal banquets; and eyewitness accounts of the Indian Mutiny from both sides, and of the bloody aftermath of Partition. A great variety of topics are covered, vividly conveying an impression of how it would have been to live in, or visit, both cities from the recent past to hundreds of years ago.