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Books > Travel > Travel writing > General
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Along with his companions from nine nations, Heyerdahl set sail in
a boat made of reeds in search of the sea routes which he was sure
must have been used by the Sumerians in vessels like his own, 5000
years ago. Heyerdahl recounts the many discoveries and hazards that
occurred on his journey down the Tigris, through the Gulf and on to
the Indian Ocean - tales of modern shipping, bandits, reefs and the
political dispute which finally led to the ceremonial burning of
the boat.
'Jonathan Raban is the only person I listen to in matters of travel
and books and writing in general. Reading him, talking to him as I
have over fifty years, he has made my work better and me happier.'
Paul Theroux 'For Love and Money ... is as good a book as there is
about the writing life. Delighted that it will be safeguarded in
print by Eland.' Tim Hannigan This collection of writing undertaken
for love and money is about books and travel, and makes for an
engrossing and candid exploration of what it means to live from
writing. Jonathan Raban weighs up the advantages of maintaining an
independent spirit against problems of insolvency and self-worth,
confesses to travel as an escape from the blank page, ponders the
true art of the book review, admires the role of the literary
editor and remembers with affection and hilarity events from his
eccentric life at the heart of literary London. Reading it is like
embarking on a humane, rigorous and witty conversation.
From the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, a compelling
account of her return to the land in which she grew up. In 1956,
some seven years after departed for England, Doris Lessing returned
home to Southern Rhodesia. It was a journey that was both personal
- a revisiting of a land and people she knew - and, inevitably,
political: Southern Rhodesia was now part of the Central African
Federation, where the tensions between colonialism and
self-determination were at their most deeply felt. 'Going Home' is
a book that combines journalism, reportage and memoir, humour,
farce and tragedy; a book fired by the love of one of the twentieth
century's greatest writers for a country and a continent that she
felt compelled to leave.
A woman’s tale of the transformative power of walking Britain’s
ancient pilgrim paths. ‘Phoebe Smith is a splendid writer and an
inspiring traveller’ Bill Bryson Faced with turning 35 – and
seeing friends settle down, get married, have kids – Phoebe Smith
found herself ending a long‐term relationship, considering giving
up her dream job and asking herself what actually is the point
of… everything? On an assignment to walk the most famous
pilgrimage in the world – the Camino de Santiago, in northern
Spain – Phoebe experiences a moment of self-discovery shared by
many who travel these ancient trails. And so, having spent a
lifetime in solo exploration of unfamiliar places, she suddenly
resolved to return to her native Britain and follow in the
footsteps of generations of saints (and sinners) in the hope of
‘finding herself’ once more and confronting the things that
scared her the most. But what is a pilgrimage? Why are so many
people undertaking them now? How do you become a pilgrim? And how
do you know what you are seeking? These are the questions Phoebe
grapples with as she undertakes a series of journeys – some
familiar and some little-known – the length and breadth of the
British Isles. Along the way she contemplates love and loss in her
life, the role of contemplation and silence in pilgrimage, and the
sudden camaraderie shared endeavour brings. Until, high on a
windswept cliff, she arrives at an epiphany: the ending of one
trail is always the start of another.
A Cult Classic, "The Way of the World" is one of the most beguiling
travel books ever written. Reborn from the ashes of a Pakistan
rubbish heap, it tells of a friendship between a writer and an
artist, forged on an impecunious, life-enhancing journey from
Serbia to Afghanistan in the 1950s. On one level it is a candid
description of a road journey, on another a meditation on travel as
a journey towards the self, all written by a sage with a golden pen
and a wide infectious smile. It is published here for the first
time in English with the Vernet drawings which are such a dynamic
part of its whole.
Cairngorms: A Secret History is a series of journeys exploring
barely known human and natural stories of the Cairngorm Mountains.
It looks at a unique British landscape, its last great wilderness,
with new eyes. History combines with travelogue in a vivid account
of this elemental scenery. There have been rare human incursions
into the Cairngorm plateau, and Patrick Baker tracks them down. He
traces elusive wildlife and relives ghostly sightings on the summit
of Ben Macdui. From the search for a long-forgotten climbing
shelter and the locating of ancient gem mines, to the discovery of
skeletal aircraft remains and the hunt for a mysterious
nineteenth-century aristocratic settlement, he seeks out the
unlikeliest and most interesting of features in places far off the
beaten track. The cultural and human impact of this stunning
landscape and reflections on the history of mountaineering are the
threads which bind this compelling narrative together.
In photographs, artworks, and words Gloria Wilson celebrates the
rugged fishing village where she was brought up, and from which she
set her course to a career recording, both visually and verbally,
the North Sea fishery she loves. She writes: In this intriguing
place I have found a heady mix of seafaring activities, shorelines,
inimitable fisher people, stalwart boats, notable marine artists,
cats, dark seas and dashing spray, thick sepulchral fogs, the
clutter of translucent fishing paraphernalia, folklore and local
custom, and many architectural specialities, together with touches
of joy, humour, absurdity, and melancholy, all set within a
townscape and topography of distinctive and outstanding quality.
Staithes has always been a working village, rugged and
unpretentious, without attitude. Things have an elegance which
results from useful function.
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