|
|
Books > Travel > Travel writing > General
The world's top 500 food experiences - ranked! We asked the
planet's top chefs, food writers and our food-obsessed authors to
name their favourite, most authentic gastronomic encounters. The
result is a journey to Mozambique for piri-piri chicken, Japan for
bullet train bento boxes, San Sebastian pintxos bars, and a further
497 of the most exciting eateries anywhere on Earth. Ultimate
Eatlist is the follow-up to our bestselling Ultimate Travelist and
is a must-own bucket list for foodies and those who love to travel.
You'll discover the planet's most thrilling and famous culinary
experiences, the culture behind each one, what makes them so
special, and why the experience is so much more than what's in the
plate, bowl or glass in front of you. How many have you tried and
what's your number one? With contributions from Monica Galetti,
Curtis Stone, Mark Hix, Ben Shewry, Dan Hunter, Ping Coombes, Gail
Simmons, Tony Singh, Elena Arzak, and many more. Entries include:
Laksa, Malaysia Grilled octopus, Greece Smorrebrod, Denmark
Ceviche, Peru Po boy, USA Steak tartare, France Bibimbap, Korea Dim
Sum, Hong Kong Reindeer Stew, Finland Jerked chicken, Jamaica
Asado, Argentina Shakshuka, Israel Pho, Vietnam Wildfoods Festival,
New Zealand The Fat Duck restaurant, UK Tokyo sushi counters, Japan
Bistecca alla Fiorentina, Italy Adelaide Central Market, Australia
Grilled fish, Seychelles Irish stew New York Reuben delis, USA
About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media
company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand,
providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind
of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed
over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate
global community of travellers. You'll also find our content
online, on mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international
magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more.
If you want to know about writing, about how to make others share
the horror and intensity of an experience, try the first piece in
this collection, Justice at Night. Martha Gellhorn wrote it as a
28-year-old, having just returned home to the States after four
years in Europe, in 1936. What follows is a selection of fifty
years of peacetime journalism, history caught at the moment of its
unfolding, as it looked and felt to those who experienced it. It's
about revolutions in the making, guilty acts of state terrorism,
poverty, injustice and recovery. It vividly captures the range and
intensity of Gellhorn's courageous work and is also a passionate
call to arms, not only to remember the wronged and to bear witness
to evil, but to stand your ground in the face of it.
The unbelievable story of how one town truly prayed without ceasing
In 1999, a small town on the south coast of England became the
birthplace of the extraordinary, accidental, international movement
known as 24-7 Prayer. Their inspiration was a seemingly chance
visit by founder Pete Greig to Herrnhut in Germany, where the
eighteenth-century Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf had initiated the
Moravian prayer watch, which ran without ceasing for a hundred
years. Five years later, Phil Anderson undertook an aerial road
trip on a tiny four-seat airplane from England to Germany, a
remarkable journey to uncover the history of Zinzendorf and the
movement he led. Part history, part narrative, The Lord of the Ring
takes readers on a fascinating journey back to the
eighteenth-century Moravian renewal movement and their hundred-year
prayer watch. Anderson retraces the steps of Zinzendorf, reconnects
with his legacy, and seeks to apply it to life and faith in a new
millennium. Learning from the past, readers will discover crucial
signposts for grappling with the church's identity and calling as
an authentic, relational, missional community.
Comprehensive, illustrated guidebook for treks in the Everest
region of Nepal that comes with a detailed, easy-to-read foldout
trekking map. With some 150 colour pictures and over a dozen
section maps (apart from the fold-out map at the back), the
guidebook is packed with exhaustive day-by-day descriptions of the
popular Everest trails: Lukla-Kala Patthar/Everest Base Camp;
Gokyo-ChoLa Pass; Side-trips to Thame, Chukhung and over RenjoLa
Pass; Jiri-Lukla walk-in. There is, in addition, practical advice
on planning the treks, plus background reading on the Sherpas, the
people who live in the shadow of Everest, and an entire chapter on
the fascinating history of the discovery and conquest of Mt
Everest.
From one of the most important chroniclers of our time, come two
extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks - writings
that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a
legendary writer. Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of
overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and
articles Here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took
with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local
figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit
with Walker Percy, a ladies' brunch at the Mississippi
Broadcasters' Convention. She writes about the stifling heat, the
almost viscous pace of life, the sulfurous light, and the
preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small
towns they pass through. And from a different notebook: the
"California Notes" that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone
on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the
piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered
thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her
own upbringing in Sacramento. Here, too, is the beginning of her
thinking about the West, its landscape, the western women who were
heroic for her, and her own lineage.
In this book, written in 1966, Bulpin writes about the hunters,
settlers, the Bushmen, Dingane, Shaka, Cetshwayo, the colonial
days, the Voortrekkers and the Republic of Natal. A very readable
book where the characters and legends come to life as Bulpin tells
more stories about the personalities and their adventures in the
early days of the region.
In 1995, before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire to
move back to the States for a few years with his family, Bill
Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of
valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long
been his home. His aim was to take stock of the nation's public
face and private parts (as it were), and to analyse what precisely
it was he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite;
a military hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow named
Hardy; place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey and Shellow
Bowells; people who said 'Mustn't grumble', and 'Ooh lovely' at the
sight of a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits; and Gardeners'
Question Time. Notes from a Small Island was a huge number-one
bestseller when it was first published, and has become the nation's
most loved book about Britain, going on to sell over two million
copies.
"[An] unusual meditation on sex, death, art, and Jewishness. . . .
Weber weaves in musings on his own sexual and religious
experiences, creating a freewheeling psychoanalytic document whose
approach would surely delight the doctor, even if its conclusions
might surprise him." -New Yorker "Freud's Trip to Orvieto is at
once profound and wonderfully diverse, and as gripping as any
detective story. Nicholas Fox Weber mixes psychoanalysis, art
history, and the personal with an intricacy and spiritedness that
Freud himself would have admired." -John Banville, author of The
Sea and The Blue Guitar "This is an ingenious and fascinating
reading of Freud's response to Signorelli's frescoes at Orvieto. It
is also a meditation on Jewish identity, and on masculinity,
memory, and the power of the image. It is filled with intelligence,
wit, and clear-eyed analysis not only of the paintings themselves,
but how we respond to them in all their startling sexuality and
invigorating beauty." -Colm Toibin, author of Brooklyn and Nora
Webster After a visit to the cathedral at Orvieto in Italy, Sigmund
Freud deemed Luca Signorelli's frescoes the greatest artwork he'd
ever encountered; yet, a year later, he couldn't recall the
artist's name. When the name came back to him, the images he had so
admired vanished from his mind's eye. This is known as the
"Signorelli parapraxis" in the annals of Freudian psychoanalysis
and is a famous example from Freud's own life of his principle of
repressed memory. What was at the bottom of this? There have been
many theories on the subject, but Nicholas Fox Weber is the first
to study the actual Signorelli frescoes for clues. What Weber finds
in these extraordinary Renaissance paintings provides unexpected
insight into this famously confounding incident in Freud's
biography. As he sounds the depths of Freud's feelings surrounding
his masculinity and Jewish identity, Weber is drawn back into his
own past, including his memories of an adolescent obsession with a
much older woman. Freud's Trip to Orvieto is an intellectual
mystery with a very personal, intimate dimension. Through rich
illustrations, Weber evokes art's singular capacity to provoke,
destabilize, and enchant us, as it did Freud, and awaken our
deepest memories, fears, and desires. Nicholas Fox Weber is the
director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and author of
fourteen books, including biographies of Balthus and Le Corbusier.
He has written for the New Yorker, New York Times, Los Angeles
Times, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, ARTnews, Town & Country,
and Vogue, among other publications.
In a small medieval palace on Kathmandu's Durbar Square lives
Nepal's famous Living Goddess - a child as young as three who is
chosen from a caste of Buddhist goldsmiths to watch over the
country and protect its people. To Nepalis she is the embodiment of
Devi (the universal goddess) and for centuries their Hindu kings
have sought her blessing to legitimize their rule. Legends swirl
about her, for the facts are shrouded in secrecy and closely
guarded by dynasties of priests and caretakers. How come a Buddhist
girl is worshipped by autocratic Hindu rulers? Are the initiation
rituals as macabre as they are rumoured to be? And what fate awaits
the Living Goddesses when they attain puberty and are dismissed
from their role? Weaving together myth, religious belief, modern
history and court gossip, Isabella Tree takes us on a compelling
and fascinating journey to the esoteric, hidden heart of Nepal.
Through her unprecedented access to the many layers of Nepalese
society, she is able to put the country's troubled modern history
in the context of the complex spiritual beliefs and practices that
inform the role of the little girl at its centre. Deeply felt,
emotionally engaged and written after over a decade of travel and
research, The Living Goddess is a compassionate and illuminating
enquiry into this reclusive Himalayan country - a revelation.
'Everything you would expect of a James Naughtie book - droll,
absorbing and wonderfully perceptive.' Bill Bryson 'A revealing and
at times spellbinding tapestry of a nation...It is
thought-provoking, constantly surprising and hugely entertaining.
Sublime stuff.' Michael Simkins, Mail on Sunday 'An insightful
account of living through momentous times...much to enjoy in
Naughtie's astute memoir.' Martin Chilton, Independent James
Naughtie, the acclaimed author and BBC broadcaster, now brings his
unique and inquisitive eye to the country that has fascinated him
and drawn him across the Atlantic for half a century. In looking at
America, from Presidents Nixon through to Biden, he tells the story
of a country that is grappling with a dream. What has it come to
mean in the new century, and who do Americans now think they are?
Drawing on his travels and encounters over forty years in the 'Land
of the Free', On The Road is filled with anecdotes, memories, tears
and laughter reflecting Naughtie's characteristic warmth and
enthusiasm in encountering the America of Washington, of Broadway,
of the small town and the plains. As a student, Naughtie watched
the fall of President Richard Nixon in 1974, and subsequently as a
journalist followed the story of the country - its politicians,
artists, wheeler-dealers and the people who make it what it is, in
the New York melting pot or the western deserts. This is a story
filled with encounters, for example with the people he has watched
on every presidential campaign from the late 1970s to the victory
of Joe Biden in 2020. This edition is fully updated to include
Naughtie's fascinating insights on the controversial presidential
election battle in 2020 between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
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.
In 1951, the Festival of Britain commissioned a series of short
guides they dubbed 'handbooks for the explorer'. Their aim was to
encourage readers to venture out beyond the capital and on to 'the
roads and the by-roads' to see Britain as a 'living country'. Yet
these thirteen guides did more than celebrate the rural splendour
of this 'island nation': they also made much of Britain's
industrial power and mid-century ambition - her thirst for new
technologies, pride in manufacturing and passion for exciting new
ways to travel by road, air and sea. Armed with these About Britain
guides, historian Tim Cole takes to the roads to find out what has
changed and what has remained the same over the 70 years since they
were first published. From Oban to Torquay, Caernarvon to
Cambridge, he explores the visible changes to our landscape, and
the more subtle social and cultural shifts that lie beneath. In a
starkly different era where travel has been transformed by the
pandemic and many are journeying closer to home, About Britain is a
warm and timely meditation on our changing relationship with the
landscape, industry and transport. As he looks out on vineyards and
apple orchards, power stations and slate mines, vast greenhouses
and fulfilment centres for online goods, Cole provides an
enchanting glimpse of twentieth and early twenty-first century
Britain as seen from the driver's seat.
Naples is always a shock, flaunting beauty and squalor like nowhere
else. It is the only city in Europe whose ancient past still lives
in its irrepressible people. In 1503, Naples was the Mediterranean
capital of Spain's world empire and the base for the Christian
struggle with Islam. It was a European metropolis matched only by
Paris and Istanbul, an extraordinary concentration of military
power, lavish consumption, poverty and desperation. It was to
Naples in 1606 that Michelangelo Merisi fled after a fatal street
fight, and there released a great age in European art - until
everything erupted in a revolt by the dispossessed, and the people
of an occupied city brought Europe into the modern world. Ranging
across nearly three thousand years of Neapolitan life and art, from
the first Greek landings in Italy to the author's own, less
auspicious, arrival thirty-something years ago, Street Fight in
Naples brings vividly to life the tumultuous and, at times, tragic
history of Naples.
It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and
climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still
Australia teems with life - a large portion of it quite deadly. In
fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty
way than anywhere else. Ignoring such dangers - and yet curiously
obsessed by them - Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly
fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people
are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging:
their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water;
the food is excellent; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always
shines. Life doesn't get much better than this...
Join Sophie Pavelle on a low-carbon journey around Britain in
search of ten animals and habitats threatened by climate change in
the 21st century Forget-me-not - a beautiful flower and a plea from
our islands' wildlife. When climate change has driven dozens of our
most charismatic species to extinction, will they be forgotten?
Like many of her generation, Sophie Pavelle is determined to demand
action on climate change. In her hilarious and thought-provoking
first book, she describes the trips she took to see ten rare native
species: species that could disappear by 2050 and be forgotten by
the end of the century if their habitats continue to decline.
Sophie challenged herself to find them the low-carbon way,
travelling the length of Britain on foot, by bicycle, in an
electric car, by kayak, on ferries and in a lot of trains. From
Bodmin Moor to the Orkney Islands, Sophie encountered species on
the frontline of climate change in Britain. Which are going to be
seriously affected, and why? Could some bounce back from the brink?
Or are we too late to save them? Forget Me Not is a clarion call:
we all need to play a part in tackling this most existential of
threats. Everyone can see wildlife in the British Isles without
contributing to its destruction. With joyful irreverence, Sophie
shows us we can dare to hope. Journey with her, and she may even
inspire you to take action for nature and head out on your own
low-carbon adventure.
**Shortlisted for the Portico Prize 2019**; The astonishing new
work of non-fiction from the prize-winning author of The Gallows
Pole and The Offing.; Under the Rock is about badgers, balsam,
history, nettles, mythology, moorlands, mosses, poetry, bats, wild
swimming, slugs, recession, floods, logging, peacocks, community,
apples, asbestos, quarries, geology, industrial music, owls, stone
walls, farming, anxiety, relocation, the North, woodpiles,
folklore, landslides, ruins, terriers, woodlands, ravens, dales,
valleys, walking, animal skulls, trespassing, crows, factories,
maps, rain - lots of rain - and a great big rock.; ______________;
'Extraordinary, elemental ... never less than compelling: this is a
wild, dark grimoire of a book' - TLS; 'Exceptionally engaging ...
beguiling ... this is a startling, unclassifiable book' - Stuart
Kelly, The Scotsman; 'Compelling ... admirable and engrossing.
Myers writes of the rain with a poet's eye worthy of Hughes' -
Erica Wagner, New Statesman; 'A bone-tingling book' - Richard
Benson, author of The Valley and The Farm; 'A truly elemental read
from which I emerged subtly changed... It has all the makings of a
classic' - Miriam Darlington, author of Otter Country and Owl Sense
Martha was the youngest of sixteen, handpicked reporters who filed
accurate, confidential reports on the human stories behind the
statistics of the Depression directly to Roosevelt's White House.
From these pages, we understand the real cost of sudden destitution
on a vast scale. We taste the dust in the mouth, smell the disease
and feel the hopelessness and the despair. And here, too, we can
hear the earliest cadences of a writer who went on to become,
arguably, the greatest female war reporter of the 20th century.
The Taverna by the Sea is an enchanting, funny, poignant travel
memoir about answering the call of adventure by taking on the
challenge of running a Greek beach taverna. During a walking
holiday on the island of Karpathos, a chance encounter with a
Greek-American hotel owner results in a once-in-a-lifetime
experience for Jennifer Barclay. The best-selling travel writer and
long-term resident of Greece drops everything, returning with dog
and tent to the remote bay that will form her home for one hectic,
event-filled summer. This book offers a rare account of life in
north Karpathos in the South Aegean, famous for its traditional
community and dramatic, rugged landscape. While primarily a light,
engaging, amusing read full of anecdotes, one-liners, twists and
turns - perfect for summer - Barclay's fourth book about life in
Greece also conveys the life-affirming importance of trusting one's
instincts, taking risks and grasping opportunities. Wake with
Jennifer to experience a summer of pink dawns over the olive grove
and an empty bay, and swim with her in moonlight, hearing only the
waves. Or help yourself to local cuisine - creamy yoghurt and local
honey and warm figs, olive oil and rosemary, freshly baked bread,
and wine on tap. Alongside a cast of characters from farmers to
fishermen, mad guests and a wicked witch, meet Minas the hotel
owner, a creative, unconventional Greek-American with the ability
to fix anything mechanical and create money out of thin air with
food, plus a penchant for drinking, singing and falling asleep.
Experience days full of music, days of no running water, and days
with a goat tied to a tree - but also nights when the overworked
taverna manager awoke convinced there was a large fish in the tent,
and customers outside waiting to be served. In The Taverna by the
Sea, Barclay reveals what happens behind the scenes of an
apparently blissful, peaceful paradise, capturing both the magic
and the difficulties of island life. Underpinning an entertaining
read for lovers of Greece and its cuisine is an inspiring call to
live life to the full - and even escape the rat race.
|
|