'Transports the reader to another world' Sunday Express Adventurer and TV presenter Alice Morrison takes the reader on three remarkable and inspirational journeys across Morocco, from the Sahara to the Atlas mountains, to reveal the growing challenges faced by our planet. Accompanied only by three Amazigh Muslim men and their camels, Scottish explorer Alice Morrison set off to find a hidden world. During her journey along the Draa river, she encountered dinosaur footprints and discovereda lost city, as well as what looked like a map of an ancient spaceship, all the while trying to avoid landmines, quicksand and the deadly horned viper. Few places better illustrate the reality of climate change and the encroachment of the desert than a dried-out riverbed, but this also means a constant search for the next source of water. Meeting other nomads as they travel, Alice also gets to hear a side of their lives few ever access, as the women would never be allowed to speak to men from outside their community. They explain the challenges of giving birth and raising children in the wilderness. As the journey continues, Alice learns to enjoy goat's trachea sausages, gets a saliva shower from Hamish the camel as he blows out his sex bubble, and shares riddles round the camp fire with her fellow travellers. Walking with Nomads reveals the transformative richness of the desert and the mountains, providing a total escape from everyday concerns, but it also shows how the ancient world of the nomad is under threat as never before.

Rome Through the Mist: Walks Among the Fountains of the Eternal City invites readers to join Joe Gartman, long-time culture columnist for Italia! Magazine, on a journey among 80 of Rome's celebrated fountains, to find a more intimate way of experiencing the Eternal City. On foot with book in hand, or simply in imagination, each chapter takes readers on a vividly described walk, enhanced with colorful, subtly revealing photographs of Roman life. Every fountain in Rome tells a story; every story is about Rome: her history, her legends, and her extraordinary people, from poets to popes, artists to models, architects to emperors. Every street, piazza, wall and garden that contains a fountain has a past worth knowing. You are invited to follow the paths in this book, with 15 different turn-by-turn walking tours, 17 maps, and 182 photos. There are plenty of hints, too, about things to see and experience along the way, especially the matchless artistic treasures that await behind unexpected doors. In your armchair or on your feet, journey from Trevi's torrents to the Naiad's naughty nymphs; from the quiet basins in Piazza San Simeone to Bernini's mighty Four Rivers in Piazza Navona; from the Dark Fountains in Villa Borghese to the charming lionesses in Piazza del Popolo; and listen to the voices of the waters.

The topos of the journey is one of the oldest in literature, and even in this age of packaged tours and mediated experience, it still remains one of the most compelling. This volume examines the ways in which the legacy of the Grand Tour is still evident in works of travel and literature. From its aristocratic origins and the permutations of sentimental and romantic travel to the age of tourism and globalization, the Grand Tour still influences the destinations tourists choose and shapes the ideas of culture and sophistication that surround the act of travel. The essays in this collection examine a wide variety of literature-travel, memoir, and fiction-and explore the ways travel and ideas of "culture" have evolved since the heyday of the Grand Tour in the 18th century. The sites of the Grand Tour remain a powerful cultural draw, and they continue to define ideas of taste and learning for those who visit them.

'Equal parts an inspiring account of Reeve's determination and adventurous spirit, as well as a field guide to some of the most remote parts of the world, Step by Step is a vivid and fascinating title. Readers may be surprised to learn of his early life struggles with mental health, owing to his onscreen persona, but this traces his journey to inner peace.' Independent 'Incredibly honest... one of the best autobiographies I've ever read.' The Sun - best books of 2019 Shortlisted for the 2019 Edward Stanford Travel Memoir of the Year Award 'His story reads like a fast-paced thriller.' Daily Mail 'My goodness, it is brilliant. Searingly honest, warm, bursting with humanity. Such brave and inspiring writing.' Kate Humble '[Simon] begins to fill in the gaps in his life story that until recently he has never publicly revealed.' Telegraph PRAISE FOR SIMON REEVE 'TV's most interesting globetrotter' Independent 'The craziest (or bravest) man on TV' Mail on Sunday 'Like all the best travellers, Reeve carries out his investigations with infectious relish, and in the realisation that trying to understand the country you're in is not just fascinating, but also hugely enjoyable' Daily Telegraph 'Simon might just be the best tour guide in the world' The Sun * * * * * * * * * In TV adventurer Simon Reeve's bestselling memoir he describes how he has journeyed across epic landscapes, dodged bullets on frontlines, walked through minefields and been detained for spying by the KGB. His travels have taken him across jungles, deserts, mountains and oceans, and to some of the most beautiful, dangerous and remote regions of the world. In this revelatory account of his life Simon gives the full story behind some of his favourite expeditions, and traces his own inspiring personal journey back to leaving school without qualifications, teetering on a bridge, and then overcoming his challenges by climbing to a 'Lost Valley' and changing his life ... step by step.

Discover some of the world’s most awe-inspiring and holy places, from Stonehenge to Uluru, and Walden Pond to Angkor Wat. Humans have always searched for and created meaning in the world around them, whether in breathtakingly stunning natural features and phenomena, acknowledging the ancient home of a particular faith or movement, or honouring the location of a significant event. In this beautifully illustrated guide, Alice Peck discusses what makes a place spiritual – whether reaches of time, geography, the provision of sustenance or inspiration, or mystery and magic – and then explores 80 such locations around the globe. Rather than a comprehensive travel guide, the description of each one includes a detail or tip – something beautiful, strange, relatively unknown or unfamiliar – to allow readers to deepen their focus and perhaps experience the place in a different way than they might expect. If you are unable to travel at this time, this book will help you plan your next adventure. And if you are trying to limit your carbon footprint, each destination is accompanied by a related meditation, prayer, practice or quotation to help you connect to the spirit of it from your own home.

'It has been hand-planted by Tsarinas and felled by foresters. It has been celebrated by peasants, worshipped by pagans and painted by artists. It has self-seeded across mountains and rivers and train tracks and steppe and right through the ruined modernity of a nuclear fall-out site. And like all symbols, the story of the birch has its share of horrors (white, straight, native, pure: how could it not?). But, maybe in the end, what I'm really in search of is a birch that means nothing: stripped of symbolism, bereft of use-value . . . A birch that is simply a tree in a land that couldn't give a shit.' The birch, genus Betula, is one of the northern hemisphere's most widespread and easily recognisable trees. A pioneer species, the birch is also Russia's unofficial national emblem, and in The White Birch art critic Tom Jeffreys sets out to grapple with the riddle of Russianness through numerous journeys, encounters, histories and artworks that all share one thing in common: the humble birch tree. We visit Catherine the Great's garden follies and Tolstoy's favourite chair; walk through the Chernobyl exclusion zone and among overgrown concrete bunkers in Vladivostok; explore the world of online Russian brides and spend a drunken night in Moscow with art-activists Pussy Riot, all the time questioning the role played by Russia's vastly diverse landscapes in forming and imposing national identity. And vice-versa: how has Russia's dramatically shifting self-image informed the way its people think about nature, land and belonging? Curious, resonant and idiosyncratic, The White Birch is a unique collection of journeys into Russia and among Russian people.

'Fascinating' - Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways 'Truly a thing of wonder' - Kerri ni Dochartaigh, author of Thin Places 'Lyrical [and] thoughtful' - Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment Visiting Iceland as an anthropologist and film-maker in 2008, Sarah Thomas is spellbound by its otherworldly landscape. An immediate love for this country and for Bjarni, a man she meets there, turns a week-long stay into a transformative half-decade, one which radically alters Sarah's understanding of herself and of the living world. She embarks on a relationship not only with Bjarni, but with the light, the language, and the old wooden house they make their home. She finds a place where the light of the midwinter full moon reflected by snow can be brighter than daylight, where the earth can tremor at any time, and where the word for echo - bergmal - translates as 'the language of the mountain'. In the midst of crisis both personal and planetary, as her marriage falls apart, Sarah finds inspiration in the artistry of a raven's nest: a home which persists through breaking and reweaving - over and over. Written in beautifully vivid prose The Raven's Nest is a profoundly moving meditation on place, identity and how we might live in an era of environmental disruption.

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.

I heard the rustle again, too close and too real to ignore. I clutched the flashlight, stuck my head out of the mosquito net... and found myself face-to-face with a jaguar. Four travelers meet in Bolivia and set off into the heart of the Amazon rainforest to find a hidden tribe and explore places tourists only dream of seeing. But what begins as the adventure of a lifetime quickly deteriorates into a dangerous nightmare. After weeks of wandering in the dense undergrowth the group splits up after disagreements, and Yossi and his friend try to find their own way back without a guide. When a terrible rafting accident separates him from his partner, Yossi is forced to survive for weeks alone against one of the wildest backdrops on the planet. Stranded without a knife, map, or survival training, he must improvise shelter and forage for wild fruit to survive. As his feet begin to rot during raging storms, as he loses all sense of direction, and as he begins to lose all hope, he wonders whether he will make it out of the jungle alive. The basis of an upcoming motion picture starring Daniel Radcliffe, "Jungle" is the incredible story of friendship and the teachings of nature, survival and human fortitude and a terrifying true account that you won't be able to put down.

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 ketch, "Queequeg" is a one of a kind, handcrafted, wooden piece of sculpture, the culmination of 3000 years of seafaring experience. In these days of lookalike fiber glass boats she is unique. If you once see her, you do not soon forget her This book tells the story of a five year voyage from Maine to Mexico on the Intercoastal Waterway,the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. It documents day by day experiences,including the wonderful people we met, the sights we saw, and several near fatal occurences; the joy ,monotony anxiety and fear that are the lot of the smallboat cruiser. The anxiety and fear overpower the joy for some people and many sailboat owners never get more than a day's sail from their home port All Hail! to those early adventurers and circumnavigators sailing the the uncharted oceans with the most primitive navigation instruments.

'A book worth reading' Andrew Marr, Sunday Times The Debatable Land was an independent territory which used to exist between Scotland and England. At the height of its notoriety, it was the bloodiest region in Great Britain, fought over by Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James V. After the Union of the Crowns, most of its population was slaughtered or deported and it became the last part of the country to be brought under the control of the state. Today, its history has been forgotten or ignored. When Graham Robb moved to a lonely house on the very edge of England, he discovered that the river which almost surrounded his new home had once marked the Debatable Land's southern boundary. Under the powerful spell of curiosity, Robb began a journey - on foot, by bicycle and into the past - that would uncover lost towns and roads, reveal the truth about this maligned patch of land and result in more than one discovery of major historical significance. Rich in detail and epic in scope, The Debatable Land takes us from a time when neither England nor Scotland could be imagined to the present day, when contemporary nationalism and political turmoil threaten to unsettle the cross-border community once more. Writing with his customary charm, wit and literary grace, Graham Robb proves the Debatable Land to be a crucial, missing piece in the puzzle of British history. Includes a 16-page colour plate section.

The river of life has followed an unusual course for Mary Stickney. World traveler, artist and writer, she became familiar with American embassies and diplomatic outposts abroad while the wife of a U.S. Foreign Service agricultural scientist. In River of Pearls, she recounts adventures and family life in Southeast Asia during the Viet Nam War era. The story begins in exotic Bangkok, Thailand, and continues to Manila, Bataan, Corregidor and remote mountain villages of the Philippines. The journey also travels to Saigon and Danang, South Viet Nam, as the author spent time there as a civilian with her husband, who was working in a pacification program of the U.S. Agency for International Development. After retuning to America, she found herself suddenly alone, went back to college and shaped a new life and a new career for herself. the wonders, excitement, the sorrows and the surprising joys of exploring far corners of the globe with an open heart and mind. River of Pearls is her second book, following Jungle Paths and Palace Treasures (2001). The danger and romance of the lands comes alive in the book. --The Florida Times-Union ...the adventure of a lifetime, told here in lively, highly readable detail. This book will appeal to a wide audience, both young and old, travel-buffs and armchair globetrotters. --Foreign Service Journal

*A SCOTSMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR* Stranded at Schiphol airport, Ben Coates called up a friendly Dutch girl he'd met some months earlier. He stayed for dinner. Actually, he stayed for good. In the first book to consider the hidden heart and history of the Netherlands from a modern perspective, the author explores the length and breadth of his adopted homeland and discovers why one of the world's smallest countries is also so significant and so fascinating. It is a self-made country, the Dutch national character shaped by the ongoing battle to keep the water out from the love of dairy and beer to the attitude to nature and the famous tolerance. Ben Coates investigates what makes the Dutch the Dutch, why the Netherlands is much more than Holland and why the colour orange is so important. Along the way he reveals why they are the world's tallest people and have the best carnival outside Brazil. He learns why Amsterdam's brothels are going out of business, who really killed Anne Frank, and how the Dutch manage to be richer than almost everyone else despite working far less. He also discovers a country which is changing fast, with the Dutch now questioning many of the liberal policies which made their nation famous. A personal portrait of a fascinating people, a sideways history and an entertaining travelogue, Why the Dutch are Different is the story of an Englishman who went Dutch. And loved it.

This unique book is the first to bring together a group of influential China experts to reflect on their cultural and social encounters while travelling and living in the People's Republic. Filling an important gap, it allows scholars, journalists, and businesspeople to reflect on their personal memories of China. Private experiences-vivid and often entirely unanticipated-often teach more about how a society actually works than a planned course of study can. Such experiences can also expose the sometimes naive misconceptions visitors often bring with them to China. China experts relate stories that are always interesting but also more: they tell not just anecdotes but telling anecdotes. Why are there no campus maps? (Because, if you don't know where you're going and why, you don't need to be here.) What's the allure of Mickey Mouse? (He could break all sorts of rules and get away with it.) What's a sworn brother in China? (Somebody who fights for your honor even when you're not looking.) Covering nearly a half-century from 1971 to the present, these stories open a vivid window on a rapidly evolving China and on the zigzag learning curve of the China trippers themselves.

One of Italy's brightest literary lights reinvents travel writing with a seductive, intoxicating celebration fo the magical saltwater city
"Venice is a fish," writes Tiziano Scarpa. "It's like a vast sole stretched out against the deep. How did this marvelous beast make its way up the Adriatic and fetch up here, of all places?" Paying homage to his native city in a lyrical and evocative style, he guides readers down tiny alleys, over bridges, and through squares, daring us to lose ourselves, forget the guidebooks, and experience Venice as Venetians do.
"Venice Is a Fish" provides no hotel ratings or museum hours. Instead, in a delightful initiation, Scarpa tells us how to balance while standing on a gondola; where lovers will find the best secret hiding places; the finer points of etiquette and navigation during an agua alta; and how best to defend ourselves from the pitiless beauty of one of the world's most stimulating cities. Open "Venice Is a Fish," and Scarpa's magnificent images, secret history, and hidden lore unfold like a treasure map of the senses.

International bestseller now in new gift format!

A celebration of food, culture and place, here are 100 dishes from Tokyo, the gastronomic megacity.

If you want sushi, miso soup, gyoza, ramen, donburi, bento, tonkatsu, lotus root chips, mochi or a yuzu sorbet ... they're all here. Plus features on essential cooking techniques and key ingredients, making it truly Japanese food made simple.

Author Maori Murota grew up in Tokyo and was inspired to write this book by her mother's cooking and memories of cooking at home and eating out. Her mission is to demystify Japanese food, to make it accessible and understood by anyone and everyone interested in learning about a food culture and eating well.

'Short of doing it yourself, the best way of escaping into nature is to read a book like A Walk in the Woods.' New York Times In the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set off to hike the Appalachian Trail, the longest continuous footpath in the world. Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack. Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle companion whose profoundest wish was to go to a motel and watch The X-Files, Bryson gamely struggled through the wilderness to achieve a lifetime's ambition - not to die outdoors. A Walk in the Woods is now a major feature film starring Robert Redford, Emma Thompson and Nick Offerman.

This is the story of how Thor Heyderdahl and five other men crossed the Pacific Ocean on a balsa-wood raft in an extraordinary bid to prove Heyderdahl's theory that the Polynesians undertook the same feat on such a craft over 1000 years ago.

'A book that'll change your perspective on life. You'll not be able to put it down.' Fearne Cotton 'Everyone should read this book. Sophie Morgan is the epitome of grit and determination. Her writing is thought provoking, honest and in parts hilarious.' Katie Piper OBE 'Wrenchingly honest...eye-opening and deeply moving. *****' Mail on Sunday As seen on 'Living Wild; How to Change your Life' a two-part prime-time series on Channel 4, Loose Women and The Great Celebrity Bake Off for SU2C On the precipice of starting her adult life, aged eighteen, Sophie, a rebellious and incorrigible wild child, crashed her car and was instantly paralysed from the chest down. Rushed to hospital, everything she had dreamed for her life was instantly forgotten and her journey to rediscover herself and build a different life began. But being told she would never walk again would come to be the least of her concerns. Over the next eighteen years, as she strived to come to terms with the change in her body, her relationships were put to the test; she has had to learn to cope with the many unexpected and unpredictable setbacks of living with paralysis; she has had to overcome her own and other people's perceptions of disability and explore the limits of her abilities, all whilst searching for love, acceptance, meaning, identity, and purpose. Driving Forwards is a remarkable and powerful memoir, detailing Sophie's life-changing injury, her recovery, and her life since. Strikingly honest, her story is unusual and yet relatable, inspiring us to see how adversity can be channelled into opportunity and how ongoing resilience can ultimately lead to empowerment. 'Raw, life affirming and gorgeously written - this book is filled with extraordinary honesty, courage and warmth. Sophie's words will make us all braver and more hopeful.' Daisy Buchanan 'A truly astonishing read about the power of never giving up.' Sun 'F***king hell!! This book is absolutely brilliant . . . One of the best memoirs I've ever read. Honest and so blooming human, it's fantastic.' Kathy Burke

"This is a book ripped from the headlines, from Black Lives Matter to recently thriving downtowns stripped of office workers and service workers. Those catching the brunt of it all, those with the steepest hills to climb, may have been fucked at birth. But for everyone, as Maharidge observes, the feeling of safety is folly. A sharp wake-up call to heed the new Depression and to recognize the humanity of those hit hardest." -Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW "Dale Maharidge takes us coast to coast in 2020, down highways along which he first reported decades ago. His honed class awareness-unrivaled among contemporary journalists-reveals that today's confluent health, economic and social crises are the logical conclusion to generations of unvalidated, untreated despair in a wealthy nation. Forget hollow commentary from detached television news studios in New York City. Fucked at Birth is the truth." -Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Dale Maharidge has spent his career documenting the downward spiral of the American working class. Poverty is both reality and destiny for increasing numbers of people in the 2020s and, as Maharidge discovers spray-painted inside an abandoned gas station in the California desert, it is a fate often handed down from birth. Motivated by this haunting phrase-"Fucked at Birth"-Maharidge explores the realities of being poor in America in the coming decade, as pandemic, economic crisis and social revolution up-end the country. Part raw memoir, part dogged, investigative journalism, Fucked At Birth channels the history of poverty in America to help inform the voices Maharidge encounters daily. In an unprecedented time of social activism amid economic crisis, when voices everywhere are rising up for change, Maharidge's journey channels the spirits of George Orwell and James Agee, raising questions about class, privilege, and the very concept of "upward mobility," while serving as a final call to action. From Sacramento to Denver, Youngstown to New York City, Fucked At Birth dares readers to see themselves in those suffering most, and to finally-after decades of refusal-recalibrate what we are going to do about it.