'Scotland as I saw it on this journey is vibrant and exciting and very much alive, a tartan patchwork of the past, present and future of the country woven together by all those people who have ever called it 'home' and all the others who will.' James McEnaney sees Scotland as a 'complicated and conflicted place' that needs a disruption of the status quo. He presents the country as he found it on his journey - struggling with contemporary mistakes and historic wrongs, but also bustling with energy and expectation, ultimately offering glimpses of the better, brighter future which might just be on the way.

Leaving her job in London, selling her home, leaving family & friends, Lesley travelled to India to be a volunteer teacher in a vocational training centre in Northern India. She learnt of the struggles Tibetan children endure, escaping torture, violence and oppression by the Chinese authorities in their homeland, Tibet. They witnessed the torture and murder of parents, brothers and uncles. They are educated in Tibetan schools in India, many are orphans and destitute, For 2 years Lesley lived with the Tibetan community in the VTC and then a mountain village, Rajpur, undertaking voluntary work and raising sponsorship to support the children s education. In this book Lesley describes her own ups and downs of living with both Indian and Tibetan cultures and recounts the poignant stories of the children, describing in their own words the suffering they escaped and what their hopes are for the future.

This study examines and explains how British explorers visualized the African interior in the latter part of the nineteenth century, providing the first sustained analysis of the process by which this visual material was transformed into the illustrations in popular travel books. At that time, central Africa was, effectively, a blank canvas for Europeans, unknown and devoid of visual representations.

While previous works have concentrated on exploring the stereotyped nature of printed imagery of Africa, this study examines the actual production process of images and the books in which they were published in order to demonstrate how, why, and by whom the images were manipulated. Thus, the main focus of the work is not on the aesthetic value of pictures, but in the activities, interaction, and situations that gave birth to them in both Africa and Europe.

First published in 1888, this guide for travellers to Georgia presents information on all of the country's regions, as well as its history, language, literature, and political conditions.

Travelling through 3500 miles of Burmese landscape, the author captured the essence of this country before internal political problems in that country emerged. Filled with lively descriptions of Burma from its bustling cities to its lush jungles, the highlight is the author's recount of his thousand-mile journey up the Irrawaddy River. Supplemented by the author's own illustrations, this book conveys Kelly's appreciation of the beauty of the country and the happiness of its people.

In his beautifully written prose, Dr Jonathan Reisman - physician, adventure traveller and naturalist - allows readers to navigate their insides like an explorer discovering a new world. Through his offbeat adventures in healthcare and travel, Reisman discovers new perspectives on the body: a trip to the Alaskan Arctic reveals that fat is not the enemy, but the hero; a stint in the Himalayas uncovers the boundary where the brain ends and the mind begins; and eating a sheep's head in Iceland offers a lesson in empathy. By relating his experiences in far-flung lands and among unique cultures back to the body's inner workings, he shows how our organs live inextricably intertwined lives in an internal ecosystem that reflects the natural world around us. Reisman's unique perspective on the natural world and his expert wielding of wit ultimately helps us make sense of our lives, our bodies and our world in a way readers have never before imagined. 'An elegant, elegiac, and deeply enjoyable meander through human anatomy . . . the images Reisman conjures will linger long after you've devoured his delightful prose.' - Nicola Twilley, co-author of Until Proven Safe and co-host of Gastropod podcast

This critical study analyzes major concepts in the travel literature of Mark Twain and notes how his ouvre (including his classic works of fiction) revolves around travel as a central issue. The book focuses especially on his representations of time, place, and identity in the travel works ""Roughing It"", ""A Tramp Abroad"", ""The Innocents Abroad"", ""Life on The Mississippi"", and ""Following the Equator"". All receive an in-depth analysis, nothing Twain's strong sense of nostalgia for the disappearing American frontier, his growing concern over the assimilation of Native American cultures, and his continual search for a sense of personal and national identity. One appendix provides a complete list of the travel literature contained in Twain's personal library.

Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011) was a war hero whose exploits in Crete are legendary, and above all he is widely acclaimed as the greatest travel writer of our times, notably for his books about his walk across pre-war Europe, A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water; he was a self-educated polymath, a lover of Greece and the best company in the world.

Artemis Cooper has drawn on years of interviews and conversations with Paddy and his closest friends as well as having complete access to his archives.

Her beautifully crafted biography portrays a man of extraordinary gifts - no one wore their learning so playfully, nor inspired such passionate friendship.

In 2016, while working as a journalist in Yangon, Clare Hammond discovered an obscure map that showed a web of new railways spanning the length and breadth of the country - railways not shown on any other publicly available maps. She was determined to uncover the railways' origins, purpose, and most of all, the silence that surrounded them. She would spend three months travelling on these mysterious railways, and the next five years piecing their story together.

Her journey would take her from Myanmar's tropical south to the embattled mountain towns that border India and China. In dilapidated carriages, along tracks in disrepair, through contested ethnic states and former sites of forced labour, visiting temples, tea shops and festivals, Clare encountered a colourful and contradictory Myanmar through the stories of its people. Simultaneously a lush and evocative travelogue, an unsparing account of Myanmar's recent history, and an astonishing, conversation-shifting engagement with Britain's colonial legacy, On the Shadow Tracks is that rare and necessary thing: a book that finds and tells the truth.

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).

Focussing on how the Romans made Europe work as a homogenous civilisation and looking at why we are failing to make the EU work in modern times, this is an authoritative and amusing study from bestselling author Boris Johnson. In addition to his roles as politician, editor, author and television presenter, Boris Johnson is a passionate Roman scholar. The recent 'Dream of Rome' TV series saw him travelling throughout the Roman Empire in order to uncover the secrets of the governance of the empire, and the reasons behind why the Romans held such power and prestige for so long. Fiercely interested in Europe and the current issues facing the European Union, Boris Johnson will look at the lessons we could learn from the Romans and how we could apply them to our modern politics. Boris Johnson was the editor of the Spectator, MP for Henley and is now the new Shadow Minister for Education. He writes a column for the Daily Telegraph and lives in London and Oxfordshire with his wife and their children.

Written in an engaging, conversational style, Rivers Revealed combines the author s lifelong love of America s waterways with practical and historic information gathered from his three decades as a professional riverlorian for the Delta Queen Steamboat Company in New Orleans. A modern-day Huck Finn, Jerry Hay spins yarns laced with personal anecdotes on such topics as navigating 500 miles of the Wabash River, the trials and tribulations of building a sternwheeler, "reading" the river, how to plan your own river adventure, a hair-raising but humorous river rescue, an unforgettable goose named Gilligan, the language of the rivers and riverboats, early to present-day river navigation, and much, much more. A book for all who love Mark Twain, these river adventures will entertain the landlubber and engage the boating enthusiast."

Borat has got it all wrong. Kazakhstan is far more interesting and entertaining than he'd have us believe. In fact it's probably the most surprising country on earth, and certainly one of the most tolerant.The only thing most people know about Kazakhstan is that it is homeland to Borat - and he isn't even real. Actually this vast place - the last unknown inhabited country in the world - is far more surprising and entertaining. For one thing, it is as varied as Europe, combining stupendous wealth, grinding poverty, exotic traditions and a mad dash for modernity.Crisscrossing a vanished land, Christopher Robbins finds Eminem by a shrinking Aral Sea, goes eagle-hunting, visits the scene of Dostoyevsky's doomed first love, takes up residence beside one-time neighbour Leon Trotsky and visits some of the most beautiful, unspoilt places on earth.

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.

INTRODUCED BY ADAM WEYMOUTH, award-winning author of The Kings of Yukon 'A wonderful book -- and a highly original contribution to the literature of travel' PAUL THEROUX 'The Mississippi. Mighty, muddy, dangerous, rebellious and yet a strong, fathering kind of river. The river captured my imagination when I was young and has never let go.' Mississippi Solo tells the story of one man's voyage by canoe down the Mississippi River from its source in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico - a longtime dream, and a journey of over 2,000 miles through the heart of America. Paddling into the Southern states - going from 'where there ain't no black folks to where they still don't like us much' - Eddy is confronted by the legacy of slavery and modern racism, including an incident with a pair of shotgun-toting bigots. There are also the dangers of passing barges, wild dogs roaming the wooded shore, and navigating a waterway that grows vaster, and more hazardous, every day. But Eddy also encounters immense human kindness, friendship and hospitality, as well as coming to know the majestic power - and the awesome dangers - of the river itself. Mississippi Solo is an unforgettable American adventure.

A Guardian Best Nature Book of the Year

The magic and mystery of the woods are embedded in culture, from ancient folklore to modern literature. They offer us refuge: a place to play, a place to think. They are the generous providers of timber and energy. They let us dream of other ways of living. Yet we now face a future where taking a walk in the woods is consigned to the tales we tell our children.

Immersing himself in the beauty of woodland Britain, Peter Fiennes explores our long relationship with the woods and the sad and violent story of how so many have been lost. Just as we need them, our woods need us too. But who, if anyone, is looking out for them?

A New Statesman Book of the Year

London. A city apart. Inimitable. Or so it once seemed.

Spiralling from the outer limits of the Overground to the pinnacle of the Shard, Iain Sinclair encounters a metropolis stretched beyond recognition. The vestiges of secret tunnels, the ghosts of saints and lost poets lie buried by developments, the cycling revolution and Brexit. An electrifying final odyssey, The Last London is an unforgettable vision of the Big Smoke before it disappears into the air of memory.ory.

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.

A gripping tale of exploration, the pursuit of ice-age records, scientific invention and controversy, and revelations about the great Amazon forest In this vivid memoir of a life in science, ecologist Paul Colinvaux takes his readers from the Alaskan tundra to steamy Amazon jungles, from the Galapagos Islands (before tourists had arrived) to the high Andes and the Darien Gap in Panama. He recounts an adventurous tale of exploration in the days before GPS and satellite mapping, and a tale no less exhilarating of his battle to disprove a hypothesis endorsed by most of the scientific community. Colinvaux's grand endeavor, begun in the 1960s, was to find fossil evidence of the ice-age climate and vegetation of the entire American equator, from Pacific to Atlantic. The accomplishment of the task by the author and his colleagues involved finding unknown ancient lakes, lugging drilling equipment through uncharted Amazon jungle, operating hand drills from rubber boats in water 40 meters deep, and inventing a pollen analysis for a land with 80,000 species of plants. Colinvaux's years of arduous travel and research ultimately disproved a hotly defended hypothesis explaining bird distribution peculiarities in the Amazon forest. The story of how he arrived at a new understanding of the Amazon is at once an adventurous saga, an account of science as it is conducted in the field, and a cautionary tale about the temptation to treat a favored hypothesis with a reverence that subverts unbiased research.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Picking up the narrative from his earlier volume, ""The Early Exploration of Inland Washington Waters: Journals and Logs from Six Expeditions, 1786-1792"", Richard Blumenthal once again offers the reader a fascinating, firsthand look at some of the Northwest's earliest maritime history. This volume reproduces twelve individual journals, each composed by one of George Vancouver's men as they explored the Washington area in 1792. Providing additional details of exploration in inland areas not previously described, it contains a record of Peter Puget's observations and explorations of Puget Sound and a detailed description of William Broughton's passage through San Juan Islands. These journals also provide detail regarding the day-to-day onboard activities of both officers and enlisted men. A brief biographical note is provided at the beginning of each man's journal.