* NOW A MAJOR DOCUMENTARY SERIES ON ALL 4 * ‘This is a fabulous adventure – reckless, insanely ambitious and filled with sweat, tears and laughter ... irresistible reading.’ Joanna Lumley ‘Alex Bescoby weaves travel, adventure, history and the contemporary together like no one else. His great gift is to take us on a journey through past and present. By its end we have learned more about the world and ourselves.’ Dan Snow _______________________________________________________________ ‘A journey that I don’t think could be made again today’. It was this comment by Sir David Attenborough on the fiftieth anniversary of the iconic First Overland expedition that became an irresistible challenge for filmmaker and adventurer Alex Bescoby. In 1955, Attenborough, then a young TV producer, was approached by six recent university graduates determined to drive the entire length of ‘Eurasia’, from London to Singapore. It was the unclimbed Everest of motoring – many had tried, none had succeeded. Sensing this time might be different, Attenborough gave the expedition enough film reel to cover their attempt. The 19,000-mile journey completed by Tim Slessor and the team captivated a nation emerging from postwar austerity. Tim’s book, The First Overland, soon became the bible of the overlanding religion. Inspired by the First Overland, Alex made contact with now eighty-six-year-old Tim and together they planned an epic recreation of the original trip, this time from Singapore to London. Their goal was to complete the legendary journey started more than sixty years ago in the original ‘Oxford’ Land Rover. In awe of the unstoppable Tim, and haunted by his own grandfather’s declining health, Alex and his team soon find themselves battling rough roads, breakdowns and Oxford’s constantly leaky roof to discover a world changed for the better ­­– and worse – since the first expedition.

The true tale of a voyage that broke a man down and built him back up, with the help of one special horse. At 37 Jesse McNeil - at times carpenter, commercial fisherman, dabbler in real estate - decided to buy an untrained horse, make himself into a horseman, and ride all the way across the United States, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. A fiercely independent traveler, Jesse had navigated previous coast-to-coast trips - solo journeys by moped, bicycle, and small airplane. This time, however, he had a partner: a five-year-old Tennessee Walking Horse named Pepper. An inexperienced horseman with an equally inexperienced mount, Jesse would quickly discover the immense challenges of his new undertaking. Over the course of eight months and fourteen states - beginning in Oregon and ending on a beach in New Hampshire - he would be tested many times over as he learned not only what it took to keep Pepper safe and healthy, but the true value of qualities that he had once easily dismissed: patience and companionship. The generosity of strangers, from helpful ranchers and storekeepers to suburban families, shaped the pair's journey east. And while at some points the miles didn't unfold as Jesse hoped, others yielded unexpected events that changed his perspective - and quite possibly, his future. Written with honesty, grit, and grace, On the Hoof captures an arduous voyage that broke a man down and built him back up, with the help of one special horse.

Moving beyond travelogue, V. S. Naipaul's The Masque of Africa considers the effects of belief (in indigenous animisms, the foreign religions of Christianity and Islam, the cults of leaders and mythical history) upon the progress of African civilization. Beginning in Uganda, at the centre of the continent, Naipaul's journey takes in Ghana and Nigeria, the Ivory Coast and Gabon, and ends, as the country does, in South Africa. Focusing upon the theme of belief - though sometimes the political or economical realities are so overwhelming that they have to be taken into account - Naipaul examines the fragile but enduring quality of the old world of magic. To witness the ubiquity of such ancient ritual, to be given some idea of its power, was to be taken far back to the beginning of things. To reach that beginning was the purpose of this book. 'The quality of Naipaul's writing - simple, concise, engaging - rarely varies . . . Above all, Naipaul's latest African journey is eyewitness reporting at its best' Time

The amazing true story of Julian Smith, who retraced the journey of legendary British explorer Ewart "The Leopard" Grogan, the first man to cross the length of Africa, in hopes of also winning the heart of the woman he loved.

In 1898, the dashing young British explorer Ewart "the Leopard" Grogan was in love. In order to prove his mettle to his beloved--and her aristocratic stepfather--he set out on a quest to become the first person to walk across Africa, "a feat hitherto thought by many explorers to be impossible" (New York Times, 1900).

In 2007, thirty-five-year-old American journalist Julian Smith faced a similar problem with his girlfriend of six years . . . and decided to address it in the same way Grogan had more than a hundred years before: he was going to retrace the Leopard's 4,500-mile journey for love and glory through the lakes, volcanoes, savannas, and crowded modern cities of Africa.

Smith interweaves both adventures into a seamless narrative in Crossing the Heart of Africa the story of two explorers, a century apart, who both traversed the length of Africa to prove themselves . . . and came back changed men.

Do you love trains? Do you love adventure? If so, join Tom Chesshyre on his meandering rail journey across Europe from London to Venice. Escaping the rat race for a few happy weeks, Chesshyre indulges in the freedom of the tracks. From France (dogged by rail worker strikes), through Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland, he travels as far east as Odessa by the Black Sea in Ukraine. With no set plans, simply a desire to let the trains lead the way, he heads back via Hungary, the Balkans and Austria. Along the way he enjoys many an encounter, befriending fellow travellers as well as a conductor or two. This is a love letter to Europe, written from the trackside.

"The Island That Dared" is a passionate book from the pen of Dervla Murphy, which begins with a three-generational family holiday in Cuba. Led by their redoubtable hard-walking grandmother, the trio of young girls and their mother soon find themselves camping out on empty beaches beneath the stars with only crabs and mosquitoes for company. This pure Swallows and Amazons experience confirms Dervla in her quest to understand the unique society that has been created by the Cuban Revolution. She returns again and again to explore the island, investigating the experience of modern Cuba with her particular, candid curiosity. Through her own research and through conversations with Fidelistas and their critics alike, "The Island That Dared" builds a complex picture of a people struggling to retain their identity in the face of insistent hostility, and to stand against the all-but-overwhelming fire-power of capitalism. Whatever the fate of Cuba, "The Island That Dared" beautifully fulfils the role of a great travel book, 'to catch the moment on the wing, and stop it in Time' - Colin Thubron.

Wayward son of a respected clergyman, by twenty-two, Jack Keane had seen the world. It only remained for him to visit the forbidden cities of Makkah and Madinah, and his chance came when he steps ashore in the Red Sea port of Jiddah. Disguised as a pilgrim he joins a caravan to Islam's holiest cities. Stoned in Makkah, knifed on the way to Madinah, Keane witnesses death and suffering in the desert, as he and his fellow-pilgrims are menaced by predatory desert tribes. His account and the mysterious affair of the "Lady Venus", who, Keane alleged, was an Englishwoman stranded in Makkah at the time of his visit, created a sensation in England earning him some notoriety and helping to publicise his first two books, Six Months in Meccah and My Journey to Medinah. These are here republished for the first time since the 1880s. William Facey's Introduction tells the story of Keane's life, provides a critical appraisal of his journey, and places his account of the pilgrimage in the context of other travellers to Islam's holy places. The comprehensive glossary, index and map which accompany this single volume will assist and guide readers as they join Keane on his remarkable journey. Today, with the spotlight turned on the region and its religion, Keane's account represents a prescient reflection of Western attitudes of the time towards Islam and the Arab world.

2011 marks the centenary of the death of Edward Whymper, one of the most important figures in the history of mountaineering. His ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865, and the deaths of four members of his party on the way down, attracted attention throughout the world, bringing him praise and criticism in equal measure. In later years, he largely devoted his life to lecturing and writing guidebooks, touring Britain, Europe and America. Whymper was an early member of the Alpine Club and in the club's archives is a set of magic lantern slides he used to illustrate his lectures. Based on extensive research, former AC Archivist Peter Berg has combined these images with extracts from Whymper's books and diaries and writings by his contemporaries, to recreate the lecture 'My Scrambles amongst the Alps', first given in 1895. These pictures, mostly not seen for 100 years and never been published as a set before, give us a unique glimpse of the mountain world at the end of the 19th century. We visit the Zermatt valley and its peaks, passes and glaciers, experience Whymper's many attempts to climb the Matterhorn, explore the Mont Blanc region, including the ill-fated building of an observatory on the summit, and share some of the joys and sorrows of mountaineering. Setting the lecture in context, is a foreword by the distinguished mountaineer and former AC President, Stephen Venables.

In 1976, areas of the great mountain regions remained unknown and acute mountain sickness was a medical mystery waiting to be explored. Into this arena stepped the Birmingham Medical Research Expeditionary Society. It was formed by a group of young doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, and its members were looking for excitement. They were inquisitive, energetic and fearless. Having gathered ideas and borrowed some medical equipment, they took a plane to Kathmandu. From there they trekked to the north side of Annapurna, exploring and testing the effects of low oxygen levels on their bodies and minds. there has been a further twelve expeditions since, all investigating the effects of low oxygen on the human body. This book is a recollection of those expeditions.

Capture the details of your unique and remarkable experiences with this illustrated guide to drawing your travels and adventures, whether close to home or around the world.

In Draw Your Adventures, artist and illustrator Samantha Dion Baker invites you to savour moments and capture memories using your eyes, creativity, and a few art-making tools.

With as little as a sketchbook and some pens, begin a new art practice or enliven an existing one with inspiration from the prompts, challenges, examples, and scavenger hunts that populate these pages.

Your adventures are worth recording, whether they take you as close as your own kitchen or across the globe. Baker encourages you to see the world through an explorer's lens and provides ideas to guide you through adventures you can have during the every day, on staycations, and over grand trips.

• Paint your own postcards to send when abroad.
• Add pockets to your sketchbook for storing mementoes.
• Create abstract pieces featuring the colours of the clothes you dug up in a closet cleanout.
• Make a series of paintings of family and friends' front doors.
• Document what you see around you on plane, train, boat, and road trips.

First Published in 1968. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Robert Mads Anderson is an elite mountaineer with a solitary goal: to conquer Everest. After nearly getting killed on his first expedition, he led a team up a new route on the Kangshung Face without oxygen or Sherpa support, climbed solo on the remote North Face, and finally guided a team to the top of the world. Incorporating a who's who of internationally recognised climbers, including Stephen Venables, Reinhold Messner and Chris Bonington, Nine Lives traces the story of Everest, from the big, nationally supported expeditions of the 1980s; through the small teams forging new routes and climbing solo; to the commercially guided expeditions of today. Set against the majestic backdrop of the world's tallest peak, Anderson's nine Everest expeditions over eighteen years define what truly drives a human being to the greatest of heights. With a foreword by Peter Hillary and 32 pages of colour photography, in Nine Lives Robert Mads Anderson offers his personal account of the world's highest mountain.

Joe Tasker lies, struck down by illness, in a damp, bug-infested room in the Himalaya, wondering if he will be well enough to climb Dunagiri, his first venture to the 'big' mountains. One of Britain's foremost mountaineers and a pioneer of lightweight climbing, he is about to attempt one of the first true 'alpine-style' climbs in the Greater Ranges. The Dunagiri attempt forms part of Tasker's striking tale of adventure in the savage arena of the mountains. A superb writer, he vividly describes the first British winter ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, the first ascent of the West Wall of Changabang - considered a 'preposterous' plan by the climbing world - and his two unsuccessful attempts on K2, the second highest mountain on Earth. Savage Arena is both moving and exciting, an inspirational tale of the adventuring spirit which follows its own path, endlessly seeking new challenges, climbs and difficulties to overcome. It is not reaching the summit which counts, it is the journey to it. It is also a story of the stresses and strains of living for long periods in constant anxiety, often with only one other person, and of the close and vital human relationships which spring from those circumstances.

Isolated and terrifyingly cold, the South Pole is every adventurer's dream and every adventurer's nightmare. In a bid to carry messages of peace to speak out at the Pole to help the harmony of the Earth, Tess and partner Pete would venture to the very end of the world. They join the historic South Pole Race, to compete with the likes of Olympic champion James Cracknell and Ben Fogle in the first race to the South Pole since Scott and Amundsen. To complete this mission they would have to battle severe medical problems, lack of money, hardship and deprivation. For Tess it was more than combating cold hands with a warm heart, it was a journey to push out the reaches of the human mind.

The years Li Xinfeng spent as a Chinese correspondent in South Africa are evident in the insights he shares in China in Africa: Following Zheng He's Footsteps – the narrative of his research into the traces left by the famed navigator during his travels in and around Africa. Beginning on Kenya's Pate Island, Li's research led him to travel around much of the southern part of the African continent, searching for signs that Zheng He's fleet had been there some six centuries earlier. China in Africa: Following Zheng He's Footsteps is more than just one person's quest to retrace the journey of an alluring historical figure, shrouded in legend: Zheng He has become an important symbol for the Chinese people and the world of peace-loving cultural exchange in general. Li's comprehensive research into the African travels of this iconic figure presents a challenge to the postcolonial world, highlighting the stark contrast between colonising and fair exchange for mutual benefit. A consistent thread in the narrative is how best to respond to the challenge of overturning the exploitation of colonial relationships with friendly collaboration in modern times.

Originally published in 1904. Author: Rudyard Kipling Language: English Keywords: Literature Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.