"Romanian Furrow", written in 1933, is an enchanting and evocative chronicle of a journey made by a young Englishman, Donald Hall, to Romania in search of a rural lifestyle that was rapidly disappearing in Western Europe. Hall set out not only to observe but to actively participate in peasant life and in this quest he brilliantly succeeded in touching the soul of Romanian country life. The friendships he made along the way are most moving. Hall's account of rural life in Romania - which has not markedly changed today - admirably meets the reading requirements of Green or Eco tourists, a market segment that Romania is investing much of its tourism budget to attract.

'Coffin roads' along which bodies were carried for burial are a marked feature of the landscape of the Scottish Highlands and islands - many are now popular walking and cycling routes. This book journeys along eight coffin roads to discover and explore the distinctive traditions, beliefs and practices around dying, death and mourning in the communities which created and used them. The result is a fascinating snapshot into place and culture. After more than a century when death was very much a taboo subject, this book argues that aspects of the distinctive West Highland and Hebridean way of death and approach to dying and mourning may have something helpful and important to offer to us today. Routes covered in this book are: The Kilmartin Valley - the archetypal coffin road in this ritual landscape of the dead. The Street of the Dead on Iona - perhaps the best known coffin road in Scotland. Kilearnadil Graveyard, Jura - a perfect example of a Hebridean graveyard. The coffin road through Morvern to Keil Church, Lochaline - among the best defined and most evocative coffin roads today. The Green Isle, Loch Shiel, Ardnamurchan - the oldest continuously used burial place anywhere in Europe. The coffin road on Eigg - with its distinctive 'piper's cairn' where the coffin of Donald MacQuarrie, the 'Great Piper of Eigg', was rested. The coffin road from Traigh Losgaintir to Loch Stocinis on Harris - popular with walkers and taken as the title for a best-selling thriller by Peter May. The coffin road on Barra - A detailed study of burial practices on Barra in the early 1950s provides a fascinating record of Hebridean attitudes to dying, death and mourning.

As read on BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' Shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award Longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize 'Sherman's is a special book. Every sentence, every thought she has, every question she asks, every detail she notices, offers something. The Bells of Old Tokyo is a gift . . . It is a masterpiece.' - Spectator For over 300 years, Japan closed itself to outsiders, developing a remarkable and unique culture. During its period of isolation, the inhabitants of the city of Edo, later known as Tokyo, relied on its public bells to tell the time. In her remarkable book, Anna Sherman tells of her search for the bells of Edo, exploring the city of Tokyo and its inhabitants and the individual and particular relationship of Japanese culture - and the Japanese language - to time, tradition, memory, impermanence and history. Through Sherman's journeys around the city and her friendship with the owner of a small, exquisite cafe, who elevates the making and drinking of coffee to an art-form, The Bells of Old Tokyo presents a series of hauntingly memorable voices in the labyrinth that is the metropolis of the Japanese capital: An aristocrat plays in the sea of ashes left by the Allied firebombing of 1945. A scientist builds the most accurate clock in the world, a clock that will not lose a second in five billion years. A sculptor eats his father's ashes while the head of the house of Tokugawa reflects on the destruction of his grandfather's city ('A lost thing is lost. To chase it leads to darkness'). The result is a book that not only engages with the striking otherness of Japanese culture like no other, but that also marks the arrival of a dazzling new writer as she presents an absorbing and alluring meditation on life through an exploration of a great city and its people.

Open boat cruising has never been more popular, in the doing or the reading of it; magazines, websites, associations and events around the world attest to this, and of course the countless sailors who just 'get on with it' in their own unassuming manner. Two such, some fifty years ago, long before today's explosion of activity, were Ken Duxbury and his wife B; Ken's three books recounting their adventures in the eighteen-foot Drascombe Lugger 'Lugworm' delighted many on their first appearance, yet they became unavailable for years. 'Lugworm on the Loose' describes how Ken and B quit the 'rat race' and explored the Greek islands under sail. 'Lugworm Homeward Bound' recounts their voyage home from Greece to England. 'Lugworm Island Hopping' has Ken and B exploring the Scilly Isles and the Hebrides. The light touch of Ken's writing belies the sheer ambition, resourcefulness and seamanship which infuse these exploits. And beyond pure sailing narrative, his books convey the unique engagement with land and people which is achieved by approaching under sail in a small boat.

The river Tigris is in danger. It has been the lifeblood of ancient Mesopotamia and modern Iraq, but geopolitics and climate change have left the birthplace of civilisation at risk of becoming uninhabitable. In 2021, adventurer Leon McCarron travelled by boat along the full length of the river, in search of hope. From the source, where Assyrian kings had their images carved into stone, McCarron and his small team journeyed through the Turkish mountains, across north-east Syria and into the heart of Iraq. Passing by historic cities like Diyarbakir, Mosul and Baghdad, McCarron kept the company of fishermen and farmers, but also artists, activists and archaeologists who rely on the flow of the river. Occasionally harassed by militias, often helped by soldiers, McCarron rode his luck in areas still troubled by ISIS and relied on the generosity of a network of strangers to reach the Persian Gulf. Wounded Tigris is the story of what humanity stands to lose with the death of a great river, and what can be done to try to save it.

With charm, inspiration, and plenty of whimsy, Taylor reminds us that even in a weary world, it’s possible to celebrate the beauty in each person’s unique story—and make a difference that goes deeper than you’ll ever know.

Flight attendant Taylor Tippett had just finished beverage service and was sitting in the back of a Boeing 737 when she had a revelation: How can I show kindness to these passengers if I can’t show it to myself? She grabbed a tiny notepad and a Sharpie and wrote: “Be kind to yourself.” Before she had time to think about it, Taylor taped the note to a window, posted a picture, and then left the slip of paper in a seat-back pocket for someone on the next flight to find. And soon what started as a personal project to encourage herself and others became a viral sensation.

In Words from the Window Seat, Taylor shares stories of her travels, daily life, and interactions with people of all kinds, anchoring each chapter around a note she’s left for a stranger to find.

As she takes you from Chicago to Paris to Barcelona on planes, trains, and even a skateboard, you’ll:

• learn how to embody love in the midst of someone else’s ordinary day through little acts of kindness;
• discover the small moments of magic that happen when you have the courage to find them; and
• find ways to embrace your authentic self, even though life can be hard.

'Will someone pay for the spilled blood? No. Nobody.' Mikhail Bulgakov wrote these words in Kiev during the turmoil of the Russian Civil War. Since then Ukrainian borders have shifted constantly and its people have suffered numerous military foreign interventions that have left them with nothing. As a state, Ukraine exists only since 1991 and what it was before is controversial among its people as well as its European neighbours. Writing in a simple and vivid way, Jens Muhling narrates his encounters with nationalists and old Communists, Crimean Tatars and Cossacks, smugglers, archaeologists and soldiers, all of whose views could hardly be more different. Black Earth connects all these stories to convey an unconventional and unfiltered view of Ukraine - a country at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and the centre of countless conflicts of opinion.

'Jonathan Raban is simply one of the great writers of non-fiction at work today. I hold his work in awe.' Robert Macfarlane 'Unfailingly witty and entertaining.' Salman Rushdie Following in the footsteps of countless emigrants, Jonathan Raban takes ship for New York from Liverpool, to explore how succeeding generations of newcomers have fared in America. He finds a country of massive contrasts, between the Street People and the Air People in New York, between small town and big city, between thrusting immigrants and down-at-heel native Americans. Having outgrown his minute rented New York apartment, he heads for Guntersville, Alabama, where he settles for a few months as a good ol' boy in a cabin on the lake with a 'rented' elderly lab. From there he flies to the promise of Seattle, discovering its thrusting but alienated Asian community and thence to the watery lowlife of Key West. The result is a breathtaking observation of the States - a travelogue, a social history and a love letter in one.

Sailing six thousand miles in eighty days, Allcard makes the classic southern route trade-wind crossing westward, and not without incident-severe gales, thief-catching in Spain, avoiding a seductive blonde in Gibraltar, encountering sharks and shoals of flying fish, and narrowly escaping falling overboard to his death when knocked out by gear falling from aloft. Allcard's plan to dodge the worst of the hurricane season on his return voyage is not accommodated by the elements. Through gales and headwinds, and one terrible storm, he takes seventy-four days to reach the Azores from New York, arriving minus his mizzen mast, desperately exhausted, injured, and hungry. The next leg, to Casablanca, is enlivened by a female stowaway, before he makes a safe return to England. Whether describing the pleasures or the trials, the phosphorescent nights or the storms, the operation of his ship or his own introspections, Edward Allcard eloquently conveys his deep appreciation of the sea, and the escape from modern civilisation it offers him.

If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it's that people love parks As horizons shrank, we took stock. At first, a sense of panic set in: nowhere to go, nothing to do... Then we all went to the park, and we realized something: we need greenery - we crave it. Whether we're in Colombia or Korea, America or Australia, urban parks are places where we can find calm amid the chaos. They can also (more often than we may realize) conceal intriguing hidden histories, and can tell us something about modern life in our frenzied world, too. With fondness and humour, travel writer Tom Chesshyre recalls 50 of his favourite urban parks from across the world, in a love letter to the green escapes that bring us joy in our cities.

Smelling the Breezes is an inspiring adventure, that throws down a gauntlet about what can be achieved in a family holiday. Rather than give a leaving party, Ralph and Molly Izzard had their own plans about how to say goodbye to their home in the Middle East. They would walk the three-hundred mile spine of the Lebanese mountains, camping where ever they stopped with their four children, two donkeys and Elias (their gardener-nursemaid-friend) as their sole travelling companions.

On the same day that his wife gave birth to twins, Anthony Doerr received the Rome Prize, an award that gave him a year-long stipend and studio in Rome... 'Four Seasons in Rome' charts the repercussions of that day, describing Doerr's varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world, and the first year of parenthood. He reads Pliny, Dante, and Keats - the chroniclers of Rome who came before him - and visits the piazzas, temples, and ancient cisterns they describe. He attends the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II and takes his twins to the Pantheon in December to wait for snow to fall through the oculus. He and his family are embraced by the butchers, grocers, and bakers of the neighbourhood, whose clamour of stories and idiosyncratic child-rearing advice is as compelling as the city itself. This intimate and revelatory book is a celebration of Rome, a wondrous look at new parenthood and a fascinating account of the alchemy of writers.

For nearly forty years John Wilson travelled the length and breadth of Scotland as a school inspector. From orkney to campbeltown and Jura to Dundee, he visited hundreds of schools and met thousands of teachers and pupils. In these memoirs, first published in 1928, he paints an insightful yet humorous picture of life in the country's schools after the 1872 education Act, which brought free schooling for all Scottish children between the ages of five and ten.

An extraordinary evocation of the desert and its people by a woman who dressed as a man in order to travel alone and unimpeded throughout North AfricaIn 1897 Isabelle Eberhardt, at the age of 20, left an already unconventional life in Geneva for the Morroccan frontier. Gripped by spiritual restlessness and the desire to break free from the confinements of her society she traveled into the desert, and into the heart of Islam. Her experiences inspired a profound self-examination, anda book that today isregarded as one of the true classics of travel writing. In the current political climate, it is also a book uncannily current in its treatment of the culture of Islam in North Africa. One of the most astonishing travel documents of all time, this book is also a feminist classic in its own right."

Obie encompasses a decades-long sweep of his life’s work and covers the globe. It is part coffee-table book, part travelogue, part autobiography and part storybook, with a bit of philosophy thrown in for good measure. It’s a great photographer, documenter and character looking back through his ever-increasing archive (built up over 60 years) and choosing the images that resonate the most, and which have a story to tell. Obie captures the rare, the human, the wonderful, the cosmic even. And he doesn’t just take pictures; he also meticulously records it all in words. His descriptions are often as intriguing, as beautiful or as crazy as his photographs.

Shortlisted for the The Great Outdoors Awards - Outdoor Book of the Year 2020 Shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature 2020 There are strange relics hidden across Scotland's landscape: forgotten places that are touchstones to incredible stories and past lives which still resonate today. Yet why are so many of these 'wild histories' unnoticed and overlooked? And what can they tell us about our own modern identity? From the high mountain passes of an ancient droving route to a desolate moorland graveyard, from uninhabited post-industrial islands and Clearance villages to caves explored by early climbers and the mysterious strongholds of Christian missionaries, Patrick Baker makes a series of journeys on foot and by paddle. Along the way, he encounters Neolithic settlements, bizarre World War Two structures, evidence of illicit whisky production, sacred wells and Viking burial grounds. Combining a rich fusion of travelogue and historical narrative, he threads themes of geology, natural and social history, literature, and industry from the places he visits, discovering connections between people and place more powerful than can be imagined.

The sea life is embedded in Christian Lamb's DNA. In this delightful memoir she takes her readers on board with her, chronicling her adventures as she cruises the world, to every continent and across every sea, spanning a lifetime. As a passionate plantswoman, an inquisitive historian, and an insatiable traveller, Christian follows the routes of her heroes, the seafarers, botanists and explorers of old, and rediscovers their stories in person, setting them in the context of the modern world. And all along the way, from New York to Patagonia, New Zealand to Moscow, the shipboard characters accompanying the author round out this wry and witty narrative, a charming account of sailing the ocean and exploring the furthest corners of the earth in eighty years.

John Hare has made three expeditions to the Mongolian and Chinese Gobi deserts, the first in 1993 with Russian scientists and the second and third with Chinese scientists in 1995 and 1996. The book records the amazing adventures he has experienced on those expeditions and will record details of the 30-day walk on foot in the formidable Kum Tagh sand dunes in the spring of 1997. He is the first recorded foreigner to have crossed the Gashun Gobi from north to south.
The expeditions were primarily concerned with tracking down the mysterious wild Bactrian camel 'camelus bactrianus ferus' which lives in the heartland of the desert and is the ancestor of all domestic Bactrian stock. There are under a thousand left in the world and the wild Bactrian camel is more endangered than the giant Panda.
This is John Hare's magnificent account of a formidable feat of modern exploration.
 

A captivating journey along the iconic River Po and through Italian history, society and culture. 'Delightful... A wonderful cornucopia of history' TLS 'Uncovers the Po's fascinating history' Guardian 'Tobias Jones is the perfect guide' Spectator The Po is the longest river in Italy, travelling for 652 kilometres from one end of the country to the other. It rises by the French border in the Alps and meanders the width of the entire peninsula to the Adriatic Sea in the east. Flowing next to many of Italy's most exquisite cities - Ferrara, Mantova, Parma, Cremona, Pavia and Torino - the river is a part of the national psyche, as iconic to Italy as the Thames is to England or the Mississippi to the USA. For millennia, the Po was a vital trading route and a valuable source of tax revenue, fiercely fought over by rival powers. It was also a moat protecting Italy from invaders from the north, from Hannibal to Holy Roman Emperors. It breached its banks so frequently that its floodplain swamps were homes to outlaws and itinerants, to eccentrics and experimental communities. But as humans radically altered the river's hydrology, those floodplains became important places of major industries and agricultures, the source of bricks, timber, silk, hemp, cement, caviar, mint, flour and risotto rice. Tobias Jones travels the length of the river against the current, gathering stories of battles, writers, cuisines, entertainers, religious minorities and music. Both an ecological lament and a celebration of the resourcefulness and resilience of the people of the Po, the book opens a window onto a stunning, but now neglected, part of Italy.

The no-holds-barred, eagerly awaited autobiography of one of Britain's most popular icons - known to millions from her many film and TV appearances, including Dynasty and The Brothers. Kate O'Mara writes here: "Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington! advised Noel Coward is his famous song. Stories of people going on incredible journeys constantly amaze and astound. Some journeys are meant to be adventures from the start; some begin inauspiciously and finish with a bang; some are groundbreaking and some show extraordinary triumphs in the face of adversity. Some travellers survive their journey and some do not. What makes these people risk their lives? Why do they put themselves in such danger? Divided into six chapters - Air and Space, Ice and Snow, Wind and Water, Great Escapers, Imperialists and Adventurers, Survivors - this book takes 60 extraordinary journeys from the past 100 years and recounts what happened to these intrepid travellers. Think of Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia; Robert Swan, the first man to walk to both the North and South Poles; Jim Shekhdar, who rowed across the Pacific from Peru to Australia; Neil Armstrong, Ellen MacArthur, Ernest Shackleton, Mallory and Irvine, Charles Lindbergh, Yuri Gagarin, Amelia Earhart, Hiram Bingham, Joe Simpson, Hillary and Norgay, Nautilus, Apollo 13 and Ranulph Fiennes. Incredible Journeys celebrates the remarkable achievements made by these extraordinary adventurers. With insightful text from Thomas Cussans, and fantastic images from the breathtaking summits to the perilous high seas, this book will truly inspire.

Despite a glamorous lifestyle full of globetrotting adventures, travel expert and entrepreneur Anna Kloots felt lost and directionless. Now, for every woman searching for her voice, Anna shares her story of finding and believing in her own magic. By the time she reached her mid-twenties, Anna Kloots found that she had all but disappeared. Assistant to her husband, renowned magician Joshua Jay, Anna Kloots traveled to 83 countries across six continents. Alongside Josh, she tracked tigers in Jaipur, rode a bobsled in Jamaica, performed on a floating palace that perpetually sailed the world, rode in a hot-air balloon over the desert of Dubai, and planted mangroves in the Mekong Delta. When the curtain went down, Anna found herself rootless and alone--struggling in a relationship that relegated her to the back seat and left no room for her own desires and dreams. My Own Magic takes us on Anna's journey around the world and back home to her family where she ultimately finds purpose, love, joy, and the courage to follow her own path. From the cobblestoned streets of Kosovo to the forests of India, to the coral reefs of Fiji, Anna invites us behind the scenes of her extraordinary life and inspires us to be the heroes of our own adventure story. My Own Magic is a real-life coming-of-age story about a woman who learned to find herself through loss and discovered the power of travel to save the soul--no sleight of hand required.