Fables of the East is the first anthology to provide textual examples of representations of oriental cultures in the early modern period drawn from a variety of genres: travel writing, histories, and fiction. Organized according to genre in order to illustrate the diverse shapes the oriental tale adopted in the period, the extracts cover the popular sequence of oriental tales, the pseudo-oriental tale, travels and history, and letter fictions. Authors represented range from the familiar - Joseph Addison, Horace Walpole, Montesquieu, Oliver Goldsmith - to authors of great popularity in their own time who have since faded in reputation such as James Ridley, Alexander Dow, and Eliza Haywood. The selection has been devised to call attention to the diversity in the ways that different oriental cultures are represented to English readers. Readers of this anthology will be able to identify a contrast between the luxury, excess, and sexuality associated with Islamic Turkey, Persia, and Mughal India and the wisdom, restraint, and authority invested in Brahmin India and Confucian China. Fables of the East redraws the cultural map we have inherited of the eighteenth century, demonstrating contemporary interest in gentile and 'idolatrous' religions, in Confucianism and Buddhism especially, and that the construction of the Orient in the western imagination was not exclusively one of an Islamic Near and Middle East. Ros Ballster's introduction addresses the importance of the idea of 'fable' to traditions of narrative and representations of the East. Each text is accompanied by explanatory head and footnotes, also provided is a glossary of oriental terms and places that were familiar to the texts' eighteenth-century readers.

Samestellers Corlia Fourie en Annelize van Rooyen bring vermaaklike reisstories deur 46 skrywers byeen, o.a. Marita van der Vyver, Kirby van der Merwe, Sophia Kapp, Jacques Pauw, Irma Joubert, Julian Jansen, C. Johan Bakkes, Bettina Wyngaard en Frederik de Jager.

Die skrywers vertel van verrassende gebeure tydens reise, met snaakse, bittersoet of heuglike gevolge. Maar altyd is die ervaringe verrykend.

Reis saam van Fraserburg tot Timboektoe; Arizona tot Zanzibar; en nog baie ander plekke!

"As I sat on the side of Hamnafield on Foula in the Shetland Islands, looking down at my 'enormous' 38-foot ferry stowed in its cradle on the quay in Ham Voe, over 1,000 feet below me, I reflected on a moderately successful career to date, and wondered how on Earth I had ended up driving what was, in effect, a floating dust cart" After 42 years at or connected with the sea, Jeremy Walker ended up on the Shetland Island of Foula commanding and running a small ferry to the mainland of Shetland. Throughout the course of his career, firstly as a seagoing deck officer with a large, but now defunct, British shipping company, then as a Hovercraft Commander for four years, returning to sea for a brief period as Master of two small coastal tankers and then for the majority of his career as a Pilot on the River Humber, he encountered many amusing situations. In this book he attempts to relate these stories and to illustrate the lighter side of what was a very difficult, responsible and, at times, incredibly stressful job. And little did he know that his career was far from over and new opportunities and challenges would take him on for a further 13 years to eventual retirement.

"The art of travelling is only a branch of the art of thinking," Mary Wollstonecraft wrote in 1790 in a review of a travel narrative set in Ireland. A Short Residence was her own travel memoir, and became the work that Wollstonecraft most admired in her own lifetime. The text narrates Wollstonecraft's journey through Scandinavia, accompanied by her young daughter; the letters are addressed to an unnamed lover. Passionate and personal, the letters also explore the comparative political and social systems of Europe. The result is a travel book that is both as much a work of political thought as Wollstonecraft's more well-known treatises, and an innovative and influential work in the genre. This Broadview Edition provides a helpful introduction and extensive appendices that contextualise this remarkable text in relation to a number of key political and aesthetic debates.

Was Britain's postwar rebuilding the height of mid-century chic or the concrete embodiment of crap towns? John Grindrod decided to find out how blitzed, slum-ridden and crumbling austerity Britain became, in a few short years, a space-age world of concrete, steel and glass. What he finds is a story of dazzling space-age optimism, ingenuity and helipads - so many helipads - tempered by protests, deadly collapses and scandals that shook the government.

This collection On Travel is clever, funny, provoking and confrontational by turn. In a pyrotechnic display of cracking one- liners, cynical word play and comic observation, it mines three thousand years of wit and wisdom: from Martha Gellhorn to Confucius and from Pliny to Paul Theroux.

WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD Once we thought monsters lived there. In the Enlightenment we scaled them to commune with the sublime. Soon, we were racing to conquer their summits in the name of national pride. In this ground-breaking, classic work, Robert Macfarlane takes us up into the mountains: to experience their shattering beauty, the fear and risk of adventure, and to explore the strange impulses that have for centuries lead us to the world's highest places.

‘Witty and fascinating … a guide book that can't help but inspire’ independent.co.uk Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to the stunning desert solitude of Oman’s Empty Quarter – and many places beyond. In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favorite places – in his own words. Featuring essential advice on how to get there, what to eat, where to stay and, in some cases, what to avoid. Additionally, each chapter includes illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook. Supplementing Bourdain’s words are a handful of essays by friends, colleagues, and family that tell even deeper stories about a place, including sardonic accounts of traveling with Bourdain by his brother, Chris; a guide to Chicago’s best cheap eats by legendary music producer Steve Albini, and more. ‘An enduring embodiment of Bourdain’s love for the whole world and a reminder of how to stack our priorities the next time we’re able to follow in his footsteps’ New York Times

Between soaring mountains, across arid deserts, parched plains and valleys of fruit orchards and olive groves, down glittering coastlines and along viaducts towering above plunging ravines... there is no better way to see Spain than by train. Rail enthusiast Tom Chesshyre, author of Slow Trains to Venice, Ticket to Ride and Tales from the Fast Trains, hits the tracks once again to take in the country through carriage windows on a series of clattering rides beyond the popular image of "holiday Spain" (although he stops by in Benidorm and Torremolinos too). From hidden spots in Catalonia, through the plains of Aragon and across the north coast to Santiago de Compostela, Chesshyre continues his journey via Madrid, the wilds of Extremadura, dusty mining towns, the cathedrals and palaces of Valencia and Granada, and finally to Seville, Andalusia's beguiling (and hot) capital. Encounters? Plenty. Mishaps? A lot. Happy Spanish days? All the way.

Isobel Wylie Hutchison was many things: a botanist, traveller, poet and artist. She travelled solo throughout the arctic collecting plant samples, wrote and published extensive volumes of essays and poetry, and was - in short - one of the most remarkable Scottish figures of her time. However, since her death in 1982 her legacy has been forgotten compared with her male counterparts. Now Isobel can speak for herself again. While better known for her solo journeys across the Arctic, these essays detail Isobel's journeys across Scotland, including visits to Skye, John O' Groats and the various literary shrines across the country. Written with characteristic wit and a keen interest in both science and myth and folklore, the essays serve as important cultural markers not just of Scotland as it was and has developed, but of a woman's experience of travelling alone and a testament to the importance of cultural connection, exploration and communication.

Alan Winnington traveled to Yunnan province and spent several months with the headhunting Wa and the slave-owning Norsu and Jingpaw. The first European to enter and leave this area alive, Winnington reported on the struggle of recently released slaves as they came to terms with their newfound freedom.