Secondhand Books Travel Writings

Combining the acute observation of a nineteenth-century missionary, and the wit of a Monty Python player, Redmond O'Hanlon is famous for his adventurous travel. His new challenge is the Congo,...

WINNER OF THE TELEGRAPH BEST SPORTS WRITING AWARD 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2021'One of the best books ever written about the early attempts to conquer Everest. A fine,...

Richard Parks has what must be one of contemporary sport's most extraordinary and inspirational stories. Soon after he turned thirty, the professional career in rugby that had been his life...

Often hailed as one of the best travel books ever written, Venice is neither a guide nor a history book, but a beautifully written immersion in Venetian life and character,...

My eyes lifted to the horizon and the unmistakable snowy outline of Everest. Everest, the mountain of my childhood dreams. A mountain that has haunted me my whole life. A...

'I hereby bet Tony Hawks the sum of One Hundred Pounds that he cannot hitchhike round the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, within one calendar month'A foolhardy attempt to...

Join Sunday Times bestselling author of Spectacles, Sue Perkins as she travels around Southeast Asia and beyond. Share in her hilarious and heartfelt adventure as she journeys from India to...

FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AND MAN BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR'Everybody should get to spend a month with Mr. Matar, looking at paintings' Zadie Smith'Sparkles with brilliant observations on art and architecture, friendship...

Hailed as ""a rousing read"" by The New York Times, this breathtaking chronicle of Antarctic exploration was written by expedition leader Sir Ernest Shackleton. In 1914 he and his 28-man...

In 1986 Brian Keenan and John McCarthy were forced to take a journey without maps. For the next four years they were incarcerated in a Lebanese dungeon. From the blank...

What are the French really like?Paul West, a young Englishman arriving in Paris to start a new job, is about to find out. _________________They do eat a lot of cheese,...

This is the story of an Irish father and his 18-year-old daughter and their 900-kilometre walk together across northern Spain along the ancient pilgrim route to the tomb of St...

The acclaimed travel writer's youthful journey - as an 18-year-old - across 1930s Europe by foot began in A Time of Gifts, which covered the author's exacting journey from the...

Home to mythical kingdoms, wars and expeditions, and strange and magical beasts, the Himalayas have always loomed tall in our imagination. Overrun at different times by Buddhism, Taoism, shamanism, Islam...

What makes Nicolas Bouvier such a well?loved travel writer is his exquisite sensitivity to the beauties of life, and his ability to capture those elusive moments in a style that...

THE BOOK BEHIND THE HIT DOCUMENTARYA glimpse of life inside the world's most secretive country, as told by Britain's best-loved travel writer.In May 2018, former Monty Python stalwart and intrepid...

Ernest Shackleton led two Antarctic expeditions, and died shortly after the beginning of a third. His first expedition was not a total success (they did not reach the South Pole),...

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...

What happens when four people, three old sea hands and a novice (the author) cross the Atlantic aboard a 70-foot schooner? Theo Dorgan's logbook of the voyage of the Spirit...

From London to New York, Ewan and Charley chased their shadows through Europe, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia, across the Pacific to Alaska, then down through Canada and America....

In 2002, at twenty-eight years old, David MacLean woke up in a foreign land with his memory wiped clean. No money. No passport. No identity. Taken to a mental hospital...

Bear Grylls is a man who has always sought the ultimate in adventure. Growing up on the Isle of Wight, he was taught by his father to sail and climb...

After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson took the decision to move back to the States for a few years, to let his kids experience life in another country,...

In January 2006, 230 people raced in trucks, cars and motorbikes from Lisbon to Dakar in the 28th annual Dakar rally -- the most dangerous race in the world. Taking...

The deepest cave on earth was a prize that had remained unclaimed for centuries, long after every other ultimate discovery had been made. This is the story of the men...

Taking the fire that destroyed the Fenice theatre in 1996 as his starting point, John Berendt creates a unique and unforgettable portrait of Venice and its extraordinary inhabitants. Beneath the...

A dramatic journey that both retraces the historic voyage of France's greatest 19th-century explorer up the mysterious Mekong river and paints a portrait of the river and its peoples today....

Fast forward to the 21st century and Tony has left these heady music biz days behind. That cherished appearance on 'Top of the Pops' is but a distant memory. These...

Michael O'Leary has made Ryanair the most valuable airline in Europe - and the second most valuable in the world. He has revolutionized the way Europeans travel and the very...

Many moons ago, a foolhardy attempt to win a drunken bet resulted in Tony Hawks embarking on one of the most unforgettable experiences of his life. Joined by his trusty...

Brassiere Hills, Alaska. Mollys Nipple, Utah. Outhouse Draw, Nevada. In the early twentieth century, it was common for towns and geographical features to have salacious, bawdy, and even derogatory names....

A small stone house deep among the olive groves of Liguria, going for the price of a dodgy second-hand car. Annie Hawes and her sister, on the spot by chance,...

After sixteen months of travelling round the Mediterranean in search of the ancient secrets of the olive tree, Carol returns to her beloved olive farm in the south of France,...

The television chat-show host Clive Anderson visits four areas of the world which have become symbols of "hell on earth". His brief is to explore this definition and to establish...

Siberia, to me, is a fairy-tale land.Fritz Doerries set out on his first trip to Eastern Siberia in 1877, when there were still blank spaces on maps of the world....

THE OLIVE FARM is television actress Carol Drinkwater's lyrical account of a new life in France; about her house Appassionata and the trials and tribulations of acquiring an olive farm,...

Have you ever walked into a half-empty restaurant in France, only to be told that it's complete? Attempted to say "merci beaucoup" and accidentally complimented someone on their cute backside?...

Michael Palin's travel books have repeatedly topped the bestseller lists. In this book he is back at his adventurous best tie-ing in with a major BBC TV series. The book/series...

"Hector's World" includes the stories that have made Hector's tri-lingual TV adventures must-see TV - running with the bulls in Pamplona, stripping with the Chippendales in Las Vegas, rodeo riding...