Secondhand Books Travel Writings

How often does the hairiest man in the world shave? What's it like having the largest breasts on Earth? Can a woman of 7 feet 9 inches find love? Looks...

** The North Pole: The History of an Obsession by Erling Kagge is out now **'Erling Kagge transforms and consoles us' Alain de Botton____________________________Surviving extreme conditions can teach us to...

Did you know? In 1884 the Circle Line opened and was described in The Times as 'a form of mild torture which no person would undergo if he could conveniently...

The former kingdom of Siam was, for 700 years, the only country in South-East Asia not to be invaded by a foreign power. Yet Thailand today is on odd hybrid...

Travel writer Bill Bryson looks at the language of America and explains the history behind it, including the origins of phrases such as "The real McCoy" and the "G-string"; why...

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,...

Following "Around the World in 80 Days", this book accompanies Michael Palin's second travel series on BBC Television. It is a record of his continuous land and sea journey from...

In 1988 Simon Winchester, author of The Surgeon of Crowthorne and The Map that Changed the World, set out on foot to discover the Republic of Korea. He wanted to...

In this collection of profiles, essays and travel stories, Chatwin takes us to Benin, where he is arrested as a mercenary during a coup; to Boston to meet an LSD...

A funny, moving travelogue following in the footsteps of Hans Christian Andersen. Without Hans Christian Andersen there would be no Alice in Wonderland, no Roald Dahl and maybe even no...

'Sophie Grigson has written twenty odd excellent cookbooks, but I think this is the best of them. It is her first book for a decade and was obviously driven by...

Joanna Kavenna went north in search of the Atlantis of the Arctic, the mythical land of Thule.Seen once by an Ancient Greek explorer and never found again, mysterious Thule came...

In a unique journey from the oil fields of the Caspian Sea to the refineries and financial centres of Northern Europe, James Marriott and Mika Minio-Paluello track the concealed routes...

Since 1990 Julian Barnes has written a regular `Letter from London' for the New Yorker magazine. These already celebrated pieces cover subjects as diverse as the Lloyd's insurance disaster, the...

In his early twenties Miles Hordern first crossed the oceans from the northern to the southern hemisphere, but the stretch between New Zealand and the Indian Ocean, guarded by the...

This is a highly personal guide to the beauties of Italy. Henry James writes about his travels through Tuscany at the turn of the century, to cities such as Venice,...

'WE COULD BORE OURSELVES TO DEATH, DRINK OURSELVES TO DEATH, OR HAVE A BIT OF AN ADVENTURE...'When they retired Terry and Monica Darlington decided to sail their canal narrowboat across...

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...

After a decade of making documentaries about offbeat characters on the fringes of US society, Louis had the urge to return to America and track down the people who most...

I had been looking for someone to write to for a long time, but how does a man write letters to a god?From his Mediterranean garden on the island of...

Spanish Steps recounts Tim Moore's pilgrimage along the ancient five-hundred-mile route from St Jean Pied-de-Port on the French side of the Pyrenees to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in...

'To be one third Prussian by descent, another third English, and a final third Irish, is a situation fraught with ambiguities . . . it would have been much simpler,...

Getting outdoors brings the whole family together. You'll learn skills, have a run-around, share laughs, and make enduring memories. This book is the perfect companion to any outdoor family adventure....

The bestselling, much-loved classic account of an English couple escaping to enjoy the fruits of French rural summer living - an irresistible feast of humour and heart.Peter Mayle and his...

There is probably not a London suburb with more intense historical connections, more diversity and more astonishing buildings and artefacts than Greenwich. There are sections on MARITIME GREENWICH - home...

Early polar adventurers endured hardship and death as they battled fearsome odds and horrendous conditions. Cold, hunger and thirst, frostbite and scurvy were constant companions. It should not be surprising...

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,...

The Author's last non-fiction book, "The Perfect Stranger" charted his early experiences, the premature death of his wife being the central event, causing him to reflect, and try to make...

As a child, Robin Bayley was enchanted by his grandmother's stories of Mexican adventures: of bandits, wild jungle journeys, hidden bags of silver and a narrow escape from the bloody...

In 1922 a journalist commented on British tenacity to General Bruce, leader of the British Everest Expedition. Bruce replied with a single word: 'Shackleton'. Ernest Shackleton is one of history's...

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...