TRAVEL WRITING

The great explorers were the celebrities of their day - the romance and danger of their daring expeditions captured the public imagination and the world's headlines to an extraordinary degree....

No man is an island, wrote John Donne. BBC Home Editor Mark Easton argues the opposite: that we are all islands, and it is upon the contradictory shoreline where isolation...

Following the spirit of the world's longest coastal driving route, Paul Clements sets out to discover the real west of Ireland. Along the way he encounters memorable characters living on...

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...

Hillwalking is one of Ireland's most popular leisure activities today. Rock climbing has developed to a level of technical excellence with crags in almost every county and numerous indoor climbing...

In 1978 Timothy Garton Ash went to live in Berlin to see what that divided city could teach him about tyranny and freedom. Fifteen years later, by then internationally famous...

The story of how six men and one woman made maritime history: sailing the Pacific on a bamboo raft where every wave washed right through the structure. Their purpose was...

Gladiators and goddesses, philosophers and poets, epic battles and romantic landscapes - the classical world has for centuries captivated and inspired the west. But what provoked the shift from the...

'Exquisite, powerful . . . I can think of no better way of commemorating British exploration's culminating triumph.' Simon Winchester? Coronation Everest offers a breathtakingly intimate evocation of the most...

This isn't Geoff Dyer's self-help book. Rather it is a book about how the author himself could do with a little help. In funny and thought-provoking prose, he describes a...

Over two decades of turmoil and change in the Middle East, steered via the history-soaked landscape of Palestine. This new edition includes a previously unpublished epigraph in the form of...

Roads to Berlin maps the changing landscape of Germany, from the period before the fall of the Wall to the present. Written and updated over the course of several decades,...

The long-awaited final volume of the trilogy by Patrick Leigh Fermor.A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water were the first two volumes in a projected trilogy...

Ibn Battutah set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on the pilgrimage to Mecca. By the time he returned twenty-nine years later, he had visited most of the known...

Sir Ernest Shackleton could never have imagined his name being closely associated with whisky, certainly not in the title of a book. Rarely did he consume strong drink. On his...

What are the wonders of the world? The Grand Canyon? The Hoover Dam? The Great Pyramid of Giza - the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world...

All I knew about Moldova were the names of eleven men printed on the inside back pages of my newspaper. None of them sounded to me like they were any...

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?...

A remarkable nineteenth-century account of Istanbul - which begins with a dazzling description of the city gradually appearing through the fog as the author's ship approaches the harbour - Constantinople...

Four million captivated viewers watched Charley Boorman complete his last adventure - LONG WAY DOWN - which took him from John O'Groats to Cape Town. Along with Ewan McGregor he...

'Dark tourism is the act of travel and visitation to sites, attractions and exhibitions which have real or recreated death, suffering or the seemingly macabre as a main theme'Ever since...

a poignant description of Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam in 1950, with all their beauty, gentleness, grandeur and intricate political balance intact - Restores this lost world, like a phoenix, from...

"Mountains of the Mind" pursues an investigation into our emotional and imaginative responses to mountains, and how these have changed over the last few centuries. It is rich with literary...

'Delves into the very essence of being a fan, while seamlessly exploring Italian history, politics, culture and society,' GuardianIs Italy a united country, or a loose affiliation of warring states?...

Sardar travels to Asian communities throughout the UK to tell the history of Asians in Britain - from the arrival of the first Indian in 1614, to the young extremists...

Gathered in this book are over twenty islands that have decidedly human origins, whether they are the products of imagination, deception or simply human error. They are phantoms, fakes and...

'Sixty Degrees North is a story that we tell, both to ourselves and to others. It is a story about where - and perhaps also who - we are.'The sixtieth...

Siberia is a vast and ancient territory, a mystery to the world outside its borders. Rick Wirick and his wife have gone to Siberia to adopt a baby girl. Rather...

In this unique book, part eulogy, part history, part travelogue, Charlie English goes in search of the best snow on the planet. Along the way he explains the extraordinary hold...

John Ure has travelled with the Bedouin of the Arabian peninsular, the Moors and Tuareg of the Sahara, migratory pastoral tribes of southern Iran, and the Mongol horsemen and Tartar...

Peter Robb's journey into the dark heart of Sicily uses history, painting, literature and food to shed light on southern Italy's legacy of political corruption and violent crime. Taking the...

Explore the places that time forgot. These abandoned, mysterious, sleeping monuments around the world have been relegated to the margins of history. From ancient ruins and crumbling castles to more...

Traverse the globe and explore the extraordinary. This is a unique, enigmatic collection of 45 meticulously crafted maps for wandering off the beaten track. Embark on an armchair expedition across...

Cyprus, spring 1972. Tensions are rising between the Greek South and the Turkish North. Within two years, the country will become divided.It is at this distinctive time in history British...

"What transformed pure physical delight into something deeper was the fact that no-one had been here before..." Discover the fascinating stories of the men and women who have scaled the...

This book is the only guide you will need to explore all the most important historical sites on the planet. From Stonehenge to the Great Wall of China, from Sterkfontein...

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A TIMES BEST MEMOIR OF 2023 'Grippingly vivid and pacey' THE TIMES 'A seven-year old girl on a seventy-foot yacht, for ten years, over fifty thousand miles...

The south of France, known for its beauty, perfect climate, fresh produce, excellent cuisine, fine wines and steeped in history - but what lurks behind?This is a humorous yet cautionary...

In this highly entertaining book, fellow film actors and bike enthusiasts Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman travel 20,000 miles around the world by motorbike. They will encounter many troublesome situations...