Essays & Travelogues

Australia has more things that can kill you than anywhere else. Nevertheless, Bill Bryson journeyed to the country and promptly fell in love with it....

Ghost Empire is a rare treasure - an utterly captivating blend of the historical and the contemporary, realised by a master storyteller....

Dom Joly was born in Beirut and lived there until he was 18. He lived through the civil war, went to school with Osama Bin Laden, and learned to ski and speak French and Arabic....

In his concise, richly detailed memoir My Sixty Years on the Plains, fur-trapper W. T. Hamilton - also known as "Wildcat Bill"-gives the listener a first-hand account of life outdoors in the Old West....

Frances Mayes - widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer - opens the door to a wondrous new world...

In November 1910, the vessel Terra Nova left New Zealand carrying an international team of explorers led by Robert Falcon Scott...

As any traveller knows, the best and most honest conversations take place during car rides. So when journalist Frank Langfitt wanted to learn more about the real China, he started driving a cab - and discovered a country amid seismic political and economic change....

Do you have a dream you must pursue, but everyone says it's unrealistic?...

Why would a middle-aged businessman who had never even spent the night outdoors, attempt to hike the entire Appalachian Trail....

Twenty years ago Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green and kindly island that had become his adopted country....

In her own words, here is the captivating story of Julia Child's years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found "her true calling"....

A landmark in travel writing, this is the incredible true story of Heinrich Harrer’s escape across the Himalayas to Tibet....

Stuck in a job he no longer found fulfilling, journalist Mike McIntyre felt his life was quickly passing him by. So one day he hit the road to trek from one end of the country to the other....

Islands, Oceans, and Dreams is a true story of a man who, at the age of 33, began dreaming of voyaging with his wife to the South Pacific....

A liberating motorcycle journey through Africa with descriptions of the amazing people and places, the joy of big skies and the open road, and the sometimes harrowing events that would shape destiny.....

The Old Ways, a major new book from one of Britain’s finest nature writers about landscape and the human heart....

One More Croissant for the Road sees ‘the nation’s taster in chief’ Felicity Cloake embark on the trip of a lifetime, cycling 3,500km across France in search of the definitive versions of classic French dishes....  

Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor....

An inimitable tale of survival, resilience, and sheer willpower, Walking the Nile is an inspiring chronicle of an epic journey down the lifeline of civilization in northern Africa....

Returning to the UK in September 2010 after serving in Iraq as the political adviser to the top American general, Emma Sky felt no sense of homecoming. She soon found herself back in the Middle East traveling through a region in revolt....

If you're traveling the world - or if you just want to travel the world from your armchair - this book will enlighten and amuse you. It could add a few unusual stops to your itinerary, as well. Perhaps you're just too busy this year for that round-the-world trip....

Colin Thubron undertakes a journey along the greatest land route on earth: the Silk Road....

The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo Read by Walter Covell. Take a fascinating journey through strange and exotic countries...

Greek to Me is a charming account of Norris’s lifelong love affair with words and her solo adventures in the land of olive trees and ouzo. Along the way, Norris explains how the alphabet originated in Greece, makes the case for Athena as a feminist icon, and more....

As a lover of both history and the countryside, urbanite couch-potato Charlie Connelly decides to rectify this and sets out on foot along some famous routes, journeying alongside Bodica's chariot in Norfolk....

Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler’s best reportage....

“Well, now I’m committed,” he thought to himself after telling a national TV game show audience that he wanted to ride a motorcycle to Mongolia with his winnings. He felt the fear that commitment always induced in him; he was hoping they might have edited that bit out....