Tesson practised living in extreme cold on the shores of Lake Baikal a few years ago, memorably and entrancingly recounted in Consolations of the Forest. Here he has renounced both solitude ... read more
A marvellous history of pilgrimage around the world. Sacred landscapes, geographical hotspots where cultures, religions and trade routes meet, the remote and the metropolitan - and humanity'... read more
AM's last book was 'Night Trains' , in which we could luxuriate in dreams of the Blue Train, the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-lits and lamp-lit dining cars... Now, post-Brexit, the au... read more
The fiendish young man, having driven poor Verlaine out of his wits and his marriage, abandoned poetry, then Europe, setting in Aden in 1880. A reprint from Eland.
A fascinating Great-Game-ish romp with yaks , spies, political intrigue and a cast that includes not only the Viceroy Curzon but the rather overlooked figure of Sir Charles Bell, British Pol... read more
The author moved to Japan aged 21, immersing herself in language and culture with such success that she is now a literary translator. Her route there was by no means straightforward; this bo... read more
PS accompanied the fashion photographer Eric Boman on a shoot in 1976; the Yemen Arab Republic they entered has been closed to foreigners for years and this book documents what they saw trav... read more
A thousand-mile walk that took Martineau from Accra to Ouidah: a spell-binding account of a young man's journey into the world around him as well as himself. Remarkable meetings open doors t... read more
The marvellous Attlee takes us on the journey, through space and time, of one violin, whose voice "was powerful enough to unbuckle joints". Cremona, Russia, Venice, Alpine forests... (Her la... read more
A life of the indefatigable and intrepid Bird (1831-1904) who travelled in her mid-life to Australia, the United States, Hawaii, Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaya; later sh... read more
Sands, the overloaded former editor of the Today programme, visited ten monasteries around the world hoping to understand what they have in common and how monastic life might help her in her... read more
A delicious anthology of ambling, strolling, pausing, looking, thinking... A feast that combines Joseph Roth and Rebecca Solnit, George Sand and Werner Herzog, Joseph Conrad and Kate Humble,... read more
Kneale knows the city like few others (viz his Rome: A History in Seven Sackings, pbk £10.99). His writing is also a delight, so his account of lockdown is worth reading.
The author is an Indian journalist who was advised not to walk in Kabul when she arrived there in 2006. She did so anyway - persistently - and has written this remarkable, subtle, allusive a... read more