"It may be that all borderlands hum with the frequencies of the unconscious; after all, borders are where the fabric is thin". This one is that wild, once barbed strip between Turkey, Bulgar... 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
The famous architect and his journalist son share a passion for sailing - the Thames, the Seine, the Pacific, the Mediterranean, far and wide to Athens, San Francisco, Osaka and other sites ... read more
The Bulgarian/Scottish writer explores the mountainous fringe of North Macedonia, Albania and Greece along the via Egnatia (which, astonishingly, joined the via Appia to link Rome with Byzan... 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.
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
Nick Hunt has previously walked in the footsteps of Paddy Leigh Fermor, and in search of Europe's great winds. His latest takes him - and us - to the remote and extreme: vestiges of ancient ... read more
The Beppina of the title was the author of a bundle of hand-written recipes found in an old Italian cookery: "a microcosm of the culinary taste of the Aretine upper middle-class during the B... read more
In this magnificently madcap adventure, SR pursues rumours of old pianos into all corners of Siberia: Arctic, Altai, Kamchatka, Princess Volkonsky in Irkutsk... She writes well, has a lovely... read more
A funny, self-deprecating memoir of living in Lyon (the lodestar of budding cooks), learning the ropes chez la Mere Brazier and the Institut Bocuse. The title does not refer (as far as we kn... 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
An extraordinary tale of patience and determination: Slaght has dedicated his life to save Blakiston's fish owl, a rare denizen of the taiga. His book is a revelation of the contemporary Rus... read more
Walsh is an international correspondent for the New York Times of long standing who was bureau chief in Pakistan for a decade, before his encounter with an intelligence agent and subsequent ... read more
An illustrated book examining our fascination with islands. Interweaving his own travels with psychology, philosophy and literary voyages, the author explores our contradictory needs for con... read more