Travelling through the wartorn Balkans with her husband on what proved to be a wholly useless diplomatic mission to Constantinople, Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) left a vivid, informative, clever account of her adventures in the mysterious, sophisticated culture of Ottoman palaces, bathing places and courts which - even as her husband's career was falling apart - she could not have enjoyed more.
One of the great derisive monuments to the imbecilities of the tourist experience, Mark Twain's (1835-1910) account of his tour with a group of fellow Americans around the sights of Europe is both hilarious and touching, Twain's exasperation and dismay at the phoney and exploitative being matched by his excitement and pleasure in the genuinely beautiful.
'And O, Angelica, what has become of you, this present Sunday morning when I can't attend to the sermon; and, more difficult question than that, what has become of Me as I was when I sat by your side?
The third book in The Corfu Trilogy (after My Family and Other Animals and Birds, Beasts and Relatives), the beloved books that inspired ITV's television series The Durrells.
It was the railway system which moulded the American hobo into the legendary figure he became, especially in the depression years, but surviving until today.
The American Henry James's descriptions of the countryside, monuments, universities, cathedrals, castles, customs and manners of the English are filled with elegant charm and good humour.
Laurens Van Der Post takes us behind the iron curtain of Soviet officialdom in a quest to discover the real Russia - a land full of enigma and secrecy, but treasured by its ordinary people.
The halo of romance and the magic of the unknown which have for so long drawn the adventurous as by a magnet to the mysterious land of Tibet have now been in great part dissipated.
When Tonia Parronchi's husband, Guido, told her of his plans to buy a boat and take her and their baby sailing, she had her reservations, but she soon came round to the idea and has never looked back.
A fascinating journey through Scotland's famous distilleries with legendary author Iain Banks No true Scotsman can resist the allure of the nation's whisky distilleries.
'An inspiring, life-affirming story' Reader's Digest Philip and Caroline Jones, a middle-aged couple living in Edinburgh, found themselves facing redundancy and an uncertain future.
"e;A collection of exchanges - as surprising as they are interesting - between British author Nicky Gentil and some of the cabdrivers who have crossed her path.
In Going to Extremes writer, presenter and Oxford geography don Nick Middleton visits Oymyakon in Siberia, where the average winter temperature is -47 degrees and 40% of the population have lost their fingers to frostbite while changing the car wheel.
Ian Duhig's The Speed of Dark is structured around his astonishing reworking of the text of Le Roman de Fauvel, a medieval text that railed against the corruption of the 12th-century French court and church.
'it appeared to me that the greatest and best feelings of the human heart were paralyzed by the relative positions of slave and owner' In Domestic Manners of the Americans, Frances Trollope recounts her travels through America between 1827 and 1830, describing her voyage up the Mississippi from New Orleans, a two-year stay in Cincinnati, and a subsequent tour of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.
Ein literarisches ReisejournalDas Ende des Kommunismus war für die Völker Osteuropas der Beginn einer Hoffnung und zugleich eine Reise ins gesellschaftliche und ökonomische Elend.
After successfully completing his 12,000 mile bus ride around America, Shaun Donovan now embarks on his latest and greatest challenge - to circumnavigate the coastline of Australia, again by bus, but also to ride the famous 'Indian Pacific' and 'Ghan' trains from west to east and south to north of this vast continent - A 20,000 kilometre journey which must be completed in less than 50 days.
The face of modern-day Cuba is in many respects still frozen in the 1950s, with its classic American cars, horse-drawn carriages and colonial Spanish architecture.
