Travel
Right to the Edge: Sydney to Tokyo by Any Means by Charley Boorman
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but there seems a ever-diminishing sense of surprise with Charley Boorman's continuing adventures. One hopes at least they started with very daring, courageous, envelope-pushing exploits, where we might have doubted his success. Now he's on his fifth trip in as many years, BBC TV crew in hand as always, and we can hardly hope for much in the way of an ordeal, or doubt concerning a failure. And, as he admits, this does feel much like an add-on for his Ireland-to-Sydney trek. Full review...
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts
Rolf Potts is a travel writer as well as a bit of a backpacker guru and his book distils his experiences in, exactly as the title suggests, an uncommon guide to long-term travel. The operative word here is uncommon, as Vagabonding is not really a guide as we know them, more of a pep-talk combined with a resource list. Full review...
Western Balkans (Lonely Planet Multi Country Guide) by Marika McAdam
Lonely Planet does well from its multi-country guides as members of its peripatetic, Inter-railing, backpacker audience often 'do' more than one country (and sometimes a whole continent or region at least) within one trip. Full review...
European Rail Timetable Summer 2009 by Thomas Cook Publishing
This volume is an absolutely essential resource for anybody travelling in Europe by train. A compilation of all major train routes, it allows not only for checking train times but also planning pretty much every conceivable major journey. Theoretically, the train timetables change twice yearly, so it's worth getting an up to date book. Full review...
Europe on a Shoestring: Big Trips on Small Budgets (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides) by Sarah Johnstone
Europe on a Shoestring comes from the vast stable of Lonely Planet's travel guides and is very much aimed at the budget end of the market. Comparable to its nearest competitor, Let's Go Europe, it's a one-volume backpacker bible which attempts to provide the overview of a whole continent, every single country and the main destinations in each of the countries. Full review...
Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British Empire by Pete Brown
Being a beer writer can't be the easiest route to respect in journalism. But with this book Pete Brown has done much to counter the sceptical, even dismissive, attitudes which must surround his trade and its subject matter. He has attempted to combine a history of British imperialism and the brewing industry with the comic 'quest' genre of travel writing. Against all the odds, he has largely succeeded. Full review...
The Rough Guide to Amsterdam by Rough Guides
This Rough Guide is as comprehensive, up to date and well researched as most if not all Rough Guides seem to be. I have used numerous examples of their guides and I found them to be among the best if not the best ones there are. They do seem to have moved upmarket a bit since I first started to use them in the early 90s - but they still provide the best balance in descriptions covering practicalities, context, history, sightseeing, entertainment, drinking, clubbing and even (in Amsterdam at least) dope smoking. Full review...
Close to Holmes: A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Alistair Duncan
Even today, London is a remarkable compromise of the old and the new. As Alistair Duncan shows in this volume, the city of Conan Doyle and Holmes has changed – yet not changed. There have been a handful of books in the past on 'Holmes's London', but this is the first of its kind to place equal emphasis on places associated with the detective and his creator. Full review...
The Secret Life of France by Lucy Wadham
I'm rather at a loss to describe this book for you, and I'm still uncertain how to categorise it. It's part personal memoir and part analytical. Whether you regard this particular mix as brilliant or irritating is down, I suppose, to personal taste and intellectual curiosity. Full review...
All at Sea: One Man. One Bathtub. One Very Bad Idea: Conquering the Channel in a Piece of Plumbing by Tim Fitzhigham
Once more my life is made easy by saying this book does just what it claims on the cover - takes a narrator of zesty, wacky humour, throws him into an unlikely situation (a bath) and gets him to do something unusual (row it across the Channel - and then beyond). This despite the fact he was the world's worst sculler at University. Full review...
St Peter's (Wonders of the World) by Keith Miller
It is huge: not only in space but in time and structure; and in the non-material sphere of the complex interplay of meanings, symbols and significances. Miller's book, intentionally combining cultural and political history, art criticism and travel writing, manages to reflect that hugeness without weighting the reader down with too much austere detail. Full review...
Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle
What we have here are a male househusband and artist, and his MSF doctor wife, and their life in Burma or Myanmar for roughly a year. We get to see the life in the country, from the racks of bootleg software, to the animation class he leads, to their efforts to get into the lush country clubs, to their baby being adored by every passing girl. We see the state of the country, with its horrid drugs, HIV/AIDS and malaria problems, hidden beyond the gentle Buddhist retreats. We see the Delisles' interaction with this singular country - the censored press, and the fact that their road is only made more busy because of the roadblock diverting everyone away from Aung San Suu Kyi's house a block away. Full review...
Darwin's Armada: Four Voyagers to the Southern Oceans and Their Battle for the Theory of Evolution by Iain McCalman
A look at Darwin's journey on The Beagle, as well as journeys by Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallace. Darwin's Armada provides a broad overview that strikes a different tone to other books in a crowded market. Casual readers who usually steer clear of non-fiction will enjoy it. Full review...
A Journey Through Ruins: The Last Days of London by Patrick Wright
My good mood evaporated when Sue, my Bookbag partner, asked me if I'd read and review A Journey Through Ruins. She was right to ask because Thatcher's Britain is certainly an area of interest to me. The thing is, times are depressing enough. Margaret Hilda's neo-liberal legacy is crashing around us. Jobless queues are lengthening. Roofs are disappearing from over people's heads. The rampant cronyism and venal nature of our economic and political elites are slowly exposing themselves in ways likely to send my blood pressure soaring. Full review...
The Lost City of Z: A Legendary British Explorer's Deadly Quest to Uncover the Secrets of the Amazon by David Grann
For Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Fawcett there was more to the Amazonian jungle than El Dorado. His target was a treasure of a different nature – a lost city to be discovered because it was a city, not for any spurious material wealth it might hold. Could an entire civilisation have been founded in the inhospitable tracks of rain forest, and left remains he might find fame in locating? As this brilliant biography shows, Fawcett was the best man around to find it. Full review...
The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy by Rachel Cusk
So, there's this family, right, and the parents have itchy feet, so they pack everything up and say goodbye to the dog, and leave Clifton, Bristol, and drive down to Italy and live a fine and different life, and the plumbing might not be the best but the neighbours and the scrumping and the wine are all to die for and it all comes right in the end with life-affirming brilliance.
There will be many people shuddering at that completely false description of this book. Full review...
Architecture Uncooked: An Architect Looks Around New Zealand Holiday Houses by Pip Cheshire and Patrick Reynolds
This book immediately impresses by its clearly written, yet intelligent writing, and its photography that captures both the structure and the spirit of the holiday homes scattered around the New Zealand countryside. Full review...
Roam by Dean Starnes
Languages, customs, rituals, fascinating things to do, places to see, people to visit – all in the one book, covering almost every nook and cranny throughout the world. This is a travel book covering, well, pretty well everything. Full review...
I Believe in Yesterday: My Adventures in Living History by Tim Moore
Common opinion has it that the television programme Time Team did a lot for the public image of archaeologists – bringing them out of their holes in the ground, and making them seem like exciting, interesting people with a good way of putting their knowledge across. However it was clearly a much harder task when it came to those background artistes they have sometimes, walking up and down in Roman centurion gear, or living the historical lifestyle as a re-enactment. Full review...
On the Trail of Arthur Conan Doyle: An Illustrated Devon Tour by Brian W Pugh and Paul R Spiring
This slim volume, comprising just four chapters, is both a detailed chronology of the life of Arthur Conan Doyle and, for those that want to follow in the footsteps of ACD (I adopt the authors' abbreviation gladly), 'The Complete Arthur Conan Doyle Devon Tour' – locations that inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles and more. Full review...
Adventure Travel (AA Travel Guides) by William Gray
Last Friday, my local branch of Cotswold Outdoor had several travel guides and physical activity handbooks on the shelves, but nothing similar to this book, a compendium of physically active travel, with some nods to responsible tourism. The format of information on activities, well-written taster articles and plenty of attractive photos make for an inspiring armchair read for dreamers and planners. 'World class' locations are always debatable, but I found interesting suggestions in several sections. I loved the book enough to brush off the toast crumbs so that I can present it to one of my adventurous offspring this Christmas, but I'm very much afraid the easy-opening pages may give the game away! Full review...
Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes by Daniel Everett
I nearly didn't select this book to review as I thought it was about snakes - I was expecting some kind of Bear Grylls* adventure travel survival book for the Amazon. How-to-survive-in-the-jungle-armed-with-only-a-sharp-stick-and-a-six-pack sort of thing. Fortunately, I looked into the content a little further, and found that this is an anthropological and linguistic study of the life of the Pirahas, a tribe living in the remote Amazonian jungle. The title comes from the fact that the Pirahas don't have a word for goodnight – their nearest equivalent when they are leaving someone for the night is Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes. Full review...
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux
Some 30-odd years ago Paul Theroux, then half the age he is now, travelled overland across Europe and Asia. The result was 'his best known book' (apparently) – The Great Railway Bazaar. Full review...
An Indian Odyssey by Martin Buckley
More than a quarter of a century ago Martin Buckley went to Sri Lanka and then on to India. It was time off before settling down to the business of earning a living. Two things happened to him – he fell in love with India and knew that he wanted to stay there - and he discovered the Ramayana. Valmiki's epic was written round about 500 to 700 BC – much the same time as Homer's Odyssey (the title of this book is a very clever play on words) – but it still holds a central place in the hearts and minds of Indians although it is strangely unknown in the West. Ramayana – The Wanderings of Rama – tells the story of Lord Rama's search for his kidnapped wife and his subsequent battles with Ravan. Much of it is certainly myth. Some may well be based on fact, but it's inspirational and has achieved the status of Holy Writ. Full review...
A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke
A Year In The Merde was recommended to me by a friend whose sense of humour is very much on a par with mine. I read it a couple of years ago and decided, on discovering that Stephen Clarke had written a couple of not-to-be-missed follow-ups, that I would treat myself to the tale once more as a warm-up exercise to prepare me for the beaucoup de merde to come. Full review...
Traversa by Fran Sandham
When you reach the end of Fran Sandham's solo walk across Africa, as he finally dips his toe into the Indian Ocean, you need to go back to the beginning and start again.
Lots of books make you want to do that. In this case, you actually need to: in order to fully understand the man, and so many of the things he says and does along the way. Otherwise, you're in danger of thinking this guy was a fool for even trying to attempt a solo walk across the African continent. Full review...
Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All by Christina Thompson
Subtitled an unlikely love story, this was an interesting and inspiring memoir written by an American academic, who met and fell in love with a Maori - and what a beautiful tale it tells! Referred to as a 'contact' encounter (i.e., chance meeting) it sounds almost like a fairy tale, and in part it is - but a fairy tale which includes huge amount of hard work too. Full review...
The Literary Tourist by Nicola J Watson
As our resident travel writer this might interest you… came my introduction to this book. Misguidedly as it turned out, for the emphasis in Watson's work is much more heavily on the literary than on the tourist. Full review...
A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco by Suzanna Clarke
Perhaps it's a little unfair to come to A House in Fez still inspired by the storytelling of Tahir Shah's In Arabian Nights, because this is a very different take on Morocco, aimed (as a book) no doubt at a very different market, but reading the two in quick succession it is hard to avoid comparison. Full review...
A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of Spain by Paul Richardson
Although subtitled discovering the food of Spain, this excellently written, engaging and interesting book is about so much more. Yes, the focus is on food, mouthwateringly described, but it is also about culture, people, travel, tourism, history and geography. Full review...
Bamboo Goalposts by Rowan Simons
When it comes to football, I'm in agreement with the great Bill Shankly when he said: Football is not a matter of life and death, it's far more important than that. When it comes to China, my knowledge is limited to what I've seen on the TV recently about the earthquake, the Olympics and the protests; vague memories of Tiananmen Square and a love of the cuisine, or at least the version that comes from my local takeaway. Like many in the Western world, I have no concept of what life is truly like in China. Full review...
In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah
Once upon a time there was a traveller who travelled through Pakistan to visit far Afghanistan, where he would seek out the lost treasure of the Mughals. Sadly the traveller had an English passport and a Muslim name, and he was travelling from one enemy state to another. His story was not believed. Full review...
Strange Telescopes by Daniel Kalder
Bill Bryson with Tourette's was one of the epithets that met Kalder's previous travelogue (Lost Cosmonaut) along with 'sharp absurdist insight', 'deliberately crass' and 'revelatory'. I can't actually disagree with any of that if you were to apply it to the latest offering Strange Telescopes. Full review...
I Was a Potato Oligarch: Travels and Travails in the New Russia by John Mole
I remember getting this book in post, reading the title and thinking no, even though I am Russian, I will try to be unbiased and judge it like I would judge any other book about a foreign country experience. I now have to regretfully admit I failed. In my defence, John Mole's focus on mocking the nation and country made that all too easy. Full review...
A Year in Tibet by Sun Shuyun
Tibet is an emotive word these days. Rightly so.
Since long before the dawn of Communism, China has been adept at numbering the rights and wrongs of history, with the three this and the seven that. Sadly, she does not yet see the invasion of Tibet as a wrong. I am in no position to know what the majority of ordinary Chinese know about Tibet, nor what they think of their government's official standpoint on it. Along with many others, I can only hope that one day they will have full and free access to the internet and other media where they will be able to read the many and varied opinions of people from around the world, and will be allowed not only to make up their own mind – but to then debate that standpoint, publicly and freely. Full review...
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop
On her first trip to the orient Fuchsia Dunlop is appalled at the preserved duck eggs served as hors d'oeuvre in Hong Kong. Her description of this first encounter with the Chinese delicacy is rich with words like filthy, revolting, nightmarish, translucent, oozy, mouldy, toxic, slime… Full review...
A Corkscrew is Most Useful: The Travellers of Empire by Nicholas Murray
The British Empire, lawd bless it – so large the sun never set on it. Also never resting upon its surface, if this book is anything to go by, was an increasing spread of the moneyed classes, gallivanting off to all corners, whether as imperial missionaries, explorers, or just plain travellers. Full review...
Panther Soup: A European Journey in War and Peace by John Gimlette
In 1945, Americans came in their millions to liberate a Europe smashed by war. It was a movement of men and machinery on a scale never seen before. Many men died; more are dying off today. Sixty years on, travel writer John Gimlette chanced upon a survivor of that campaign. His meeting prompted a decision to retrace the GIs' progress through France, Austria and Germany to try and relive those events, and to discover what remains of them today. Panther Soup is the story of that journey. Full review...
The Brain-dead Megaphone by George Saunders
American author George Saunders is known for his short stories and fiction, but he is also a journalist for publications such as The Guardian, The New Yorker Magazine and GQ. The Brain-Dead Megaphone is his first collection of essays and it's an interesting proposition: sixteen pieces ranging from travel writing, literary appreciation, political essays, to surrealist short fiction. Full review...
The Bridge by Geert Mak
The current Galata Bridge in Instanbul is a concrete structure less than 15 years old. A bascule bridge of some 490m, it carries a four-lane highway, a tramway and pedestrian walkways on its open upper deck with arcaded market areas beneath on the outer spans. At first sight it has little to recommend it. None of the grandeur of the Charles Bridge in Prague, nor the ostentation of Tower Bridge in London, nor even the elegance of the Golden Gate. Full review...
Downstream: Across England in a Punt by Tom Fort
In summer 2005, journalist and angler Tom Fort set off to follow the river Trent from its source near Stoke to its confluence with the Humber. Downstream is the aptly meandering story of his 170-mile trip. Travelling light, first on foot, then in a purpose-built 15-foot plywood punt, and finishing off on a bike, Fort traces the course of the river, surveying the towns and landscapes it shaped, and exploring the history which surrounds it. Full review...
Blood River by Tim Butcher
Tim Butcher started working as a journalist in Africa in 2000…15 years after Live Aid gave us all hope that maybe the continent’s problems were solvable…and almost as long since we’d begun to realise that it wasn’t going to be that easy.
Two years into the bloodiest war in the world, the Congo – at the very heart of Africa – was seeing 1,000 deaths a day to the violence. And the world wasn’t even looking. Full review...
Lessons From The Land Of Pork Scratchings by Greg Gutfeld
Greg Gutfeld came to England to take up a job as editor of a men’s mag. Leaving New York as a stressed yet slim high-achiever, he soon settles into life in the UK and embraces a new world where the food is crap and the beer lukewarm, but where the people seem remarkably laid back and happy nonetheless. Two years later he leaves to return to his homeland, somewhat heavier and generally less fit than when he arrived, but with a newfound understanding of the secret of happiness, which weirdly has nothing to do with herpes (see chapter 66). Full review...