Travel Writing & Commentary

Best-selling author Christopher Winn takes us on a captivating journey around London to discover the unknown tales of our capital's history....

It's 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She's in her 30s, she has a husband, a house, they're trying for a baby - and she doesn't want any of it....

From much loved historian Neil Oliver comes a whole new insight on our past, told through 100 remarkable, unforgettable stories....

Running away from your problems doesn’t solve anything - but sometimes it’s more fun than dealing with them....

A celebration of 25 years of Provençal living - of lessons learned and changes observed - with his final book, Peter Mayle has crafted a lasting love letter to his adopted home, marked by his signature warmth, wit, and humor....

In 2013, travel writer Ben Aitken decided to follow in the footsteps of his hero - literally - and started a journey around the UK, tracing the trip taken by Bill Bryon in his classic tribute to the British Isles, Notes from a Small Island....

Dom Joly has itchy feet. Again. He wants to get away. But, at the same time, something is nagging at him....

Before climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates were able to reach the unclimbed West Face of the remote Siula Grande, disaster struck....

Britain's best-loved comic genius Stephen Fry turns his celebrated wit and insight to unearthing the real America as he travels across the continent in his black taxicab....

A.A. Gill was an exceptional writer. Savage and compassionate in equal measure, he was always opinionated, always original, often surprising, and his writing illuminated from the page.... 

After years of watching Kenyan athletes win the world's biggest races....

With wit and irreverence, Bill Bryson presents the ludicrous and the endearing in equal measure....

The Old Patagonian Express tells of Paul Theroux's train journey down the length of North and South America....

What would you do if you're given a €20 note in Greece with an email address scribbled on it: Spend it, slip the suspect counterfeit bill into an enemy’s birthday card, or send an email, hoping it will lead to you finding everlasting love? Listen to find out more....

Whilst in Ireland for an International Song Competition, Tony Hawks was amazed to see a hitch-hiker, trying to thumb a lift, but with a fridge....

On October 6, 1973, Ted Simon knew there was no going back. He loaded up his 500cc Triumph Tiger in the pouring rain and said good-bye to London....

Ten years after the walk across Central Asia and Afghanistan that he memorialized in The Places in Between, Rory Stewart set out on a new journey, traversing a thousand miles....

Award-winning travel broadcaster Pete McCarthy tells of his hilarious journey around Ireland in search of the roots he always wanted to claim....

Disillusioned with corporate London life and with no previous experience as a long-distance cyclist, Anna decides to clamber atop a beautiful pink bicycle (named Boudica) and set out on an 11,000-mile journey on her own, through each and every state of the USA....

Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? Or have we tarmacked, farmed and built ourselves out of wildness? In his...

Illuminating, engrossing and full of surprises, The Discovery of France is a literary exploration of a country few will recognize....

A London cycle courier with a taste for adventure, Emily Chappell entered an extraordinary new race - The Transcontinental - in which riders must find their own way, entirely unassisted, across Europe in the shortest time possible.... 

Steven Callahan's Adrift chronicles one of the most astounding voyages of the century and one of the great sea adventures of all time....

Yet familiar though the sea areas are by name, few people give much thought to where they are or what they contain. In Attention All Shipping, Charlie Connelly wittily explores the places behind the voice....

For 30 years, drummer, author, and songwriter Neil Peart had wanted to write a book about "the biggest journey of all in my restless existence: the life of a touring musician"....

The delightfully comic account of a British couple and their imported cats starting over in a new country continues in Bucket to Greece Volume 4. The atmosphere is tense in the Bucket household, with Barry and Cynthia, or specifically Cynthia and her vile mutant cat, having outstayed their welcome. The race is on for them to find somewhere to live before their imminent wedding. Harold's house has potential, but Barry needs Victor's help to take advantage of the obnoxious Brit.

Growing up near the Sabine, journalist Wes Ferguson, like most East Texans, steered clear of its murky, debris-filled waters, where alligators lived in the backwater sloughs and an occasional body was pulled from some out-of-the-way crossing. The Sabine held a reputation as a haunt for a handful of hunters and loggers, more than a few water moccasins, swarms of mosquitoes, and the occasional black bear lumbering through swamp oak and cypress knees.

In this poetic personal narrative, Thomas P. Huber reflects on two seemingly unrelated places—the North Fork Valley in western Colorado and the Coulon River Valley in Provence, France—and finds a shared landscape and sense of place. What began as a simple comparison of two like places in distant locations turned into a more complex, interesting, and personal task. Much is similar: the light, the valleys, the climate, the agriculture. And much is less so: the history, the geology, the physical makeup of villages. 

 Can you combine wanderlust and motherhood? Margo Weinstein did. For decades, Margo Weinstein escaped her demanding legal practice by kayaking, whitewater rafting, trekking, and climbing in remote regions. Then she had a son and found herself in the kiddie pool on a Disney cruise.

As a commercial airline pilot, Mark has spent nearly two decades crossing the skies of our planet, touching down in the cities he imagined as a child. He experiences our metropolises in short layover visits that repeat over weeks, months or even years, giving him a unique perspective on the urbanisation of the world. In this intimate yet expansive work that weaves travelogue with memoir, Mark celebrates the cities he has come to know and love, through the lens of the hometown his heart has never left.

We follow in the footsteps of the intrepid British traveller as they explore the far-flung shores of the world in the company of some of the world’s finest chroniclers, including Charles Darwin, Kenneth Williams, James Boswell, Freya Stark, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Fanny Trollope, Mungo Park, Nancy Mitford, Wilfred Thesiger, Horace Walpole, Evelyn Waugh and many others, in this entertaining collection of travellers’ tales. 

Premonitions gone unheeded lead to a harrowing experience in the Costa Rican rainforest.

 I look back at my nine-to-five existence now with a sympathetic smile. I remember sitting behind a desk of uninspiring paperwork, always lifting the telephone receiver with trepidation—both at the office and at home. The commute to and from work happily swallowed at least an hour of my day. 

This is the hilarious follow-up to Going Around the Bend on the QE2 where Nick now runs away to America to escape his proctologist. He is welcomed by the American people and delighted to find that they love his accent. As always, the outspoken Nick runs into many situations, some of which would seem to be unbelievable, but they are true: He meets a number of Hollywood stars and has a flaming row with one of them, is interrogated by the FBI, lives with a top model, has a fight with a mobster, and sadly witnesses the Americans' reaction to 9/11!

David Congalton is a popular radio host and former newspaper columnist in the small college town of San Luis Obispo, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Congalton shares his favorite "Man About Town" newspaper columns, a mixture of humor and pathos to capture "the SLO Life", an experience he's enjoyed since 1987. 

Discover Pacific Grove in a delightful new way—on foot! In these minutes, we'll explore walks, hikes, and rambles taking you along the shoreline bluffs overlooking Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean and into our wild and woodsy urban forests. Not just another trail guide, Pacific Grove at Your Feet is teeming with local legend and lore presented in a breezy, friendly style. Ride the Ghost Rails, stroll with Steinbeck, meet the Mambo whales, and feel the damp sand between your toes on a special low-tide walk.

It’s 1992 and magazine journalist Nigel Simmonds escapes corporate life to move to Bali, the Island of The Gods. His first port of call is Ubud, below sacred Mount Agung, where he sets up home among a collection of characters for whom life in the West–known as The Machine–has become untenable. 

In India's tropical paradise, stands a town wrapped around a giant roundabout, where a canny caretaker with a French connection holds sway. Vying for his attention are two competing neighbours. Appu holds lessons for the living but Maya cares only for the dead. And a gastronome dog plays ball girl to tennis-loving nuns. At the centre is an imposing temple so ancient that no one knows exactly when it was built. Here, even a tiny railway station has set its own rules for acceptance and belonging. 

The delightfully comic account of a British couple and their imported cats starting over in a new country continues in Bucket to Greece: Volume 3. Victor and Marigold really feel the heat of May when the ever precarious water supply runs dry, and Victor suffers self-doubt over his burgeoning mastery of the Greek language. No longer cheffing at the local taverna, Victor keeps busy in the kitchen at home. With marriage on his mind, Barry plans a permanent move to Greece and joins Victor in an early-morning snail hunt, leading to the great bucket breakout.

Making It Big in Japan is your ultimate guide to living, working, and playing in Japan. The information you get about Japan from reading articles online in English only scratches the surface. Like an outdated textbook, the advice seems to be stuck in the 1980s without reflecting the real pace of change in Japan. There is a need for more clarity and explanations of information that is often only available in Japanese. To fill this gap, I have interviewed the people who influenced me, served as role models, or offered valuable perspectives along my seven-year journey in Japan.