Category Archives: Travel Guides
Metroburbia: The Anatomy of Greater London
London`s suburbs are home to many thousands of people who travel into the centre every day to work, but they also house many thousands who rarely find a reason to do so. They contain all the essential infrastructure for the city, too, including airports, offices, shopping centre, factories and warehouses. Outer London is therefore both
Walking the Woods and the Water: In Patrick Leigh Fermor`s Footsteps from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn
In 1933, the eighteen year old Patrick Leigh Fermor set out in a pair of hobnailed boots to chance and charm his way across Europe, like a tramp, a pilgrim or a wandering scholar. The books he later wrote about this walk, A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water, and the posthumous
Around India in 80 Trains
In 1991, Monisha Rajesh`s family uprooted from Sheffield to Madras in the hope of making India their home. Two years later, fed up with soap-eating rats, severed human heads and the creepy colonel across the road, they returned to England with a bitter taste in their mouths. Two decades on, she turns to a map
DON`T RUN, Whatever You Do : My Adventures as a Safari Guide
The Okavango Delta, Botswana: a lush wetland in the middle of the Kalahari desert. Aged 19, Peter Allison thought he would visit for a short holiday before going home to get a `proper job`. But Peter fell in love with southern Africa and its wildlife and before long had risen to become a top safari
Head Over Heel: Seduced by Southern Italy
When Chris travelled from Sydney to Dublin, he never dreamed his life was about to change forever. There he meets Daniela – one L, smile as you say it to pronounce it correctly – and it`s amore at first sight. Before he can say si, he`s uprooted to follow her to her sun-kissed hometown of
It`s All Greek to Me: Ruins, Retsina, a Mad Dog… and an Englishman
`A little whitewashed house with a blue door and blue shutters on an unspoilt island in a picturesque village next to the beach with a tavern round the corner…` This was the dream of the Mole family in search of a piece of Greek paradise. But a beautiful view and a persuasive local prompted the
Slow Train to Switzerland: One Tour, Two Trips, 150 Years – and a World of Change Apart
In June 1863 an English lady set off by train on the trip of a lifetime: Thomas Cook`s first Conducted Tour of Switzerland. A century and a half later, travel writer Diccon Bewes, author of the bestselling Swiss Watching, decided to go where she went and see what she saw. Guided by her diary, he
Seized
Seized, by Max Hardberger, recounts a sea captain’s adventures battling pirates and recovering stolen ships in the world’s most troubled waters. Dubbed the ‘good pirate’ by those who use his services, Max has made a dangerous if successful living out-pirating the pirates and stealing back ships that have been illegitimately seized.Max has been pitted against
Why the Dutch are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands
*A SCOTSMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR* Stranded at Schiphol airport, Ben Coates called up a friendly Dutch girl he`d met some months earlier. He stayed for dinner. Actually, he stayed for good. In the first book to consider the hidden heart and history of the Netherlands from a modern perspective, the author explores the
This is Not a Drill
More toe-curling adventures from the oil fields. Hectic, hellraising and hilarious, world-class rig-pig Paul Carter`s at it again: breaking machinery, defying death and causing mayhem – Just another glorious day in the oilfield! This time, he`s stuck in the middle of the Russian sea on a rig staffed by a crew from Azerbaijan. The choppers
Dartmoor – Captivating Images
Corrina introduces you to this stunning new book…I have been walking on Dartmoor for the past twenty years so I`m pretty sure that according to some very old, possibly written in stone law, the moor belongs to me now. Cool! It`s the most beautiful, magical place, overflowing with history that dates back thousands of years,
How to Walk a Puma
More thrilling adventures with the world`s favourite safari guide”Plans are usually only good for one thing – laughing at in hindsight. So, armed with rudimentary Spanish, dangerous levels of curiosity and a record of poor judgement, I set off to tackle whatever South America could throw at me.”Not content with regular encounters with dangerous animals
Inca-Kola: A Traveller`s Tale of Peru
Funny, absorbing account of Matthew Parris`s fourth trip to Peru, on a bizarre holiday which takes him among bandits, prostitutes, peasants and riots. He and his three companions seem to head into trouble, rather than away from it, and he describes the troubles, curiosities and wonders they meet with the spell-binding fascination of a traveller
Oh Mexico!
Set against the vibrant background of one of the world`s most dangerous cities, Oh Mexico! is not only a classic travel memoir, but also contains great narrative and stuffed with amazing facts about this country`s colourful history, lit up by warmth, wit, wisdom and pizzazz. With an eye for the bizarre and comic, Lucy`s engaging
Canals in the Heart of England
In Canals in the Heart of England, Alan Tyers has captured the changing moods of the Midland canals with photographs of waterways, boats and the people who work them. His images range from the busy inner city basins of Coventry and Birmingham to the quiet waters found in the rural reaches of Staffordshire, Oxfordshire and
When I Fell From the Sky
On Christmas Eve 1971, the packed LANSA flight 508 from Lima to Pucallpa was struck by lightning and went down in dense jungle hundreds of miles from civilization. Of its 93 passengers, only one survived. Juliane Koepcke, the seventeen-year-old child of famous German zoologists. She`d been thrown from the plane two miles above the forest
Swiss Watching
In Swiss Watching, Deacon Bewes looks inside Europe`s landlocked “island” of Switzerland. Travelling around one of the most individual and misunderstood country in Europe, Bewes asks what lies beyond the emblematic stereotypes of the Swiss and what does life really look like from the inside? In a land of cultural contradictions, where tradition and innovation
The Kama Sutra Diaries: Intimate Journeys Through Modern India
BEHIND THE SCENES AND BETWEEN THE SHEETS OF MODERN DAY INDIA Once upon a time, the Western sexual revolution gave us free love and the female orgasm. Today in the West, pre-teens aspire to be glamour models and internet porn threatens to reduce our sexual repertoire to a handful of webcam-friendly positions. Meanwhile India the
Never Mind the Bullocks
One Girl`s 10,000km Adventure Around India in the World`s Cheapest Car.What does it take for one woman to drive 10,000 km around India – a land where bullock carts vie for space with SUVs on eight-lane super-highways, where GPS systems fail to give directions, and where a blessing from the gods is considered better road
Ride Like Hell and You`ll Get There: Detours into Mayhem
ATTEMPTING 300KPH on an untested experimental motorcycle could be considered a perfect way to kill yourself, but Paul Carter is still, well, PAUL CARTER and danger at high speed is his second name. Whether discovering that being dyslexic means delivering your lines to camera back to front in the midst of filming a TV series,
