Search Results for: travel writing

Travel writing matters

Explore the world through this beautiful collection of the finest travel writing published in British media in the 21st century – as judged by some of the most respected travel writers in the world: Levison Wood, Monisha Rajesh, Jessica Vincent and Simon Willmore

The world has changed, but our desire to explore new places remains as strong as ever. The Best British Travel Writing of the 21st Century includes 30 outstanding travel stories published in British media over the last two decades, as chosen by some of the top names in travel writing today. Through travel’s most talented storytellers, you’ll face adversity along the Congo’s raging River Lulua, make new friends aboard Iraq’s night train, and embark on life-changing pilgrimages from India to Saudi Arabia.

This book is an ode to travel and all that it offers, but it’s also a celebration of a genre that brings the world closer to us. At its best, travel writing encourages empathy and inspires change. Join our award-winning writers in marvelling at the power and beauty of travel, and let them inspire you to fall in love with the world all over again.

The Responsible Traveller is your ticket to sustainable and ethical travel. This pocket-sized book provides the knowledge and tools that can help you to explore the world with a lighter footprint.

Whether you travel out of curiosity, to find respite, to remind yourself of how vast and wonderful our planet is, or in search of life-shaping adventures, having the freedom to explore can be exhilarating and hugely rewarding. However we owe it to the people, cultures, ecosystems and wildlife that we encounter along the way to travel with respect; to preserve our beautiful world for generations to come.

The Responsible Traveller will show you how to make actionable changes that result in more thoughtful and adventurous travels, while also doing our very best for Planet Earth. Through case studies and storytelling, you’ll learn about the environmental and social effects of tourism and gain a deeper understanding of cultural sensitivity. And through simple, achievable tips and practical lifestyle changes, you’ll discover how you can make an almighty difference in reducing your impact. Empowered with this information, perhaps your next adventure will be inspired by consideration, understanding and compassion.

I had no life experience, zero common sense and had never eaten rice. I suffered from debilitating anxiety, was battling an eating disorder and had just had my heart broken. I hoped by leaving to travel the world I would be able to heal myself.

Instead, Lauren’s travels were full of bad luck and near-death experiences. Over the space of a year, she was scammed and assaulted; lost teeth and swallowed a cockroach. She fell into leech-infested rice paddies, was caught up in a tsunami, had the brakes of her motorbike fail and experienced a very unhappy ending during a massage in Thailand. It was just as she was about to give up on travel when she stumbled across a handsome New Zealander with a love of challenges…

If you think writing a guidebook is easy, think again…

They were bored, broke, burned out and turning 40, so when Ben and Dinah saw the advert looking for a husband and wife team with young kids to write a guidebook about family travel around Britain, they jumped at the chance. With naïve visions of staring moodily across Coniston Water and savouring Cornish pasties, they embark on a mad-cap five-month trip with daughter Phoebe, four, and son Charlie, two, embracing the freedom of the open road with a spirit of discovery and an industrial supply of baby wipes.

Fired by a long enthusiasm for all things Greek, Edward Enfield mounts his trusty Raleigh to follow in the footsteps of such notable travellers to Greece as Benjamin Disraeli, Edward Lear and the Romantic poet Lord Byron.

Fortified by delicious fish dinners and quantities of draught retsina, he tackles the formidable roads of the Peloponnese before plunging, on a later trip, into the rugged heartlands of Epirus and Acarnania. His travels are set against the great panorama of Greek history – Greeks and Romans, Turks and Albanians, Venetians, Englishmen and Germans all people his pages.

An enchanting travelogue that combines wit, charm and scholarship, Greece On My Wheels is a superb example of travel writing at its unforgettable best.

Creatures from another time, volcanic mountains five million years old, Indian tribes surviving from the pre-Inca period, jungles and rainforests: Ecuador has all this and more. Only in its Galapagos Islands did Charles Darwin discover such a variety of extraordinary fauna that on his return to England he wrote his groundbreaking On the Origin of Species. With a philosophical yet humourous approach, Neville Shulman provides an in-depth background to Ecuador and its diverse peoples and tells intriguing stories of spectacular creatures and exotic flora, many not found anywhere else in the world.

Deep in the Limousin countryside, Richard Wiles bought his dream home. But little did he expect to be living full time in the dilapidated farmhouse while struggling to finish the conversion during the insect plagues of summer and the harsh blizzards of winter. Watched by his bemused neighbours, Richard also pursues his more unusual dreams of raising llamas, hot-air ballooning and marathon running whilst trying to keep the roof over his head. Told with unfailing humour and optimism, this is a unique tale of overcoming the formidable challenges of building a home, and a life, in France. 

‘Watch out for men with too much wooden jewellery, Amy. I know what you’re like… you’ll let them sucker you in with their yoga chat but essentially, they’re unwashed… and you don’t want to put your face anywhere near an unwashed penis, let me tell you.’
Carol, receptionist

Having announced her plans to quit her job and backpack around South America, humourist and gonzo journalist Amy Baker found herself on the receiving end of a whole bunch of over-the-top and seemingly unnecessary advice. Amy shrugged it all off of course… that is, until she ran into trouble.

After falling into a crevasse, swimming in crocodile-infested waters, dodging cocaine con artists and encountering handsome soothsayers, Amy soon starts to wonder if her Mum, boss and Carol from reception really were onto something. Weighing up their advice against that of known ‘Clever People’ like Tina Fey, Salvador Dalí and Mother Teresa, Amy finally establishes once and for all who it might actually pay to listen to.

We were aware of a dreamlike quality to our trip. There was something far-fetched about it, something out of this world.

Austerity might be getting everyone else down, but Steve is waving his worries goodbye on another of his light-hearted trips around the picturesque English waterways.

This time it’s a bit different, though. This time he’s not just cruising with his cat, Kit, but with his long-suffering wife, Em, who’s given up work and wants her share of easy living too. They’ve rented out their home for the ups and downs of a life afloat, and there’s no going back now as they cruise from the historic River Thames, through the Midlands and westward into the hills of Wales, meeting a familiar cast of eccentrics and oddballs along the way, and experiencing one of the hottest summers of recent years.

But how, after life in a four-bedroom house, do they manage to survive together squeezed into a space the size of a potting shed? Other books pretend to tell you about life afloat – this one shows you what it’s really like.

With passion and wit, Bernard Levin describes his travels on foot through the beautiful countryside of south-eastern France. He follows in the mighty footsteps of the great Carthaginian enemy of Rome, Hannibal, who made the expedition with an army and elephants nearly two millennia before.

From the Camargue via the Rhône Valley, across the Alps and into Italy during August snowstorms, he comments on the social and historical importance of the landscapes he passes through, taking detours to the table of chef Jacques Pic at Valence and the Arles region immortalised by Van Gogh. The journey would not have been complete without enjoying the hospitality of the Moussets – the fifth generation of their family to produce wine at Châteauneuf-du-Pape, before turning eastwards, to face the greater challenge of the Alps.

‘Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book… give it all.’
Annie Dillard
WRITE MORE – WRITE BETTER – WRITE NOW!
This colourful little book of uplifting quotes and tailored tips delivers motivational sparks and creative signposts for writers. Read it, write on it, put it in a frame on your desk – whatever you do with it, the aim is simple: to get you writing!

Do you have a phone front to match every outfit? Do you text faster than you can write? You could be suffering from the spreading epidemic of mobile-addiction – check out the symptoms in this volume. Put your feet up, have a listen and let your answer-phone take your messages.