Books by Jonathan Raban

Sharp...funy...a marvellous attempt to discover the meaning of home' Ian Jack, Observer

First published in 1987, Raban writes about reading and travelling, fleshing out London literary life in the `70s and `80s.

First published in 1979, Arabia is an exploration of the modern Middle East, from Earls Court and back again.

A voyage round Britain in a two-masted sailing boat, The Gosfield Maid. First published in 1986.

First published in 1990, Hunting Mister Heartbreak is a discovery of the many faces of America, from New York to Florida, from rural Alabama to Seattle.

One of the classics of travel writing, this is a prescient exploration of the individual's relationship with urban living

This is an anthology of writing about the sea from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. It is extraordinarily varied, including fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry, documentary accounts, and oceanographic writing. Familiar names, such as Byron, Defoe, Melville, and Conrad are well represented, but there are many new names too.

'Raban's journey, made through empty landscaped that once brimmed with optimism, reveals what happened when American innocence begins to curdle. The tale, borne along by its superlative writing, is a riveting one' Observer

'This is Raban at his best, which is saying a great deal' Ian McEwan

'One of the most delightful travel books in thirty years' New York Times