Travel & Holiday Guides

Paul Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is a journey from London to Asia by train. Thirty years ago Paul Theroux left London and travelled across Asia and back again by train. His account of the journey - The Great Railway Bazaar - was a landmark book and made his name as the foremost travel writer of his generation. Now Theroux makes the trip all over again. Through Eastern Europe, India and Asia to discover the changes that have swept the continents, and also to learn what an old man will make of a young man's journey. Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is a brilliant chronicle of change and an exploration of how travel is 'the saddest of pleasures'.'A dazzler, giving us the highs and lows of his journey and tenderness and acerbic humour . . . fellow-travelling weirdoes, amateur taxi drivers, bar-girls and long-suffering locals are brought vividly to life' Spectator'Fans of Theroux are not likely to be disappointed. Theroux has great descriptive skill . . . the world is slightly less unknown by virtue of reading the book' Sunday Telegraph'Relaxed, curious, confident, surprisingly tender. Theroux's writing has an immediate, vivid and cursory quality that gives it a collective strength' Sunday Times'A brilliant eye, readable and vivid. Theroux has still got it' Observer'Fascinating, a joy to read' TatlerPaul Theroux's books include Dark Star Safari, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Elephanta Suite, A Dead Hand, The Tao of Travel and The Lower River. The Mosquito Coast and Dr Slaughter have both been made into successful films. Paul Theroux divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian islands.

Part of the "Fifty Places" series that returns to the author's most popular topic, golf, this book presents interviews of 50 luminaries in the golf world about their favourite courses and experiences. It also features old Country favourites like Royal Dornoch and Machrihanish in Scotland.

Every cliff, inlet and headland reveals layers of myth and historical memory, and Robinson makes beautifully crafted observations about the habits of birds, plants and the humans who lived there and endured, leaving records in stone - on the walls, cairns and ancient forts - in story and in oral tradition.

This guide covers the major cities of Tuscany as well as its capital Florence; the cradle of the Renaissance. Full-colour throughout with detailed mapping and diagrams.

An invaluable guide to this popular and beautiful canal, providing cruising and background info on the canal, as well as distance maps for each stage, showing locks, bridges and yacht havens, all illustrated with enticing colour photos.

From one of Germany’s most beloved celebrities, a cross between Bill Bryson and Paulo Coelho. It has sold over 3 million copies and been translated into eleven different languages. Pilgrims have increased along the Camino by 20 percent since the book was published. Hape Kerkeling’s spiritual epiphany has struck a nerve. Overweight, overworked, and physically unfit, Kerkeling was an unlikely candidate to make the arduous pilgrimage across the French Alps to the Spanish Shrine of St. James, a 1,200-year-old journey undertaken by nearly 100,000 people every year. But that didn’t stop him from getting off the couch and walking. Along the way, lonely and searching for meaning, he began the journal that turned into this utterly frank, engaging book. Simply by struggling with his physical limitations and the rigors of long-distance walking, he discovered a deep sense of peace that transformed his life and allowed him to forgive himself, and others, more readily. He learned something every day, and he took to finishing each entry with his daily lessons. Filled with quirky fellow pilgrims, historic landscapes, and Kerkeling’s self-deprecating sense of humor, I’m Off Then is an inspiring travelogue, a publishing phenomenon, and a spiritual journey unlike any other.

'Erudite, humbling and rhapsodic ... No thinking traveller interested in Poland should overlook this essential book' Guardian

In Tropic of Capricorn, bestselling author Simon Reeve embarks on a 23,000-mile trek around the southernmost border of the tropics - a place of both amazing beauty and overwhelming human suffering.

A detailed, accessible guide to the best on offer in Cambridge based around two circular walks with optional diversion. Contains histories of the city and of individual buildings such as the famous university colleges.

Two Persian travellers arrive in Paris and report on the European society of the Enlightenment in their letters home. With biting satire they compare East and West, while unsettling news from the harem provides a suspenseful plot of jealousy and passion. This is the first English translation based on the original text.

Includes dirty words and risque slang in French.

Into Africa is the story of an amazing continent, its people and some very good reasons why not to fall off a motorcycle! Reviewers have stated that the word-pictures which bring a good travel book to life are all here.

Young and beautiful, Lois Pryce was a rising star at the BBC. Unbeknownst to her co-workers, Lois lived a parallel life as a biker babe with an overwhelming sense of wanderlust. So she packed in her career to ride her motorcycle on her own from the northernmost tip of Alaska to the southernmost tip of South America.

On the same day that his wife gave birth to twins, Anthony Doerr received the Rome Prize, an award that gave him a year-long stipend and studio in Rome...'Four Seasons in Rome' charts the repercussions of that day, describing Doerr's varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world, and the first year of parenthood. He reads Pliny, Dante, and Keats - the chroniclers of Rome who came before him - and visits the piazzas, temples, and ancient cisterns they describe. He attends the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II and takes his twins to the Pantheon in December to wait for snow to fall through the oculus. He and his family are embraced by the butchers, grocers, and bakers of the neighbourhood, whose clamour of stories and idiosyncratic child-rearing advice is as compelling as the city itself.This intimate and revelatory book is a celebration of Rome, a wondrous look at new parenthood and a fascinating account of the alchemy of writers.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

This edition does not include illustrations.'Dry Store Room No. 1' is an intimate biography of the Natural History Museum, celebrating the eccentric personalities who have peopled it and capturing the wonders of scientific endeavour, academic rigour and imagination.Behind the public facade of any great museum there lies a secret domain: one of unseen galleries, locked doors, priceless specimens and hidden lives.Through the stories of the numerous eccentric individuals whose long careers have left their mark on the study of evolutionary science, Richard Fortey, former senior paleaontologist at London's Natural History Museum, celebrates the pioneering work of the Museum from its inception to the present day. He delves into the feuds, affairs, scandals and skulduggery that have punctuated its long history, and formed a backdrop to extraordinary scientific endeavour from Darwin to the present day. He explores the staying power and adaptability of the Museum as it responds to changes wrought by advances in technology and molecular biology - 'spare' bones from an extinct giant bird suddenly become cutting-edge science with the new knowledge that DNA can be extracted from them, and ancient fish are tested with the latest equipment that is able to measure rises in pollution.'Dry Store Room No.1' is a fascinating and affectionate account of a hidden world of untold treasures, where every fragment tells a story about time past, by a scientist who combines rigorous professional learning with a gift for prose that sparkles with wit and literary sensibility.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

Acts as a guide on how to get what you really want from the French. This title provides advice on useful phrases.

After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson took the decision to move Mrs Bryson, little Jimmy et al back to the States for a while.

This volume provides a guide to the Inland Waterways of Belgium.

A pictorial tour of the "city of light" presenting drawings of the people, historic monuments, and modern sights of Paris.

Based on the author's award-winning travel website, NSITT is not only hugely entertaining but also eminently practical, with advice on everything from Backpacking and Souvenirs, to Sex and Romance and Health and Eating (and some words of advice for vegetarians: hope you like rice...).

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PAUL THEROUXSomerset Maugham's success as a writer enabled him to indulge his adventurous love of travel, and he recorded the sights and sounds of his wide-ranging journeys with an urbane, wry style all his own.

The iconic writer's travel log from the uncharted shores of West Africa.

Including GPS Waypoint lists and a Place Name Index, this 160-page colour book contains walking routes within the Lake District South region. Wire-O spiral binding allows it to lay flat and be folded back on itself without damage. It features: route summary of exertion rating; refreshments rating; time, distance, ascents/descents; and more.

A new adventure from an unconventional and much loved traveller and writer.

This two-part resource provides travelers to Somalia and neighboring regions with the tools they need for daily interaction. The bilingual dictionary has a concise vocabulary for everyday use, and the phrasebook allows instant communication on a variety of topics. Ideal for businesspeople, travelers, students, and aid workers.

What in the world has the power to liberate women in Iran while provoking antagonism between Catholics and Protestants in Scotland, to lure Nigerians to the cold of the Ukraine while heating up class warfare in the US heartlands, and both profit local gangsters and create local - and international - celebrities?

Anthony Bourdain is a life-long line cook and author of "Kitchen Confidential". Here, he sets off to eat his way around the world. He heads out to Saigon where he eats the still-beating heart of a live cobra, and travels deep into landmined Khmer Rouge territory to find the rumoured Wild West of Cambodia (Pailin).

This is a guide to France intended for the traveller who wants to get to know French people as individuals, for the negotiating businessman and for students who wishes to discover in-depth aspects of their lives. It looks at what makes up the national character of France.

Covers mainland Greece, the cradle of western civilization. Includes information on developments in archaeology. Full-colour throughout with detailed maps and diagrams. Includes Blue Guides Recommended dining and accommodation suggestions.