At the age of 26, David Attenborough applied for a job at the BBC - which then meant radio - and was turned down. It was suggested that he tried television, and fifty years later he is still one of British television's most well-loved figures. This audiobook covers both his hectic half-century in television, as well as expeditions to some very wild parts of the world.

For the 1960s BBC series 'Zoo Quest', David Attenborough visited the Northern Territory of Australia. Specially recorded for radio, the quest follows the intrepid BBC film crew on their adventures through both jungle and arid desert. David Attenborough meets aborigines, goes walkabout in the bush, and paints a compelling and fascinating picture of life Down Under.

The story of a joint animal-collecting and film-making trip to Indonesia. Attenborough tells of danger on the crew's hazardous boat trip with a gun smuggling captain and the terror of erupting volcanoes. Experience the incredible sights he witnessed - breathtaking butterflies, taking tea with Charlie the Orangutan and the capture of a Komodo dragon.

The story of David Attenborough's joint animal-collecting and film-making trip to New Guinea. The quest demanded hazardous treks across treacherous terrain in the Jimi Valley to find exotic Birds of Paradise.

Bill Bryson tackles what is, for him, an entirely new subject: the American wilderness. Accompanied only by his old college friend Stephen Katz, Bryson starts out one March morning in north Georgia, intending to walk the entire 2,100 miles to the trail's end atop Maine's Mount Katahdin.

Bill Bryson turns his roving eye to Australia, the only island that is also a continent and the only continent that is also a country. He tries to find out why Aussies are so cool, digging up a past that reveals convicts, explorers, gold diggers and outlaws.

An entertaining, anecdotal look at the origins of language and ideas in the USA. Bryson explains how two bicycle repairmen from Ohio succeeded in mastering manned flight, why the assassination of President Garfield led to the invention of air conditioning, and many other improbable but true facts.

A warmly funny travel book in which the author journeys from Hammerfest, the northernmost town on the European continent, to Istanbul in Turkey. In doing so he retraces his steps as a student 20 years before, visiting countries including Norway, France and Italy.

After nearly two decades in England, Bill Bryson returned to live in the country he had left as a youth. Of course there were things that Bryson missed about Blighty, but any sense of loss was countered by the joy of rediscovering some of the forgotten treasures of his childhood. Gathered here are 18 months' worth of musings about the strangest of phenomena - the American way of life.

After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson took the decision to move back to the USA. Before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, he took one last trip around the UK, and turns an affectionate but laconic eye on his adopted country.

Bill Bryson drove 14,000 miles in search of the mythical small town of his youth. Instead he found a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger joints; a continent lost to itself through greed, pollution and television, and lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country. A funny and analytical view of smalltown America.

Fascinated by Patagonia ever since an early childhood fascination for his Grandma's scrap of ancient Giant Sloth skin, Bruce Chatwin is further intrigued by eccentric relatives, isolated welsh communities, old revolutionaries, Darwin and the log cabin built by Butch Cassidy... From Buenos Aires to Tierra del Fuego, Chatwin depicts all in writing as spare as the Patagonian desert in this fragmented but deservedly classic travel memoir.

A selection of extracts from the most inspiring travel writing, chosen by Wendy Cooling, who is widely known and respected in schools for her work as a literary consultant. Includes national curriculum recommended writers, such as Michael Palin, Bill Bryson, Tony Hawks and Rory McLean.

What is England and who are the English? A line exists from one end of England to the other - the line of longitude, two degrees west, which cross-sections the country. The author follows this line as closely as physically possible on foot, covering terrain ranging from open moorland to urban back-streets.

In the summer of 1986, two Cambridge history undergraduates set out on Marco Polo's famous journey across Central Asia to the city of Xanadu in Mongolia. This account traces their experiences in the war-torn Middle East and along 1500 miles of the Silk Road to their eventual destination.

An account of the author's journey across 1700 miles of Australian desert and bush with only four camels and a dog for company.

Alfred Wainwright's unique hand-drawn and hand-written 'Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells' have been an inspiration to walkers for over forty years. With full access to Alfred Wainwright's private letters and unpublished material, Hunter Davies reveals a passionate, witty and generous man.

This audiobook examines the amusing perceptions that people have historically had about the world and the universe to the changing map of today. It also includes passages from memorable travel writers.

What makes us want to travel? What are we looking for? Does it change us? In this thought provoking audiobook Alain de Botton turns to some of the world's greatest thinkers in order to explore the pleasure and sorrows of travel, and in particular, why we ever want to go anywhere in the first place.

The story of how Gerald Durrell and his wife Lee set up their own zoo in Jersey. Journeying to the Cameroons they managed to collect 'plenty beef', helped by the renowned Fon of Bafut. Their difficulties began when they found themselves back at home with Cholmondely the chimpanzee, Bug-eye the bush-baby, and other founder-members... and nowhere to put them.

Based on the broadcasts made by Gerald Durrell for the BBC, this is a vividly entertaining account of the animals he discovered and observed from Argentina to Africa and from Greece to Ghana. We are introduced to a Cornucopia of creatures: dancing birds of paradise, lizards with skins like mosaics, slender snakes coloured like old school ties and many more.

Once thought to be extinct, the Aye-aye, one of the world's strangest creatures, is now only found in small colonies on the magical island of Madagascar, situated off the coast of Southern Africa. Gerald Durrell's task was to capture some for breeding at the famous Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. Although on a serious scientific expedition, Durrell describes his adventures and some amazing creatures from giant jumping rats to flat-tailed tortoises and gentle lemurs with his own inimitable sense of humour.

Hairy Frogs, White-faced Scops Owls, Flying Mice, Hyrax: Gerald Durrell tells of his experiences collecting these and other exotic creatures in the highlands of Cameroon in Africa during the late 1940s. A zoologist, Durrell vividly and humourously describes his adventures, the scenery, the people, and the unusual creatures that he hopes to take back alive to England with the help of the local ruler, the Fon of Bafut.

The 'Adventure' of the title is both Durrell's destination - a settlement in the remote tropical forest of British Guiana, off the coast of South America - and his mission: to bring back live specimens of rare animals. The tale of this exciting but equally frustrating journey is interspersed with his trademark humour.

'Bitter Lemons' is Durrell's paen to the beauty and mystery of Cyprus, from the romance of the characters living in Bellapaix where Durrell bought a house, to the beauty of the mountain ranges and the excitement of the slow but gradual uprising of the Greek Cypriots who are determinated to achieve 'Enosis' - union with Greece and freedom from British rule.

The renowned British travel writer's chronicle of his twelve-hundred-mile walking trip from Holland to Hungary in 1934 at the age of eighteen, which provides an insight into a Europe hovering on the brink of the Second World War.

The sequel to 'A Time of Gifts', continuing Patrick Leigh Fermor's journey, started in 1933, with the intention of crossing Europe by foot on a daily allowance of one pound a day. The book opens where 'A Time of Gifts' ended, with Leigh Fermor crossing the Danube, visiting the splendours of Prague, Budapest, the Great Hungarian Plain and Transylvania before approaching the Iron Gates, which divide the Carpathian mountains and the Balkans.

In November 1992 Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud set out to achieve what no one had ever done: to walk and ski - unsupported - the 2700km across the Antarctic, a continent almost devoid of life, in temperatures of -45 degrees centigrade.

In November 1992 Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud set out to achieve what no one had ever done: to walk and ski - unsupported - the 2700km across the Antarctic, a continent almost devoid of life, in temperatures of -45 degrees centigrade.

Peter Fleming, brother of the author Ian, tells the story of his journey from England via the Trans-Siberian Express to China, and his subsequent attempts to become the first Westerner to reach the anti-communist front.

When British climber David Fletcher decided to explore the remote Hayes group of mountains in Alaska, he was warned about soloing so far from rescue. This audiobook tells the true story of Fletcher's encounter with the most feared creature in the Alaskan wilderness - a furious 10-foot-high grizzly bear, whose cub he had accidentally killed in a moment of panic.

After losing all their money in the 1929 stockmarket crash, Sir John and Lady Fortescue sold up and bought a tumbledown cottage in Grasse in Provence, France. This book recounts their trials and tribulations including rebuilding the house, living with the villagers, the food and the gardens.

This is a diary of Stephen Fry's trips to Peru tracking Paddington Bear's roots and more seriously, rescuing a young Spectacled bear, one of the world's endangered species. He also includes how a mate was found for the first bear while on a subsequent trip to Peru, as well as how a charitable foundation - Bear Rescue - was established for the purpose of rescuing distressed bears.

If someone called you a 'googlewhack', what would you do? Would you end up playing table tennis with a nine year old boy in Boston or would you find yourself in Los Angeles wrangling snakes? If your name is Dave Gorman, then all of these things could be true. Fuelled by a lust for life and a desire to do anything except what he's supposed to be doing (writing that novel and growing up), Dave falls under the spell of an obscure internet word game - Googlewhacking. Addicted to the game, Dave travels three times round the world, visiting four continents and the unlikeliest cast of eccentrics you'll ever meet in what becomes a life-changing challenge.

Mike Harding recounts the two journeys he made in India and Nepal through the Kingdoms of Zanskar and Ladakh and then to the foothills of Everest. Beginning in the hubbub of Delhi, Harding quickly escapes the crowds and enters the enchanting world of mountains and monasteries, monks and fellow travellers in the 'abode of snows'.

Heinrich Harrer, a famous Austrian mountaineer and Olympic ski champion, was interned in India during the Second World War. He succeeded in escaping and fled into Tibet, a country never crossed before by a Westerner. Reaching the Forbidden City of Lhasa, he stayed there for seven years and became a friend and tutor to the young Dalai Lama.

It began as a drunken bet - for the sum of one hundred pounds - to hitch-hike round the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, within one calendar month. Joined by his trusty travelling companion-cum-domestic appliance, Tony Hawks found himself in the midst of a remarkable, inspirational and, at times, downright silly adventure.

At the age of 50, the author set out to walk from Land's End to John O'Groats. 'Journey Through Britain' recounts his adventures, remembering the places, plants, animals and, most of all, the people he encountered on his way.

Hillaby's eventful three-month safari in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya describes Lake Turkana, a large desert lake, which touches both Ethiopia and Kenya and is the known as the Jade Sea due to the colour of its water.

The gripping true story of Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen's desperate race to Antarctica. Battered by shrieking blizzards, skin blackened by frostbite and eyes burning with snow blindness, these driven men faced agonising decisions and risked their lives as they battled across the high Atlantic plateau to reach the South Pole.

AS I WALKED OUT ONE MIDSUMMER MORNING: The second part of Lee's autobiographical trilogy, which began with 'Cider With Rosie'. In 1934 Laurie Lee set out from his home in the Cotswolds to walk to London, where he lived by playing the violin and labouring on a building site. Then, armed with one Spanish phrase, he decided to see Spain, and for a year walked through a country on the brink of civil war. A MOMENT OF WAR: The poigant conclusion to Laurie Lee's trilogy finds him literally walking into the Spanish Civil War. His faith and ideals are sorely tested as the bitter winter leads to the Republican Army's defeat.

The first book in Peter Mayle's 'Provence' trilogy. A month-by-month account of the charms and frustrations that Peter Mayle and his wife experience during their first year in Provence, restoring a two-centuries-old stone farmhouse that they bought on sight. Mayle makes friends with truffle hunters, a man who eats foxes and another who bites dentists; whilst discovering the secrets of handicapping racing goats and of disarming vipers. He also comes to dread the onslaught of tourists who disrupt his tranquillity.

The second book in Peter Mayle's 'Provence' trilogy features more stories on life in the Luberon - a heartwarming place where, if you can't quite get away from it all, you can surely have a good time trying. Listeners are treated to stories about pastis, digging for gold, singing toads, and, of course, a great deal of delicious food and drink.

The third book in Peter Mayle's 'Provence' trilogy includes 'a school for noses' and Mr. Mayle's response to a well-known restaurant critic...

Pete McCarthy journeys from Cork to Donegal, experiencing the unique atmosphere that enchants visitors from all over the world. Ireland, he realises, is a country with many stories to tell.

Pink dolphins are believed by Brazilians and Peruvians to take human form, impregnate women, lure lovers to an underwater paradise and in various ways drive those who encounter them mad. They seem to have worked their magic on science writer Sy Montgomery, who journeys through Amazonian rain forests and sunken cities in pursuit of these beautiful and enigmatic creatures.

Alan Moorehead, a widely respected reporter, earned his reputation as a war correspondent during the Second World War. 'No Room in the Ark' describes his journey from Johannesburg to Uganda, the Belgian Congo and Kenya. The main theme is the negative impact of civilisation on the wild animals of southern and eastern Africa.

An enthralling history of the exploration of the Nile, starting with James Bruce, whose descriptions of Ethiopian life in the 18th century were dismissed by his contemporaries as fantasy. The vivid detail and remarkable events prove that fact can be more exciting than fiction.

A lively history of the Victorian search for the source of the Nile which includes the extraordinary tales of intrepid travellers Richard Burton and John Speke, not to mention the famous meeting of Livingstone and Stanley. 'The White Nile' includes vivid descriptions of Zanzibar, the last days of Khartoum and the building of the Suez Canal.

Dervla Murphy, her nine-year-old daughter Rachel, and Juana, an elegant mule, together walked the entire length of Peru. Beginning on the Peruvian border with Ecuador they walked and rode to Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital, over 1300 miles to the south.

Fulfilling a childhood dream, Dervla Murphy embarked in 1963 on an epic journey from Dunkirk to Delhi with her trusty bicycle, Roz. She began her trek during the worst winter in living memory, and even when the weather improved there were enough difficulties and dangers to satisfy the most intrepid of travellers.

With no mountaineering experience, Eric Newby abandoned the delights of London's fashion trade to explore the Nuristan Mountains of Afghanistan. This humorous account of his travels describes the numerous eccentric characters and adventures he met along the way, and Adghanistan's spectacular wilderness.

With no mountaineering experience, Eric Newby abandoned the delights of London's fashion trade to explore the Nuristan Mountains of Afghanistan. This humorous account of his travels describes the numerous eccentric characters and adventures he met along the way, and Afghanistan's spectacular wilderness.

In 1967 Eric Newby and his wife Wanda acquired 'I Castagni', a small and excessively ruined farmhouse on the borders of Liguria and Northern Tuscany. The house came complete with tileless roof, a long-abandoned septic tank and lavatory hidden in a dense plantation of open-air canes. Not to mention cockroach colonies, cat-sized mice and the adder which habitually shed its skin on the bedroom beam...

Eric Newby recounts his life and adventures, from his earliest childhood forays in darkest Barnes, an elephant fair in India and the faded glamour of days and nights on the Orient Express to a troglodytic settlement of opal miners in Australia where even armed men have disappeared.

When Italy made peace in the summer of 1943, 50,000 Allied POWs, Eric Newby among them, walked away from their prison camps. But as Italy was occupied by the Germans, Newby went to the mountains where Italian peasants sheltered him for more than three months. Newby recalls their unchanging lifestyle and his love for the local girl who later became his wife.

Combining the acute observation of a 19th-century missionary with the wit of Monty Python, Redmond O'Hanlon is famous for his adventurous travel. His new challenge is the Congo, the most dangerous and inhospitable jungle in the world.

O'Hanlon takes us into the bug-ridden rain forest between the Orinoco and the Amazon - infested with jaguars and piranhas, where men would kill over a bottle of ketchup and where the locals may be the most violent people on earth (next to hockey fans).

'Into the Heart of Borneo' describes a long river voyage into the interior of a tropical jungle towards an unexplored mountain range. Accompanied by poet James Fento and 22 SAS officers, and setting out with the blessing of Harvard, Oxford and the British Museum, the two-man expedition reached, much to their suprise, the very centre of Borneo, an area not explored since 1926.

'Into the Heart of Borneo' is a classic travel story featuring a long river voyage into the interior of a tropical jungle towards an unexplored mountain range. Accompanied by poet James Fenton and 22 SAS officers, and setting out with the blessing of Harvard, Oxford and the British Museum, the two-man expedition reached, much to their surprise, the very centre of Borneo, an area not visited since 1926.

In the late 1970s Michael Ondaatje returned to his native Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of his homeland, Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and family memoir by the author of 'The English Patient'.

In the autumn of 1988 Michael Palin set out to circumnavigate the world, following the route taken by Phileas Fogg 115 years earlier. He had to make the journey in 80 days - accompanied by a BBC film crew - using only forms of transport that would have been available to Fogg. Their voyage took them from the opulence of the Orient Express to the stench of a Venetian refuse-collecting boat; from the lurching progress of an Egyptian camel called Michael to the heights of a hot-air balloon over Aspen, Colorado. Palin was attacked by a parrot in Hong Kong, given a close shave by an apparently blind Indian barber and accepted into the Brotherhood of Mariners by King Neptune himself - all recorded by the BBC film crew and resulting in a six-part television series on BBC1. This audiobook is the story of, and the story behind, the making of that television series.

In this account of Michael Palin's travel adventure for the BBC, he journeys for almost a year, covering 50,000 miles and all of the 18 countries that border the Pacific Ocean, encompassing a wide diversity of landscape, culture and people. The Pacific Rim is one of the world's most volatile areas, with economies that are expanding faster than anywhere else on earth - and where the earth itself is in a constant state of flux.

In this journey, Michael Palin tackles the Himalaya, the greatest mountain range on earth. In six months of hard travelling Palin takes on the full length of the world's most majestic natural barrier, including the Khyber Pass, the mighty peaks of K2 and Everest, the bleak and barren plateau of Tibet, the gorges of the Yangtze, and the vast Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh. Facing altitudes as high as 17,500 feet as well as some of the world's deepest gorges, Palin also passed through political flashpoints such as Pakistan's remote northwest frontier and terrorist-torn Kashmir. He also had a brush with the Maoists while filming in Nepal and advice from the Dalai Lama before crossing into Tibet. This audiobook is compiled from his diaries.

Join the intrepid Michael Palin as he embarks on a comic race against time, travelling from the North Pole to the South Pole. As he crosses 16 countries by train, truck, raft, Ski-Doo, barge, balloon and bicycle, he experiences a fascinating range of characters and landscapes whilst his own endurance is tested to the limit.

Michael Palin is off to the Sahara Desert. From a starting point in Gibralter, he makes his way to Morocco, then over the Atlas Mountains to the little-known countries of Mauritiana, Mali and Chad. He journies on the longest train in the world and travels with nomadic herders, finally returning to the classical remains of Tunisia - where the Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' was filmed...

A humorous look at the world of Northern agricultural shows, and the people obsessed with their chosen speciality, whether it be giant marrows, French poodles, gladioli, parakeets or Tamworth pigs. CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE.

'Travels of a Tea-Taster's Dog' recounts the tale of Jenny Pierson's marriage to a young tea buyer for Lipton's, which took her to East Pakistan, India, Ceylon and Kenya, resulted in six postings in eight different houses and many journeys by air, sea and rail. The book also introduces her small but very important dog, Skipper, who travelled at length alongside the author and not only witnesses the 1958 State of Emergency in Ceylon, but survives electrocution by a faulty fridge and even appears in a play!

'The Travellers' Gazette' is a fascinating ramble through the towns and villages of the British Isles during the last 400 years with contributions from Jane Austen, William Cobbett, Daniel Defoe, Sir Walter Scott and Virginia Woolf.

The record of a journey on foot through coastal East Anglia. From Lowestoft, Southwold and Bungay, Sebald's own story also evokes those of people and cultures of the past; of Chateaubriand, Thomas Browne, Swinburne and Conrad; of fishing fleets, skulls and silkworms. The result is a thought-provoking meditation on the transience of all things human.

Severin first came to the world's attention in 1976 with his historic Brendan Voyage. In 1980, he decided to take on a legend once more, recreating the Seven Voyages of Sinbad from Oman to China, testing the mythical 'Tales of the Arabian Nights' in a ship made from Malabar timbers.

Shackleton's epic account of his attempt to cross the Antarctic in an ill-fated expedition which almost ended in disaster. Forced to abandon the doomed ship Endurance, Shackleton took a small party on the first ever winter crossing of the continent to raise the alarm.

British writer Mark Shand cuts an 800-mile swath across southern and central India atop a 30-year-old elephant named Tara. His reminiscences of the good food and warmly hospitable people of India that he meets along the way make up the heart of this entertaining memoir, but the real star of the show is Tara, who has a sweet personality and a penchant for mischief, such as shoplifting fruit from vendors' stalls and lifting prostitutes' saris. CONTAINS SOME STRONG LANGUAGE.

Following the ascent of the 21,000ft Siula Grande peak in the Peruvian Andes, climber Joe Simpson survives a terrible fall into a crevasse. His climbing partner cuts him loose and continues without him, believing him dead. Simpson relates how he made it back to base camp with horrific injuries, and how he dealt with the psychological traumas that resulted. An extraordinary and gruelling tale of determination.

Intrepid explorer Freya Stark describes her seven years spent travelling in the Middle East during the Second World War. Travelling at that time as a woman gave her a unique perspective on the war in this region and Britain's role there.

In 1960, when he was almost 60 years old, American author John Steinbeck set out to rediscover his native land accompanied only by a distinguished French poodle named Charley. His course took him through almost 40 states, and gave him experiences that made him proud, angry, sympathetic and elated, all of which he relates with honesty and insight.

On 23rd September 1878, Stevenson set out on an 11 day tour of the Cervennes with his recalcitrant donkey, Modestine, following completion of his writings in the French town of Monastier. His natural affinity for France, his appreciation of its landscape, and his enthusiasm for the French way of life as well as his account of the conflict between the Protestants and Roman Catholics is beautifully captured.

At 17, the author retired from his schoolboy band, Genesis, and became a sheep-shearer and travel writer. He moved with his wife to a remote mountain farm in the Alpujarras, south of Granada, and writes about his life on a mountain with no access road, water supply or electricity.

The sequel to 'Driving Over Lemons' rejoins the lives of Chris, Ana and their daughter Chloe, on their farm in Las Alpujarras as they get to grips with a misanthropic parrot who joins their home, Spanish school life, neighbours in love, journalists beating a path to their door - and the shock of discovering that their beloved valley might once more be under threat.

Between 1970 and 1975, Jon Swain, the English journalist portrayed in David Puttnam's film, 'The Killing Fields', lived in the lands of the Mekong river. He describes the beauty of the Mekong landscape - the villages along its banks, surrounded by mangoes, bananas and coconuts, and the exquisite women, the odours of opium, and the region's other face - that of violence and corruption.

Paul Theroux invites you to join him on the journey of a lifetime, in the grand romantic tradition, by train across Europe, through the vast underbelly of Asia and into the heart of Russia, and then up to China. Here is China by rail, as seen and heard through the eyes and ears of an intrepid and insightful travel writer.

Fired by a fascination with trains that stemmed from childhood, Paul Theroux set out one day with the intention of boarding every train that chugged into view from Victoria Station in London to Tokyo Central, and to come back again via the Trans-Siberian Express. This is the account of his unforgettable journey.

This travel narrative follows Paul Theroux's explorations of the Pacific islands by collapsible kayak. Paddling through the islands, he also discovers an unusual melting pot of cultures and contrasts.

After eleven years as an American in London, Paul Theroux set out to travel clockwise round the coast and find out what Britain and the British are really like. It was 1982, the summer of the Falklands War and the royal baby, and the ideal time, he found, to surprise the British into talking about themselves.

After eleven years as an American in London, Paul Theroux set out to travel clockwise round the coast and find out what Britain and the British are really like. It was 1982, the summer of the Falklands War and the ideal time, he found, to surprise the British into talking about themselves.

Starting with a rush-hour ride to South Station in Boston to catch the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, Theroux's journey ends on the poky Old Patagonian Express steam engine which comes to a halt in a desolate land of cracked hills and thorn bushes. But with Theroux the view along the way is what matters, and the monologuing Mr Thornberry in Costa Rica, the bogus priest of Cali and the blind author Jorge Luis Borges, who delights in having Theroux read Robert Louis Stevenson to him, all contribute to this fascinating journey.

Starting with a rush-hour ride to South Station in Boston to catch the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, Theroux's journey ends on the poky Old Patagonian Express steam engine which comes to a halt in a desolate land of cracked hills and thorn bushes. But with Theroux the view along the way is what matters, and the monologuing Mr Thornberry in Costa Rica, the bogus priest of Cali and the blind author Jorge Luis Borges, who delights in having Theroux read Robert Louis Stevenson to him, all contribute to this fascinating journey.

An account of the author's trip round the Mediterranean. Theroux chooses a difficult route, taking in such adventures as avoiding the crossfire of Croatia, witnessing the near anarchy of Albania, and seeing Israel in a state of siege.

A poetic travelogue with a fresh perspective on the tumultuous final years of the Soviet Union. With a keen grasp of Russia's history, a deep appreciation for its architecture and iconography, and an inexhaustible enthusiasm for its people and culture, Colin Thubron is the perfect guide to Russia's country roads, villages and some of the most engaging cities in the world.

A lyrical account of the author's journey through China, ranging from the Burmese frontier to the Gobi Desert and from the Yellow Sea to the edge of Tibet.

Until 1991, foreigners were only allowed along the Trans-Siberian railway. Colin Thubron searches for the `core of Siberia', Russia's wild east - and encounters Mongol shamans; the 2,500,000- year-old mummified remains of a princess; sweaty 85 degree temperatures and Akademogorodok, an abandoned city where a lone professor experiments with cosmic consciousness.

In moving detail, Van Der Post recounts his search for a primitive group of Bushmen, a once wide-spread people that overcame extermination by opposing tribes and Europeans during the last few centuries. Van Der Post, yearning to uncover Bushman culture in its true form, gathers together an expedition and eventually discovers a group in the heart of the Kalahari desert.

Follow in the footsteps of British travellers as they explore the far flung shores of the world. Compiled from the writings of the finest chroniclers, diarists and letter-writers such as Charles Darwin and Sir Ernest Shackleton, travellers witness the murder of Captain Cook, travel on the first commercial flight from Paris to London and become shipwrecked...

In the summer of 1910, a race began to be the first man to reach the South Pole in Antarctica. Robert Falcon Scott, an Englishman, left London in his ship, the 'Terra Nova', and began the long journey south. Five days later, another ship began to travel south. On board was Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian. This is the story of their long, hard journey over the ice to the South Pole, a race from which some of the travellers never returned.

Erik Weihenmayer was born with a degenerative eye disorder, and learned from doctors that he was destined to lose his sight by the age of thirteen. Determined to lead a fulfilling and exciting life, Erik was the first blind man to reach the summit of McKinley, and was married at 13,000 feet on his way to the summit of Kilimanjaro. A story of risk, determination and courage.

In the summer of 1994, Nigel Williams and his wife and three sons set out on a journey across America. Williams and his sons had never been to America before, and his wife had never flown. Taking inspiration from Mark Twain - and many less-celebrated travellers around the USA - Williams provides an account of his adventures in the New World.

The story of Gavin Young's remarkable sea journey from Hong Kong to London, aboard an extraordinary range of vessels. His story is told with compassion and a genuine feeling for the characters and places he encounters along the way.