City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing

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.From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing
by: William Dalrymple

May 05, 1998
This quite enthralling tale takes the reader on a journey through a slowly but inexorably declining culture, that of the Eastern Christian communities of the former Byzantine empire and neighbouring regions - contemporary Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. Inspired by, and reflecting throughout on, John Moschos' 6th-century work `The Spiritual Meadow', which was written at a similar `end of empire' time, Dalrymple embarks on a slow, bureaucracy-beset trip through remote parts of the region, including several of its most famous - as well as some forgotten -monasteries. Pretty well everywhere he goes, he finds the same tale: a Christian community in decline due to persecution under Islam, nationalism, emigration and war - a war which ... Read More:
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.Last Chance to See....
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing
by: Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine

November 08, 1991
Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine show us `more exotic wildlife than you'd be wise to shake a stick at' highlighting many of the species of animals on the verge of extinction in this excellent book which is as relevant now as it was when first published in 1990.

Originally commissioned to write an article for the Observer newspaper on the virtually extinct Aye-Aye Lemur in 1985 Douglas and Mark teamed up four years later to make `Last Chance to See...' initially as a Radio programme and then written up as this highly entertaining and informative book. We go on a trip to see Komodo Dragons, Mountain Gorillas, White Rhinos, Kakapo Parrots, Baiji Dolphins before arriving at a bird sanctuary on Mauritius. This is the perfect ending of the ... Read More:
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.The Sewing Circles of Herat: My Afghan Years
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing
by: Christina Lamb

May 24, 2004
In these memoirs the author writes about her experiences in Afghanistan, a country with which she has come to care deeply about and to explore intimately.
She details her experiences with people she has interviewed and come to know in Afghanistan and what she has come to witness in her years there.
Through the book she shapes a history of Afghnanistan, a rich land of many nations which has been invaded by many from the armies of Alexander the Great, the Persians and Mongols, the British and Russians/Soviets and most recently the Arab and Pakistani Islamists.
We learn that most of the Taliban were not Afghans at all but Arabs and Pakistani Islamo-Nazis barging into a county were they found it easy to wage their nihilist jihad and ... Read More:
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.Travels on the Dance Floor: One Man's Journey to the Heart of Salsa
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing
by: Grevel Lindop

August 04, 2008
I heard this book on Radio 4 and as a keen salsa addict, I immediately got hold of a copy. I'd like to go on a salsa holiday, and this book explained what the 'scene' is like in half-a-dozen Latin American cities

Lindop went on his own. It's really hard to turn up at bars and dance among people you've never met before. But he made contacts and organised enough lessons to get a feel for the places and people. His prose is poetic and rich, I enjoyed reading it in short bursts. There is lots of insight into the great pleasure that salsa gives: the music, the women and the movement. It works as a travelogue, and as a book about dance. You also learn a few things about an Englishman of a certain age.

I'm not sure what someone who had never danced ... Read More:
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.Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing
by: Paul Theroux

August 07, 2003
Too many reviewers here want a glowing travel brochure out of Theroux. Writing is his vocation, travelling is his muse. Travelling is a way to comment on the human condition as he experiences it, and on his own condition, as he experiences it. It doesn't matter how many people have a good time in Africa, or a bad time in Africa - Theroux has his own devil driving him in his own strange directions, and what he produces are travel books only in the most minimal sense. In the larger sense they are works of literature in which travel plays a part.

I love the complexity of his writing, his honesty in recording moods, enthusiasms, fears, vanities, moments of ill-temper, generosity, meanness. Reviewers point out moments of 'hypocrisy', or 'meanness', or curmudgeonly ... Read More:
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.Lois on the Loose
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing
by: Lois Pryce

March 01, 2007
This is the 2nd book from Lois - I loved every word - even my Mother-in-Law loved them - high praise indeed. Having met the lass on many occasions this book shows her natural ability to tell it as it is. Rather like Ted Simon's books - Lois is better in the second book.... "a must read" for all thinking of going for a long motorcycle ride that dreams are made of...
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.Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast (Radio 4 Book of the Week)
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing
by: Charlie Connelly

May 05, 2005
This is a quirky but enjoyable book; Connelly sets himself the challenge of visiting all the areas of the Shipping Forecast that have a land mass within them over a year-long period. In doing so, his experiences are in turn funny, absurd, perceptive and informative. Various tales made me laugh out loud, particularly his experiences on his first port of call, where's he's unexpectedly at a party with a die-hard Liverpool fan who knows nothing about the geography of Liverpool. Some of the places he visits hold no appeal, but others, such as Lundy, are appealing and have whetted my curiosity. A good read, and an illuminating insight into one of radio's most iconic broadcasts.
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.The Age of Kali: Travels and Encounters in India
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing
by: William Dalrymple

June 21, 1999
The Age of Kali, to be honest, is a bit disappointing. First off because of the form - it is a collection of pieces written for different journals at different times in the 1990s, and there is occasional repetition from one piece to the next, with no overall guiding structure. Second, because of this, the book lacks any synthesising introduction or conclusion, apart from a page at the very beginning explaining the concept of the Age of Kali, the Kali Yuga.

Having said that, what you are left with is a series of very readable, vivid, in-depth essays on particular places, personalities or events; we start with sectarian violence in Bihar, and end with the Bhutto family. The book is mainly about India, but there are excursions also to Sri Lanka, Réunion, and of course Pakistan. (But ... Read More:
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.The Travels of Ibn Battutah
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing
by: Ibn Battutah

June 06, 2003
Ibn Battuta was a medieval traveller from modern day Morocco. He was a Qadi (judge) who travelled, lived and worked in large swathes of the ancient world ranging from China, India, Ceylon, Sub Saharan Africa, and the Middle East! A feat one wonders if ever has been repeated.

The book is an autobiography written in the first person that details and describes his extensive travels in the form of a journal, dictated in the first person. The book gives an incite of the Islamic culture, customs and habits, as well as his perception (from the prospect of a Medieval Muslim) of his interactions and private thoughts with and of other cultures, be it Christendom, China, or even different Muslim regions.

I found that it opened up my eyes to the world, and to metaphorically see, ... Read More:
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.Facing the Frozen Ocean: One Man's Dream to Lead a Team Across the Treacherous North Atlantic
City Travel Guides > Books > Travel Writing
by: Bear Grylls

May 06, 2005
This book is the story of Bear Grylls' attempt to cross the arctic Atlantic ocean in an open inflatable beat. Bear leads a team of five on this challenge, and he tells the story of how the trip was organised and how close it came to disaster.

I've read Bear's tale of climbing Everest (Facing Up) which is, to be honest, the better book. Facing the Frozen Ocean was an enjoyable holiday read but it didn't grip me in the same way that the Everest adventure did. Partly, I suspect that's because Bear himself loses the impetus to continue these adventures part-way through the trip; there is one appalling leg of the journey where death was very, very close. An angry Atlantic is no place to be in an open boat -- running out of fuel and left helpless in 20-foot swells. Bear questions why he is ... Read More:
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