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There’s nothing like good travel writing to transport a reader into distant realms. We pick entertaining, inspiring and challenging books that offer a different kind of journey
Between the Sunset and the Sea: A View of 16 British Mountains
Breaking free of the macho narrative found in most books about mountain climbing, journalist and editor of Trail magazine Simon Ingram takes the reader on a journey defined more by poetry and mythology than physical achievement. His book – which has garnered broad praise – looks at how mountains came to dominate our imaginations, through climbing 16 of them. And they are categorised not simply by height, but through themes such as terror, science and art, eloquently narrating the emotion these climbs can provoke.
Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot
Almost everyone’s had a conversation about being a pilot, right? It usually goes along the lines of: “Wouldn’t it be amazing to be a pilot?” Followed by: “Actually, it probably gets really boring sitting there for 10 hours while the plane flies itself …” Author Mark Vanhoenacker admits on his website: “The 21st century has relegated airplane flight – a once remarkable feat of human ingenuity – to the realm of the mundane.” Despite this, his paean to the joys of life in the skies seeks to prove otherwise. Through questioning and interrogating the experience of air travel as something that has radically changed the way humans experience the world, he spins a curious and articulate exploration of flying that couldn’t feel further from the experience of being trapped in economy class.
City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World
Never has there been a time in which cities have been explored, analysed and critiqued so closely. But then never have so many people lived in them. Taking a creative snapshot of this period of hyper-urbanism, Catie Marron curates a collection of essays in which writers respond to the phenomenon of the city square and the roles and identities of these public spaces. They include acclaimed authors such as Zadie Smith, Ari Shavit, Rebecca Skloot and David Remnick, discussing squares from the political, such as Red Square in Moscow, to the personal, with Indian writer Pankaj Mishra discussing the square in his village.
Far and Away: Reporting from the Brink of Change
Award-winning writer Andrew Solomon’s latest book is a collection of pieces from places going through “seismic shifts – political, cultural, and spiritual”. Spanning seven continents over 25 years, the essays include reports of his experiences of Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, and resisting tanks in Moscow during the 1991 coup that led, ultimately, to the end of the Soviet Union. From assaults to kidnappings, celebrations to conflicts and journeys on ice-breakers and reindeer sleds, Solomon unites human history around the world through his intimate, personal accounts.
A Season with the Witch: The Magic and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts
With a reputation that began with the witch trials of 1692, Salem could well be America’s creepiest town. So, what better place to uproot your family to for three months? That’s what Edgar-award-winning travel writer JW Ocker did in autumn 2015, ready to spend a season experiencing its macabre attractions, as well as meeting local people in an attempt to understand the psyche of this spooky spot. A town of just 40,000 people, it draws almost a quarter of a million visitors for Halloween.
Elephant Complex
Travel books by writer, barrister and Londoner John Gimlette win praise for their witty, detailed adventures, drawing on local characters he meets. His last book, Wild Coast, took him on a journey through the forests of Guyana. His latest, Elephant Complex (now out in paperback), is a portrait of Sri Lanka, an island-paradise home to complex politics, forging its way forward from a history punctuated by civil war and a devastating tsunami. Gimlette hears from ex-presidents, tea-planters, terrorists and pilgrims, exploring the country from the capital, Colombo, to the ancient reservoirs that attract the island’s thousands of wild elephants.
The Un-Discovered Islands: An Archipelago of Myths and Mysteries, Phantoms and Fakes
Though the spirit of travel runs through much of Malachy Tallack’s work – his first book, Sixty Degrees North, was published last year and is a journey around the northern hemisphere – his latest is about places that don’t necessarily exist. The Un-Discovered Islands charts more than 20 islands of human conception, from phantoms to fakes, to legends. These include the fictional island of Atlantis, whose location people continue to hypothesise over , and the phantom island of Antilla, also believed to be in the middle of the Atlantic.
Wild by Nature: From Siberia to Australia, Three Years Alone in the Wilderness on Foot
As extreme journeys go, Sarah Marquis’s pilgrimage from Siberia to Australia on foot has to be up there with the toughest. Walking aside, Marquis also made the trip alone, making it as much a psychological test as a physical one. Two other books about incredible solo female journeys have recently been adapted for film – Wild, about Cheryl Strayed’s Pacific Crest Trail walk, and Tracks, about Robyn Davidson’s 1970s solo outback crossing – and the book will appeal to readers interested in a similarly epic undertaking.
Bookshops
From Shakespeare & Co in Paris to Green Apple Books in San Francisco and the Strand Book Store in New York, writer and literary critic Jorge Carrión takes us around the world through some of its best-known bookshops. With bookish anecdotes drawn from the worlds of writing, publishing and bookselling, Carrión explores the role of bookshops and their function as places for meeting people and exchanging ideas. Carrión also puts this in the context of the decline of the high street and the rise of e-readers and Amazon; making a case for bookshops at a time when they’ve never needed support more.
When in French
If there’s any nation more smitten with the language of love than the French it’s Americans. Lauren Collins, a staff writer at the New Yorker, tells of her experiences in learning French after she falls in love with a Frenchman in Geneva. The book charts Collins’s experience of being in an environment where she can’t communicate to the degree she’s used to: a particular challenge for someone whose profession has been built on articulating and communicating. A homage to language and linguistics, When in French explores what happens “when two languages, and two very different culture, collide”.
Source: theguardian.com