8 Best Armchair Travel Reads
We may be restricted at the moment, but we can all be armchair travellers with this great selection of travel books!
GO WILD
THE LAST WILDERNESS BY NEIL ANSELL
Tinder Press PB £8.99, e-book £3.99
Broadcaster and writer Neil Ansell takes us to Scotland’s west coast to rediscover all the beauty nature has to offer. As he explores lochs and mountains, forests and glens, he rejoices in the wildlife he feels privileged to see and hear, from rutting stags to shy young otters, describing them in lyrical prose. A true love poem to Scotland.
NEW
HIDDEN PLACES BYSARAH BAXTER, ILLUSTRATIONS BYAMY GRIMES White Lion, HB £14.99, e-book £11.69 Looking for something totally different? Be transported to 25 of the most hidden, often difficult-to-get-to places. From prehistoric Skara Brae in the Orkney Isles to the villa of Tiberius in Italy and Turpan Oasis in China, this book offers fascinating glimpses into forgotten places, each with a very human story at its heart.
ANIMAL ADVENTURE
MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS BY GERALD DURRELL Puffin, PB £7.99, e-book £4.99 Who better to explore Corfu with than naturalist Gerald Durrell? Recalling his time as a boy on the island in the years leading up to WWII, he regales us with hilarious tales of his mother, two brothers and sister all adapting to the Greek way of life. Durrell’s love of his new home shines through – you’ll really feel you’ve been there!
CLASSIC
LETTERS FROM EGYPT – A JOURNEY ON THE NILE BY FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE EDITED BY ANTHONY SATIN W&N, HB & PB – used only from Amazon
The lady with the lamp was also an intrepid traveller! Florence’s account of her trip up the Nile, long before she went to the Crimea, opens our eyes to tourism in the Victorian age and gives an insight into the sharp intellect of a British heroine.
DOWN UNDER
DOWN UNDER – TRAVELS FROMA SUNBURNED COUNTRY BYBILL BRYSON Black Swan, PB £8.99, e-book £5.49
For anyone longing for some sun, Bill Bryson is the perfect travelling companion! Witty and wise, he rejoices in all Australia has to offer from barren deserts to teeming cities, from flora and fauna to the folk he meets. Expect spiders and snakes in this side-splitting account.
FICTION
THE SUMMER VILLA BY MELISSA HILL HQ, PB £7.99, e-book £2.99 Escape to a gorgeous part of Italy with this enthralling feel-good romance set in a rambling stone villa on the Amalfi Coast. It’s a story of friendships rekindled and of secrets buried in the past which resur face under the Italian sun, all pervaded by the evocative scents of lemon blossom and bougainvillea.
WORLD TRIP
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS BY MICHAEL PALIN W&N, PB £6.99, e-book £5.99 The Monty Python actor turned presenter sets off in the footsteps of Jules Verne’s intrepid traveller Phileas Fogg. From paddling in the canals of Venice to dog-sledding in the Arctic circle to hot-air ballooning in the USA, he shares his experiences with trademark humour and humanity.
NEW IN PAPERBACK
JUST ANOTHER MOUNTAIN BY SARAH JANE DOUGLAS Elliott & Thompson, PB £9.99, e-book £6.17 Left motherless at 24, Sarah Jane Douglas briefly lost her way before turning to the beautiful, forbidding mountains of Scotland – then beyond. Join her scaling the heights, from the Cairngorms to the Himalayas to Kilimanjaro in this part-travelogue, part memoir of a woman facing up to challenges.