Book of the month

Bodley Head, £25 It’s taken Barry Lopez over 20 years to release a full-blooded follow-up to his award-winning works on natural history, such as the eco-classic Arctic Dreams. But as a quick glance at Horizon’s bookshelfcreaking size reveals, he’s clearly not just been ruminating on his fundament.

“” Part-autobiography, part-expansive meditation on the planet, its people, its past and its future, Horizon collects together a lifetime of thought and travel. But while the destinations Lopez visits would hit all the right spots on any bucket-list book – Nunavut, Australia, The Galápagos, Antarctic – Lopez is more preoccupied with humanity’s own movement and explorations than he is with the minutiae of local life and scenery.

The pioneering and often-troubling journeys of Captain Cook and Charles Darwin are pondered over, while the origin of our own species is mulled on during his time in Africa’s ‘cradle of humankind’. Indeed, the stomach-thudding reality of quite how badly Homo sapiens have failed in their stewardship of the planet and its occupants runs throughout the whole book; a doomy stream just below the surface of the thoughtful prose and diversions that made Lopez a favourite of the likes of Robert Macfarlane.

It’s a big book full of bigger ideas, and it’s well worth taking your time over – see you in another 20 years. Tom Hawker

The reality of quite how badly Homo sapiens have failed in their stewardship of the planet runs throughout the book

First day’s tour

A day in Osaka should begin as you mean to go on: eating. Kuromon Ichiba Market is a good place to start. This colourful covered market, nicknamed ‘Osaka’s kitchen’, has over 150 stalls selling everything from the rarest red tuna to scallops grilled on an open flame. Try an Osaka favourite: okonomiyaki, fluffy savoury pancakes packed with cabbage and seafood.

Next, head to nearby Hozenji Temple. This tiny complex in the heart of bustling Dotonbori feels like a more traditional vision of Japan; splash water over the moss-covered Fudo Myo-o statue, which survived the Second World War bombings that flattened much of the city, and make a wish.

Now, time for another snack. Head into the cobbled alley of Hozenji Yokocho and catch the subway from Namba Station to Shin-imamiya. This is part of the Shinsekai (‘new world’) neighbourhood, a mesh of bars and restaurants, with a looming replica of the Eiffel Tower. This is where you’ll find the city’s best kushikatsu – deep-fried skewers of meat and veg that you plunge into a communal dipping sauce (no double dipping!).

In the afternoon, catch the subway to explore Osaka Castle (9am–5pm; ¥600/£4.50), then head to Umeda Sky Building (9:30am–10:30pm; ¥1,500/£11; kuchu-teien.com/en), where the 39th-floor open-air deck helps give this chaotic city some perspective.

As evening sets in, hop back down to Namba, where the neon Dotonbori strip will be coming alive. Slip between the narrow alleyways and find a bar that looks busy, then walk in with a hearty ‘ konbanwa!’ (good evening).

Pass a phalanx of saintly statues on the Charles Bridge to reach the towers of Prague’s Old Town