Billy Connolly's Tracks Across America by Billy Connolly

$45.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing | Reading Level: very good

In 2011, we published Billy Connolly's Route 66 - the story of the legendary Scottish comedian's journey along the most famous road in America. The book (which tied-in to an ITV series), performed really well - clearly, armchair travelling with Billy Connolly as your guide is an appealing prospect to ma ny readers. In the years that have passed since the previous book, Billy has had more than his share of challenges - in 2013 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer (he's now been given the all-clear); on the same day he was diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson's disease. But being a determined 72 year-old, Billy won't stop the illness (which has already robbed him of the ability to play his beloved banjo) put him off one more exploration of the country he knows and loves so well. ...Show more

Silly Isles by Eric Campbell

$32.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

From the bestselling author of Absurdistan, a hilarious tour through small but very strange places. No man is an island. But lots of strange men live on them. In the Kurils, off northern Japan, World War II is still being fought between Japan and Russia, both hell-bent on claiming this tiny island group as their territory. The Galapagos Islands may be home to some of the world's most astonishing flora and fauna but it's also home to Ecuador's gerrymander ambitions and has the tear gas, riots and police barricades to prove it. Iceland, the world's 'purest' genetic community, is a place where everyone is blonde, beautiful - and thoroughly in-bred as a result of zero immigration. And in Spitzbergen, residents can choose to live in the neat and tidy, polar-bear hunting Norwegian half or in the mountain of garbage, rust and dysfunction that is the Soviet half. In more than a decade of international reporting, Eric Campbell has covered wars, famines, presidencies, and revolution. In the islands he surveys here he finds microcosms of society, complete with long-lasting blood feuds, hidden wars, bizarre histories; all the vanities, hopes and rivalries of great powers. Wry, witty and clever, with a wonderful eye for the absurd, Eric Campbell is the Bill Bryson of the small, odd forgotten places around the world and what they tell us about the human condition. ...Show more

On The Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Road Trip by Paul Theroux

$35.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

Nogales is a border town caught between Mexico and the United States of America. A forty-foot steel fence runs through its centre, separating the prosperous US side from the impoverished Mexican side. It is a fascinating site of tension, now more than ever, as the town fills with hopeful border crossers and the deportees who have been caught and brought back. And it is here that Paul Theroux will begin his journey into the culturally rich but troubled heart of modern Mexico. Mexico is a country that has captured literary imaginations from D. H. Lawrence and Graham Greene to Aldous Huxley. Now Paul Theroux, master of travel writing, immerses himself, attending local language and culinary schools, driving through the country, getting under its skin. ...Show more

What Westerners Have for Breakfast: Five Years in Goa by John McBeath

$29.95 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

In the mid-eighties John McBeath and his partner Sue left Australia for India with the dream to open a European-style pensione in an old Portuguese villa in Goa. After several visits to India they had realised that Goa with its European influences, pristine beaches, and laid-back tropical lifestyle was at the start of a tourism boom. Now told for the first time, this is the alluring true story of what happened: of the locals, expatriates and visitors they befriended, of the colourful, hilarious and sometimes confounding experiences that both enriched and threatened their relationship. Goa rises up from these pages as a seductive and richly rewarding place to live, but jazz writer McBeath isn't afraid to lay bare the realities. ...Show more

OxTravels: Meetings with Remarkable Travel Writers by Michael Palin

$24.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

"OxTravels" is a collection of travel writing, which will act as a focus for the Oxfam Bookfest in 2011 donated by world class travel writers. Proceeds will be given to Oxfam. You have to go back to the 1980s and Granta's bestselling travel issue to find a book that compares to "OxTravels". Introduced b y Michael Palin, "OxTravels" features original stories from twenty-five top travel writers, including Michael Palin, Paul Theroux, Sara Wheeler, William Dalrymple, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Lloyd Jones, Rory Stewart, Jan Morris, Dervla Murphy, Rory MacLean, and others. Each of the stories takes as its theme a meeting - life-changing, affecting, amusing by turn - and together they transport readers into a brilliant, vivid atlas of encounters. This extraordinary collection is published in aid of Oxfam and all royalties from the book will support Oxfam's work. ...Show more

Lost in TranslationA Life in a New Language by Eva Hoffman

$31.95 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

The condition of exile is an exaggeration of the process of change and loss that many people experience as they grow and mature, leaving behind the innocence of childhood. Eva Hoffman spent her early years in Cracow, among family friends who, like her parents, had escaped the Holocaust and were skeptica l of the newly imposed Communist state. Hoffman's parents managed to immigrate to Canada in the 1950s, where Eva was old enough to feel like a stranger--bland food, a quieter life, and schoolmates who hardly knew where Poland was. Still, there were neighbors who knew something of Old World ways, and a piano teacher who was classically Middle European in his neurotic enthusiasm for music. Her true exile came in college in Texas, where she found herself among people who were frightened by and hostile to her foreignness. Later, at Harvard, Hoffman found herself initially alienated by her burgeoning intellectualism; her parents found it difficult to comprehend. Her sense of perpetual otherness was extended by encounters with childhood friends who had escaped Cracow to grow up in Israel, rather than Canada or the United States, and were preoccupied with soldiers, not scholars. Lost in Translation is a moving memoir that takes the specific experience of the exile and humanizes it to such a degree that it becomes relevant to the lives of a wider group of readers. ...Show more

Cobra in the Bath: Adventures in Less Travelled Lands by Miles Morland

$32.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

Miles Morland is an adventurer. He was born in India to a naval father and a glamorous mother once described as the 'most dangerous woman in India'. His parents divorced and Miles followed his mother to Tehran, which they had to leave in a hurry, and on to Baghdad, which they also had to leave in a hurr y after a revolution. These years were filled with desert journeys, riots where he came within seconds of death, and adventures worthy of Kipling, after which he was sent to England for a 'proper' education. Later, following years of shouting down a Wall Street telephone, he threw in his job, bought a giant motorbike and set off to discover things in places others did not want to go. Deported at gunpoint from Romania, saved from assassination in Ethiopia by a lucky plane crash, riding an Enfield Bullet through Ooty, and following Che over the Andes - Miles has a knack of finding trouble. Brilliantly observed and told with unique humour, Cobra in the Bath will have you crying with laughter and scared out of your wits. ...Show more

Dubai: The Story Of The World's Fastest City by Krane, Jim

$22.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

Better than Fiction: True Travel Tales from Great Fiction by Alexander McCall Smith

$24.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing | Series: Lonely Planet Travel Literature

"...a brilliant collection of travel stories...threaded with great warmth, as readers are invited to travel in the company of these famous authors and experience their passions and revelations." BOOKSELLER + PUBLISHER We asked some of the world's most acclaimed fiction authors, including Isabel Allende , Peter Matthiessen, Alexander McCall Smith, Joyce Carol Oates, Tea Obreht and DBC Pierre, to describe their greatest non-fictional journeys. The 32 stories collected in Lonely Planet's Better than Fiction touch on everything from disorientation and revelation to disillusion and redemption. However, these real-life tales all share one common characteristic: a passion for the precious gift that travel confers, from its unexpected but inevitably enriching lessons about other peoples and places, to the truths it reveals about ourselves. By turns funny, poignant and thought-provoking, you'll be transported from Azerbaijan to Vietnam, via Iceland, India, Samoa, Scotland, Antarctica, Alaska, Argentina, Nicaragua, Rome, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and beyond. Edited by travel writer Don George. Also available: Lonely Planet Better than Fiction 2 About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, on mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. Follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/lonelyplanet), Twitter (@lonelyplanet), Instagram (Instagram.com/lonelyplanet) and Snapchat (@lonelyplanet). TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia) ...Show more

My Heart Wanders by Pia Jane Bijkerk

$59.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

What would happen if one day you decided to follow your heart? And where would it take you? Author Pia Jane Bijkerk takes us on her journey as she leaves her comfortable life in Sydney to follow, unconditionally, her instincts. Setting up home first in Paris, then on a houseboat in Amsterdam, Pia observ es the serendipitous moments that present themselves when letting go and following one's dreams. With beautiful photographs from her travels in France, Amsterdam, Belgium, Italy and Sydney, "My Heart Wanders" is a reflective, inspirational, tender memoir that speaks to 'the wandering heart' in all of us. ...Show more

Santiago Pilgrimage by Jean-Christophe Rufin

$35.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing | Reading Level: very good

"Whenever I was asked: 'Why did you go to Santiago?', I had a hard time answering. How could I explain to those who had not done it that the way has the effect - if not the virtue - to make you forget all reasons that led you to become involved in it in the first place." Each year, tens of thousands of backpackers (Christian pilgrims and many others) set out from either their front doorstep or from popular starting points across Europe, to Santiago de Compostela. Most travel by foot, others ride a bicycle, and a few of them travel as did some of their medieval counterparts, on horseback or with a donkey. In addition to those who undertake a religious pilgrimage, the majority are hikers who walk the way for non-religious reasons: travel, sport, or simply the challenge of spending weeks walking in a foreign land. Also, many consider the experience as a spiritual adventure, with a view to removing themselves from the bustle of modern life. Jean-Christophe Rufin followed this "Northern Way" to Santiago de Compostela by foot, on over eight hundred kilometers. Much less crowded than the usual pilgrimage route, this one runs along the Basque and Cantabrian coasts in Spain and through the wild mountains of Asturias and Galicia. ...Show more

Five Nights in Paris: After Dark in the City of Light by John Baxter

$24.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

The preeminent expat writer on Paris and author of The Most Beautiful Walk in the World takes you on an unforgettable nocturnal stroll through five iconic Parisian neighborhoods and his own memories.John Baxter enchanted readers with his literary tour of Paris in The Most Beautiful Walk in the World. No w, this expat who has lived in the City of Light for more than twenty years introduces you to the city's streets after dark, revealing hidden treasures and unexpected delights.As he takes you through five of the city's greatest neighborhoods--Montmartre, Montparnasse, the Marais, and more--Baxter shares pithy anecdotes about his life in France, as well as fascinating knowledge he has gleaned from leading literary tours of the city by dark. With Baxter as your guide, you will discover the City of Light as never before, walking in the ghostly footsteps of Marcel Proust, the quintessential night owl for whom memory was more vivid than reality; Hungarian photographer Gyula Halasz, known as Brassai, who prowled the midnight streets, camera in hand, with his friend Henry Miller; Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault, who shared the Surrealists' taste for the city's shadowed, secret world; and Josephine Baker and other African-American performers who dazzled adventurous Parisians at late-night jazz clubs.A feast for the mind and the senses, Five Nights in Paris takes you through the haunts of Paris's most storied artists and writers to the scenes of its most infamous crimes in a lively off-the-beaten-path tour not found in any guidebook. ...Show more