"Kate Wills wasn't expecting to be divorced after 6 months of marriage. She wasn't expecting to be remaking a life that had, for the last 12 years with her partner, seemed so stable and fixed. But at 33, this is where she found herself. Luckily, her job as a...
Rachel is a cyclist. But she was never meant to be. After gaining mental strength and healing through running, she thought she was free. Her depression alleviated, she came off Prozac, winning races and collecting medals at marathons. But when a injury stopped...
Every December, a huge Christmas tree arrives in Trafalgar Square. Bedecked in lights, it is a shimmering, festive beacon in the heart of London. But even more enchanting than the twinkling decorations and scented pine is the story behind the tree; a story of...
At the age of 24, Alastair Humphreys set off to try to cycle round the world. By the time he arrived back home, four years later, he had ridden 46,000 miles across five continents on a budget of just £7,000. From frozen Siberia tundra to the jungles of central...
"Blending autofiction and the essay, The Bear Woman takes us on a journey of feminism and literary detective work that spans centuries and continents. In the 1540s, a young French noblewoman, Marguerite de la Rocque, was abandoned by her guardian in the Gulf...
There are many reasons to be fascinated by Germany: forests, architecture and fairy tales, not to mention its history and inhabitants' penchant for very peculiar food. Our distant and often maligned cousin, this is a place in which innumerable strange...
eAudiobook
'The zigzagging life of an adventurer' GUARDIAN 'An astonishing, wonderful memoir of an extraordinary life' HENRY MARSH, author of Do No Harm 'Exciting and complex, full of insight and humour' SPECTATOR An unforgettable memoir from the author of the...
Being the fastest cyclist in the world at the start line means nothing if your mind isn't strong enough to get you to the finish line In 2018, Leigh Timmis became the fastest person to cycle across Europe - in just 16 days, 10 hours and 45 minutes - breaking...
Time is precious. The world is waiting. Rediscover yourself. The Great Alone is the epic adventure of a relatable explorer. Why does a 44-year-old father leave his family for six months to walk 4,286km across America on the Pacific Crest Trail? What effect...
The discovery of Endurance briefly swept the anxiety and rancour of 2022 from the headlines of the world, and new generations thrilled again to one of the greatest tales of all time. Acclaimed South African writer Darrel Bristow-Bovey has a deeply personal...
Since his time on Hildasay, Chris' adventure has only gotten wilder. No one was more surprised than Chris when, in November 2020, he had an unlikely (seemingly destined) encounter with fellow adventurer Kate. The two turned out to be kindred spirits and - even...
From the medieval souks of Tabriz, to the mysterious island of Caldihe, where sheep were said to grow on trees, Anthony Bale brings history alive in A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages, inviting the reader to travel across a medieval world punctuated with...
Billy Connolly may be a citizen of the world, but in his heart, he's never been far from his homeland. Made in Scotland is Billy's unique and intimate portrait of his native Scotland, a love letter to the places and people that made him. It's an adventure...
At twenty-six years old, life looked a certain way for Nikki Vargas. She'd settled in New York City ready to join the ranks of the Carrie Bradshaws of the world, had landed in a promising advertising career, and was newly engaged to her college sweetheart. But...
Following the acclaimed No Visible Bruises, a piercing account of the author's childhood in an Evangelic Christian community, her teenage escape, and her career as a reporter at the frontline of the global epidemic of violence against women. Award-winning...
254 days, 12,700 kilometres, sea sickness, sharks, crocodiles and ocean. Bonnie Hancock broke numerous records on her fastest ever circumnavigation by paddle around Australia but that wasn't the achievement she is most proud of. Testing the limits of her...
Nogales is a border town caught between Mexico and the United States of America. A 40-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...
A travelogue exploring the life and work of George Orwell through the places he lived, worked and wrote Following in the footsteps of his literary hero, researcher and historian Oliver Lewis set out to visit all the places to have inspired and been lived in by...
An elegant blend of "polemic, industrial history, nautical writing, elegy, and ecology" (The Scotsman), The Two-Headed Whale charts the tragic history of the post-war whaling industry alongside the author's thrilling memoir of sailing the Antarctic. In 2016,...
This audiobook features an exclusive conversation between Jenna and her friend Tory. Jenna Holmes, known affectionately by her community as P Mami, has cultivated a lifestyle centred around extracting the most pleasure from the simplest of things. The ones...
Brought to you by Penguin.The Charente: roofs of red terracotta tiles, bleached-white walls, windows shuttered against the blaring sun. The baker does his rounds in his battered little white van with a hundred warm baguettes in the back, while a cat picks its...
China today is a land of opportunity for African people blocked from commerce with most of Europe and Northern America. It is also an intersection of racism and prejudice. Noo Saro-Wiwa goes in search of China's 'Black Ghosts', African economic migrants in the...
In 1810, Matthew Flinders made his final voyage home to his beloved wife, Ann, his body ravaged by the deprivations of years of imprisonment by the French. Four years later, at the age of just 40, he would be dead - a premature, tragic end to one of the...
Step into an adventure that set the country alight. Anna McNuff had never run a mile without shoes on before. And yet, one British summer, she set off to run a (very) wiggly route from the Shetland Islands to London - on a mission to cover the distance of 100...
Dorthe Nors's first nonfiction book chronicles a year she spent traveling along the North Sea coast-from Skagen at the northern tip of Denmark to the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. In fourteen expansive essays, Nors traces the history, geography, and...
"Heads up - here's how to run like a pro"--The Times 'a fascinating book' - Adharanand Finn, author of Running With the Kenyans The Lost Art of Running is an opportunity to join running technique analyst coach and movement guru Shane Benzie on his journey...
Brought to you by Penguin. The hidden fabric of a Victorian woman's life - from family and friends to industry and Empire - told through her unique textile scrapbook. In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric...
The dream of being a digital nomad has inspired many to quit their jobs and attempt to live a life that is global and free of the daily 9 to 5 grind. To travel to exotic lands, meet interesting people, and enjoy limitless adventure -- all while earning money...
One woman's journey through South America - and the devastating story of our planet's disappearing biodiversity Pedalling hard for thirteen months, eco adventurer Kate Rawles cycled the length of the Andes on an eccentric bicycle she built herself. The Life...
In his darkest depression, one idea brought Christian Lewis out of the depths - and into a new life. Finding Hildasay, read by the author, is a brutal and beautiful true story of depression, survival, walking, and the meaning of home.'Now I was finally out of...
It's one thing to dream. It's another thing to follow that dream. In 1974 John Egenes saddled his young horse, Gizmo, and set off on an adventure that took them across the United States, from ocean to ocean. Ride along with them as they make their incredible...
From New York Times bestselling author, legendary Jeopardy! champion, and host Ken Jennings comes a hilarious travel guide to the afterlife, exploring destinations to die for from literature, mythology, and pop culture ranging from Dante's Inferno to Hadestown...
Initially a victory line where Allies met at the end of WWII, the Iron Curtain quickly became the front of a new kind of war. It divided Europe from north to south for forty-five years. Crossing it in either direction was always a political act; in many cases,...
Despite a glamorous lifestyle full of globetrotting adventures, travel expert and entrepreneur Anna Kloots felt lost and directionless. Now, for every woman searching for her voice, Anna shares her story of finding and believing in her own magic. By the time...
A maritime adventure memoir that follows a crew of misfits hired to sail an eighteenth-century warship six thousand miles to HollywoodIn the late 1990s, Patrick O'Brian's beloved, massively bestselling historical novel series was destined for film. With...
In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. With its churning waters and treacherous boulders, the...
Five weeks, twenty-five thousand miles, and an arduous secret journey of a brave First Lady.August 1943. As World War II consumes much of the globe, Americans at home have no idea the extent of the horror their servicemen face. What they also don't know is...
An inspirational an amazing memoir about a woman who gave up everything she knew to start her own camel saddlery and do a camel trek across the Australian Outback. In April 2020, as the world began to lock down due to Covid-19, Sophie began her own form of...
Central Park birder Christian Cooper takes us beyond the viral video that shocked a nation and into a world of avian adventures, global excursions, and the unexpected lessons you can learn from a life spent looking up."Wondrous . . . captivating."--Ed Yong,...
What does it now mean to call yourself European? Who makes up this population of some 750 million, sprawled from Ireland to Ukraine, from Sweden to Turkey? Who has always called it home, and who has newly arrived from elsewhere? Who are the people who drive...
What does it mean to be an explorer in the twenty-first century? Explorer is the story of what first led Benedict Allen to head for the farthest reaches of our planet - at a time when there were still valleys and ranges known only to the remote communities who...
Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique--comedian Jamie Loftus's debut, Raw Dog, will take you on a cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021, and reveal what the creation, culture, and class influence of hot dogs says about America...
'A seven-year old girl on a seventy-foot yacht, for ten years, over fifty thousand miles of sailing ... a fantastic story of a truly Odyssean journey across all the world's great oceans - but is also the inspiring story of the developing of a restless and...
'The finest book ever written about England and the English' Stuart Maconie 'J. B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century and it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius.' Dame Judi Dench Three years before George Orwell...
At the school gate, when she accidentally kissed one new friend on the nose and called another a 'beautiful man-horse', Rachael realised that small-town France could hardly be more different to beach-side Australia. The smell of cigarettes replaced the tang of...
'Passionate and moving and provides further evidence of the universality of football' Jonathan Wilson, FourFourTwo The definitive story of the Middle East's unstoppable rise to football superpower, and the road to the Qatar World Cup When James Montague first...
In an effort to help us reconnect with the food that sustains our lives, David Moscow has spent four years going around the world, meeting with rock star chefs, and sourcing ingredients within local food ecosystems-experiences taking place in over twenty...
'For various reasons, this story cannot be proven. But that does not matter to me because in my Aboriginal way of being and knowing, stories like my uncle's do not need modern scientific proof to have validity - the role of story in Indigenous community is key...
A unique, funny picture of Britain ... A love letter to bookshops and the vagaries of public transport.' Richard Osman Why play to 12,000 people when you can play to 12? In Autumn 2021, Robin Ince's stadium tour with Professor Brian Cox was postponed due to...
A second idyllic helping of rural life in France from the bestselling author of the classic A YEAR IN PROVENCE. Skulking through customs with a suitcase full of truffles, toads singing the Marseillaise, taking pastis lessons and finding gold at the bottom of...
The Iron Curtain divided the continent of Europe, north to south, with the Berlin Wall as its most visible, infamous manifestation. Since the Cold War ended and these borders came down, Europe has transformed itself. New generations have grown up, freed from...
In The Making of the Modern Middle East - in part based on his acclaimed podcast, 'Our Man in the Middle East' - Bowen takes us on a journey across the Middle East and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders,...
A classic of modern travel writing, An Area of Darkness is Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul's profound reckoning with his ancestral homeland and an extraordinarily perceptive chronicle of his first encounter with India. Traveling from the bureaucratic morass of...
A stunningly lyrical firsthand account of a life spent hunting, studying, and living alongside caribou, A Thousand Trails Home encompasses the historical past and present day, revealing the fragile intertwined lives of people and animals surviving on an...
Though Frances Mayes is known for her wanderlust, she has always sought a sense of home wherever she goes. In this poetic testament to the power of place in our lives, Mayes reflects on the idea of home, from the earliest imprint of four walls to the startling...
In the vein of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, a riveting work of narrative nonfiction centering on the unsolved disappearance of an American backpacker in India--one of at least two dozen tourists who have met a similar fate in the remote and storied Parvati...
Adventurer and TV presenter Alice Morrison takes the reader on three remarkable and inspirational journeys across Morocco, from the Sahara to the Atlas Mountains, to reveal the growing challenges faced by our planet. Accompanied only by three Amazigh Muslim...
THE STORY BEHIND ALL 4'S POWERFUL DOCUMENTARY SERIES. In 1955, a young TV producer named David Attenborough was approached by six graduates determined to drive the entire length of Eurasia from London to Singapore. It was the 'unclimbed Everest of motoring' -...
From the medieval cobbles, through Dickensian iron and fog, to the neon lights and bustle of the twenty-first century, the ever-changing streets of London map out the vibrant stories, triumphs and struggles of everyone who ever called London home. From the...
On the West Coast of the South Island, past deep fjords, glassy lakes, forested valleys and snow-capped mountains, lies the Long family cabin. It was here that Chris Long spent the first 17 years of his life, two days' hike from the nearest road. In this...
For centuries, Ferdinand Magellan has been celebrated as a hero: a noble adventurer who circumnavigated the globe in an extraordinary feat of human bravery; a paragon of daring and chivalry. Now, renowned historian Felipe FernAndez-Armesto draws on extensive...
An engaging collection of travel essays by the author of The Sheltering SkyTheir Heads are Green, Their Hands are Blue deals largely with places in the world that few Westerners have ever heard of, much less seen--places as yet unencumbered by the trappings,...
In seventeen intimate essays, poet Molly McCully Brown explores living within and beyond the limits of a body--in her case, one shaped since birth by cerebral palsy, a permanent and often painful movement disorder. In spite of--indeed, in response to--physical...
A journey of reclamation through the natural landscapes of the North, brilliantly exploring identity, nature, place and belonging. Beautifully written and truly inspiring, I Belong Here heralds a powerful and refreshing new voice in nature writing. Anita Sethi...
What would you do if you were stranded in the coldest place on Earth as the world you knew back home changed forever? David Knoff had embarked on the adventure of a lifetime as station leader of Davis research station in Antarctica when the COVID-19 pandemic...
Today, there are more borders in the world than ever before in human history. In this book James Crawford argues that our enduring obsession with borders has brought us to a crisis point: that we are entering the endgame of a process that began thousands of...
In 1922, Agatha Christie set sail on a 10-month voyage around the British Empire with her husband as part of a trade mission to promote the forthcoming British Empire Exhibition. Agatha set sail at the end of January and did not return until December, but she...
Reflecting on family, identity and nature, Belonging is a personal memoir about what it is to have and make a home. It is a love letter to nature, especially the northern landscapes of Scotland and the Scots pinewoods of Abernethy - home to standing dead trees...
It's summer, and John Connell finds himself - like so many others - confined to his local area, the opportunity to freely travel and socialise cut short. His attention turns to the Camlin river - an ever-present source of life for his hometown's inhabitants...
LONGLISTED FOR THE ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAGUE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2022 What do the Greek myths mean to us today? It's now a golden age for these tales - they crop up in novels, films and popular culture. But what's the modern relevance of Theseus, Hera and Pandora? Were...
Outrageously irresponsible and undeniably liberating, Simon Gandolfi's OLD MAN ON A BIKE will fire the imaginations of every traveller, young or old. At 73 years old, Simon Gandolfi sets off from Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico to embark on a five and a half...
For centuries the city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains was a meeting point of East and West. Then it vanished. In 1833 it was discovered in Afghanistan by the unlikeliest person imaginable: Charles Masson, an ordinary working-class boy from London turned...
An irreverent homage to the '95 travel classic, from the author of The Gran Tour In 2013, travel writer Ben Aitken decided to follow in the footsteps of his hero - literally - and started a journey around the UK, tracing the trip taken by Bill Bryon in his...
THE GREAT NORTH ROAD is a journey as satisfying for the armchair traveller as the long-distance cyclist. Enriched with history, humour and insight, it's a tribute to Britain and the endless appeal of the open road. In 1921, Britain's most illustrious highway,...
A revitalised edition of this much-loved bestseller. Truly hilarious books are rare. Even rarer are those based on real events. Join A.J. Mackinnon, your charming and eccentric guide, on an amazing voyage in a boat called Jack de Crow. A couple of quiet weeks...
All five series of the award-winning BBC Radio 4 comedy - plus World Cup, Glastonbury and Brexit Specials'Not since I first heard Alan [Partridge] have I felt so sure that I was in the presence of an immortal' Sunday TelegraphMeet Budleigh Salterton's most...
NATIONAL BESTSELLERDr. Andrew Furey, an orthopedic surgeon, was sitting by the fireplace at his home in St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, watching TV after work, when dreadful images of the aftermath of an earthquake in Haiti burst in on the cosy domestic...
Melbourne, 20th August 1860. In an ambitious quest to be the first Europeans to cross the harsh Australian continent, the Victorian Exploring Expedition sets off, led by Robert O'Hara Burke, a brave man totally lacking in the bush skills necessary for his...
More than a decade ago, #1 New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon delighted her legions of fans with The Outlandish Companion, an indispensable guide to all the Outlander books at the time. But that edition was just a taste of things to come. Since...
#1 New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon has captivated millions of readers with her critically acclaimed Outlander novels, the inspiration for the Starz original series. From the moment Claire Randall stepped through a standing stone circle and was...
"Armed with a limited grasp of Spanish and determined to meet as many llamas as possible, Anna and her friend Faye set off on a 6-month journey along the spine of the largest mountain range in the world - the Andes. Beginning in the bustling city of La Paz,...
"[An] elegantly layered exploration of Europe's past and future ... a multifaceted masterpiece."--The Wall Street Journal"A lovely, personal journey around the Adriatic, in which Robert Kaplan revisits places and peoples he first encountered decades...
A searing, deeply candid memoir about a young woman's journey to understanding her complicated parents--her mother an Okinawan war bride, her father a Vietnam veteran--and her own, fraught cultural heritage. Elizabeth's mother was working as a nightclub...
The Western world has turned its back on refugees, fuelling one of the most devastating human rights disasters in history. In August 2018, Sally Hayden received a Facebook message. 'Hi sister Sally, we need your help,' it read. 'We are under bad condition in...
Travel is the opposite of prejudice; it is curiosity, openness and connection. When our world is in flux, travel matters more than ever. It is the only way to go beyond the narratives that are fed to us, and understand the world through your own experience....
Wishing to leave behind the quiet isolation of her Orkney island life, Amy Liptrot books a one-way flight to Berlin. Searching for new experiences, inspiration and love, she rents a loftbed in a shared flat and looks for work. She explores the streets,...
A brilliant, young con artist offered to help the world's most traveled people reach the planet's last untouched frontiers; instead, they were taken for a wild ride that turned into a costly lesson on the perils of wanderlust. Featured in an HBO docuseries. At...
This is the tale of an epic three-month adventure through unexplored jungle terrain - and it might even change your life Fuelled by a zest for life and the desire to explore the world around her, Pip Stewart took on a world-first challenge: following Guyana's...
Running away from your problems doesn't solve anything - but sometimes it's more fun than dealing with them Elise was spending a lot of time crying on buses. She had just graduated from university; had a shiny new flat, her first proper job and a budding...
Year: 2083 Location: London Mission: Wake Romeo It's the end of the world. Literally. Time travel is possible, but only forwards. And only a handful of families choose to remain in the 'now', living off the scraps that were left behind. Among these are...
Part memoir, part travelogue, this is the story of one woman's six years as an outsider in a reindeer-herding village in the Arctic Tundra, forging a life on her own in one of the most unknowable cultures on earth. An ancestry test suggesting she shared some...
Kate Langbroek's deliciously funny, irreverent and inspiring memoir about moving to Bologna with her family to seek la dolce vita is a glorious reminder of what we can learn from the Italians about living life to the full - and what really matters when the...
In Ten Short Lessons in Time Travel, Brian Clegg takes us on a fascinating and up-to-date tour of the workings of the universe that suggest the possibility of journeying back and forth through time. Einstein's special theory of relativity made time travel to...
A humorous and rousing set of literal and figurative sojourns as well as a mission statement about comprehending, protecting, and truly experiencing the outdoors, inspired by three journeys undertaken by actor, humorist, and New York Times bestselling author...
Li Juan and her mother own a small convenience store in the Altai Mountains in Northwestern China, where she writes about her life among grasslands and snowy peaks. To her neighbors' surprise, Li decides to join a family of Kazakh herders as they take their...
After the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, many railways were 'rationalised' and gradually shut down. Rural communities were isolated without ready access to the main lines and steam trains slowly gave way to diesel and electric traction. But some people were not...
For years, I have been drawn to the stunning coastlines of Aotearoa. I find them calming, even on stormy days. This grew into my dream to paddle around the country. I wasn't talking about a bay or two, or one section at a time. I wanted to paddle the entire...
Smashing through the Arctic Ocean with the crew of a Russian icebreaker, herding reindeer across the tundra with Lapps and shadowing the Trans-Alaskan pipeline with truckers, Sara Wheeler uncovers the beautiful, brutal reality of the Arctic. This book is a...
Was this page useful?
To ask for help or information, contact us.