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Off-mint.

Off-mint.

Part travel book, part musings on life from the deck of a yacht, this is Larsson’s homage to Celtic lands and waters, from the westernmost point of Spain (Finisterre) to the north of Scotland (Cape Wrath). Translated from the Swedish by Tom Geddes.

Off-mint.

Having been raised in an Irish family in South Africa, the poet-novelist Christopher Hope grew up with a deep insight into apartheid. He returned to the country, after twelve years’ absence, during the 1987 whites-only election. Recalling a childhood road trip (as a ‘white boy’ running through the landscape) he gives an objective account of the historic grievances of both Afrikaners and the black townships.

Britain is comprised of two large islands and 6,289 smaller ones, including 132 that are permanently inhabited. Natural historian Patrick Barkham journeys through progressively smaller islands, including the prosperous Isle of Man, the mysterious islet of Ray, resurgent Eigg and the holy island of Bardsey. He encounters a mixture of islanders, including landlords, lacemakers, writers and nuns, and observes creatures such as puffins and rare voles, as he seeks to define our shared island mentality.

An Anzac veteran, Sydney Loch (1888–1955) and his wife Joyce settled in Thessalonika, in the last village where women were allowed before the wall of the male-only Athos peninsula. Drawing on 25 years of living there and exploring the Holy Mountain, this is Loch’s account of the autonomous region inhabited only by Orthodox monks, living in monasteries on the flanks of the mountain and keeping Byzantine time, in which the day begins at sunset. First published in 1957. Small print

Spanning half the globe, from Britain and Europe, eastward to the coast of California, the map reproduced in shades of cream and grey on these textured cards dates from the era when Australia was ‘New Holland’ and India was ‘Hindoostan’. The map also lines the envelopes and covers the rigid, lidded box. Twelve cards with envelopes.

Stephen O’Shea overcomes his fear of heights to crest the high Alpine passes and explore the history of the ‘fearsome, gargantuan intrusion of stone inconveniently located not at the edge but square in the middle of Europe’. Travelling west to east, from Lake Geneva to Trieste, he tells the stories of the armies, Crusaders, pilgrims and traders who have crossed the mountains; how the Alps inspired the Romantics, mountaineers and engineers; and how its 1,599 peaks have divided Europe’s languages, cuisine, culture, religion and history.

For over a century, National Geographic teams have been travelling the globe and describing exotic sites in words and photographs. For this book, 50 places have been chosen as the most desired, but often challenging, places to visit. Arranged by continent, from Cappadocia in Asia to the Marquesas Islands in Oceania, the description and photographs of each place are accompanied by travel tips and a ‘Nat Geo Flashback’ to an early expedition or a ‘Classic Shot’ by one of the magazine’s photographers.

An expert on Britain’s architectural heritage and founder of the Railway Heritage Trust, Simon Jenkins presents an introductory history of the railway station and a personal selection of 100 buildings, chosen for their ‘architectural beauty, eccentricity or setting’. Beginning with the great London termini and ending at Wemyss Bay (‘a coherent work of art’), this richly illustrated volume is an erudite and engrossing survey of stations throughout England, Wales and Scotland, and the architects, engineers and railway companies that built them.

In 2002, shortly after the fall of the Taliban, Rory Stewart walked 300 miles through the remote highlands of Afghanistan. His account describes the landscape, society and his encounters with opium growers and mujahedin fighters. An afterword to this new edition reflects how more than a decade of foreign engagement has failed through a fundamental misunderstanding of the country’s traditions.

Walking a thousand miles or more along tracks and holloways, drove roads and seaways in England, Scotland and abroad, Macfarlane goes in search of ‘the ghosts and voices that haunt ancient paths’, but encounters both past and present in the landscape. A journey of the imagination as well as over land and sea, the book ranges across topics including sailing to the Shiants, the Calzada Romana in Spain and another walker of old roads, the poet Edward Thomas. Off-mint.

After meeting the Patriarch in Istanbul, Dudley journeys down Anatolia to Egypt, with its temples of ancient gods, and the monastery at Sinai, where she reflects on connections and conflicts between Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

Beginning in Athens, this itinerary takes in sites across Greece, including Apollo’s birthplace on Delos, the ancient gods’ home atop Mount Olympus and the island of Patmos, where St John wrote the Book of Revelation. Slightly off-mint.

This quest to discover Britain’s ancient beliefs and legends takes the reader from Stonehenge and Glastonbury to Canterbury Cathedral, encountering Celtic and Roman gods, the Knights Templar, St Columba and the giants Gog and Magog.

Who were the Magi and why did they travel so far to worship the infant Christ? Did Marco Polo really see their tomb in a ‘castle of fire-worshippers’? Combining theology and travel writing, Roberts describes the vicissitudes of his own journey across the Middle East as he retraces the wise men’s route, from Iran through Iraq, Syria and Jordan, and uncovers the different ancient traditions about the Magi and the Nativity story.

When the foreign correspondent Patricia Clough bought a house in Umbria, it was the beginning of a long and not always easy introduction to a region of green hills and ancient villages. This personal account records her growing understanding and appreciation of its history and culture, its landscapes and wildlife, its food and wine – and her tussles with its bureaucracy.

Alex Capus traces Robert Louis Stevenson's last years, focusing on his seemingly inexplicable decision to settle on Samoa. He concludes that Stevenson had discovered a real-life ‘Treasure Island’ nearby – and that it was this discovery that inspired his most famous work. Literary Traveller series.

For more than 20 years, readers turned to AA Gill’s columns every Sunday for his wit, perception and outrageously funny one-liners. Drawn from a range of publications including The Sunday Times, Vanity Fair and Tatler, this compilation presents some of the best of his restaurant reviews, travel journalism, TV criticism and feature articles. Among the collection are his excoriation of vegetarians, provocative reportage from Sudan and Haiti, and reflections on his father’s Alzheimer's and his own impending death from pancreatic cancer.

Although John Mandeville probably never existed and his adventures in the Holy Land, Egypt, India and China are almost certainly fictitious, this travelogue was hugely influential in the development of English literature. Abridged with a new introduction and many original woodcuts. Off-mint.

In his popular TV travel series, Michael Portillo followed 19th-century railway guides, tracing the history and development of each destination since their original publication. This historical companion to the BBC series focuses on the railways of America, telling the story of the first pioneers, engineering mavericks and tycoons and how the railroad helped to shape the country before and after the Civil War, and into the 20th century.

Against a backdrop of shattered monuments, neglected villas and ghostly backstreets, a daydreaming boy seeks refuge from family discord in the imagination. In this highly original memoir, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk interweaves his own life, and the lives of his glamorous, unhappy parents, with that of his home city. The result is a blend of family reminiscence, history, philosophy, literature, art criticism and urban myth. This edition contains a new introduction and more than 200 additional photographs.

Venice has inspired writers since the sixth century, when Cassiodorus described the lagoon-dwellers as living ‘like sea-birds in huts’. Selected by John Julius Norwich, this anthology includes the impressions of both inhabitants and visitors over the centuries. In letters, diaries, travelogues and verse, Byron, Casanova, Goethe, Wagner, Dickens, Ruskin, Henry James, Jan Morris and others reflect on the island city’s architecture, its atmosphere, music, ceremonies and people.

Struggling to write a novel set in South America, John Hopkins decided to revisit the continent, travelling slowly by train, bus and river boat from Mexico City to Argentina, via Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay, savouring every experience along the way. The diary he kept is a vivid, sultry portrait of Latin America, a tequila-soaked chronicle of boredom, solitude and writer’s block, and an angst-ridden account of his troubled love for his travelling companion Madeleine.

Who were the Apostles and what was their relationship to Jesus? Was James the Less really his brother? This synthesis of travelogue and biblical history ranges from Rome and Jerusalem, Turkey and Russia to India and Kyrgyzstan to seek answers to these ancient enigmas. Exploring the way the identities of the Apostles have evolved over two millennia, Tom Bissell charts the growth of Christianity from an obscure sect to the global faith we know today.

Handsome, spirited and erudite, Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915–2011) was a war hero and one of the greatest travel writers of his generation. He was also a spectacularly entertaining letter writer. This judiciously edited selection of his correspondence spans almost 70 years and includes letters to Nancy Mitford, Diana Cooper, Lawrence Durrell and his lifelong companion Joan Rayner. They sparkle with his humour, zest for life, unending curiosity, lyrical descriptive powers – and his tendency to get into scrapes. Off-mint.

In this unconventional travelogue, Nick Hunt is blown along by four of Europe’s fiercest winds: the Helm, which blasts the Pennines; the Bora, that scours the valleys of Slovenia; the ‘snow-eating’ Föhn of the Alps; and the Mistral of Provence. Along the way, he meets meteorologists, mountain men, sailors and shepherds, and learns how each of these named winds has its special characteristics, shaping lives, landscapes and communities.

For six months, Wood and his guides trekked along the foothills of the Himalayas, through Afghanistan, Kashmir and Nepal. His account of the 1,700-mile journey explores the region’s history, politics and the lives of its people, including yak-herders, separatist fighters, Buddhist monks and blood-drinking shamans. Off-mint.

Against a backdrop of shattered monuments, neglected villas and ghostly backstreets, a daydreaming boy seeks refuge from family discord in the imagination. In this highly original memoir, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk interweaves his own life, and the lives of his glamorous, unhappy parents, with that of his home city. The result is a blend of family reminiscence, history, philosophy, literature, art criticism and urban myth. This edition contains a new introduction and more than 200 additional photographs.

In April 1925 an unassuming schoolteacher left Buenos Aires with two horses, to ride to New York. When he arrived two years later, he was greeted by a ticker-tape parade. His account of the journey, first published in 1933, tells how he traversed the Pampas, scaled the Andes, swam crocodile-infested rivers and escaped capture by revolutionaries. It has inspired generations of adventurers, including Robin Hanbury-Tenison, who provides the introduction to this new edition.