Travel writing

These intrepid travellers not only take you on location, they are also talented writers, historians and philosophers who can travel back in time to unravel the past secrets of their destinations.

• Around the World
• Contemporary travel writers
• Historical travel writers
• Africa
• Americas
• Asia
• Europe and Russia
• Middle East
• Pacific
• Polar regions

Click on the regions or links below to discover good reads about travel in that region or select Around the world for general travel books.

Contemporary

• Booth, Alan (Japan)
• Chatwin, Bruce (South America)
• Dalrymple, William (India, Byzantium)
• Danziger, Nick (Asia, Iran, Britain)
• Dodwell, Christina
• Eames, Andrew
• Frater, Alexander (Asia)
• Hansen, Eric (Motoring with Mohammed reads like a thriller)
• Harding, Georgina
• Kaplan, Robert D
• Lay, Graeme (The Pacific)
• Lewis, Norman (widely travelled)
• Moorhouse, Geoffrey (Central Asia, Russia, and recently a compelling history of Sydney)
• Morris, Jan (A former Times correspondent)
• Murphy, Dervla (An intrepid, shoestring traveller)
• Naipaul, V S (India)
• Newby, Eric (Much travelled since his Short walk in the Hindu Kush)
• Palin, Michael
• Paxman, Jeremy (Central America)
• Raban, Jonathan
• Selby, Bettina (Many a cycling odyssey to her name)
• Severin, Tim (Recreated epic voyages)
• Terzani, Tiziano (Former Soviet)
• Theroux, Paul (Entertainingly subjective)
• Thesiger, Wilfrid (Arabia)
• Thubron, Colin (China, Russia)

For an interesting new series of travel writing, search under the title: Lonely planet journeys

Historical

• Barker, Mary (Station life in New Zealand)
• Bird, Isabella (19th century adventuress and one of the first female members of the Royal Geographical Society)
• Brenan, Gerald (Spain)
• Burton, Sir Richard (The first Englishman to explore Somalia in 1850s)
• Chichester, Sir Francis (The sea)
• Curzon, George (Viceroy of India in the 1890s, made long hazardous trips in Central Asia)
• Duff Gordon, Lady Lucie (Lived amongst the ruins of Luxor mid 19th century)
• Edwards, Amelia (a novelist, poet and Egyptologist)
• Fane, Isabella (India during the Raj)
• Fermor, Patrick (walked from Holland to Constantinople in the 1930s)
• Hakluyt, Richard (He knew many of the 16th century's great English navigators)
• Hillaby, John
• Jones, Tristan (The sea)
• Kempe, Margery (an eccentric 15th century pilgrim who dictated her autobiography to monks)
• Kingsley, Mary (West Africa)
• Maclean, Fitzroy (Central Asia, Caucasus, Russia, Scotland)
• Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley (As an ambassador's wife in 18th century Constantinople she chronicled her experiences in some marvellous letters home)
• Naipaul, Shiva (Social conditions in Africa in 1970s)
• Stark, Freya (A highly regarded Arabist and colourful chronicler of her discoveries)
• Stevenson, Robert Louis (Travels in the Pacific)
• Trollope, Anthony (Travelled to NZ and Australia in 1873)
• Trollope, Frances (Anthony's mother observes domestic manners of Americans on her 19th century travels)
• Van der Post, Laurens (Africa)
• Young, Gavin (The sea)