15th April 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Riddle and the Knight: In search of Sir John Mandeville
by Giles Milton. I loved this book! I’ve previously read the author’s Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, so had a pretty good idea of what to expect from his writing, and he didn’t disappoint. The story of Sir John Mandeville’s book The Travels, … Continue reading
24th February 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Last Train to Zona Verde
by Paul Theroux. Paul Theroux returns to Africa after ten years away, and travels overland from Cape Town to Angola for what he expects to be his final visit. The book begins on a bush-hike with the traditionally dressed Ju/’hoansi … Continue reading
23rd September 2018
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Shadow of the Silk Road
by Colin Thubron. Colin Thubron travels along the ancient silk road, from the east of China to Turkey, via Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, northern Iran, and Turkey. He visits ancient monuments, often eliciting the help of locals to reach all-but lost … Continue reading
3rd January 2018
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Big Red Train Ride
by Eric Newby. Eric Newby, his wife, Wanda, Otto the German photographer, and Mischa, their “guide”, journey from Moscow to Nakhodka (on the Pacific) by way of the 5,900-mile trans-Siberian railway. As we journey long each section of the railway, … Continue reading
1st January 2017
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Climbs and Punishment
by Felix Lowe. Felix Lowe humblebrags his way from Barcelona to Rome by bike, shadowing the route of Hannibal’s advance in 218 BC for much of the way. Lowe details the countryside, the history, and the food, and talks a … Continue reading
18th November 2016
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves
by James Nestor. James Nestor pulls us into the forbidding world of freediving – an activity during which participants plunge (sometimes hundreds of feet) underwater without any kind of breathing apparatus – and right to the edge of human survival. Nestor … Continue reading
28th October 2016
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island
by Bill Bryson. Twenty years after Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson tours Britain again. With the “Bryson Line” as his guide, the he (roughly) follows his own footsteps, from Bognor Regis on England’s south coast to the very North … Continue reading
4th September 2016
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Map Addict
by Mike Parker. I should have loved this book, and its early moments of laugh-out-loud recognition certainly boded extremely well. But the author soon began imposing his acerbic opinions – about anything from middle-England Tories to Julie Burchill, via Lewis … Continue reading
17th July 2016
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Walking the Nile
by Levison Wood. We all know the longest river in the world is the Nile (or is it the Amazon?), but we don’t actually know how long that is. From it’s (disputed) source in Rwanda, to Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, the … Continue reading
