Showing titles in Travel Writing & Commentary

After the Italian Armistice of 1943, Eric Newby escaped from the prison camp in which he'd been held for a year. He evaded the German army by hiding in the caves and forests of Fontanellato, in Italy's Po Valley. Against this picturesque backdrop, he was sheltered for three months by an informal network of Italian peasants who fed, supported and nursed him before his eventual recapture. Love and War in the Apennines is Newby's tribute to the selfless and courageous people who were to be his saviours and companions during this troubled time.

New Year's Day, 2009. Somewhere on the bottom of the world, six teams of adventurers and explorers have gathered to race one another, on foot, to the South Pole. It is the first time that anyone has undertaken such a race in almost a hundred years; the first time since the great Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, beat Captain Scott to the same goal in 1911.

In 1934, the painter Christiane Ritter leaves her comfortable life in Austria and travels to the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen, to spend a year there with her husband. She thinks it will be a relaxing trip, a chance to "read thick books in the remote quiet and, not least, sleep to my heart's content," but when Christiane arrives she is shocked to realize that they are to live in a tiny ramshackle hut on the shores of a lonely fjord, hundreds of miles from the nearest settlement, battling the elements every day, just to survive.

Stephen Alter was raised by American missionary parents in the hill station of Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he and his wife Ameeta, now live. Their idyllic existence was brutally interrupted when four armed intruders invaded their house and viciously attacked them, leaving them for dead. The violent assault and the trauma of almost dying left him questioning assumptions he had lived by since childhood. For the first time, he encountered the face of evil and the terror of the unknown.

Immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of the railway as the world's most famous trainspotter and TikTok sensation takes you on an epic journey and shows you the joy of following your own passions. Sharing his love for trains, Francis takes us along on his most memorable trainspotting adventures. Traversing the fields and footbridges of the British countryside, passing through grandiose ticket halls, historic terminals and backwater stations, we chase locomotive perfection. Along the way we come to appreciate the majesty of trains and the true pleasure of trainspotting.

Exotic and diverse, richly colourful and intriguingly complex: India is one of the most exciting countries to visit in the world today. Sanjeev Bhaskar, of Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42, grew up in 70s surburban West London, so his regular family visits to India to see his relatives gave him an endless fascination for its bizarre contradictions. Now Sanjeev is going back with a BBC film crew to delve deeper into what makes this country such a compelling phenomenon.

Advice, industry insights and an impartial view into the world of motorhomes, caravans, campervans and travel, with the motorhome nerd himself, Matt Sims. Sitting by his side asking all the right questions is his partner in crime, journalist Keith Gooden, deciphering the perplexing jargon. Listen in and learn everything you need to know about buying, owning and selling a leisure vehicle. Discover the industry trends, new developments and future plans for motorhomes and leisure vehicles in the UK and beyond. Got a question for Matt? Ask Matt! Submit your queries and feature on the podcast at ...

For a period of seven years, Wilfred Thesiger canoed through the marshes at the confluence of Iraq's Tigris and Euphrates rivers, living among the native Madan tribes and their islands made of reeds. Now extinct, their ancient way of life is speculated to have existed for 5,000 years, going back to the days of ancient Sumer, and possessed a unique culture found nowhere else in the Middle East. Thesiger documents the tribes' conflicts, traditions, cuisine, relationships, justice systems, and art, and reveals how they built their unique water-borne society

Sailing on a boat by yourself out at sea and out of sight of land can be exhilarating or terrifying, compelling or tedious - sometimes it can be all of these things just in one morning. It is an adventure at odds with our normal, sociable lives, carried out floating on a medium wholly inimical to our existence. But the deep ocean is also a remarkable place on which to think. Richard King's enormously engaging and curious book is about the debt we owe to solo sailors: women and men, young and old, who have set out alone.

After coming terrifyingly close to suicide, Jake Tyler was determined to take back control of his life from the clutches of depression. With only a pair of walking boots and a backpack, he left his home town of Maldon and began a 3,000-mile walk around the British mainland. In documenting every step of his adventure, Jake shares the ways in which his road to recovery was enhanced by the kindness of strangers, who helped him to better understand himself and the power of human connection.

For five years, Ben Coates lived alongside a major channel of the river in Rotterdam, crossing it daily, swimming and sailing in its tributaries. In The Rhine, he sets out by bicycle from the Netherlands where it enters the North Sea, following it through Germany, France and Liechtenstein, to its source in the icy Alps. He explores the impact that the Rhine has had on European culture and history and finds out how influences have flowed along and across the river, shaping the people who live alongside it.

It was 1956, and Eric Newby was earning an improbable living in the chaotic family business of London haute couture. Pining for adventure, Newby sent his friend Hugh Carless the now-famous cable - CAN YOU TRAVEL NURISTAN JUNE? - setting in motion a legendary journey from Mayfair to Afghanistan, and the mountains of the Hindu Kush, northeast of Kabul. Inexperienced and ill prepared (their preparations involved nothing more than some tips from a Welsh waitress), the amateurish rogues embarked on a month of adventure and hardship in one of the most beautiful wildernesses on earth.

Do you have a dream you must pursue, but everyone says it's unrealistic? Or that you're not qualified? Too old, too out of shape? Or you don't have the "right experience?" Glenn Damato was a 41-year-old software instructor who sought to exceed the bounds of his comfortable but humdrum existence. He embarked on an adventure for which he was miserably unprepared. Why did he do this? How did he answer the ancient human question: how do we jump-start growth in our lives? We become something we were not.

In this beautifully crafted narrative, award-winning writer Dave Broom examines Scotch whisky from the point of view of its terroir—the land, weather, history, craft and culture that feed and enhance the whisky itself. Travelling around his native Scotland and visiting distilleries from Islay and Harris to Orkney and Speyside, Dave explores the whiskies made there and the elements in their distilling, and locality, which make them what they are. Along the way he tells the story of whisky's history and considers what whisky is now and where it is going.

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 relationship - and they were making her miserable. Sitting at work one day, she hit upon the obvious solution. Run 5,000 miles around the coast of Britain, carrying her kit on her back. Six months later Elise set off, with absolutely no ultra-running experience, unable to read a map and having never pitched a tent before.

For millions of people, travel by air is a confounding, uncomfortable, and even fearful experience. Patrick Smith, airline pilot and author of the web's popular "Ask the Pilot" feature, separates fact from fallacy and tells you everything you need to know....

Skulking through customs with a suitcase full of truffles, toads singing the Marseillaise, taking pastis lessons and finding gold at the bottom of the garden, you might think there is little time left for pleasures of the table. Toujours Provence proves that while you might not be able to get away from it all, you can have fun trying.

Pip and Shannon dreamed of living the good life. They wanted to slow down, grow their own food and spend more time with the people they love. But jobs and responsibilities got in the way - their chooks died, their fruit rotted and Pip ended up depressed and in therapy. So they did the only reasonable thing - they quit their jobs, pulled the children out of school and went searching for la dolce vita in Italy.

In a bid to impress his not-quite-girlfriend Jennifer, Mark persuades her to accompany him on a journey to discover the true source of the river that flows past her London flat. Setting himself up with a classic Victorian camping skiff, he's ready for adventure and romance - but his plans are scuppered at the last minute by his manic mongrel mutt, Boogie. Boogie has bad breath, terrible wind and a tendency to moult all over your toast - and on top of all that, he can't swim. But Mark can't leave him behind.

In recent years, Billy Connolly 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 let the illness put him off one more exploration of the country he knows and loves so well.

Felicity Cloake sets off on an epic bike ride round Britain to celebrate and investigate the legendary Great British Breakfast. She rates fry-ups on criteria from the crispness of the bacon to how long they keep her pedalling and stops for fact-based tea-breaks in place of last time’s pause café. And a woman cannot live by All Day Breakfast alone, so as well as recipes for things like Omelette Arnold Bennett or proper porridge, she will report back on the delights of regional specialities she encounters along the way.

This time our intrepid explorer hikes the breathtaking 186 miles of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. A stunning and dramatic landscape of soaring rocky clifftops and sprawling white sands. Join him as he encounters a plethora of amazing wildlife from peregrine falcons to razorbills, from seals to wild ponies. Not to mention the dashed impressive bracing vistas and stormy seas, of course.

There is a line on the map: to one side Wales, small, rugged and stubborn; the other England, crucible of the most expansionist culture the world has ever seen. It is a line that has been dug, debated, defined and defended for twenty centuries.

The Russian Far East, that most remote of regions on this Earth, is also home to the notorious Road of Bones. Few people have travelled there, and those who do usually travel in groups on well-prepared bikes. Lawrence Bransby, award-winning author and motorcycle adventurer, in his latest journey across Russia - the whole way this time - rode the Road of Bones twice, alone, on an old DR350 that had been stored in a shed in Kyrgyzstan for two years. Two Fingers on the Jugular is the story of this three-month, 20,000-kilometer journey.

From London to New York, Ewan and Charley chased their shadows through Europe, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia, across the Pacific to Alaska, then down through Canada and America. But as the miles slipped beneath the tyres of their big BMWs, their troubles started. Exhaustion, injury and accidents tested their strength. Treacherous roads, unpredictable weather and turbulent politics challenged their stamina.

American-born Paul Theroux had lived in England for 11 years when he realized he'd explored dozens of exotic locations without discovering anything about his adopted home. So, with a knapsack on his back, he set out to explore by walking and by short train trips. The result is a witty, observant and often acerbic look at an ever eccentric assortments of Brits in all shapes and sizes.

From terrifying missile tests, its unmissable Olympic cheering squad, and the war of words between President Trump and Kim Jong Un - not to mention stranger-than-fiction stories of purges and assassinations - news from North Korea has dominated global headlines. But what is life there actually like? In See You Again in Pyongyang, Travis Jeppesen, the first American to complete a university program in North Korea, culls from his experiences living, traveling, and studying in the country to create a multifaceted portrait of the country and its idiosyncratic capital city.

Do you like your history haunted? Then Macabre London is the podcast for you. Every fortnight we'll unravel a tale that's gruesome, horrifying or downright macabre. Get bonus content on Patreon (https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/806851) Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For over two decades, Lara Maiklem has been scouring the banks of the tidal Thames looking for objects – lost or discarded – that tell forgotten stories. In this charming sequel to the bestselling Mudlarking, Lara widens her search beyond the river and reflects on life lived post-pandemic, reminding us that it’s possible to draw meaning in the most unlikely of places.

The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,600-mile footpath from Mexico to Canada through the mountains of the West, and Rick sets out for the six-month trek looking forward to being immersed in nature. But once on the trail, he's surprised to find that his fellow humans, when observed and listened to at foot speed, are the more interesting and instructive creatures.