The Traveller's Daybook: A Tour of the World in 366 Quotations

The Traveller's Daybook: A Tour of the World in 366 Quotations

by Fergus Fleming (Author)

Synopsis

The Traveller's Daybook invites you to cross ocean, desert, mountain and ice-cap in the company of the world's greatest explorers, wanderers and writers... Fergus Fleming's day-by-day anthology of travel writing ranges widely across time as well as place: from Christopher Columbus's 'discovery' of the West Indies in 1492 to Anton Chekhov's journey through Siberia in the nineteenth century and on to Wilfred Thesiger's wanderings in Arabia's 'empty quarter' in the 1940s. Each quoted extract is accompanied by a brief commentary that intro-duces the writer and establishes the context of the excerpt. Fleming's itinerary offers both a wealth of exotic destinations, and a many-hued patchwork of moods: the astonishment of the seventeenth-century diarist John Evelyn on beholding the size of women's shoes in Venice; the stoic courage of Captain Scott facing death at forty degrees below zero; the exasperation of Dylan Thomas at find-ing himself in a 'stifflipped, liverish, British Guest House in puking Abadan'; and the philosophical introspection of Fridtjof Nansen as he drifts in an 'interminable and rigid world' of Arctic ice. Here you will find Napoleon's travel tips to his niece, a flight over Germany with Hitler, and an ex-pat dinner in Morocco where human blood is served from the fridge by the pint. Covering the whole calendar, including leap years, these 366 journeys are by turn lyrical, witty, tragic and bizarre - but always entertaining.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 480
Edition: Main
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 01 Oct 2012

ISBN 10: 1848878125
ISBN 13: 9781848878129
Book Overview: A masterly anthology of extracts from the journals and writings of travellers, explorers and adventurers throughout history, The Traveller's Daybook takes the reader on 366 unforgettable journeys - one for each day of the year.

Media Reviews
Really quite charming . . . for the armchair traveler, this might be the perfect book. --Geographical Magazine
Fleming's writing is informative and vivid. . . . Almost comprehensive enough to serve as a reference, this densely packed tome supplies a bewildering wealth of information about some of humanity's most compelling adventures. --Publishers Weekly on Off the Map
Fleming excels by fitting so much material into a vibrant volume that never flags. --Booklist on Barrow's Boys
Author Bio
Fergus Fleming is one of Britain's leading historians of exploration and the best-selling author of Barrow's Boys, Killing Dragons, Ninety Degrees North, The Sword and the Cross, and Cassell's Tales of Endurance. He lives with his family in the Cotswolds.