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Each disparate object described in this book-a Caspar David Friedrich painting, a species of tiger, a villa in Rome, a Greek love poem, an island in the Pacific-shares a common fate: it no longer exists, except as the dead end of a paper trail. Recalling the works of W. G. Sebald, Bruce Chatwin, or Rebecca Solnit, An Inventory of Losses is a beautiful evocation of twelve specific treasures that have been lost to the world forever, and, taken as a whole, opens mesmerizing new vistas of how we can...

This book explores the representation of Wales and 'Welshness' in texts by French- (including Breton) and German-speaking travellers from 1780 to the present day. Since the emergence of the travel narrative as a popular source of information and entertainment in the mid-18th century, writing about Wales has often been embedded and hidden in accounts of travel to 'England'. This book locates and presents these largely forgotten texts and broadens perspectives to encompass European perceptions. W...

Exploring the gardens, monuments, museums, and churches with walks both urban and rural, from the Bronte parsonage in Haworth to Zadie Smith's North London and Shakespeare's Stratford, The Book Lover's Bucket List takes you through some 100 wonderfully described literary sites and landscapes, complete with colour destination photographs and illustrations from the British Library collections. Start with Chaucer, Dickens and Larkin in Westminster Abbey. Spend an afternoon at Colliers Wood Nature...

Author, academic and adventurer, Denise Inge grew up in a large and rambunctious family on the east coast of America. She crossed the Sahara, charmed snakes in Marrakech and cycled the Adirondack mountains but her latest adventure is an interior one. It starts with the discovery that her house is built on a crypt full of human skeletons. Facing her fear of these strangers' bones takes her to other charnel houses in Europe and on a journey into the meaning of bones themselves. This exploration, t...

The Traces is a ranging inquiry into the seductions of memory and travel, the fragile paradox of desire, and the art of making meaning from a life. Mairead Small Staid's debut, The Traces is a work of memoir and criticism that explores the nature of happiness in art, literature, and philosophy, structured around a season spent in Italy and a reading of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Poised between plummeting depressions, the author considers the intellectual merits of joy and the redeeming...

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher You Only Live Once: A Lifetime of Experiences for the Explorer in All of Us is not just another bucketlist of big-ticket items. We've all heard about Venice and, yes, it is probably worth going to Italy to see its waterways, but hopefully you'll take away something more from this book: a resolve to live life to the fullest-to add a dash of joie de vivre to every day. You Only Live Once will inspire readers of all ages to seize the mom...

In this, his first book, Patrick Leigh Fermor recounts his tales of a personal odyssey to the lands of the Traveller's Tree - a tall, straight-trunked tree whose sheath-like leaves collect copious amounts of water. He made his way through the long island chain of the West Indies by steamer, aeroplane and sailing ship, noting in his records of the voyage the minute details of daily life, of the natural surroundings and of the idiosyncratic and distinct civilisations he encountered amongst the Car...

When prizewinning author Rachel Cusk decides to travel to Italy for a summer with her husband and two young children she has no idea of the trials and wonders that lay in store. Their journey leads them to both the expected - the Piero della Francesca trail and queues at the Vatican - and the surprising - an amorous Scottish ex-pat and a longing for home - all seen through Cusk's sharp and humane perspective. Exploring the desire to travel and to escape, art and its inspirations, beauty and ugli...

Paris, by custom and design, is a pedestrian's city - each block a revelation, every neighbourhood a new feast for the senses, a place rich with history and romance at every turn. The Most Beautiful Walk in the World is your guide par excellence to the true, off-the-beaten-track heart of the City of Lights.