ON TRAVEL AND THE JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE

Clever, funny, provoking and confrontational by turn, here is a pyrotechnic display of cracking one-liners, cynical word play, and comic observation which mines 3,000 years of wit and wisdom, from Confucius to Martha Gellhorn, from Pliny to Paul Theroux, from Albert Einstein to Aunt Augusta. Beyond the mad diversity of opinions and ideas there is a gradually emerging consensus - that other people are crucial to our understanding of ourselves, and that there is more than one right way to be. Dipping into this book you will find thoughts from our earliest recorded history, from European writers and from Aboriginal peoples. Echoing through the book is a carpe diem, a call to pay attention to the details of a journey rather than focussing on the destination. The artist Kate Boxer has provided playful and loving portraits of writers who have inspired her. Some of the chapters cover meetings and collisions, the pleasures of the road, humility and tolerance, healing and enlightenment, monotony and excitement, writing and travel. The biographical sketches are of dozens of intrepid travellers and writers like Francis Bacon (1561-1626) the Elizabethan statesman, scientist and philosopher, the Swiss travel writer Nicolas Bouvier (1929-1998) and Americans Bill Bryson and Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) among them. Choose a wonderful quotation for every day with sound advice, behaviour and personal experiences including ones you may have read before from Dervla Murphy, one of our favourite travel writers, and advice on choosing your companions to the importance of tethering your camel! Line art, 142 dip-worthy pages.