The Traveller's Daybook

Book excerpt: A masterly anthology of extracts from the journals and writings of travelers, explorers, and adventurers throughout history, taking the reader on one unforgettable journey for each day of the year Inviting readers to cross ocean, desert, mountain, and ice-cap in the company of the world's greatest explorers, wanderers, and writers, this 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 19th 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 intro­duces the writer and establishes the context of the excerpt, while integrated paintings and black and white etchings chime with the period of the chosen extracts. The itinerary offers the astonishment of the 17th-century diarist John Evelyn on beholding the size of women's shoes in Venice; the stoic courage of Captain Scott facing death at 40 degrees below zero; the exasperation of Dylan Thomas at find­ing 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. Readers 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.