A book of lands and peoples - Eric Newby

A sparkling anthology of several centuries worth of the world's best travel writing, assembled by the legendary Eric Newby, the author of A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush and Love and War in the Apennines, and one of Britain's pre-eminent and best-loved travel-writers.

In 1985 Eric Newby compiled an immensely successful anthology of travel-writing called Travellers Tales that was distinguished by its originality and the genuine affection with which each entry had been chosen and described. Newby's enthusiasm and love for the subject shone out on every page, and the book became a travel-writing classic.

Now, nearly 20 years later, Newby returns with a collection even more far-ranging and delightfully entertaining. A virtually endless treasure-trove of the bizarre, the touching, the profound and the farcical, A Book of Lands and Peoples is a collection of staggering scope and range. From Herodotus to Wilfred Thesiger, from Christopher Columbus to Paul Theroux, from Nick Danziger to Marco Polo, Eric Newby has brought together the absolute cream of the travel-writing crop into one beautiful and fascinating volume. There is simply no other book like it.

Eric Newby was born in London in 1919 and educated at St Paul's School. During the Second World War he served in the Black Watch and Special Boat Service and was a prisoner of war from 1942-5. For many years he was travel editor of the Observer. He is the author of many travel books.

`An absorbing record of discovery and derring-do . Newby is to be congratulated on this engaging collection' Guardian

`It is difficult to find fault with a book which has everything from mountaineer Joe Simpson hanging perilously in the void to Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo reporting on longlimbed ladies in Tamerlane's gorgeous capital at Samarkand.A wonderful literary journey through the centuries and across the seven continents . a sumptuous celebration of travel.' The Spectator