THREE OF THE BEST TRAVEL BOOKS

Loved ones aside, there can be few better travelling companions than a good book. Here are some of our favourite reads on the subject of travel that might just inspire your next river or ocean cruise...

Venice by Jan Morris

Hailed as one of the best travel books ever written, this beautifully immersive work is neither a guide nor a history book, rather a passion-fuelled celebration of the minutiae of Venetian life, its people, its waterways, its architecture and its unique character. Originally published in 1960, it was an instant hit with the critics and public alike, and over half a century later has lost none of its relevance or charm.

Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk

Winner of the Nobel Prize in 2006, Orhan Pamuk evokes the very essence of Istanbul in his portrait of not only the city that shaped him, but of his childhood self. Guiding the reader across the Bosphorus, through Istanbul’s historical monuments and lost paradises, its back streets and waterways, Pamuk also introduces us to a motley crew of writers, artists and murderers along the way. It all makes for a compulsive and hugely entertaining, if not somewhat melancholic, read capturing the heart and soul, the madness and the sadness of this beacon of a once great Ottoman Empire.

River of Time by Jon Swain

This vivid account of English journalist, Jon Swain’s time spent living in the lands of the Mekong River between 1970 and 1975 was memorably portrayed in David Puttnam’s film, The Killing Fields. It records how his perceptions of life and death were changed forever by the terrible events that occurred during this brutal passage in history. Not only does the book portray the violence and corruption that dominated these lands, but Swain also perfectly captures the majesty of the landscape, the villages along its banks, surrounded by mangoes, bananas and coconuts and the beauty of its people.

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