BOOK REVIEW / Paperbacks: The Oxford Book of Exploration selected by Robin Hanbury-Tenison: Oxford, pounds 7.99

Each continent has a section to itself in these samples of some 160 expeditionaries boldly going where no European hobnail boot had gone before.

All the obvious great men are here, from Leo Africanus to Sir Francis Young-husband, starting out all gung-ho until humbled by the awfulness of the elements. Here, too, are three (only three?) women travellers, the formidable Lady Baker (the White Nile), the incomparable Mary Kingsley (West Africa), the less-known Mina Hubbard (Labrador). The latter's extract beautifully catches the mixture of elation and guilt which often attends more recent expeditions. There's no section for the European continent, which says all there is to say about the point-of-view adopted.