The Ten Best Travel Books

92 Acharnon Street - John Lucas

John Lucas recounts, poetically and passionately, a year spent as a professor of English in Athens, in this award-winning personal portrait of Greece, its people and its tavernas.

Eland, £12.99

The Wild Places - Robert Macfarlane

A beautiful and inspiring account of one man’s search for wilderness and its meaning under the guidance of an ailing mentor, Wild Places is a paean to an endangered Britain.

Granta, £8.99

Waterlog - Roger Deakin

Inspired by the short story “The Swimmer”, the writer dons his trunks to offer a brilliant and compelling view of Britain from a few inches above its neglected waterways.

Vintage, £7.99

...Kazakhstan - Christopher Robbins

The author crisscrossed the land maligned by Borat to uncover stupendous wealth, grinding poverty, exotic traditions and a dash for modernity in theworld’s most surprising country.

Profile, £7.99

Blood River - Tim Butcher

Ignoring warnings that the trip was “suicidal”, the former Africa correspondent followed the Congo through Africa’s bleeding heart using motorbikes, canoes, wit and bravery.

Vintage, £7.99

America Unchained - Dave Gorman

The comedian hires a rust bucket to find the true heart of theUSof A, avoiding faceless chains in a freewheeling, coast-to-coast roadtrip in search of non-corporate America.

Ebury Press, £11.99

These Are The Days… -Dan Walsh

Dan Walsh gets his bum pinched by a transvestite and is threatened by a gun-toting, one-eyed midget in this hilarious account of an adrenalin fuelled motorbike tour of the world.

Century, £18.99

Russia - Jonathan Dimbleby

The only journalist to interview Gorbachev during the Cold War returns to the land Churchill dubbed “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” in this revealing portrait.

Ebury Press, £25 (hardback)

Misadventure… - Henry Hemming

A young British artist sets off across the Middle East armed with little more than a pick-up truck called Yasmine and a paintbrush in this witty look at the area behind the headlines.

Nicholas Brealey, £10.99

French Revolutions - Tim Moore

The comic writer trades in his Rolls- Royce for a bike and turns from accidental cyclist to lean, mean cycling machine on the 2,256-mile route of the 2000 Tour de France.

Vintage, £7.99