Cyprus ticks all the boxes. Sun. Sea. Cheap food and drink. Friendly, smiling people. How would you like to live there? Is this island heaven too good to be true? Surely there can be no darker side? Is there no lingering resentment from the colonial period and the bitter and vicious guerrilla war which ended it? What happens when Vic and his wife Gay come into contact with the real Cyprus, away from the garish, overdeveloped tourist resorts? They quickly find people even more friendly and ...

A grandfather goes for a walk. A mere 1900 kms. Backwards through his life, from his home in the French Pyrenees to his very beginnings in Northern England. His aims – to walk for 70 days – to arrive on his 70th birthday. 2 years of training. 17.5 Million steps walked. Raising funds for research into pancreatic cancer, the deadly illness from which his first wife died. Shortly before the start of Vic’s Big Walk he discovers that he is completely losing his central vision. It is impossible ...

'The pace of this kind of travel has not much changed since Fogg set out in 1872. Trains may be a little faster, but there are certainly no high-speed rail links yet across India, China or the USA. Passenger services have practically disappeared from the world's shipping lanes ... Recourse to air travel, even as a convenient means of escape, was not allowed.'Following the route taken by Phileas Fogg 115 years earlier, Michael Palin set out from the Reform Club to circumnavigate the...

This true and very funny story involving six colleagues, some retired, proves the saying that we never really grow up - we just learn how to behave in public.On a sudden whim six men, mostly writers, decided to embark on a 1 000 kilometre cycle ride down the River Danube believing it would be downhill all the way. This was the first of many assumptions that proved to be not terribly correct.None had cycled since childhood nor even owned a bike.That first hilarious journey o...

No.1 bestseller Michael Palin's epic journey from the North Pole to the South Pole.'The cracked and fissured ice-pack offers no comfortable reassurance - no glimmer of any reward to the traveller who has made his way to the top of the world. The Arctic Ocean, known to the Victorians as the Sea of Ancient Ice, stares balefully back as we descend towards it, reflecting nothing but the question: Why?'Michael Palin's adventure begins when he is enrolled in the ...

My London is the first in a series of travel guides written by people who actually live and work in the cities they are writing about.This first guide features insight from five very different Londoners. They each have their own take on what makes London tick. From family days out to luxurious shopping trips, afternoon teas to wild, late night parties, our writers cover it all.

"Cardiac resuscitation was often applied to a patient who was fast asleep. The hapless victim woke from a peaceful slumber to find somebody, often an infidel, jumping up and down on his chest." Lydia Laube worked as a nurse in Saudi Arabia in a society that does not allow women to drive, vote, or speak to a man alone. Wearing head-to-toe coverings in stifling heat, and battling administrative apathy, Lydia Laube kept her sanity and got her passport back. "Behind the Veil&quo...

Revelling in the off-beat and eccentric, Londoner Suggs takes us on a nostalgic adventure to explore the disappearing history of his extraordinary home town: from the sharp tailors of Saville Row to the sex traders of Bohemian Soho, by way of quaint and quirky habitats, brilliant but endangered boozers, unique eateries that have introduced the capital to the world's finest foods and a music scene that's dear to his heart.

That strangest of traveller, the lone female, is at it again. This time cycling through the heart of England from Bath to London to her home in Lancashire. For such a small country England was proving to be a land of contrasts and surprises; from the leafy lanes of Berkshire to the bleak moorlands of the north, spectacular scenery and post-industrial mill towns, dead divas and murderous mad men.Throughout the six hundred mile cycle ride there was much that was quintessentially Engli...

You've done the museums and seen all the sights. Now it's time to discover the real London. This guide is packed with stories and reviews of Londons most interesting cafes, restaurants, hotels, bars, arts, culture, tours, attractions, pastimes, walks, activities, family days out … with a focus on the citys less obvious, more intriguing experiences that will give you a more intimate and memorable time in the capital.

There are ways to begin walking Wainwright's Coast to Coast. Things that must be done. It's compulsory. It's written in the rules.First you must stride purposefully to the starting point. You must fill your lungs with a deep breath. You must have a photograph taken next to the sign, monument or obelisk that marks the beginning of the trail. And you must proclaim loudly and clearly to all who will listen... "And so it begins!"Of course it's best to do all that whilst there i...

Michael Palin's superb No. 1 bestseller about his incredible voyage across the Sahara.Michael Palin's epic voyages have seen him circumnavigate the globe, travel from the North to the South Pole and circle the countries of the Pacific Ocean, but this was perhaps the greatest challenge yet: to cross the vast and merciless Sahara desert.As the journey unfolds, the Sahara reveals not the emptiness of endless sand dunes, but a huge and diverse range of cultures...