Martin Brown

Travis Elborough

Alan Horsfield

A Journey to the World's Most Unusual Corners

Atlas of Improbable Places

Maps offer us a chance to see not just how our world looks today, but how it once looked. But what about the places that are no longer mapped? Cities forgotten under the dust of newly settled land? Rivers and seas whose changing shape has shifted the landscape around them? Or, even, places that have seemingly vanished, without a trace? Travis Elborough takes you on a voyage to all corners of the world in search of the lost, disappearing and vanished. Specially commissioned cartography showing each place as It once was and how it is today and archive photography bring these incredible stories to life.

The lost worlds as they were and as they are today

Atlas of Vanishing Places

Letters that have made, and still can make, the world a better place. In an era where the liberties we often take for granted are under threat, Letters To Change the World is a beautifully produced collection of inspiring letters - some private and some open - that offer reminders from history that standing up for and voicing our personal and political beliefs is a crucial right and a duty if we want to change the world. From Abraham Lincoln and Emmeline Pankhurst through to Obama and Malala, many are penned by major figures from the world stage, others by ordinary citizens caught up in the stream of history in their pursuit of what's right. The letters, each briefly introduced to give its full historical context, cover every modern political and social cause and give a sense of the struggles of the past with the intimate first-hand access that only letters allow. The collection includes George Orwell's warning on totalitarianism, Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Albert Camus on the reasons to fight a war, Bertrand Russell on being a conscientious objector, Emmeline Pankhurst rallying her suffragettes, Nelson Mandela's letters home to his children from prison and Obama's letter to his daughters on Inauguration.

From Pankhurst to Orwell

Letters to Change the World

It is perhaps the eighth wonder of our world that despite modern mapping and satellite photography our planet continues to surprise us. Hidden lairs beneath layers of rock, forgotten cities rising out of deserted lands and even mankind's own feats of engineering eccentricity lie in the most unusual of destinations. Travis Elborough goes in search of the obscure and bizarre, the beautiful and estranged. Taking in the defiant relics of ancient cities such as Ani, a once thriving metropolis lost to conquered lands, and the church tower of San Juan Parangaricuto, that miraculously stands as the sole survivor of a town sunk by lava. Through the labyrinths of Berlin and Beijing — underground realms dug for refuge, espionage and even, as Canada's Moose Jaw, used as the playground for gangsters trading liquor and money over cards. Never forgetting the freaks and wonders of nature's own unusual masterpieces: the magical underground river shaped like a dragon's mouth in the Philippines and the floating world of Palmerston. With beautiful maps and stunning photography illustrating each destination, Atlas of Improbable Places is a fascinating voyage to the world's most incredible destinations. As the Island of Dolls and the hauntingly titled Door to Hell — an inextinguishable fire pit - attest, mystery is never far away. The truths and myths behind their creation are as varied as the destinations themselves. Standing as symbols of worship, testaments to kingships or even the strange and wonderful traditions of old and new, these curious places are not just extraordinary sights but reflections on man's own relationship with the world around us.

Atlas of the Unexpected is a journey to far-off lands, obscure discoveries and unimaginable locations, with 45 beautiful, unique maps and evocative photography. Take an armchair voyage to places both infamous and unknown that have, often by chance or by haphazard means, been destinations of discovery that make up our world today. Learn about the accidental discovery or Vaseline. Set foot on the aptly named Just Enough Room Island. Chart the royal romance that led shipwrecked lovers to discover the purple rock of Madeira. Follow in the footsteps of a stray goat who led its keeper to uncover lost ancient biblical scrolls. These are the world’s most wondrous, improbable and – most of all – unexpected of places. “Travis Elborough writes about a wide range of subjects with originality, learning and charm. Atlas of the Unexpected...is seductively beautiful: an inspiring, dream-inducing guide to almost four dozen “haphazard discoveries, chance places and unimaginable destinations”..." David Kynaston, New Statesman – ‘best books of 2018’ Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Untamed Places, Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of Vanishing Places.

Haphazard discoveries, chance places and unimaginable destinations

Atlas of the Unexpected

Who is the headless haunter of Holland Park? And what of the frozen phantom chicken of Highgate? Where do these ghosts appear, and who sees them? In a 2,000-year-old city there are hundreds of apparitions, poltergeists, and ghouls. Through this unique approach, we witness the huge variety and history of London life—its people, their stories, and the many myths and legends that surround them. It also includes a visit to London’s most haunted house.

Ghosts, Ghouls and Phantoms of London

Nick Rennison

A Traveller’s Year is an anthology of extracts from diaries, journals and letters, two or three for each day of the year, on the subject of travel and exploration. The extracts convey men and women’s experiences of travel and discovery from the sixteenth to the early twenty-first centuries, with an emphasis on the period 1750–1950, the classic era of both European exploration and diary-writing. The authors of the pieces range from famous explorers such as Captains Cook and Scott to modern travel writers journeying through the contemporary world, from people who pushed back the boundaries of geographical knowledge to people who wrote about what they did on their summer holidays. The book includes an introduction, explanatory notes and mini-biographies of all the contributors. Contributors include: Gertrude Bell (woman traveller in the Middle East) James Boswell (travels in Scotland and the Hebrides) William Cobbett (Rural Rides through England) Christopher Columbus (journals of his voyages to America) Charles Darwin (Voyage of the Beagle) Captain James Cook (voyages in the Pacific) Washington Irving (American writer travelled in Europe in first decades of nineteenth century) Edward Lear (landscape painter and nonsense writer produced journals of his travels in Greece, Corsica, Near East etc) Lewis & Clark (journals of famous journey of American exploration) William Morris (wrote a journal of a trip to Iceland in 1870s) Michael Palin (a Python abroad) Mungo Park (African explorer in early nineteenth century) Captain Robert Falcon Scott (doomed journey to South Pole) Evelyn Waugh (diaries of 1930s travels in Mediterranean and beyond) William John Wills (explorer of Australia)

365 Days of Travel Writing in Diaries, Journals and Letters

A Traveller's Year

A London Year is an anthology of short diary entries, one or more for each day of the year, which, taken together, provides an impressionistic portrait of life in the city from Tudor times to the twenty-first century. This ebook edition, with its own distinct cover, has been optimised for the digital reader. A hyperlinked contents page makes it easy for the reader to dip in and out of the book while each 'page' is dedicated to a separate day. To further improve formatting, the illustrations from the printed edition have been omitted. We promise this does not detract from the reading experience. This ebook serves as the perfect accompaniment to the print edition. There are more than two hundred featured writers, with a short biography for each. The most famous diarist of all - Samuel Pepys - is there, as well as some of today’s finest diarists like Alan Bennett and Chris Mullin. There are coronations and executions, election riots and zeppelin raids, duels, dust-ups and drunken sprees, among everyday moments like Brian Eno cycling in Kilburn or George Eliot walking on Wimbledon Common. Vividly evoking moments in the lives of Londoners in the past, providing snapshots of the city’s inhabitants at work, at play, in pursuit of money, sex, entertainment, pleasure and power, the ebook of A London Year is the perfect read for all who live in or love this eternal, ever-changing city.

Daily Life in the Capital in Diaries, Journals and Letters

London Year

Helen Gordon

The joys and challenges of being a writer are explored in this inspiring assemblage of wit, wisdom and hard-won practical advice from some of the world’s greatest authors musing on the art of writing and how they came to define themselves as writers. From Samuel Johnson in eighteenth-century London to Lorrie Moore in twenty-first-century Wisconsin, the contributors range from the canon to contemporary, covering more than 250 years, and come from all over the world. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this stunning anthology explores and illuminates the pleasures and pitfalls of the compulsion to write, with advice about the whole messy business of writing literature and what it takes to be a writer. The perfect gift for aspiring writers, curious readers, and anyone interested in what the world's greatest authors have to say about the art of writing.

Advice, Musings, Essays and Experiences From the World's Greatest Authors

Being a Writer

Elborough tells the story of the Routemaster - a bus designed and made in London, by Londoners for Londoners and, as the Routemaster fleet is formally retired, remembers the vehicle that has come to symbolise the city in the eyes of much of the world. This edition has been revised to include the Routemaster's last run.

London's Affair with the Routemaster

The Bus We Loved

‘We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed’ Martin Luther King In an era where the liberties we often take for granted are under threat, Letters To Change the World is a collection of inspiring letters offering reminders from history that standing up for and voicing our personal and political beliefs is not merely a crucial right but a duty if we want to change the world. Edited by Travis Elborough, the collection includes George Orwell's warning on totalitarianism, Martin Luther King's 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail', Albert Camus on the reasons to fight a war, Bertrand Russell on peace, Emmeline Pankhurst rallying her suffragettes, Nelson Mandela's letter to his children from prison and Time's Up on the abuse of power.

The Writer's Journey invites you to follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous authors on the travels that inspired their greatest works.

In the Footsteps of the Literary Greats

The Writer's Journey

The Album from Vinyl to IPod and Back Again

The Vinyl Countdown

For 60 years the way our music has been presented to us has been in the form of the LP, the album: 12-odd tracks representing something much more than the sum of their parts. But if we can download a single track, is the album going to go the way of the old 78 and be consigned to the dustbin of history? Travis Elborough, who has a deep love for music and albums takes a fond, nostalgic, entertaining and informative tour through the history of the album, from its revolutionary arrival on the global scene in 1948, when it entirely transformed the way music was listened to and produced, to its revered position as the creative benchmark to which all musicians aspire. Travis has the most astonishing amount of material at his fingertips on career-ending LPs, record-company bankrupting LPs, never-released LPs, difficult third albums, career fillers, contractual copouts, duff tracks, ill-advised solo projects and comeback LPs. He brilliantly places the revered albums of history in their social context, using the album to examine some of the enormous changes in our society, looking at education, work, wages, race and sexuality, leisure and shopping, teenagers and boredom. He also examines the meaning of the current vinyl revival. This is a book filled with enough detail and idiosyncrasy to satisfy the obsessive but with an entirely unelitist, inclusive insight into how music has shaped our lives and our lives have shaped music. -- Publisher details.

The Long-player Goodbye

What better way to understand Britain during the twentieth century than through the eyes of those who experienced it at first hand? Travis Elborough's compilation offers brilliantly candid and intimate insights not only into the headline-grabbing events but also the domestic and personal moments of those who lived through it. The book draws on over one hundred diarists. They include the great and the good - from Beatrice Webb to Tony Benn, from A. C. Benson to Alan Bennett, from Virginia Ironside to Hanif Kureishi - as well as many less-well-known individuals such as Gladys Langford and Kathleen Tipper, whose writings for the Mass Observation Project offer brilliant glimpses into what the man or woman on the street really made of the stuff of history at the time. From the Easter Rising to the arrival of email, from the Boer War to New Labour, here are responses to the death of Princess Diana, the resignation of Margaret Thatcher, the Moon landing, the Beatles and much more. Guardian Best Books of 2017, selected by David Kynaston Praise for Travis Elborough: 'One of Britain's finest pop culture historians.' Guardian 'Elborough is an English nostalgist in the mode of John Betjeman . as a cultural commentator he is a terrific companion.' Sunday Times 'Travis Elborough is becoming a latter-day Alan Bennett.' Spectator 'Elborough has the passion of a true enthusiast.' Mail on Sunday 'Elborough is a charming, funny and frequently fascinating guide.' Telegraph

As Told in Diaries, Journals and Letters

Our History of the 20th Century

WINNER Illustrated Book of the Year - Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020 Imagine what the world once looked like as you discover places that have disappeared from modern atlases. Have you ever wondered about cities that lie forgotten under the dust of newly settled land? Rivers and seas whose changing shape has shifted the landscape around them? Or, even, places that have seemingly vanished, without a trace? Following the international bestselling success of Atlas of Improbable Places and Atlas of the Unexpected, Travis Elborough takes you on a voyage to all corners of the world in search of the lost, disappearing and vanished. Discover ancient seats of power and long-forgotten civilizations through the Mayan city of Palenque; delve into the mystery of a disappeared Japanese islet; and uncover the incredible hidden sites like the submerged Old Adaminaby, once abandoned but slowly remerging. With beautiful maps and stunning colour photography, Atlas of Vanishing Places shows these places as they once were as well as how they look today: a fascinating guide to lost lands and the fragility of our relationship with the world around us. Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of Untamed Places, Atlas of the Unexpected.

The lost worlds as they were and as they are today WINNER Illustrated Book of the Year - Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020

Inspiring urban explorers and armchair travellers alike to consider a new way of understanding the world we live in, this unique atlas shows you the modern world from surprising new vantage points. Hidden lairs beneath layers of rock, forgotten cities rising out of deserted lands and even mankind's own feats of engineering eccentricity lie in the most unusual of destinations. Go in search of the obscure and bizarre, the beautiful and estranged, taking in the defiant relics of ancient cities such as Ani, a once thriving metropolis lost to conquered lands, and the church tower of San Juan Parangaricuto, that miraculously stands as the sole survivor of a town sunk by lava. Through the labyrinths of Berlin and Beijing — underground realms dug for refuge, espionage and even, as Canada's Moose Jaw, used as the playground for gangsters trading liquor and money over cards — never forgetting the freaks and wonders of nature's own unusual masterpieces: the magical underground river shaped like a dragon's mouth in the Philippines and the floating world of Palmerston. With beautiful maps and stunning photography illustrating each destination, Atlas of Improbable Places is a fascinating voyage to the world's most incredible destinations. As the Island of Dolls and the hauntingly titled Door to Hell — an inextinguishable fire pit - attest, mystery is never far away. The truths and myths behind their creation are as varied as the destinations themselves. Standing as symbols of worship, testaments to kingships or even the strange and wonderful traditions of old and new, these curious places are not just extraordinary sights but reflections on man's own relationship with the world around us. Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Untamed Places,Atlas of the Unexpected, Atlas of Vanishing Places.

VINYL MAY BE FINAL NAIL IN CD’S COFFIN ran the headline in a Wired magazine article in October 2007. Ever since the arrival of the long—playing record in 1948, the album has acted as the soundtrack to our lives. Record collections—even on a CD or iPod-are personal treasures, revealing our loves, errors in judgment, and lapses in taste. In The Vinyl Countdown, Travis Elborough explores the way in which particular albums are deeply embedded in cultural history or so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible. While music itself has experienced several different movements over the past sixty years, the album has remained a constant. But the way we listen to music has changed in the last ten years. In the age of the iPod, when we can download an infinite number of single tracks instantaneously, does the concept of the album mean anything? Elborough moves chronologically through relevant periods, letting the story of the LP, certain genres, youth cults, and topics like sleeve designs, shops, drugs, and education unfurl as he goes along. The Vinyl Countdown is a brilliant piece of popular history, an idiosyncratic tribute to a much-loved part of our shared consciousness, and a celebration of the joy of records.

The Album from LP to iPod and Back Again

In this gloriously original social history, Travis Elborough argues that our national character - our snobbishness and willingness to laugh at ourselves, our attitudes to sex and fair play and our chequered relationship with national pride - has been forged against a backdrop of stormy skies and pebbly beaches. Covering everything from Agatha Christie to the Prince Regent via Billy Butlin and Brighton Rock, this is a book for anyone who has ever wrestled with a deckchair, braved a sopping esplanade or felt the crunch of sand in a sandwich.

Travis Elborough

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