Brian Thacker, bus tour-leader extraordinaire, tells it how it really is in this funny, rollicking, absurd, ride through Europe. Crew Manual Rule No. 5 : Crew must not engage in sexual activity on board the bus with passengers or fellow employees. Crew Manual Rule No.2 : learn all names on day one. Crew Manual Rule No.3 : don't get lost. But then, who follows the rules? Brian Thacker confesses all as he reveals the best (and worst) of 20 trips as a tour leader around Europe. He tells how h...

The author of Rule Number 5: No Sex on the Bus is on the road again, only this time he has Harry, his 73 year old, meat-and-three-veg loving dad in tow. On a two month odyssey they geographically retrace Harry's life, and in the process Brian Thacker finally gets to really know his father and maybe even get him to eat some of that foreign muck'.One of the drawbacks of writing funny, irreverent and - worse yet - honest travel books is that you can't stop yo...

Travels with the Lonely Planet guidebook that started it all.When Tony Wheeler wrote Lonely Planet's first-ever shoestring guidebook, South-East Asia offered 'cheap and interesting travel without the constantly oppressing misery of some of the less fortunate parts of Asia'. Certain 'hotspots' in the region attracted the tourist crowds, but there were many 'untouched places' too.So have Tony's recommendations stood the test of time? Just how much has South-East Asia changed ...

In the spirit of Stanley and Livingstone, Brian Thacker is striking out for destinations unknown. Under-equipped and totally unprepared, Brian leaves the guide books behind and gets off the beaten track, out of his comfort zone and into trouble in some of the oddest countries you've never heard of.Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, Michael Palin all have ventured forth to provide vivid and compelling accounts of exotic peoples and strange lands. But none has ever been dari...

Bestselling author of Rule Number Five: No Sex on the Bus and Planes Trains + Elephants, searches out the most bizarre festivals in a frantic race around the world.It was only a degree above zero and the rain was coming down in sheets, yet here I was about to run around in nothing more than a nappy. I was pretty sure it was going to be the silliest thing I'd ever done 'Join Brian Thacker as he embarks on a round-the-world odyssey in search...

From the author of the bestselling The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots and One Little White Lie, comes a laugh-out-loud romantic comedy about dating in the modern world…“Once upon a time, there was a young girl called Sarah Dubert who needed to fall in love in six weeks . . .”Thanks to food poisoning, broken dates, airport malfunctions and even death, Sarah Dubert has never had a boyfriend on Valentine’s Day. However this year she’s de...

Bill Bryson’s first travel book, The Lost Continent, was unanimously acclaimed as one of the funniest books in years. In Neither Here nor There he brings his unique brand of humour to bear on Europe as he shoulders his backpack, keeps a tight hold on his wallet, and journeys from Hammerfest, the northernmost town on the continent, to Istanbul on the cusp of Asia. Fluent in, oh, at least one language, he retraces his travels as a student twenty years before.Whether...

Five figures gather round a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig. An adult sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been taken but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound in blood…Years later, a headmistress is found strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country. But when human remains are discovered at a former children’s home, disturbing secrets are also unearthed.Detect...

'Oh wow! Jodi Picoult has written her ultimate novel ever!... This book was beautifully written with a feeling of constant suspense... and that major twist??? What??? Highly recommended!' Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Ten years ago, Alice Metcalf vanished after a car accident, leaving her daughter Jenna to grow up grappling with the mystery of her disappearance.Jenna has never believed that her mother could have simply left her. Deter...

THE RUNAWAY GLOBAL BESTSELLER'Gripping, enthralling - a top-notch thriller and a compulsive read.' SJ Watson, bestselling author of BEFORE I GO TO SLEEPRachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life - as...

**From the bestselling author of the award-winning HBO sensation BIG LITTLE LIES comes a captivating story of family, love, and the secrets that refuse to stay in the past . . .One abandoned baby. Two sisters with a secret. A last chance to rewrite the past.**NOW ON BBC ONE AND iPLAYER______________70 years ago, the Munro family disappeared without a trace, leaving behind their newborn baby.When sisters Rose and Conn...

From bestselling author William McInnes, a book about the languid, unending holidays of summer; it's about going away and staying at home, about sunburn, seagulls, family and friends.Remember those long, languid holidays when the only decisions to be made were what to pack in the Esky and who should get the front seat on the drive to the beach?Let William McInnes reignite your nostalgia for holidays past, and give you a taste of the boundless opportunities ...