Rising from the Dust ~ India's Hidden VoicesNew, updated edition.Quitting his job and selling his house, Mark travels to India. He lands in Delhi, belted, braced and prepared for all eventualities. Or so he thinks. Though he craves the ultimate travel adventure, a load of western baggage weighs him down: a rucksack rattling with medication, reams of 'to do' lists and a mobile phone loaded with MP3s of his favourite band, The Divine Comedy.Travelling south to Andhra ...

Absent Friends is a 5,500 word article that places the reality and impact of gender discrimination in the context of daily life in the Himalayan foothills, told through the stories of the girls and women who live there."India is the most dangerous place in the world to be a baby girl," reported The Times of India in February 2012.According to a report published by the United Nations in 2011, an "Indian girl aged 1-5 years is 75% more likely to die than an Indian boy, making...

Keith’s wife Gail is looking forward to travelling the world and staying in comfortable hotels when Keith takes early retirement from his high-pressure job. But he has a shock in store for her. He unexpectedly decides to buy a huge American Winnebago-type motorhome (RV), tow a car behind ‘so they can bugger off for months on end around Europe’. Their only experience a brief episode 30 years earlier, when their VW pop-top blew up on a remote mountain road. Gail reveals her fear that anythin...

India is on the up. Historically derided as the lumbering elephant of Asia, this vast sub-continent has quickened its pace. The economy is booming. Tens of millions have been pulled out of poverty. Software and service companies abound. Millionaire entrepreneurs are springing up at every turn. Bollywood is going global and Indian expats are flooding back home. What's more, these changes are occurring within the world's largest democracy - a far cry from neighbouring China. But who and what...

When Bindra contracts leprosy, she is driven from her home in the Himalayan foothills with her two small sons and embarks upon a seemingly impossible course in search of salvation. David's first journey to India is driven by devastating loss, and yet he finds unexepected solace in the discovery of an exceptional family legacy, and insights offered by an unorthodox mountain tradition. As these individual journeys progress their stories are woven together, cultural differences are dissolved,...

After trekking in Nepal, Sally Wendkos Olds and Margaret Roche both fell in love with this mountainous Himalayan country and her people. They returned four times between 1993 and 1998 and spent time in Bedel, a remote hill village without electricity, telephone or roads. They helped establish a library there, and on each visit Olds, a writer, and Roche, an artist, were welcomed enthusiastically as "our relatives." Each time they came to Badel, they returned home with questions about their ...

"Follow your bliss!" Joseph Campbell famously said, so she did. After several harrowing years of losses, author Mariellen Ward set out to recover from grief, understand the essence of yoga and rediscover the joy of living by traveling, studying yoga and volunteering in India.The stories in this collection are inspired by the scorched earth of the Rajasthan desert; the hypnotic currents of India's most sacred river; the awe-inspiring spectacle of the sunrise reflected against the wh...

LONGLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE'Beautifully written, ridiculously erudite, warm and open-hearted' The Times'Compelling and poignant' Guardian'This is travel writing at its best' ObserverInternationally bestselling William Dalrymple takes us to the heart of an undiscovered India.A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasio...

‘Could you show me a djinn?’ I asked. ‘Certainly,’ replied the Sufi. ‘But you would run away.’From the author of the Samuel Johnson Prize-shortlisted ‘The Return of a King’, this is William Dalrymple’s captivating memoir of a year spent in Delhi, a city watched over and protected by the mischievous invisible djinns. Lodging with the beady-eyed Mrs Puri and encountering an extraordinary array of characters – from elusive eunuchs to the last remnants of the Raj – William Dalrymple co...

Indonesian Ferry Sinks. Peruvian Bus Plunges Off Cliff. African Train Attacked by Mobs.Whenever he picked up the newspaper, Carl Hoffman noticed those short news bulletins, which seemed about as far from the idea of tourism, travel as the pursuit of pleasure, as it was possible to get. So off he went, spending six months circumnavigating the globe on the world's worst conveyances: the statistically most dangerous airlines, the most crowded and dangerous ferries, th...

CAMPERVAN CAPERSA Couple's First YearExploring the World of CampervanningWhat do you do when you've got itchy feet but don't want to uproot your life?Buy a campervan!At least, that's what this couple did.After a rather nomadic life, the author settles down with her partner in Cornwall, England. But, after a number of years, those itchy, old feet want to get on the move again.On a restless whim, the couple decide to buy a campervan. It tur...

London Book Festival Grand Prize Winner 2012‘I’d convinced her we should travel the world. She imagined posh flights and swanky hotels. Then I said the three words every girl longs to hear: Volkswagen camper van.’This frank and funny true story of a 'family gap year' like no other shows how the passing comment of a bored 9-year-old can snowball into an absurd expedition into strange lands, financial peril and some distinctly unsavoury living arrangements. With Stra...