When R.A. Dalkey travels cheap, he thinks bigger than hostel dorms, overnight trains and pasta with tomato sauce for every meal. He'll roll out his sleeping bag in Madrid's red light district, nap on the streets of Monaco and furtively string up his hammock on Swiss farms. He'll spontaneously teach English in Laos in exchange for rice. He'll thumb rides anywhere from West Timor to South Africa. He'll try smiling a lot, and see where it takes him. Most of the time it's some...

When a 10-year-old R.A. Dalkey decided he was going to become an Outback truck driver, the poor Australia-besotted boy had no idea what he was getting into.He'd been born on the wrong continent for a start. And even if he could make it out of Africa one day, where was an Australian work visa to come from? Or, for that matter, a licence to drive 53-metre trucks on red desert roads?A sensible adult would have filed that dream away as a juvenile fantasy and go...

If being a grown-up were as simple as holding down a job, buying a reliable car, finding your dream home and living happily ever after, there'd be no need for this true story. But our mid-thirties author's unorthodox approach and complete failure to accept the world as defined by adults was never going to make it quite so straightforward - especially when Brexit threw a spanner in the works.Set against the backdrop of his ever-swelling grumpiness and the growing re...

There's never been a better time for us to start taking saving seriously.Our hyper-meritocratic world has long glorified the notion of constantly earning more in order to fuel victory in some futile race to lifestyle and possessions. And so the careful saver was always the subject of ridicule.Then along came COVID-19. Jobs disappeared overnight, and those who kept theirs could forget about pay rises any time soon. Suddenly, those who had a ...

When R.A. Dalkey travels cheap, he thinks bigger than hostel dorms, overnight trains and pasta with tomato sauce for every meal. He'll roll out his sleeping bag in Madrid's red light district, nap on the streets of Monaco and furtively string up his hammock on Swiss farms. He'll spontaneously teach English in Laos in exchange for rice. He'll thumb rides anywhere from West Timor to South Africa. He'll try smiling a lot, and see where it takes him. Most of the time it's some...

If being a grown-up were as simple as holding down a job, buying a reliable car, finding the home of your dreams and living happily ever after, there’d be no need for this true story. But our mid-thirties author’s unorthodox approach and complete failure to accept the world as defined by adults was never going to make it quite so straightforward - especially when Brexit threw a spanner in the works."If you liked the works of Bill Bryson, Pe...

When a 9-year-old R.A. Dalkey decided he was going to become an Outback truck driver, the poor Australia-besotted boy had no idea what he was getting into.He’d been born on the wrong continent for a start. And even if he could make it out of Africa one day, where was an Australian work visa to come from? Or, for that matter, a licence to drive 53-metre trucks on red desert roads?A sensible adult would have filed that dream away as a juvenile fantasy and got...

There has never been a better time for us to start taking saving seriously.Our hyper-meritocratic world has long glorified the notion of constantly earning more in order to fuel victory in some futile race to lifestyle and possessions. And so the careful saver was always the subject of ridicule.Then along came COVID-19. Jobs disappeared overnight, and those who kept theirs could forget about pay rises any time soon. Suddenly, those who had ...

What would happen if you were cycling to the office and just kept on pedalling?Needing a change, Mike Carter did just that. Following the Thames to the sea he embarked on an epic 5,000 mile ride around the entire British coastline - the equivalent of London to Calcutta.He encountered drunken priests, drag queens and gnome sanctuaries. He met fellow travellers and people building for a different type of future. He also found a spirit of unbelievable kindness and generosity t...

‘Enthusiastic, pleasingly madcap’ GeographicalAdventure – something that’s new and exhilarating, outside your comfort zone. Adventures change you and how you see the world, and all you need is an open mind, bags of enthusiasm and boundless curiosity.Recommended for viewing on a colour tablet.So what’s a microadventure? It’s close to home, cheap, simple, short and 100% guaranteed to refresh your life. A microadventure takes ...

After two months on board a Russian container ship sailing 15,000 miles across the world, Josie finally arrives in New Zealand with her bike. Over the next nine months she cycles 10,000 kilometres all over North and South Islands while experiencing the wettest, windiest and stormiest year on record. During this time Josie was spat at, shouted at, honked at, and both run off and blown off the road. She got soaked, sunburnt, hailed on and snowed on and was alternately starved and over-fed, o...

Not Just the Wife of the General Manager is a rollicking memoir of one woman’s life on outback cattle stations, and an homage to the many unsung women like her.It was the 1980s and Sally was in her mid 20s when she returned from a backpacking sojourn and hitchhiked to Australia’s far north. But instead of moving back to Canberra as planned, she stayed. After marrying a cattle station manager, Sally lived and worked with him on various stations until she was 50, ing...