Top 10 books of all time

Anyone who has sat through a slideshow of utterly lame pictures of family and friends on the beach, all looking horribly burned and/or way, way fatter than you remember, will appreciate a good travel book when they read one.

Holidays. Fun. Sometimes

With summer a few months away and most of us clinging on to work through the spring months as we await our precious two-week breaks, now is the ideal time to hunker down with a great travel novel and live vicariously through the pens of the best in the business. Below are my picks.

Bill Bryson – Down Under
Any Bryson book could make the list – in fact, I was tempted to place Notes From a Small Island on here too, it being my personal favourite – but Down Under is an object lesson in how to be interesting. That may seem like an obvious thing to say, but it’s amazing how many travel writers forget this one, crucial rule. Bryson knows exactly what to say and what to omit, and it’s as much about the details he leaves out as the anecdotes he includes. Because of his ability to make you lose consciousness with laughter, Bryson doesn’t get enough credit for the quiet insights he has into other cultures. His piercing eye is no better than when it is trained on the Aussies.

Bryson captured Australia perfectly

Bruce Chatwin – In Patagonia
An experimental exercise that focuses on the mood and atmosphere of its subject, eschewing the traditional linear flow of the travelogue, Chatwin carves Patagonia out of words like a sculptor carves his vision out of stone. A hit with readers and critics at the time of publication, its appeal continues to endure.

Patagonia and Experimental. Goes hand in hand really

Jack Kerouac – On the Road
The legend of Kerouac composing the archetypal Beat novel is as famous as the novel itself, and while it is not without its flaws, you are unlikely to read a book of a journey so buzzing and vibrant with the energy of youth. Loved by most, derided by some, it is nevertheless an insight into Kerouac’s homeland.

On the Road. Not literally I hope.

Peter Kerr – Snowball Oranges One Mallorcan Winter
The kind of book that gives you good dreams if you read a chapter or two before bed, but you’re most likely to read the whole thing in one go, with Kerr’s easygoing prose styling wrapping around you like a warm blanket. With the 21st century penchant for the middle classes to move to warmer climbs, it’s nice to see a Scottish farmer picking up sticks and shifting his frozen self under the peachy Mallorcan sun. Unlike the other novels on this list, this is about moving and staying, and as a result is even more vivid.

Imagine living in Scotland and being greeted by this. In November

George Orwell – Down and Out In Paris and London
‘The next morning we began looking once more for Paddy’s friend, who was called Bozo, and was a screever – that is, a pavement artist. Addresses did not exist in Paddy’s world, but he had a vague idea that Bozo might be found in Lambeth, and in the end we ran across him on the Embankment, where he had established himself not far from Waterloo Bridge. He was kneeling on the pavement with a box of chalks, copying a sketch of Winston Churchill from a penny note-book.’ Orwell was a masterful prose stylist and here he applies his incandescent talent to combining travelogue with fierce polemic. There are moments that are inexcusably of their time, but the book’s overall brilliance far outweighs them.

If you can get past the time it’s set, it’s brilliant

Eric Newby – A Short Walk In the Hindu Kush
In a move worthy of Forrest Gump, Eric Newby decided, one day, to go travelling. The result was this book, where Newby attempts, among other things, to climb a 19,000 foot mountain with just under a week of mountaineering experience. Combine that with a masterful, almost poetic turn of phrase: ‘I had the sensation of emerging from a country that would continue to exist more or less unchanged whatever disasters overtook the rest of mankind.’ Superb.

So one day – I went a’travelling.

Michael Palin – Around the World In 80 Days
The TV series is by far the most famous component of Palin’s trip, but the book allows us that rare thing in a travelogue – to be taken on a fabulous adventure by someone that many of us already feel we know and like. As with his on-screen persona, Palin is an amiable and humorous guide, and there are many moments that will strike up pangs of recognition in the hardiest homebody, even if the surroundings are exotic and unfamiliar.

Michael Palin, we all love him

Paul Theroux – The Great Railway Bazaar
The father of weirdo-baiting Louis Theroux goes on an epic, season-long train journey across Europe and Asia. Written before Theroux established himself as one of the best travel writers of his generation, this book registers the idiosyncratic hallmarks of his style that would win him a legion of followers in later years.

No, not Louis – his dad! He’s the famous one!

Hunter S. Thompson – Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
‘When you bring an act into this town, you want to bring it heavy. Don’t waste any time with cheap shucks and misdemeanors. Go straight for the jugular. Get right into felonies.’ The subtitle of Fear and Loathing, Hunter S. Thompson’s masterpiece, is ‘A Savage Journey into the Heart of the American Dream’. While other travelogues may be more expansive, Thompson’s book lays waste to the American ideals he so hopes to find, providing us with a tunnel-visioned yet sickeningly accurate portrayal of a nation that depicts itself as a bastion of freedom while rotting from the inside. It’s also so funny you’ll need to sit on the toilet while you read it otherwise you might well wet yourself.

Aswell as inspiring a generation, he allowed men to go to fancy dress parties and feel cool

Alfred Wainwright – Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells
Not a travel book in the traditional sense, Wainwright’s works were maps for us to follow, annotated and introduced with a warmth and passion only found in the writing of those with a genuine love for their subject. On top of that, despite being handwritten, the maps were meticulously put together and have introduced many to the underrated beauty of Britain’s Lake District.

The Lake District. It’s where Kendal Mint cake comes from

What books have you read that have inspired you? Have we missed any off the list? Why not comment below on your favourite travel books.

N.B. Thanks to Peter Shores for his assistance in compiling this list.

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