The Picador Book of Journeys by Robyn Davidson

The Picador Book of Journeys Reviews

• 
  Maureen

  This book is an anthology of travel writing - but not in the usual sense. It wanders all over history, to the modern age, and includes some of the most obscure and interesting travel writing i have read.
  The writing is categorised according to place, England, North America, Iceland etc, but the focus is not on the external journey. It is a series of impressions of life, and of the writers who are going to somewhere new and different for them. Sometimes only a walk down the street, but here I found three or four truly original pieces of writing. Samuel Butler on Cheapside, was a marvellously creative piece of philosophy, even if i don't agree with him.
  Auden is witty on Iceland.
  The piece by Berlioz from the Memoirs was the most thrilling thing in the book, as he recounts his plot for a murder suicide, his attempts to buy a maid's uniform, and the final creative outcome of the plot. Superb. Now I have to read the Memoirs
  There is so much pain, sensitivity and excitement on display in this anthology, it revives my fascination with books and writing.
  
  
• 
  Stephen

  I can't help myself, but I generally read travel articles in the newspaper. Sadly, they are mostly pretty shallow. The selection by Davidson won't help me find a hotel room, but I've been entertained and learnt something from most of the pieces I've read so far. Good arm chair reading.
• 
  Gayatri Swaminathan

  re-reading it, actually... some of the pieces are good