Robin Hanbury-Tenison – författare

Selected by Robin Hanbury-Tenison, described by the Sunday Times as the 'greatest explorer of the last twenty years', this is a comprehensive anthology of the writings of explorers through the ages, now fully revised and updated. The ultimate in travel writing, these are the words of those who changed the world through their pioneering search for new lands, new peoples, and new experiences. Divided into geographical sections, the book takes us to Asia with Vasco da Gama, Francis Younghusband, and Wilfred Thesiger, to the Americas with John Cabot, Sir Francis Drake, and Alexander Von Humboldt, to Africa with Dr David Livingstone and Mary Kingsley, to the Pacific with Ferdinand Magellan and James Cook, and to the Poles with Robert Peary and Wally Herbert. Driven by a desire to discover that transcends all other considerations, the vivid writings of these extraordinary people reveal what makes them go beyond the possible and earn the right to be known as

Marco Polo, Ferdinand Magellan, David Livingstone, Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong: these are some of the greatest travellers of all time. This book chronicles their stories and many more, describing epic voyages of discovery from the extraordinary migrations out of Africa by our earliest ancestors to the latest voyages into space. In antiquity, we follow Alexander the Great to the Indus and Hannibal across the Alps; in medieval times we trek beside Genghis Khan and Ibn Battuta. The Renaissance brought Columbus to the Americas and the circumnavigation of the world. The following centuries saw gaps in the global maps filled by Tasman, Bering and Cook, and journeys made for scientific purposes, most famously by von Humboldt and Darwin. In modern times, the last inhospitable ends of the earth were reached – including both poles and the world's highest mountain – and new elements were conquered. With evocative photographs, paintings and portraits, The Great Journeys in History reveals the stories of those who were there first, who explored the unexplored and who set out into the unknown, bringing alive the romance and thrill of travel.

'Sometimes it feels as though the whole planet has been so polluted and ravaged that there are no Edens left, but they are there to be found by those who step off the beaten track... So it was with mine.'Fifty years ago the interior of Borneo was a pristine, virgin rainforest inhabited by uncontacted indigenous tribes and naive, virtually tame, wildlife. It was into this 'Garden of Eden' that Robin Hanbury-Tenison led one of the largest ever Royal Geographical Society expeditions, an extraordinary undertaking which triggered the global rainforest movement and illuminated, for the first time, how vital rainforests are to our planet. For 15 months, Hanbury-Tenison and a team of some of the greatest scientists in the world immersed themselves in a place and a way of life that is on the cusp of extinction. Much of what was once a wildlife paradise is now a monocultural desert, devastated by logging and the forced settlement of nomadic tribes, where traditional ways of life and unimaginably rich and diverse species are slowly being driven to extinction. This is a story for our time, one that reminds us of the fragility of our planet and of the urgent need to preserve the last untamed places of the world.

Following in the footsteps of Byron, Edward Lear and Edith Durham, Robin Hanbury-Tenison and his wife Louella rode on horseback across Albania.Albania is the least known and least developed country in Europe. It has a long, rich and troubled past, characterised by unrest and isolationism. Today, very little is known of its people - beyond those who have emigrated to other countries in Europe - and its landscapes have remained virtually untravelled for centuries.Determined to discover the country behind the stereotypes and preconceptions, Robin Hanbury-Tenison and his wife Louella rode across Albania, from Thethi in the north to the border with Greece in the south, crossing some of the wildest and arrestingly beautiful landscapes in Europe.Through soaring mountain ranges and hidden valleys dotted with Illyrian, Roman and Byzantine ruins, they lived simply, staying in the homes of communities untouched by the 21st century and in towns bursting with artistic creativity. They discovered an ancient land, proud and fiercely independent, struggling to emerge from the darkness of repression and poverty and from the shadows of its more popular neighbours.Land of Eagles is the story of a lyrical and dramatic journey, peppered with adventure, mishap, discovery and unexpected encounters. Adorned with the history, legends and literature of Albania and with the tales of past travellers, it is a luminous portrait of this mysterious and eccentric country, which has for too long been forgotten by Europe.