Through Writers' Eyes – serie

This exciting new series will bring together both classic texts and the writing of the leading Travel writers working today, which will inform and inspire the inquisitive traveller. It is an essential companion for anyone travelling to Syria. Selected authors include: Edward Gibbon, William Dalrymple, Barnaby Rogerson and Gertrude Bell. This new series is not a guide of where to stay and what to do, rather it is collection of writing that aims to invest the traveller with a cultural and historical background to Syria, which will breath life and meaning into the sights, sounds and tastes that the inquisitive traveller will experience.

There is no single travel book or novel of worth for this significant holiday destination despite its abundant culture of Roman remains, Venetian and Hapsburg-era palaces.

This exciting new series will bring together both classic texts and the writing of the leading Travel writers working today, which will inform and inspire the inquisitive traveller. It is an essential companion for anyone travelling to Sicily. Selected authors include: Herodotus, Patrick Brydone, Pirandello, Ann Radcliffe and D. H. Lawrence. This new series is not a guide of where to stay and what to do, rather it is collection of writing that aims to invest the traveller with a cultural and historical background to Syria, which will breath life and meaning into the sights, sounds and tastes that the inquisitive traveller will experience.

This book features, perhaps the most fashionable, talked about, photographed city in Africa, which is home to Yves St. Laurent, the Bransons and others.

The land of the Iranians, known to European travelers for centuries as Persia, is a land riven by mountain-ranges, made inhospitable by deserts, yet rich in plains, forests and jewel-like gardens. Home to the most sublime architecture in the world, and a breeding ground for poets, Empires, Mystics and saints, it has an enduring and invincible fascination. David Blow enriches our understanding with his knowledgeable selection of the best of three thousand years of descriptive writing. He allows us to visit the courts of Cyrus and Xerxes, to ride out with the Parthians and Sassanians and to make a passing acquaintanceship with both the Shah and the late Ayatollah Khomeini, with Hafiz, and with Omar Khayyam.

From the present-day street life of Ginza, to the heights of Mount Fuji in the company of 16th-century traveller and poet Basho: the most recent addition of Eland's through writers' eyes series brings together a chorus of voices from Japan and across the globe. Detailed introductions stemming from Elizabeth Ingram's own experiences as a traveller, (later a resident) and journalist in Japan, develop a lively and intimate portrait of towns and provinces, making it an ideal companion. A library in the palm of your hand: extracts of prose, poetry and novels from a rich variety of writers, including Jan Morris, Nicolas Bouvier, Oswald Wynd, Peter Popham, Basho, Yasunari Kawabata, Alan Booth, Futabei Shimei, Angela Carter, Joao Rodrigues and Mary Crawford Fraser. It is a source book for those visiting Japan for the first time and for expatriates. One must never forget that for all the talk of the new Asia, the Japanese economy is still bigger than that of India and China combined.

The Turkish Coast from Izmir to Antalya is an area of incredible natural drama, rich in the ruins of antiquity. It is a prime focus for many cultured holiday makers visiting the region by land, yacht and gulet. It has been at the centre of Mediterranean culture and history for thousands of years, with a rich and varied literature. With accounts ranging from the excitement of archaeological discovery, or the route march of Alexander's army, to the pleasures of the hammam and Turkish cooking, this latest addition to the "Through Writers' Eyes" series will satisfy the appetites of travellers real and armchair. Sources range from the classical to the contemporary: from The Odyssey and Plutarch to Freya Stark, Jeremy Seal and Louis de Berniere. 'Eland has hit a goldmine with its "Through Writers' Eyes" series...like buying a best of compilation...you don't have to listen to the 'B' sides and you don't have to wade through the boring bits' - "The Tablet".

Every year a quarter of a million well-healed, well-read travellers take theholiday of a lifetime to the Galapagos. To feed the book-buyers on thisannual pilgrimage, there are a lot of beautifully illustrated guides to thefauna of the islands on the shelves, but very little about the scurrilous human adventurers who also passed this way. John Hickman presents an intriguing cast of characters, from Incas to whalers, pirates to Robinson Crusoes, the original Swiss Family Robinson and the revered Charles Darwin.

This book is a record of the people who visited Lebanon from between 1800 BC to the last summer; and of the Lebanese themselves, writing about their homeland, their religions, their joys, their wars and their sorrows. The passages have been selected and presented by Ted Gorton and Andree Feghali Gorton. Ted first came to Lebanon in 1967, to study Arabic at the American University of Beirut, AUB; there he met his archaeologist wife Andree. They describe their book as a labour of love: in it, the visitor to Lebanon will discover a country that is infinitely richer, more diverse and perennial than the headlines of the last few decades might suggest. A Lebanese reader will delight in the familiar, as well as discovering new treasures of description, analysis, and literature.