Vintage Voyages – serie

An outrageously funny spoof about the ascent of a 40,000-and-a-half-foot peak, discover this laugh-out-loud cult favourite.Led by the reliably under-insightful Binder, a team of seven British men including Dr Prone (constantly ill); Jungle the route finder (constantly lost), Constant the diplomat (constantly arguing) and 3,000 Yogistani porters, set out to conquer the highest peak in the Himalayas. VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

Encountering an eccentric cast of characters along the way, Sebald confronts the frailty of human existence as he voyages along the Suffolk coast on foot.What begins as the record of a journey on foot through coastal East Anglia becomes the great, constellated story of people and cultures past and present: of Chateaubriand, Thomas Browne, Swinburne and Conrad, of fishing fleets, skulls and silkworms. A rich meditation on the past via a melancholy trip along the Suffolk coast, The Rings of Saturn is an intricately patterned and haunting book on the transience of all things human.VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

Chatwin’s brilliantly unique record of his adventures in Patagonia and the fascinating people he meets along the way.Beautifully written and full of wonderful descriptions and intriguing tales, In Patagonia is an account of Bruce Chatwin's travels to a remote country in search of a strange beast and his encounters with the people whose fascinating stories delay him on the road.VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

Greene takes us on a wild, unconventional and enlightening voyage with an ordinary, retired bank manager and his eccentric, daring aunt. Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over fifty years at what he supposes to be his mother's funeral. Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon Southwood, to travel to Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay, and a shiftless, twilight society of hippies, war criminals, CIA men that will help Henry come alive after a dull suburban life.VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

Follow a dark and powerful journey up the Congo River in Conrad’s sharp and incisive exploration of the damages of imperialism.Life on the river is brutal, and unknown threats lurk in the darkness; the silence of the jungle is broken only by the ominous sound of drumming. Marlow's mission to captain a steamer upriver into the dense interior leads him into conflict with the others who haunt the forest. But his decision to hunt down the mysterious Mr Kurtz, an ivory trader who is the subject of sinister rumours, leads him into more than just physical peril.‘Demands to be read. At its core lies the enigmatic, awesome Kurtz, and civilisation itself’ GuardianVINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

A charming and clever account of one woman’s exploration of love, language and identity.Twenty-three-year-old Zhuang (or Z as she calls herself) arrives in London to spend a year learning English. Struggling to find her way in the city, and through the puzzles of tense, verb and adverb; she falls for an older Englishman and begins to realise that the landscape of love is an even trickier terrain...VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

Woolf’s textured prose invites us into each of the characters’ minds as we follow them on a winding, decade-long journey to the lighthouse.Mr and Mrs Ramsay and their eight children have always holidayed at their summer house in Skye, surrounded by family friends. But as time passes, bringing with it war and death, the summer home stands empty until one day, many years later, the family return to make the long-postponed visit to the lighthouse.VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

Colin Thurbon’s beautiful prose unfolds along the Silk Road, unearthing a richly layered past on his most ambitious journey.On buses, donkey carts, trains, jeeps and camels, Colin Thubron traces the drifts of the first great trade route out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey. A magnificent account of an ancient world in modern ferment, Thubron covers over 7000 miles in eight months enduring a near-miss with a drunk-driver, incarceration in a Chinese cell, and undergoing root canal treatment without anaesthetic, along the way.VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

A compulsively readable account of an African country now virtually inaccessible to the outside world and one journalist's daring and adventurous journey.When Daily Telegraph correspondent Tim Butcher was sent to cover Africa he quickly became obsessed with the idea of recreating H.M. Stanley's famous expedition - but travelling alone. Despite warnings that his plan was 'suicidal', Butcher set out for the Congo's eastern border with just a rucksack and a few thousand dollars hidden in his boots. Making his way in an assortment of vessels including a motorbike and a dugout canoe, helped along by a cast of characters from UN aid workers to a campaigning pygmy, he followed in the footsteps of the great Victorian adventurers.VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind