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Understandably, people aren’t doing much research into travel at the moment! With so much uncertainty around lockdown rules and restrictions, border closures and many countries worldwide cancelling en masse all flights to/from the UK, the readership of this blog has changed over the past 9 months. While my most loved and most popular blog posts used to be travel itineraries, travel isn’t top of people’s to-do lists at the moment, and who knows when that will change. Instead, people have been reading a much higher number of books than usual! In 2020 I managed to read 23 books (high for me!), via a mix of physical books, audiobooks via Audible, and I was even given my first Kindle for Christmas. Books are a brilliant way to travel vicariously and remind yourself of the outside world, so here are my top go-to books for armchair travellers and those of us who are forced to become so due to the pandemic!

NB. Some of these are originally written in a foreign language, and where possible, I include the title in that language. If you speak the relevant language, then I highly recommend you read or (even better) listen to the original book for some additional language practice. These books will still however be equally enjoyable if read in English!

Spain:

• C. J. Sansom: ‘Winter in Madrid‘
• Dave Boling: ‘Guernica‘ (novel about the heavily bombed town in the Spanish Civil War’)
• Carlos Ruiz Zafon: ‘The Cemetery of Forgotten Books‘ series (4 books of mysteries set in Barcelona, originally written in Spanish)
• Francesc Miralles: ‘Love in Lowercase‘ (a romance set in Barcelona, aka ‘Amor en minuscula‘)
• Ernest Hemingway: ‘The Sun Also Rises’

France:

• Victor Hugo: ‘Les Misérables‘
• Alexandre Dumas: ‘The Count of Monte Cristo‘ and ‘The Three Musketeers‘ (aka ‘Le Comte de Monte-Cristo‘ and ‘Les Trois Mousquetaires‘)
• Antoine Laurain: ‘The Red Notebook‘ (aka ‘La femme au carnet rouge‘)
• Paulo Coelho: ‘The Spy‘ (aka ‘A espiã‘, originally in Portuguese)

Italy:

• Andrea Camilleri: series of detective novels about ‘Inspector Montalbano‘ (set in Sicily, aka ‘Ispettore Montalbano’, and also shown as a TV series on BBC iPlayer)
• Roberto Saviano: ‘Gomorrah‘ (true story of the mafia around Naples)
• Niccolò Ammaniti: ‘I’m Not Scared‘ (about a mafia kidnapping, aka ‘Io non ho paura‘)
• Elena Ferrante: series of 4 ‘Neapolitan Novels‘ about young women growing up
• Claire Longrigg: ‘Mafia Women‘ (non-fiction, investigative journalism)
• John Hooper: ‘The Italians‘ (non-fiction, insight into the Italian people and culture)

Russia:

• Dostoyevsky: ‘Crime & Punishment‘
• Leo Tolstoy: ‘War and Peace‘
• Frederick Forsyth: ‘Icon‘ (fiction about a Putin-like figure)
• Kate Furnivall: ‘Jewel of St Petersburg‘ (chic-lit novel recounting the tale of an aristocratic family in St Petersburg before and during the Russian Revolution)

Skiing:

• Will Randall: ‘Another Long Day On The Piste: A Season in the French Alps‘ (a hilarious book)
• Ginny Vere Nicoll: ‘The Coldest Night of Winter‘ (the perfect book to read if you’re missing the mountains)

Mediterranean:

• Victoria Hislop: novels including ‘The Sunrise‘ (set in Cyprus), ‘The Return‘ (set in Spain), ‘Cartes Postales‘, ‘The Island‘ and ‘The Thread‘ (all set in Greece)
• Carol Drinkwater: ‘The Olive Tree‘

International:

• Norman Lewis: ‘The World The World‘ (non-fiction, the experiences of a renowned travel writer)
• Terry Hayes: ‘I Am Pilgrim‘
• Many more Frederick Forsyth novels

Asia and Middle East:

• Gregory David Roberts: ‘Shantaram‘ (remarkable true story about an Australian in Bombay)
• Aravind Adiga: ‘The White Tiger‘ (about the rich-poor gap in Delhi)
• Michael Ondaatje’s: ‘Anil’s Ghost‘ (set during the Civil War in Sri Lanka)
• ‘Arabian Nights‘ (best listened to as an all-cast audiobook)
• Christy Lefteri: ‘The Beekeeper of Aleppo‘ (this is a particularly sad book FYI)

Africa:

• Karen Blixen: ‘Out of Africa‘ (classic story of a Danish woman in Kenya, also as a film)
• Alan Paton: ‘Cry, The Beloved Country‘ (a classic of South African literature)
• Peter Allison: ‘Don’t look behind you! True tales of a safari guide‘ (must-read for any safari fans)
• Maaza Mengiste: ‘The Shadow King‘ (about the Italian invasion of Ethiopia)

Latin America:

• Gabriel Garcia Marquez: ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude‘ (aka ‘Cien años de soledad‘) and ‘Love in the Time of Cholera‘ (aka ‘El amor en los tiempos del cólera‘)
• Isabel Allende’s novels set in Chile, such as ‘A Long Petal of the Sea‘ (aka ‘Largo petalo de mar‘) and ‘The House of the Spirits‘ (aka ‘La Casa de los Espíritus‘)
• María Luisa Bombal: ‘The House of Mist‘ (aka ‘La última niebla‘)

Long journeys and extraordinary challenges:

• Geordie Stewart: ‘In Search of Sisu‘ (about climbing the 7 Summits) and ‘A Rolling Stone‘ (part of his cycle around the world)
• Rory Stewart: ‘The Places in Between‘ (about his solo walk across Afghanistan during winter)
• Michael Palin: ‘Around the world in 80 days‘ (recommended in audio format for sound effects and the author’s superb narration) and Palin’s other travel journals
• Bill Bryson: ‘Neither Here nor There‘ for a hilarious tour of Europe (or any of Bryson’s other travel journals)

Non-fiction about Geopolitics, Diplomacy and Tourism:

• Tim Marshall: ‘Prisoners of Geography‘ (about geopolitics)
• Alastair Bonnett: ‘Beyond the map: unruly enclaves, ghostly places, emerging lands and our sea‘
• Elizabeth Becker: ‘Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism‘
• Melissa Aronczyk: ‘Branding the Nation‘
• James Stourton: ‘British Embassies: Their Diplomatic and Architectural History‘ (this is a gorgeous coffee table book a friend gifted to me)
• Tom Fletcher: ‘The Naked Diplomat‘
• Sherard Cowper-Coles: ‘Ever the Diplomat‘
• Matthew Parris: ‘Parting Shots‘

Travel guide books:

• Patricia Schultz: ‘1000 Places to See Before You Die‘ (organised by country, and it’s fun to tick off the ones you’ve visited)
• Lonely Planet: ‘The Travel Book‘ (each country in the world has a double-page spread with photos and key facts. A great exercise is to annotate the pages of countries you’ve visited with when / where / key memories)
• Lonely Planet: ‘Epic Hikes / Epic Runs / Epic Cycles of the World‘ (coffee table books, for inspiration on new challenges to tackle)
• Yann Arthus-Bertrand: ‘Earth from the Air: 365 Days‘ (a breath-taking coffee table book of aerial photography)

Have you already read and enjoyed any of these? Or which books would you add to this list for escapism?

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