The best travel books of 2009
Rory MacLean lists his top travel books for Christmas gifts, that will transport readers to the world's hottest destinations or its frozen outposts
Rory MacLean’s travel book of the year: William Dalrymple’s Nine Lives
William Dalrymple's triumphant return to travel writing not only illuminates India's relationship with religion but casts the genre itself in a new light, writes Rory MacLean
If there’s one genre you have to read before you die it’s the travel book
Darragh McManus: Guidebooks, celebrity memoirs, activity-based guides, travelogues, travel blogs, coffee table whoppers: travel has a ferocious grip on the books market. Here's a guide to the guides
Alain de Botton: my week at Heathrow
Alain de Botton's new book on the quasi-religious experience of spending a week at Heathrow airport, says Tom Robbins
Why this is the summer of chunky books
If you're not flying, and don't have to worry about weight restrictions, why not get stuck into some heavy books? Here are a few suggestions to get you started
Fishing in Utopia
Review: Fishing in Utopia by Andrew BrownBrown's description of the Swedish landscape is evocative by Sophie Missing
Rory Stewart, I presume
Rory Stewart - author, traveller, adventurer and former deputy governor of a chunk of Iraq - explains why he and Prince Charles are working to safeguard traditional skills in Afghanistan
Angelo Maria Ripellino’s Bohemian rhapsody
Magic Prague, Angelo Maria Ripellino's hymn to the Czech capital, is eccentric as well as erudite and anticipates today's psychogeographers
A world you never knew existed
All around us lie overgrown and forgotten sites with fascinating stories to tell, says Iain Sinclair
A slow travellers’ guide to Italy
From idyllic farmhouses to rural hotels, here are 10 great escapes from Alastair Sawday's new book, Go Slow Italy.
Why private genius Alfred Wainwright deserves a public monument
Ben Myers: Highly uncomfortable in any kind of spotlight, the lyric master of the guide book is due a memorial statue
The good, the bad and the ugly
Review: The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy by Rachel CuskA tendency to sneer mars a singular travel memoir. By Justine Jordan
1000 novels everyone must read: War & travel (part two)
From William Eastlake to Elsa Morante
A literary crawl of New York
Ditch the guide book and turn to New York's rich literary heritage to get under the skin of the city. Joshua Stein gives his pick of defining works from the early 1930s to the present day
How to travel in a discovered world
Rory MacLean reviews Rolf Pott's hilarious tales of the 'disappointment and wander-loss' of post-modern travel