Elixir by Kapka Kassabova review – vale of enchantment
A spellbinding journey through the villages, valleys and folk wisdom of the author’s native Bulgaria
Colin Thubron: ‘Simone de Beauvoir altered my ideas about women’
The travel writer and novelist on reading The Second Sex as an 18-year-old, discovering Proust, and the brilliance of Byron
Jonathan Raban: his travel writing could pierce your heart
Author Philip Marsden on how Raban, who has died aged 80, brought us his darkly comic and sardonic view of the worldJonathan Raban, travel writer and novelist, dies aged 80
Jonathan Raban, travel writer and novelist, dies aged 80
The British author, who lived in the US, blended memoir and travelogue in books that were often inspired by the sea
The Half Known Life by Pico Iyer review – peace and quiet in political hotspots
The travel writer’s quest for spiritual transcendence takes him from Iran to North Korea in a book that rarely illuminates the people he encounters
The Path of Peace by Anthony Seldon review – a trail of painful history
The writer’s vivid account of walking the Western Front Way illuminates the traumas of the first world war while reassessing his own tumultuous life
From pirates’ hideout to Dalí’s bolthole: Cadaqués, star of Spain’s Costa Brava
This hidden cove has drawn artists for generations but the ex-hippy seaside town has maintained its independent character
In brief: Bibliomaniac; She and Her Cat; The Babel Message – reviews
Madcap tales of Britain’s bookshops, the power of feline friends, and the glories of words, ancient and modern
In brief: Carrie Soto Is Back; High; All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days – reviews
A retired tennis champion defends her title and finds herself; Erika Fatland has an insightful Himalayan adventure; and a gripping true story of a woman in the anti-Nazi resistance
Swamp Songs by Tom Blass review – a wetlands odyssey
A bracingly original tour of the world’s boggy places reveals as much about human behaviour as it does about geography
Edge of England by Derek Turner review – a love letter to Lincolnshire
The poet and novelist pays homage to England’s forgotten county and a vanishing way of life
Dervla Murphy obituary
Travel writer who famously journeyed alone from her native Ireland to India on a bicycle, armed with a pistol and a compass
Dervla Murphy: an appreciation of the great Irish travel writer who has died aged 90
A personal tribute to the late author, who revelled in anti-authoritarian and mischievous attitudes, and whose mantra was ‘you should never want your travelling to be easy’
Imaginary regions: travel book ‘journeys’ to fictional literary locations
Spanish anthology explores places created by authors such as Gabriel García Márquez and Chinua Achebe
Shadowlands by Matthew Green review – Britain’s ghost places
Sunken off Suffolk, buried on the Welsh borders, uncovered in an Orcadian sandstorm … an eloquent tour of lost communities