Life’s a breeze: a sailing trip in Scotland’s Hebrides

The newly announced Wainwright prizewinner finds whales, dolphins and the ‘most beautiful sound on earth’ as he sails the waters of western Scotland on a historic boat

The Immeasurable World: Journeys in Desert Places review – from Taklamakan to Burning Man

William Atkins’s study of desert life in seven journeys is wide-ranging, deep – and far from dry…

The Crossway by Guy Stagg review – a 3,400-mile walk to Jerusalem

The pilgrimage described in this engagingly honest memoir is not a religious one, though there’s plenty of pain and privation

The Stopping Places by Damian Le Bas review – an illuminating history of Travellers

A journey following the horse-drawn wagons of the author’s Gypsy ancestors is a restless quest for authenticity

The Immeasurable World by William Atkins review – voyages in the desert

Escaping the end of a love affair, Atkins explores empty, arid landscapes in Arabia and China, and gets caught up in the debauchery of Burning Man

Fintan O’Toole: five books to understand the Irish border

Acts of kindness at the height of the Troubles and a peaceful walk before the Brexit vote – writers explore a frontier under fresh threat

Zen and the art of following in your father’s footsteps

Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard, his famous book about a spiritual quest to a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas, is 40 years old. His son, Alex, has recreated the trek

Top 10 books about the Scottish Highlands and Islands

Remote yet magnetic, the rugged environments of Scotland’s north have been inspiring writing for centuries, whether in memoir, natural history or tales of alien hitchhikers...

Best travel book of the year: Kapka Kassabova’s Border wins Stanford Dolman award

A timely account of a fraught part of Europe is named Stanford Dolman travel book of the year. Here, one of the judges heralds a master storyteller and gives an overview of the nominees

‘You could say I’m reluctantly retired from writing books’: travel writer Dervla Murphy

In a rare interview, the much-loved author of Full Tilt and Through Siberia by Accident, now 86, looks back on more than 50 years of pioneering, intrepid travel

Jack in your job and go and live the dream – if you can afford it

Peter Mayle appealed to a middle-class fantasy of fulfilling your destiny

Icebreaker: A Voyage Far North review – Horatio Clare signs on for a journey of discovery

A seemingly bleak 10-day mission in the Bay of Bothnia is the source of surprisingly vivid insights into the Finns’ national character

Islander: A Journey Around Our Archipelago review – beguiling

Nature writer Patrick Barkham finds a sense of salvation in this insightful tour of Britain’s sea-bound communities

The 100 best nonfiction books: No 89 – A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain by Daniel Defoe (1727)

Readable, reliable, full of surprise and charm, Daniel Defoe’s Tour is an outstanding example of what has become an established literary genre

‘Dazzling and worrying’: my memories of Bruce Chatwin and In Patagonia

Forty years ago, Chatwin’s debut book transformed travel writing. But just 12 years later, its author was dead. The Observer theatre critic, Chatwin’s editor for that book, reflects on a brief, brilliant career