Passionate Travellers

This was a great collection of 21 trips taken by people around the world between 400 BCs to the 20th century. The motivations for the trips were interesting and the author provided a lot of details without being boring about the trips featured in this book. I didn't think I would enjoy this one as much as I did, it is a hidden gem of a book!

In Passionate Travellers, Trish Nicholson provides accounts of 21 journeys made throughout the world. Starting with Herodotus in around 428 BCE, the timeline goes up to Gladys Aylward's journey across Russia to China that ended in 1933. The motivations behind those journeys are varied and were undertaken by those with disparate backgrounds. These included amongst others a pilgrim, writer, slave, artist and missionary. Some like Robert Louis Stevenson and Anton Chekhov are well known, but others, although famous in their day, are now entirely forgotten. The book is divided into geographical areas. Africa, Eurasia and Scandinavia, Mediterranean and the Middle East, Central Asia and India, South East Asia and the Pacific, concluding with the Americas. Each journey's narrative is accompanied by a map and there are full biographical details of the traveller. It is interesting to see that despite the obstacles placed by society, 8 out of the 21 journeys were undertaken by women. One not only learns of fascinating personal stories here, but also the history of the period and the geography of the region. I found this an interesting and informative read and would recommend this to those who have an interest in travel and history.

To be honest, this was much more interesting than I expected, and I found a book so much more competently put together than the self-publishing house it comes from might imply. The book's aim is perfectly met, and we see through very erudite eyes quick snapshots of some notable historical journeys. We start with Africa, and already we're learning – I had heard of Mungo Park but didn't know anything of where he went and when and why, for one, and you'd probably have to be an expert to have heard of some of the pioneers of long-distance human movement in that section alone. Later on is just why Isabella Bird was the first female member of the RGS – again, another name we should know the basics behind. Famous names later include Chekhov struggling just to go to a prison island, Robert Louis Stevenson 'doing a Gauguin' (my words), and Montaigne with his itchy feet (well, bedbugs were everywhere). But the book is able to cover many female travels, too – Iceland, and the freshly-built Trans-Siberian Railway are just some of the places they reach. The scope of it all is suitably global, both in areas travelled to and places our subjects arose from. It's all presented with much authority, and an expert eye in giving the average browser like me just enough information. Only a few sections of copious tribes combatting each other as the traveller tried to pass through tended to overwhelm with minutiae. If anything I would have changed the structure of the volume – it doesn't always seem to match like with like (a trek through the ex-Soviet Stans is not anywhere near the 'Central Asia' chapter) – but it's still really good. For a nice few evenings it made me a fan of armchair historical travel. Four and a half stars.

A bit of history and a lot of travel is experienced in this collection of mini-biographies. I am not sure what I was expecting but this book did introduce some new and rather interesting characters that I would not have heard of without having read this book. I did find a few I had heard of before but not many. What I liked: * reading about the motivation behind the trips * finding out about those taking the trips * hearing about the people met and experiences had on the journeys * wondering what I would have done in similar situations * learning that Robert Louis Stevenson had tuberculosis and died so young...also intrigued by his choice of wife * reading that travel by sea was considered medically therapeutic * relating to the women * gaining respect for those that made the trips and recorded them for us to read about later * the references listed at the end What I would have enjoyed * photos of the people and places when possible * A bit more about the feelings and reflections of those on the trip

Some of the chapters are really good, while the others I thought were better off without. But the stories I felt were like the tips of the icebergs only; I feel like more has to be discussed about them. If you are particularly interested in a single journey in this book, you wouldn't find all the details here. But it's a good collection. An introductory reference to give you the basics.