Reading List
Michael Palin
Actor, Comedian & Travel Writer
Sir Michael Palin is an English actor, comedian, writer and television presenter who first became famous as a member of Monty Python, co-writing and starring in Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian. From 1989 his long BBC journeys, starting with Around the World in 80 Days, made him one of Britain’s best-loved travel writers, and he has published several volumes of diaries. He was president of the Royal Geographical Society from 2009 to 2012, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knighted in 2019.
The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway · 1995 · Fiction
“The tension peaks as an exhausted Santiago fights one last time to find the success that has so persistently eluded him.” — via Article, September 2013
The Pilgrim’s Progress
by John Bunyan · 2008 · Classics
“Christian's journey toward the Celestial City via the Slough of Despond is a classic 17th-century account of the search for a better world. In the godless 1960s, books like this fell out of fashion, but on recently re-reading it I could see why its imagery once gripped me so firmly.” — via Article, September 2013
The Diary of Virginia Woolf
Volume One, 1915-1919
by Virginia Woolf · 1977 · Memoir
“One of the greatest travelers of the mind, Virginia Woolf was always asking questions of herself and her writing. Why should she be "so divinely happy one day, so jaded the next?" These volumes are shot through with excoriating honesty, as she pushes the boundaries of self-examination to try to get at the truth of her talent and her place in the world.” — via Article, September 2013
Scoop
by Evelyn Waugh
“The story of a writer sent abroad by mistake to cover a war in Africa makes for a dark and funny look at the power and incompetence of press barons. Some very fine travel writing adds another level to its appeal.” — via Article, September 2013
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad · 2017 · Classics
“A short, powerful tale about where an obsession can take you, about a character pushing into the unknown and entering a world whose values are turned upside down.” — via Article, September 2013
Ryszard Kapuściński
A Life
by Artur Domosławski · 2013 · Biography
“Kapuscinski has become a hero of mine for the breadth of his travels, the power of his descriptive writing, and his insight into the human condition.” — via Article, September 2013
