A travel journal to the Scilly Islands written in the Nineteenth Century. It records Scillonian legends and folklore. There are brief diversions into period racism. -Summary by Timothy Ferguson
23 episodes
For more than three hundred years an intense desire has been felt by explorers to discover and reveal to the world the secrets of the immediate regions of the North Pole. Nor has this desire been confined to mere adventurers. This volume sketches the latest American efforts (from the second Grinnel expedition to that of the "Polaris"), second to no others in heroism and success, and abounding in instructive and intensely interesting adventures both grave and gay.
- Summary from the preface
45 episodes
There is in the adventures of the daring and heroic, something that interests all. There is a charm about them which, while it partakes of the nature of Romance, does not exercise the same influence upon the mind or heart. When there are noble purposes and noble ends connected with them, they excite in the mind of the reader, noble impulses. The object of the present compilation [1852] is to form a readable and instructive volume--a volume of startling incident and exciting adventure, which shall interest all minds, and by its attractions beget thirst for reading… - Book Preface
22 episodes
A collection of short, non-fiction travel memoirs or guides written in, or translated into, English. Material covered might be a museum, a village or town, or a particular voyage or train journey, or other travelogues of potential interest to listeners. - Summary by KevinS
15 episodes
In the spring of 1877, a young Oscar Wilde visited Greece with his classics professor, J. P. Mahaffy, and two friends. One of these friends, George Macmillan, wrote a brief account of the party's ride across the Peloponnese. The account, without mentioning Wilde by name, records the travelers' first impressions of the newly excavated sites of ancient Olympia, Argos, and Mycenae. It also includes colorful descriptions of the Arcadian mountains and flora, and of Greek customs and dress. This recording was made in the spring of 2019 at the sites visited by Wilde and Macmillan. Listen out for the crash of a falling tree at Olympia, the chorus of frogs at Tegea, and the lapping waves at Nafplio Harbor. - Summary by Rob Marland
6 episodes
An introduction to world geography for young and old alike. Topics such as China, Japan, the American Indian, Europe and the oceans on a beginning level. Summary by BettyB
16 episodes
This is a story of magnificent failures. The men who equipped the expeditions of which I shall tell you the story died in the poorhouse. The men who took part in these voyages sacrificed their lives as cheerfully as they lighted a new pipe or opened a fresh bottle. Some of them were drowned, and some of them died of thirst. A few were frozen to death, and many were killed by the heat of the scorching sun.
But what of it? It was all in the day's work. These excellent fellows took whatever came, be it good or bad, or indifferent, with perfect grace, and kept on smiling. They kept their powder dry, did whatever their hands found to do, and left the rest to the care of that mysterious Providence who probably knew more about the ultimate good of things than they did. - Summary from the preface
16 episodes
Partant de la Provence, Georges Renard prend le lecteur en route à travers toutes les régions de la France. Ces 23 vignettes humoristiques ainsi que poétiques devraient donner envie de visiter ces sites intéressants et d'y passer un petit séjour. - Summary by Sonia
24 episodes
A travelogue through the countries of France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden for young and old alike. Interesting big cities and lesser known areas that provide a glimpse of Europe nearly 100 years ago. Summary by BettyB
39 episodes
This collection of Mark Twain travel letters was compiled by Barbara Schmidt for her website, TwainQuotes.com. According to his biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine, when Twain took his family to Europe in June of 1891, he left with the knowledge that the McClure Syndicate and W. M. Laffan of the New York Sun would pay him one thousand dollars each for six travel letters. Twain’s letters eventually appeared in numerous papers including the Chicago Sunday Tribune, Atlanta Constitution, Boston Globe in addition to the New York Sun. Readers of his “The Innocents Abroad” and “A Tramp Abroad” will remember his knack of viewing his discoveries with satirical and ironic twists. - Summary by John Greenman and Barbara Schmidt
6 episodes
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan is a collection of essays by Lafcadio Hearn detailing his first impressions of the country he found so fascinating he decided to stay there for the rest of his life. In these essays and recollections he expresses his curiosity, bewilderment, and marvel at Japanese tradition, culture and lifestyle. Lafcadio Hearn is best known as the most notable person to introduce Japan to the West. He produced about thirty works, including translations, retellings of folktales, and travelogues. - Summary by mlcui
26 episodes
In an age when women were expected to remain at home, entertain, and rear children, Rosita Forbes elected "to boldly go where no one had gone before..." Like her older contemporary, Gertrude Bell (who was focused more in the Persian and Iraqi areas), Forbes held a profound love of the vast desert and the people who lived there. That love shines out in this engaging travelogue of her November 1920 - February 1921 adventure. The expedition took her deep into the Libyan desert to seek a remote location, revered by local peoples, that was protected from outside intrusion. Forbes was the first European woman, and only the second outsider, to reach Kufara, amid trials of difficult travel, complications with camels, differing priorities of personnel, political intrigue, outright betrayal, climate hardships, and near-disastrous wanderings off the route when water was short or gone. Her sharing of the surroundings, situations, and cultural nuances makes the reader feel as if you were right there with her, shading your eyes as you await the capture of the sunrise or sunset mirage that will show the distant features you hope to locate. Join her entourage and travel along through the Libyan sands as she shares this historic journey of more than a thousand miles. ( summary by LCaulkins)
16 episodes
Author's account of travels through Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli and the Sahara Desert with stories about the people, climate, industry and culture. Summary by BettyB.
28 episodes
In the late eighteenth century, English writers discovered the landscape, not only in the paintings of Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin and Salvator Rosa, but also as a place to be visited and viewed as if it were a picture. No part of England was more discovered in this period than the Lake District, which was transformed over the course of the next century from a remote region of farmland and inaccessible hills into a wild and romantic landscape of picturesque lake and mountain, described in works such as Thomas West’s A guide to the Lakes (1778). West’s predecessors – Thomas Gray, Arthur Young, Thomas Pennant and William Hutchinson –had merely passed through the Lakes. West, a resident of the Lakes, took the reader on a tour of the district as a whole, visiting all the lakes, with the sole exception of Wastwater. A devotee of the Claude glass – a convex, tinted mirror in which the landscape appears as it might in a painting by Lorrain – West follows and improves upon Gray’s technique of identifying ‘stations’ from which the landscape would appear at its most picturesque. West’s guide remains something of a hybrid, however, with its lengthy antiquarian descriptions of the surrounding towns of Lancaster, Penrith and Kendal. - Summary by Phil Benson
14 episodes
The Author recounts life in the great northwest in Sitka, Alaska "Sitka of the Russians" a century ago with insights into Sitka's settlement, natives, churches, social life, trade etc., when it was at the center of trade a century ago. ( Summary by Rita Boutros )
10 episodes
Charles Dickens records his impressions of America during his 1842 journey. - Summary by Brad "Hamlet" Filippone
20 episodes
Exeter, county town of Devon, is one of England's most historic cities with remains of the Roman occupation and medieval times still on view. Exeter cathedral, founded in 1050 and completed 400 years later, has the longest uninterrupted vaulted ceiling in the country. This short book in Blackie & Sons' Beautiful England series details the history of the city and it many sites of interest, with chapters on the city, the cathedral and the River Exe. Readers who can access the printed version of the book on Internet Archive, may enjoy looking at E. W Haslehursts' 12 colour illustrations while listening to this audiobook. - Summary by Phil Benson
3 episodes
This little book does not undertake to present a comprehensive account of our westernmost States, or even of the Oregon Country. It is intended simply to suggest a few of the many attractions which may be encountered here and there along the Pacific, the references to which are woven together with threads of personal reminiscence pertaining to characteristic phases of the western life of to-day. For the stranger it may possess some measure of information; it should at least induce him to tarry in the region sufficiently long to secure an impression of the byways as well as of the highways. For the man to whom Oregon, California, or Washington stands for home, these pages may contain an echo of interest—for we are apt to enjoy most sympathetic accounts of the things we love best. But for visitor or resident, or one who reads of a country he may not see, the chief mission of these chapters is to chronicle something of their author's enthusiasm for the land they concern, to hint of the pleasurable possibilities of its out-of-doors, and, mayhap, to offer a glimpse of the new West of to-day in the preparation for its greater to-morrow. (from the Author's Preface) -
14 episodes
Arthur Henry Patterson was a self-taught naturalist who, from a very early age, devoted much of his free time to observing, discovering and documenting all aspects of the natural history of the Norfolk Broads, especially the area around Breydon Water near his home town of Great Yarmouth. At some 75000 acres (117 sq miles / 303 sq km), the Broads are the largest protected wetland in Britain.
AHP was the author of many books about Broadland as well as submitting numerous papers and articles to nature societies and journals. Also, he was for many years, a regular and popular contributor (under the pen name of John Knowlittle) to the local county newspaper.
The chapters of this book, Through Broadland in a Breydon Punt, originally appeared during the autumn of 1919 in the columns of the Eastern Daily Press and such was the level of interest in the subject matter, that AHP was persuaded to republish them in book form.
So, if you have an interest in nature, sailing or just messing about on the water, then why not hop aboard and join Mr Patterson and me as we launch The Yarwelp - his (17 foot long by 4 foot wide by 1 foot deep) converted Breydon Punt for a unique holiday experience, travelling around the Norfolk Broads? - Summary by TND
10 episodes
Enoch Arnold Bennett (1867 – 1931) was an English writer. He is best known as a novelist, but he also worked in other fields such as journalism, propaganda and film. In 1911 Bennett paid a financially rewarding visit to the US, which he later recorded in this 1912 book Those United States in England; titled Your United States in America. He is a keen observer with an entertaining dry wit.- Summary by David Wales
8 episodes
The book describes a voyage undertaken in 1889 by an English barrister Edward Frederick Knight to the South Seas. This delightful story takes the reader on a voyage to the forbidding desert island of Trindade, where it is rumored that immense treasure lies buried. Though the heroes of this treasure-hunt do not have to contend with malicious people, they have their share of adventures. Almost inaccessible desert island, changing weather, hideous land crabs and heavy digging in the mud are enough challenges for the brave adventurers. (Kristine Bekere)
22 episodes
