Passionate Travellers
Around the World on 21 Incredible Journeys in History
by Trish Nicholson
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Pub Date Apr 09 2019 | Archive Date Jun 26 2020
Troubador Publishing Ltd. | Matador
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Description
Accompanying these 21 passionate travellers on their personal quests, we discover what drove them, and share their incredible journeys through deserts, mountains, jungles and seas to every continent, spanning 2,000 years of history from 480 BCE to the 1930s. These are true stories of daring adventure, courage, cunning, even murder and, above everything, sheer determination against all odds.
Most of these eight women and thirteen men were ordinary people transformed by their journeys. They travelled from Africa, China, Persia, Russia, and the Mediterranean as well as from Europe and America. Their backgrounds were diverse, including: poet, artist, invalid, slave, pilgrim, doctor, missionary, scholar, diplomat, dilettante, storyteller, and anarchistic opera singer.
Not all survived. Many have been forgotten. Who now knows that Octavie Coudreau, stranded in a canoe on the Amazon in 1899 with her dead husband, continued to chart the river? That Thomas Stevens was the first person to cycle around the world on a penny-farthing? And why was an English parlour maid abandoned on the Trans-Siberian railway and arrested by Stalin’s secret police?
With painstaking research and powerful storytelling, the author, herself a world-traveller, has created an intimate experience of each traveller’s journey and recaptured a vanished world. A compelling travel read and a treat for history lovers.
Advance Praise
"I cannot praise this book highly enough. Twenty one incredible worldwide journeys documenting travel from Greece in c400's BCE to the early 20th century Asia. This brilliantly written and thoroughly researched book relates the enduring hardships these early intrepid travellers suffered.
In this fast moving modern age, we rarely spare a thought to the difficulties our ancestors faced when setting out to discover new horizons. These adventurous heroes and heroines departed on journeys of discovery with seldom any idea of what lay ahead.
As an avid lover of history, this has to be the most interesting and informative book I have ever read. The author's attention to detail and her painstaking research comes through on every page. I have no hesitation in recommending this fantastic book to readers with a love of history, and of course, travel." - Goodreads
The only issue I have with this book is the amount of tea and biscuits that were consumed in the reading of it. But it’s that kind of read. Something to luxuriate in while you disappear into worlds and lives which are so incredible it is difficult to grasp that they were not made up. - Strange Alliances Blog
A delightful treasury of stories spanning two thousand years of history. Each traveller is uniquely absorbing, and their stories are told in compelling style, with just the right amount of background information to put them in historical context. Trish Nicholson is a great researcher and a great storyteller. You could read this book from beginning to end, or dip into it occasionally for tales that will astonish and inspire. - Amazon review
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781838599140 |
| PRICE | £4.99 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 200 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Cathy G, Reviewer
Passionate Travellers by Trish Nicholson
Around the World on 21 Incredible Journeys in History
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
Thank you to NetGalley and Troubador Publishing – Matador for the ARC – This is my honest review.
4-5 Stars
B. M, Reviewer
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.
Abby S, Reviewer
A fascinating look back in history,A book of travels of men& women who loved to seek adventure found this very interesting,#troubador#netgalley.
cynthia m, Reviewer
I didn't realize that this book was of a more historical bent. It seemed to be well researched with some interesting ancedotes. I was however, expecting something a bit more contemporary so it would be good to know that this is more literary than mainstream.
Bookseller 555109
The stories of the travellers ranged from interesting to fascinating. I learned several new things and appreciated the inclusion of several women adventurers, as their stories are often overlooked. I would have liked to see a few illustrations or photographs, when available. Hopefully the final published version will include them.
G H, Reviewer
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.
John L, Reviewer
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.
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