Impossible Journeys Book

The true traveller's thirst for discovery is never quenched. In Impossible Journeys, Mathew Lyons explores the bravest, most fantastic and outlandish voyages undertaken across the centuries, over many continents - regardless of whether the journeys were possible or not. With great humour and gripping narrative, Lyons re-imagines those intrepid, hopeful voyages, retelling extraordinary quests and examining Man's need for finding, climbing, sailing, crossing and conquering. Some are journeys to places that no longer exist, others are false journeys - explorations to places that never existed, though explorers thought did. Then there are the journeys that were never possible, even if people claimed to have made them; and the absurdly dangerous journeys that were supposed to be impossible, but weren't! Did Sir Walter Raleigh's life depend on finding Eldorado? Did anyone find Utopia or Nonesuch? Who walked from London to India several centuries ago, or set off in the 17th century to row to Jerusalem, twice? Why were donkeys a crucial part of travel in the 18th century? Impossible Journeys ranges from Herodotus, Marco Polo and Baron Munchausen to Coryat's Crudites, Shackleton and a luxury flight in an airship across the Empire. Discover too the real timetable for the trains between PG Wodehouse's Market Blandings and Paddington, and Shakespeare's coast of Bohemia.Read More