The Art of Travel

Description

Top Ten bestseller in hardback, and over 60,000 sold in hardback and trade paperback Few activities seem to promise us as much happiness as going travelling- taking off for somewhere else, somewhere far from home, a place with more interesting weather, customs and landscapes. But although we are inundated with advice on where to travel to, we seldom ask why we go and how we might become more fulfilled by doing so. With the help of a selection of writers, artists and thinkers - including Flaubert, Edward Hopper, Wordsworth and Van Gogh - Alain de Botton's bestselling The Art of Travel provides invaluable insights into everything from holiday romance to hotel mini-bars, airports to sight-seeing. The perfect antidote to those guides that tell us what to do when we get there, The Art of Travel tries to explain why we really went in the first place - and helpfully suggests how we might be happier on our journeys.

Alain de Botton was born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1969. He is the author of Essays in Love, The Romantic Movement, Kiss and Tell, How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Consolations of Philosophy, The Art of Travel, Status Anxiety, The Architecture of Happiness, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, A Week at the Airport, Religion for Atheists, How to Think More About Sex, Art as Therapy, and The News: A User's Manual. Alain is a bestselling author in 30 countries. He lives in London, where he runs The School of Life and Living Architecture. Alain de Botton's first novel in nearly two decades, The Course of Love, will be published in April 2016.

Richly evocative, sharp and funny. De Botton proves himself to be a very fine travel writer indeed * Sunday Telegraph * Delightful, profound, entertaining. I doubt if de Botton has written a dull sentence in his life * Jan Morris * An elegant and subtle work, unlike any other. Beguiling -- Colin Thubron * The Times * Honest, funny and dripping with witty aphorisms. Extremely entertaining and enlightening . . . all the way to journey's end * Herald *