Here are the books for explorers, life-long wanderers, and those with an insatiable curiosity for elsewhere.

You may find inspiration in the writings of the late Irish travel writer Dervla Murphy, setting off across the world on her bicycle, equipped with "just a change of underwear and a pistol" (the pistol coming in handy when she was nearly eaten by a pack of wolves.) Or perhaps the great Colin Thubron, whose latest book The Amur River traces his journey across the Mongolian and Siberian landscape at age 80. Or the indominable joie de vivre of the extraordinary Taiwanese writer Sanmao, who chronicled her years spent living in the disputed Sahara desert territory in the 1970s.

Here you can follow their adventures, and perhaps start to plan some of your own...