What sparks an adventure to begin for you? Ticking off a bucket list, planned expeditions years in advance or a moment of serendipity? What about an idea whispered in your ear? Would you set off in search of the unknown, the missing and the forgotten in one of the world’s wastelands? It was the reason Sophy Roberts experienced the further reaches of Siberia on a quest, the people she meets and the history of a land that even the name still strikes fear.

When the prologue of a book tells the story of a young boy inviting you to meet his granny but omits the fact that she passed away the day before, you know that the serendipitous experiences one can only find through travel you can observe by reading around the world through a captivating travel book. This book does just that!

Book Review - A chip shop in Poznań: My Unlikely Year in Poland by Ben Aitken. On an attempt to find out for himself why so many Poles migrate to the UK for work, and because flights to Poznań were cheap, Ben Aitken sets off to Poland for a year with little in his pocket save a small phrase book and notebooks to record, as diary entries his ‘hilarious’ Polish adventure.

Not a ‘road less travelled in sight!’ There are not even many roads in ‘The Wild Places’ by Robert Macfarlane.

A beautifully descriptive collection of travels to places unseen by most, but still within reach of those willing to seek true wildness in the United Kingdom that can capture and captivate your soul.