100 Great Journeys

As a retired English teacher and history buff, I found the book both intriguing and enjoyable. I plan on getting more copies to give as Christmas gifts. Whether you are just an armchair traveler or like to get out there and actually go to these places, I know you will find this book rewarding.

This beautifully produced volume describes 100 journeys in words and pictures. They are divided, rather arbitrarily, into ten sections with titles like "Hit the Road, Jack" [Route 66, Paris or Bust, The Silk Roads], Off the Page [The Grand Tour, Johnson and Boswell, Jane Austen's England], and Cruising [Odysseus, Alone Around the World, Tracking Darwin's Beagle]. There's no need to follow any particular itinerary; I had great fun just opening a page at random and, for example, following Huck and Jim down the river or seeking gold in the Klondike. Each journey is described in essentially the same way. Hadrian's Wall, for example, is mapped twice, and there are photos of a bust of Hadrian, a winter scene on the wall and Housesteads Fort, or Vercovicium, as the Romans called it. Two short essays describe the reasons for the wall and how it has survived over the years. "Historia Augusta" is quoted: "And so, having reformed the army in the manner of a monarch, he [Hadrian] set out for Britain, and there he corrected many abuses and was the first to construct a wall, eighty miles in length, which was to separate the barbarians from the Romans." Finally, "Find Out More" recommends A Walk Along the Wall by Hunter Davies, Hadrian's Wall Path (National Trail Guides) by Anthony Burton, Hadrian-wall.org and nationaltrail.co.uk . Hammond's suggestions are undoubtedly good ones, but the section reminded me of several of my own experiences. We visited Hadrian's villa east of Rome in 1999, and Hadrian's Villa and Its Legacy is still an inspiration. We visited the wall a couple of years later and have a copy of the useful Hadrian's Wall AD 122-410 (Fortress, 2) by Nic Fields. I re-read Jim Shepard's short story about Roman soldiers stationed on the Wall in Like You'd Understand, Anyway: Stories (and marveled over Shepard's two page reading list all over again). Finally, I added the recently released Hadrian: Empire and Conflict by Thorsten Opper to my Wishlist, after reading a review of the Hadrian exhibit at the British Museum. All that from a single journey. Multiply by 100, and you'll have plenty to enhance your memories and dreams of travel. Robert C. Ross 2008