Enjoy the highs and lows of magnificent journeys without leaving the comfort of your armchair

From Bill Bryson’s European rail trips to Evelyn Waugh’s arduous journey through the badlands of British Guiana, William Cook shares his top 20 books for lockdown escapism

Dreaming of distant shores ... (Markos Mant/Unsplash)

Apart from a day trip to Boulogne with my mum when I was seven, I didn’t go abroad until I turned 18. For my fiftysomething generation, that was not unusual. Foreign travel was expensive, and lots of lower middle-class families like mine had an irrational aversion to holidaying anywhere “overseas”.

Of course this merely fuelled my wanderlust, but until I left home there wasn’t much I could do about it. Until then, I travelled the world by reading books – travel books of every kind. It was these books which made me want to be a travel writer, something I’ve scratched a living at for 30 years, and now I can no longer go abroad I’m digging out those old books again.

For me, a travelogue is the best sort of book for days like these. You’re on a journey with someone whose company you enjoy, sharing all their highs and lows without leaving the comfort of your armchair. In these strange times, when we’re all increasingly confined, it feels like a great escape, a precious link with a wider world we’ve (hopefully temporarily) forsaken. So, to ease you through the next few weeks (or months) here’s my top 20.