An interesting and different look at the experiences of a varied group of explorers, some of whom were new to me.

What an excellent book. An awful lot of researh and collation has gone into it. Usually these coffee table type illustrated books are pretty anodyne. But here we have a collection of potted histories of explorers and travellers with selected illustrations from their sketchbooks. In a pre-photography age it seems everyone was a dab hand with a pencil and watercolours. And even later when cameras became available, portable and usable many preferred to sit, watch, think and observe before making a sketch or painting. Great to dip into or to read through. ( )

A very beautiful book. ( )

This book is gorgeous! It contains short biographies of various explorers and naturalists along with pages from their journals and sketchbooks that they kept on various outings. There are quick sketches, watercolors, photographs and written notes. This is a short read about some early explorers, some no longer well-remembered with a lot of artwork that is stunning. ( )

The book is absolutely beautiful -- well designed, well produced, well printed. The choice of explorers to feature and excerpts from their journals to reprint is inspired and impressed me with the editors' vast knowledge of the history of exploration. And finally, when they decided to arrange the book not chronologically or by branch of science (if they could so arrange this crowd of polymaths) or geographically but alphabetically, that was brilliant. It puts unexpected individuals from different times and places into juxtaposition, often shedding new light upon both. Spanning all continents, pole to pole, and several centuries, this is the ultimate armchair traveller's coffee table book. ( )