This outstanding collection of pieces, illustrated with his own superb photographs, is a unique record of Newby’s travels all over the globe – and a lasting tribute to lost and fading worlds.


One of the funniest and most entertaining of all travel writers, Eric Newby has been wandering the by-ways of the world for over half a century.


Admired for his exceptional powers of observation, Newby’s genius is also to capture the unexpected, the curious and the absurd on camera.


Since his very first journey in 1938, Newby’s quest for the unknown and the unusual has been insatiable. Whether on a dangerous canoe trip down the Wakwayowkastic River, with the pastoral people in the mountainous north of Spain, or visiting the exotic archipelago of Fiji, nothing escapes his eye for unlikely or amusing detail.


A rare combination of travel writing and photography, What the Traveller Saw is an exhilarating record of Newby’s humourous adventures over the years.