Captain Cook confidently declaring that no man will ever venture further than he has...Richard Burton musing on how to keep a wife alive in the tropics...the unreliable Sir John Mandeville spinning his traveller`s tales...OFF THE BEATEN TRACK is a collection of quotations from intrepid travellers such as Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Marco Polo, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Mary Kingsley, Isabella Bird, Captain Scott and Freya Stark- all of them are here, some of them awe-struck at the majesty of their surroundings and others distinctly unimpressed. Laura Stoddart`s delicious illustrations seize on the unexpected, and make a comment on what the author doesn`t say. Her many admirers will find this wittily chosen anthology has all the charm of her very successful first book, UP THE GARDEN PATH.