THE EDIT: Travel Essentials

Anyone with misgivings about cruise holidays will have them reinforced in this bleakly funny early work by the author of Brideshead Revisited. A memoir of a cruise around the Mediterranean that alternates between the banalites of life onboard and serial misadventures at the stops along the way, Mr Waugh's sardonic book is written from a decidedly Eurocentric point of view.

The adventure novels of H Rider Haggard take place against a backdrop of morally-dubious colonial adventures in Africa. She can be taken simply as a keenly-paced Victorian-era romp, littered with shipwrecks, cannibals and disease, but, given that the story revolves around an all-powerful African queen, there's even more going on beneath the surface.

Mr Robb, a little-known Australian author, produced his astonishing book about Italy's infamous southern island in 1999. Deeply evocative of the sights, smells, tastes and moods of the island, it has only one shortcoming: it focuses almost exclusively on Sicily's dark side. But it's absolutely compelling for just that reason, too.

The legendary satirist and scourge of political correctness records his trips to a selection of unlikely destinations, from apartheid-era South Africa to war-torn El Salvador. The hilarious results are testament to Mr O'Rourke's genius, and will put into perspective any quibbles you might have about your chosen hotel.

Mr Eggers' follow-up to his brilliant debut, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, is a fictional account of a well-intentioned trip to Africa by two young Americans keen to give away a lot of money. The novel is impressionistic and experimental, and captures that disconcerting sense of difference you feel in other countries.