Notes and Sketches: Travel Journals of William P. Rayner

Filled with witty observations and drenched in dry humor, this collection of musings, paintings, menus, wine labels, ticket stubs, and other memorabilia explores over three decades of travel. Culled from twenty-five of author William P. Rayner's personal notebooks, these tales follow a young Rayner as he drinks and dines through remote places. Rayner recounts his wily escape from an overbearing bodyguard nicknamed The Bear, early morning paint sessions of local ruins by the light of dawn, negotiations with Libyan hotel managers over illegally smuggled scotch, and cockpit adventures with a young pilot learning how to blind land--all while making notes and sketches in his diaries. In this increasingly digital age, this two-volume set in luxurious slipcases--one book of Rayner's adventures in Africa, the other in India--is a tactile collector's piece that evokes the fun and nostalgia of adventure.… (more)