Christmas books: the best gifts for the armchair traveller This was shortlisted for the 2014 Ondaatje Prize, awarded for a book "evoking the spirit of a place." The fields are grazing land in the Cambridgeshire fens near Dee's home, an old colonial farm in Zambia, the Little Bighorn battlefield in Montana and a meadow near the exploded nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in Ukraine. Moving among them, with the eye of a birdwatcher and the soul of a poet, Dee meditates on our green spaces and what we have made of them. Field Notes from a Hidden City by Esther Woolfson (Granta) Another from the Ondaatje Prize shortlist, Woolfson's book has won much praise for its close study of urban wildlife, from pigeons to rats, and prompted even one or two literary critics to think better of slugs. It is also a fine portrait of Aberdeen, which Woolfson sums up as "that tight grey city by the sea." Down to the Sea in Ships by Horatio Clare (Chatto & Windus) Clare thought he was joining a cargo ship to find out about ships and oceans, and a miracle of supply that landlubbers take for granted. But it was the seafarers who became his real subject, and from whom he felt torn at the end: "I wanted to take someone by the arm and say, listen, there is a ship at sea tonight, and this is who is on board, and this is what their lives are like, and without them none of this world you call normal would exist." He does just that, and wonderfully well. Seafarers are the stars in Down to the Sea (Photo: AP) Belles & Whistles by Andrew Martin (Profile Books) Martin, the son of a railwayman, missed the heyday of the Golden Arrow and the Brighton Belle, and sets out to re-create journeys on five of the great "named trains" by travelling on their nearest modern-day equivalents. He acknowledges the gains - including faster and safer trains - but it's the losses he dwells on, among them the kippers on the Brighton Belle. When they were briefly withdrawn, Laurence Olivier campaigned for their return. A letter writer to The Daily Telegraph commented: "Not even when nightly strangling Desdemona at the National Theatre has Sir Laurence acted to more noble purpose." The Emperor Far Away by David Eimer (Bloomsbury) Han Chinese account for 92 per cent of China's population, but at the edges of the country there are 100 million people who are not Han, and who chafe at Chinese rule. Eimer travels through the most contentious of these borderlands, areas where a Chinese adage, "The mountains are high and the emperor far away," still has meaning. His book is both a fine piece of reportage and an eye-opening introduction to some of the least-known corners of the world. Walking the Border: a Journey between Scotland and England by Ian Crofton (Birlinn) Not quite Scottish, not quite English, Crofton walks the line in more ways than one, pondering the significance in the 21st century of borders not just for the residents he meets on either side of the British frontier but for the refugees he encounters at a centre for migrants. He touches on history, literature and legend, and revels in cartographic poetry (Drownedcow Moss, Limy Sike, Thief Cleugh, Yearning Flow). Travels with Epicurus by Daniel Klein (Oneworld) At 73, when his contemporaries were hitting the road with 1,000 Places To See before You Die tucked into their backpacks, Daniel Klein headed for the island of Hydra, where the pensioners had always struck him as a contented lot, to see what he could learn from them and the Greek philosophers about enjoying old age. This is, incidentally, an affectionate portrait of the island, but it's really a primer on making the most of life. The Beast by Oscar Martínez (Verso) Journeys mentioned in the pages of Telegraph Travel are generally the sort you might like to repeat. Martínez's is an exception, but this is a courageous and compelling piece of reporting. "The Beast" is a train taken through Mexico by migrants intent on a better life in the United States, who fall prey to murderous gangsters. Martínez joined it eight times between 2007 and the middle of 2010. "As a journalist," he says, "you ought to get a bit wet so you can speak of the rain." Earth Is My Witness by Art Wolfe (Insight Editions/Palace Publishing) Art Wolfe has been a photographer for five decades, and a traveller too: "You simply cannot get this much work, this volume of images, from all corners of the world, sitting on your a-- in Seattle," he says of this glorious distillation of his career. He was one of the earliest photographers to document the northern and southern extremes of the planet, and has been to most points in between, to photograph landscape, wildlife and native peoples. "I have witnessed the effects of human intrusion," he says. Advocating for the preservation of the natural world is at the core of my work, but it's the beauty of the planet rather than its degradation that I strive to capture. Iceland, Above & Below: Photography by Hans Strand (Triplekite Publishing) Hans Strand, a Swede, has travelled to Iceland about 20 times since 1995 and reckons he has "only scratched the surface of what is possible." It's not for want of determination. He shoots from aircraft even though it makes him sick, and drove his car into the ash cloud discharged in 2010 by a volcanic eruption. His grand vistas are impressive enough, but where he excels is in his focus on detail and his eye for design. Merging river branches take on the form of a jellyfish, and a snow field becomes the tail fin of a whale. Travel Photographer of the Year: Journey Six (Travel Photographer of the Year) Just as travel writing can embrace everything from fiction to history, so travel photography ranges from wildlife to architecture by way of still-life, landscape and street photography. The richness of the possibilities is fully reflected in this latest collection from a British-based competition that draws entries from around the world. The "Vanishing and emerging cultures" section includes both eagle hunters in Mongolia and skateboarders in Calcutta. An entry for the Travel Photographer of the Year contest (Photo: AP) Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 8 (AA Publishing) Another fine album of images from the annual competition devised by the landscape photographer Charlie Waite, in which professionals and amateurs offer their interpretations of Britain's countryside, coast and cities. The Crossing of Antarctica by George Lowe and Huw Lewis-Jones (Thames & Hudson) A hundred years after Shackleton set out to traverse the great white continent, this beautifully produced volume celebrates those who succeeded where he failed: the Commonwealth expedition of 1957-58 led by Vivian "Bunny" Fuchs. Photographs by the Everest veteran George Lowe - many previously unpublished - are combined with Lowe's own account of the journey and reflections by experts, including Ranulph Fiennes, on polar exploration. Antarctica (Photo: AP) While Wandering: A Walking Companion edited by Duncan Minshull (Vintage) The Spanish have a saying, Caminar es atesorar: to walk is to gather treasure. Minshull's anthology - first published in 2000 as The Vintage Book of Walking and deservedly reissued this year - offers riches too. Between "Setting off" and "Final steps," it takes in contributions from some 200 writers, ranging from Jane Austen to Redmond O'Hanlon, touches on subjects from practicalities to companions, and tramps between mountain and metropolis. And it's not too heavy for the backpack. Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe by Gaston Dorren (Profile Books) Two languages in one head? No one can live at that speed!" says the comedian Eddie Izzard. Dorren, a Dutchman, speaks six and reads another nine, but his tour of 50-odd European languages and dialects will be entertaining even for the most determinedly monoglot of travellers. He explains, among other things, why Galician (spoken by three million people) is the mother rather than the child of Portuguese (spoken by more than 200 million), and why Polish surnames are so hard to pronounce. The Gardener's Garden (Phaidon) A Christmas present for someone who is both green-fingered and itchy-footed? This lavishly illustrated survey of more than 250 gardens from every continent could be the answer. Ranging from the 13th-century Tofuku-ji temple in Kyoto to the 21st-century High Line in Manhattan, it's a source of inspiration on design, planting and travel. The High Line in New York (Photo: AP) Great Motorcycle Tours of Europe by Colette Coleman (Quercus) Colette Colman, who has been exploring the world on two wheels for more than 25 years, offers a selection of tours - from the snowy peaks of Norway's Arctic Circle to the balmy French Riviera - that combine great motorcycle terrain with some of the Continent's best sightseeing. Included is all the practical information you need to start planning your own adventure. The Edible Atlas: Around the World in Thirty-Nine Cuisines by Mina Holland (Canongate) "When we eat, we travel," says Holland. Her exploration of eating habits around the planet combines snippets of anecdote, history and literature with the recipes, and is intended as a book to be read as well as to cook from. All the above books can be ordered through Telegraph Books (01326 569777; telegraphbookshop.tbphost.co.uk)