Robert Gibbings began writing books set in interesting and exotic places in the early 1930s and published his last in 1957, the year before he died. Nine of his twenty-one books are travel accounts, providing vivid impressions of the places he visited, not only details about the locale but also about the people and their lives. His travel books describe the journey, the setting, and the culture through his own anecdotes and those of the residents, who recount stories both present and past. He stayed anywhere from three months to two years in each country he visited and involved himself in the lives of the residents, learning their history and culture and joining in their work and play. While he planned his itineraries carefully, he often digressed in his narratives. His travels down the Thames, for example, led him to talk about Venezuela (which he had never visited) and...