If you’d ever had the romantic dream of running away to sea, Martin Oliver has a first-hand guide to what it’s like when you sign up to work in the merchant navy.

Even golfers struggle to explain just what it is they like about the game. Martin Oliver’s shot-by-shot account of a long hot day on a golf course is unlikely to make many new converts.

Brazil’s inflationary era gave this South American country something of the atmosphere of the USA’s Wild West. In this extract from his book, ‘The Never Lonely Planet’, Martin Oliver recounts the day-to-day experience of turbulent years.

To many people football is a passion even more important than travel. In this extract from his book, ‘The Never Lonely Planet’, Martin Oliver finds the two can perfectly combine.

When Martin Oliver finds himself broke and on the streets of Rio de Janiero a bar-girl proves a surprising help. In this extract from his book The ‘Never Lonely Planet’ a Brazilian girl called Rosalinee finds him work on an offshore oil survey vessel