Q: What books should I read to prepare me to quit work, take my kid out of school and travel the world?
Anonymous charity worker, 40, London

Horatio Clare, an author and journalist who writes about nature and travel, and whose book, The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal, will be published on 1 November by Elliott & Thompson, writes:
How I envy you both – what adventure! My love of travel was ingrained early by Asterix and Obelix. In The Golden Sickle, our heroes are warned against a forest teeming with wolves and bandits. They bet on which they will meet first and advance eagerly. This is the spirit of the road: straight on and make the best fun of it.

Given you will be teacher and schoolfriend combined, Rousseau’s Emile is the classic on following a child’s inclinations in order to bring out an acting, feeling, loving person. Kipling has a hard time nowadays but Kim is a great hymn to the world’s wonder and complexity. If you pass through Italy, Goethe’s Italian Journey is a treat and spur to really examining new lands. You might both enjoy the first William Dalrymple, In Xanadu, a learned and comical romp that journeys far. Scraps of Wool, Bill Colegrave’s excellent anthology of travel writing, may inspire route choices and much further reading. Eric Newby’s A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush reassures that however tough your trip, others chose worse.

As an original thinker, you will find the writings and attitudes of Gertrude Bell on the Middle East and Rebecca West on the Balkans engrossing. As an insurance policy, and possibly an inspiration for pushing things a little, try scanning The SAS Survival Handbook by John “Lofty” Wiseman.

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