Photos by members of British Mensa’s Travel Special Interest Group (www.travelsig.co.uk). Net proceeds from sales of this and our anthology of travel writing Travels with Mensans (www.lulu.com/content/608480) go to Médecins Sans Frontières (www.msf.org.uk), which assists populations in distress and victims of man-made disasters and of armed conflict.

What do Mongolians smuggle on board the Trans-Siberian Express? Where is Paradise and why is it cursed? How do you confuse a mugger in Brazil? In TRAVELS WITH MENSANS, you can find out. You’ll also get an insider’s perspective on what it feels like to sail a tall ship around the Canaries, to be a guest at a family wedding in Pakistan and to visit some of the world’s most beautiful and strangest places. This special collection of travel writing, by members of the high IQ society Mensa, remembers bygone worlds and considers the nature of travel memories, the pros and cons of travelling alone and the effects of tourists on the places they visit. TRAVELS WITH MENSANS – travel writing to make you think. Net proceeds from the sale of this book go to Médecins Sans Frontières (www.msf.org).

Born in a little mining village outside Chesterfield in Derbyshire, all the male Daveys worked as miners. There was also a local brickworks and a steelworks but William (known as Bill) was not destined for any of these. His father was keen on the value of education and, by dint of winning Scholarships, Bill stayed at school instead of “going down the pit” on his fourteenth birthday. Only one boy before him had gone from the village to Grammar School and he became Bill’s forced role model. Beginning by probing Bill for snippets to add to research into the family tree, it soon became clear that here was a life changed forever. One which must be captured whilst the subject was still around to tell his story. One that formed my life and those of my family.