Flick through the TV channels, any day, any time, and you’re bound to stumble across a celebrity travel show. If it’s not Bradley Walsh driving a RV through Switzerland then it’s Joanna Lumley sauntering along the spice route or Romesh Ranganathan grumbling his way around Sierra Leone. Yet, despite the impressive sights they show us, do any of these programmes succeed in revealing a place’s true identity?

Alice Maddicott, artist, author and serial globe-trotter, would argue that they don’t even come close. In her intimate, whimsical and utterly magical travel memoir, Tender Maps, she claims that places can only ever become known through a deep, personal exploration of their atmospheres, rather than trudging dutifully round their traditional tourist hotspots.

Hers is a creative, nomadic whirlwind of a life. Raised in an idyllic Westcountry village, she is awakened to the intense joy of becoming one with your surroundings from an early age. This yearning for connection follows her through her adult wanderings around the chilly anonymity of Eastern European cities, the humid swamplands of the Mississippi and the eerie mountain forests of Japan. A unique and memorable read, it’s perfect for those who prefer to stray far from the path in hope of falling off the map altogether.