5×15, which I’ve mentioned here recently, has a session in London next month focusing on travel and exploration. The speakers are Andrew Solomon, author of Far & Away, reviewed yesterday in The Observer; the Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, whose The Architect’s Apprentice, set in 16th-century Istanbul, was shortlisted for last year’s RSL Ondaatje Prize for a book evoking the spirit of a place; Robert Twigger, author most recently of what he calls a “polymathic ‘biography’ of Everest”, which follows his torrent of river tales in Red Nile; Madeleine Bunting, whose Love of Country: A Hebridean Journey, is due out from Granta on October 13; and Sarah Marquis, a Swiss adventurer whose feats have included a three-year walk from Siberia to Australia, recounted in Wild by Nature. The session is on October 12 at the Emmanuel Centre, SW1.