Starting the Journey
Times Books (1991) The Atlas of World Exploration
Ray Howgego (2003) The Encyclopaedia of Exploration (4 vols)
The definitive work, well referenced (available in the UL)
Ray Howgego (2009) The Book of Exploration (The coffee table version. Worth reading).
Eric Newby (1986) A Book of Travellers’ Tale (Collection of short travellers’ anecdotes. Wide rang)e

The Polos.
In Xanadu , William Dalrymple, 1990, Flamingo Press
The Mongols, Peter Brent, 1976
Xanadu, John Man, 2009, Bantam Press
The Silk Road, Frances Wood, 2004, British Library  (I have the 2002 Folio edition)
Did Marco Polo Go to China?, Frances Wood, 1995, Secker & Warburg.  (Her theory that he did not go to China is discounted by most experts in the field)

Navigation & Cartography
Lester, T (2009) The Fourth Part of the World, Profile Books
Excellent, accessible account of Waasmuller’s famous map, the first to show & name America as a continent.
James Cowan (1996) The Mapmaker’s Dream
Fictionalised account of Fra Mauro’s thoughts as he developed his famous mappaemundi
Kenneth Nebenzahl (1990) Maps from the Age of Discovery Times Books
Derek Wilson (2003) A Brief History of the Circumnavigators
Account of the first seven circumnavigations of the globe, from Magellan to Cook
Eric Axelson (19980 Vasco da Gama - the diary of his travels in African Waters 1497 - 1499
Short book, using da Gama’s diaries to tell the wider story of Portuguese exploration.

The Search for the Source of the Nile.
‘The White Nile’ by Alan Moorhead, Penguin, 1963
‘African Discovery – an Anthology of Exploration’ by Margery Perham and J. Simmons, Faber, 1963
‘The Devil Drives’ by Fawn M. Brodie, Penguin, 1971
‘Lovers on the Nile’ by Richard Hall, Collins, 1980

Pioneering Women Explorers.
Katie Hickman, Daughters of Britannia :the lives and times of diplomatic wives, Flamingo 1999
Jane Robinson, Wayward Women: a guide to women travellers OUP 2001
Ed Mary Morris, Virago Book of Women Travellers, Virago 1994
Georgina Howell, Daughter of the Desert: the remarkable life of Gertrude Bell, Pan Books 2006
Dorothy Middleton, Victorian Lady Travellers, Academy Chicago Publishers 1965