The Teller of Tales

Robert Louis Stevenson gave travel writing a good name. To mark the centenary of his death, Davis has visited those places which will always be associated with him, from his birthplace in Edinburgh, to France, California, and then his final home in the Pacific, on the island of Samoa.

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Robert Louis Stevenson gave travel writing a good name, as well as bequeathing it one of his best-known observations, "to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive". He is best-known for his literary journeys into the past, in such books as "Kidnapped" and "Treasure Island"; but he also travelled in real life, on a donkey in the Cevennes, and finally across the Pacific to Samoa, where he died on 3 December 1894. Hunter Davies retraces Stevenson's steps in this part travelogue, part biography, visiting those places which will always be associated with him; from his birthplace in Edinburgh, to France, California, and then his final home in the Pacific, on the island of Samoa.