I know whenever there's discussion on FT about the all-time best travel books, a select group of us here mention Alex Frater's Beyond the Blue Horizon", a fascinating account of where he researched the route taken by the historic flying boats from Britain to Australia and followed it exactly using modern day flights, staying where possible in the same overnight hotels they used to use in the old days.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=311035

Well he's got a new book just out here in Britain, "Tales from the Torrid Zone", an account of his various travels (he was travel editor for the Observer newspaper for some years) to the tropics. Special attention for the South Pacific, which BTBH fans will know is where he was brought up as a child.

And when chapters start "A Catalina flying boat is the perfect tropical aeroplane", you'll know there's a lot to interest those who liked his previous book.

Recommended.