🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester is an English journalist and author of History, Nonfiction and Travel novels based in Massachusetts, United States. Through his career working for the British daily newspaper, The Guardian, Winchester covered several significant events including the Watergate Scandal and Bloody Sunday. As an author, he has contributed and written over a dozen non-fiction, and his articles have been featured in various travel publications including Smithsonian Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, and National Geographic. Born in London, the author attended boarding schools in Dorset. He spends twelve months hitchhiking in the United States and 1963; he joined St. Catherine College in Oxford where he majored in Geology.
All Book Series by Simon Winchester
Their Noble Lordships: Class and Power in Modern Britain
Book 3 of 36 · published 1981
Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire
Book 5 of 36 · published 1985
The Sun Never Sets: travels to the Remaining Outposts of the British Empire
Book 6 of 36 · published 1985
Pacific Nightmare : How Japan Starts World War III
Book 9 of 36 · published 1991
Pacific Rising: The Emergence of a New World Culture
Book 10 of 36 · published 1991
The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time
Book 12 of 36 · published 1996
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
Book 18 of 36 · published 2003
A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
Book 20 of 36 · published 2005
The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
Book 21 of 36 · published 2008
Bomb, Book and Compass: Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China
Book 22 of 36 · published 2008
Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories
Book 24 of 36 · published 2009
Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley's Curious Collection
Book 26 of 36 · published 2012
The Man With The Electrified Brain: Story of a Man with an Electrified Brain
Book 27 of 36 · published 2013
The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
Book 28 of 36 · published 2013
When the Earth Shakes: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis
Book 29 of 36 · published 2015
When the Sky Breaks: Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and the Worst Weather in the World
Book 31 of 36 · published 2017
Exactly / The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
Book 32 of 36 · published 2018
Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
Book 34 of 36 · published 2021
By the Seat of My Pants
Series opener · book 1 of 7 · published 2005 Co-authored · Jan Morris,Danny Wallace,Don George,Sean Condon
Lights, Camera... Travel!
Book 4 of 7 · published 2011 Anthology · Andrew McCarthy,Don George
The Kindness of Strangers
Book 6 of 7 · published 2015 Anthology · Jan Morris,Dave Eggers,Tim Cahill,Don George
Lonely Planet Tales from Nowhere
Latest in the series · book 7 of 7 · published 2016 Anthology · Lonely Planet,Anthony Sattin,Don George
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Simon Winchester?
Simon Winchester is an English journalist and author of History, Nonfiction and Travel novels based in Massachusetts, United States. Through his career working for the British daily newspaper, The Guardian, Winchester covered several significant events including the Watergate Scandal and Bloody Sunday. As an author, he has contributed and written over a dozen non-fiction, and his articles have been featured in various travel publications including Smithsonian Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, and National Geographic.
Which Simon Winchester series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Lonely Planet Travel Literature series, the earliest of Simon Winchester's multi-book series: it opens with By the Seat of My Pants (2005) and runs to 7 books across 2005–2016, ending with Lonely Planet Tales from Nowhere (2016).
How many books has Simon Winchester written?
Simon Winchester has 45 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1975 and 2025. 7 of them belong to 1 named series — the largest being the Lonely Planet Travel Literature series with 7 books — and 38 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Simon Winchester's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Simon Winchester's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Lonely Planet Travel Literature (2005–2016, 7 books).
How are Simon Winchester's books organised into series?
This guide splits Simon Winchester's 45 books into 1 named series and 38 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Lonely Planet Travel Literature (7 books, 2005–2016).