We absolutely adore books that transport you elsewhere, when you can settle in and find yourself wholeheartedly in the world of the book. There really is nothing better than becoming completely consumed and feeling that slight confusion when you eventually surface back into your own version of reality. Here, we’ve picked books that really do take you out of yourself and allow you to explore. It may be that they take you to sunnier climes or another time, it could be a gentle lazy exploration, a transportive love story, or high octane thriller, sometimes you may even explore off-world. However, we have tried to pick a variety of fiction and non fiction, books from different genres, books that will make you laugh, ahhh, and quite possibly cry, and of course books where you are transported elsewhere for the entirety of the journey. 

A favourite book from our childhood years was an omnibus of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s books: The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy. Here we have chosen one of those stories, the one that really did transport us most beautifully into a magical world that celebrated nature. It's one of the books several of us still regularly reread - The Secret Garden is quite quite lovely.

It is no secret that Terry Pratchett is a particular favourite of ours, with several of us having been reading his novels since our teenage years, and even though his final book has been written,  we regularly go back and pick out some of our favourites. If you haven’t yet met Terry, we have selected the first book in the Discworld Series, as this is perhaps the most sensible place to start. Although he takes you to another world, and you will meet all manner of creatures from wizards to trolls, he really does have the magical ability to take the mickey out of the human race. He has regularly made us laugh, and he has always made us think.

Another much loved author is Guy Gavriel Kay, and we actually could have included all of his novels on this list! A reviewer once described his novels as historical with a quarter turn to fantasy, which we think is absolutely perfect. His books feel real, feel as though they are written about our past, yet the places are unknown, though they become much loved. He quite literally transports us with the beauty of his writing which delves into power struggles, battles and murder, love and loss. 

These books aren’t in a particular order, they do though, include some of our personal favourites. It is by no means an exhaustive list, we could actually go on and on and on! 

We hope that you will find some much loved friends here, but we also trust you will meet some new ones. 

Please share any books which you have adored, books that have transported you to another wonderful world...books you think deserve to be in this list and of course, why!