To mark the publication ofStop What You're Doing and Read This!,a collection of essays celebrating reading, Vintage Classics are releasing 12 limited edition themed ebook 'bundles', to tempt readers to discover and rediscover great books.

THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD INTRODUCED BY SARA WHEELER A gripping account of an expedition gone disastrously wrong. One of the youngest members of Captain Scott's team, Apsley Cherry-Garrard was later part of the rescue party that found the frozen bodies of Scott and the three men who had accompanied him on the final push to the Pole. A masterpiece of travel writing, this is the most celebrated and compelling of all the books on Antarctic exploration.

THE ROAD TO OXIANA In 1933, the delightfully eccentric Robert Byron set out on a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Teheran to Oxiana - part of the border between what is now Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. This is the captivating, quirky record of his adventures and a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travellers.

Robert Byronwas born in England in 1905 into a family distantly related to Lord Byron. He attended Eton and Merton College, Oxford, and wrote several other travel books before his untimely death in 1941 when his ship to West Africa was torpedoed while serving as a correspondent for a London newspaper during World War II. Among his other books areThe Station(1928),The Byzantine Achievement(1929), andFirst Russia, Then Tibet(1933).

Apsley Cherry-Garrard(1886-1959) was one of the youngest members of Captain Scott's final expedition to the Antarctic which he joined to collect the eggs of the Emperor penguin. After the expedition, Cherry-Garrard served in the First World War and was invalided home. With the zealous encouragement of his neighbour, George Bernard Shaw, Cherry-Garrard wrote TheWorst Journey in the World(1922) in an attempt to overcome the horror of the journey. As the years unravelled he faced a terrible struggle against depression, breakdown and despair, haunted by the possibility that he could have saved Scott and his companions.