We've all dreamt of escaping to a House Somewhere. In this collection some of the finest names in contemporary travel writing reveal the perils and pleasures of exchanging the familiar for the foreign. Isabel Allende discovers love and paradise in California, Pico Iyer finds home in Japan amidst the alien and indecipherable, and a dank barge on the Seine opens up a new side of Paris for Mort Rosenblum. Revealing the flip side to the dream, relocating to the juicy heart of New York proves fiery for Lily Brett, Chris Stewart is frightened for his life in Andalucia, and the plumbing in William Dalrymple's rooftop Delhi flat is held to ransom by his water-conserving landlady.