A Short Walk in The Hindu Kush Eric Newby (Picador, £8.99)

A 50th-anniversary edition of a great travel classic, with the original preface by Evelyn Waugh, a new epilogue by Hugh Carless and photographs of the legendary journey from Mayfair, where Newby worked in haute couture, to Afghanistan and the mountains of the Hindu Kush, north-east of Kabul. Laidback, ill-prepared and totally inexperienced, they were the ultimate gap-year travellers. Armed with a map drawn on the back of an envelope, Newby and his friend Carless endured a month of hardship with the greatest good humour in one of the most beautiful wildernesses on earth. It is, as Evelyn Waugh said, an "intensely English" story.

Cooking in a Bedsitter Katharine Whitehorn (Virago, £8.99)

Young people leaving home still seem destined for starvation or an over-consumption of junk food. First published in 1961 and in print for over 40 years, this handy paperback provided light-hearted yet thoroughly down-to-earth advice for the new inhabitants of one-ring bedsitters. Britain was on the cusp of a change in diet from wartime austerity towards new meals culled from travels to the Mediterranean and America. The original 300 recipes include sea risotto, lamb tomato quickie and veal rissoles, as well as trifle (with plenty of sherry) and ginger pears. The meals 'to impress' sound ambitious and include poulet marengo and osso buco. For the confident cook, Whitehorn suggests making a rum omelette or zabaglione in front of your guests — but only if you have practised before to be sure it won't go up in flames.

Renting and Letting Kate Faulkner (Which? £10.99)

With housebuying and selling virtually at a standstill, more people are opting for the apparent simplicity of renting. But it can be a minefield for the unwary — both first-time renters and novice landlords. Despite the title, most of this book is aimed at landlords, though there are short text boxes entitled 'The Tenant's Take', and legal sections which should be useful to both sides.