Jerusalem; Mirror to Damascus; The Hills of Adonis, by Colin Thubron (Penguin, £5.99 each in UK)

Three competent travel books, elegantly written and neatly packaged, a very specific blend of contemporary reportage, impressionistic scene painting, and potted history. Just how far they embody accurate insights or politico historical generalisations can only, perhaps, be judged by the inhabitants of the regions they traverse. A reviewer quoted on the cover of the first volume calls it "profound and penetrating", which seems to be going too far; the book is fluently readable, like the others, but knot especially memorable. The third title, incidentally, deals with a journey through Lebanon.