Robert Louis Stevenson met the love of his life in France in 1876. She was Fanny Osborne, an American, and four years later the pair married in California. "Silverado Squatters" describes the honeymoon they spent in an abandoned mining camp. Perched on the side of a mountain, it was a place that time forgot, inhabited by wild cats and rattlesnakes.

Stevenson luxuriates in the wild beauty of the landscape. He also spins tales of the camp’s bygone glory days. It's a great read for fans of American travelogues, like Jon Krakauer’s "Into the Wild" or Mark Twain’s "Roughing It".

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer. Born in Edinburgh, he suffered from severe health issues for most of his life. Despite this, he still managed to produce some of the century’s most famous stories. These include the classic adventure "Treasure Island" and the horror novella "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". Stevenson’s last years were spent on the Samoan island of Upolo, where he became an advocate for Samoan rights. He died in his home of a brain haemorrhage and was buried on the island’s Mount Vaea.