Where to start
Reading lists
Hand-picked shelves drawn from the full catalogue — the shortest path to the right books for your Madeira.
Madeira for First-Time Visitors
The short shelf that gets you ready for the island — one great guide, the walks, the wine, a little history and a story to read on the plane.
6The Best Levada & Walking Guides
Madeira is one of the world’s great walking islands. These are the best walking books and walking guides for Madeira — mapping its levadas, peaks and trails.
6The Madeira Wine Library
Five centuries of the world’s most indestructible wine — the standard references, the classics and the family histories.
7Understanding Madeira’s History
From discovery, sugar and slavery to the British merchants and the emperor who died in exile here — the books that explain the island.
7Madeira in Fiction
Novels and mysteries set in Madeira — books that unfold among the island’s cliffs, quintas and levadas, from gothic Funchal to Jazz-Age intrigue.
7For Nature Lovers: Flora, Birds & the Sea
The laurisilva, the flowers, the seabirds and the whales — field guides and garden books for Madeira’s extraordinary nature.
8Victorian & Antiquarian Madeira
When Madeira was the fashionable winter cure, travellers and invalids wrote it down. The 19th-century classics — now reprinted and collectable.
8Madeira in Portuguese
The island in its own language — the great Madeiran novelists and poets, the definitive histories, and the cookbooks straight from the source.
8Madeira Mysteries & Thrillers
Murder among the levadas, the quintas and Funchal high society — the island has quietly become a favourite setting for crime fiction.