Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Travel]]==Travel==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove --> <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jason WebsterAlastair Humphreys|title=Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish MountainLocal|rating=45|genre=Travel|summary=Jason Webster Alastair Humphreys has walked and his partner, Salud searched cycled all over the world. And then written about it. For this book he walked and bought forty acres of valley cycled very close to home and mountainside halfway up the Penyagolosa Ridge then wrote about it. As he says in Southern Spainhis introduction, complete with two derelict sets of farm buildingsthe book is an attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. These ''mas''Nature loss, pollution, land use and access, or smallholdingsagriculture, formed the backbone food system, rewilding…'' One of Spanish agriculture until young people abandoned rural life for towns in the mid-twentieth century. The agro-economics joys of the EEC enforced obsolescence book for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of the these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong'mas'' system. As old timers retired or died, their farms were abandoned, leaving most of the land returning that every upside is likely to wildhave a downside for somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099512947</amazonuk>1785633678

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lawrence Osborne0957181167|title=Bangkok Days|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Laurence Osborne has hit upon a bizarre way to save money on dentistry – pay for a month's rent in Bangkok Blue Skies and get his fillings done there, which works out cheaper than dental insurance in America. During the course Boat Trips: The Norfolk of many visits to Thailand, he meanders around Bangkok, along with various other motley foreigners, passing through hospitals, brothels and mobile restaurants selling waterbugs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535971</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBrian Lewis|author=Nicholas Jubber|title=Drinking Arak off an Ayatollah's Beard Alan Marshall|rating=3.5|genre=TravelArt|summary=closed doors and how people really think, challenging the idea that both countries There are defined only by few positive things which can be said about a religious fervour and fundamentalism that is the accepted way of life. At the heart of Jubber's quest is the epic poem of Persian culturesubstandard apartment when you’re on holiday but this time, the ''Shahnameh'' which he soon learns all Iranians know and love and in doing so he unearths trying to avoid looking at a vibrant culture that preceded the conversion problem I found myself looking more closely at a couple of Persia to Islam and with it pictures on the transformation of Persia into Iran. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818841</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ian Mathie|title=The Man of Passage|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Ian Mathie's association with Africa began when his father was posted to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four years old. School was in a convent walls - and was run completely taken by German and Italian nuns and for a while he was the only white child amongst a couple work of hundred AfricansBrian Lewis. Even when he was joined by others he was still part I searched online and could only find ‘used’ versions of an ethnic minority although he didn't realise it! He was taught in the local language this book and grew up with the local childrenprint I wanted was ‘not available’. It was his home Oh, dear - then a few doors down from the apartment, I found a gift shop with a stack of brand new books - and was to be a framed print of the centre of his life for decades to comepicture I wanted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Blackwood1785633457|title=The Great RaceCharging Around: The Amazing Round-The-World Auto Race Of 1908Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson

|summary=In her latest literary outing, the now elderly and increasingly opinionated travel writer and veteran cyclist Dervla Murphy describes Clive Wilkinson has a series history of trips to Cuba. The opening section deals travelling by unconventional means with a family trip in late 2005preference for slow travel. Readers who have followed Dervla's books from the beginning will have grown up with Rachel, As he neared his eightieth birthday the author's daughter, who accompanied her on a number idea of trips between exploring the ages edges of five and eighteenEngland in an electric car was not totally outrageous. Now Dervla travels with Rachel and Rachel's three young daughtersIn fact, Clodagh, Rose it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and Zeahis wife, known for ease throughout the book as ''the Trio''. The middle section sees Dervla return alone to spend several months trekking in places such as the Sierra del Escambray mountainsJoan, and in the final third of the book, Dervla returns to the city of Santa Clara for the commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the death of Ernesto ''Cheshouldn'' Guevara.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190601146X</amazonuk>t it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan Buckley, Mark Ellingham and Tim JepsonMerryn Glover|title=The Rough Guide to Tuscany and UmbriaHidden Fires

|summary=ThereIt is always about the book, not the writer, but there are times when the author's a general Rough Guide hinterland is also the background to the book and so it is necessary to Italyunderstand that context, but revisiting again this regional guide in order to appreciate the process book. Merryn Glover is of writing up our trip to Tuscany two years agoAustralian parentage, I was reminded of how good indeed this particular Rough Guide isborn in Kathmandu, grew up in the Annapurna and Himalayan and now lives in Badenoch in Scotland. I bought it because I wanted can think of no-one better a combination to supplement give us a re-appraisal of Nan Shepherds work than the general Rough Guide to Italy I had with more detailed coverage of first Writer in Residence in the region Cairngorms National Park. Merryn walks, not so much in which we were going to spend the whole trip - and shadow of Shepherd, but in her spirit. I was extremely happy with think the resulttwo would have gotten along famously.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843530554</amazonuk>1846975751

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guy DelisleB0B7289HKQ|title=PyongyangConversations Across America: A Journey in North Korea|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Meet Guy. He's a French-Canadian animatorFather and Son, leaving home for a short stay in the capital of one of the worldAlzheimer's most intriguing, unknown and alien cultures - Pyongyang, North Korea - so he can work on a TV cartoon co-production. Forced to stay in one of 300 Conversations Along the three official hotels designed for foreigners, so TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the locals and people such as he do not have to mix, he see glimpses of the unique socialist dictatorship, stunning views of the buildings forced through the poverty, and thousands Soul of unreadable faces.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079905</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAmerica|author=Charley Boorman |title=Right to the Edge: Sydney to Tokyo by Any Means|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Forgive me if I'm wrong, but there seems a ever-diminishing sense of surprise with Charley Boorman's continuing adventures. One hopes at least they started with very daring, courageous, envelope-pushing exploits, where we might have doubted his success. Now he's on his fifth trip in as many years, BBC TV crew in hand as always, and we can hardly hope for much in the way of an ordeal, or doubt concerning a failure. And, as he admits, this does feel much like an add-on for his Ireland-to-Sydney trek.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443516</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rolf Potts|title=Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World TravelKari Loya

|summary=Rolf Potts is Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the way) wanted to spend some time with his father and the period between two jobs seemed like a travel writer as well as a bit of a backpacker guru and his book distils his experiences in, exactly as good time to do it. The decision was made to ride the title suggestsTrans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, ''an uncommon guide Virginia to longAstoria, Oregon -term travel''all 4250 miles of it - in 2015. The operative word here is ''uncommon'', They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as ''Vagabonding'' is not really a guide as we know them, more of a pepchallenge that it would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-talk combined with a resource liststage Alzheimer's.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0812992180</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Marika McAdam|title=Western Balkans (Lonely Planet Multi Country Guide) |rating=3.5|genre=Travel|summary=Lonely Planet does well from its multi-country guides as members of its peripatetic, Inter-railing, backpacker audience often 'do' more than one country (and sometimes a whole continent or region at least) within one trip.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1741047293</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Thomas Cook Publishing Erling Kagge|title=European Rail Timetable Summer 2009Walking: One Step At A Time

|genre=TravelLifestyle|summary=This volume Those who have read my reviews before will know that how much I loved a book is an absolutely essential resource for anybody travelling in Europe evidenced by train. A compilation the number of all major train routespages with corners turned, so let me start this one with an apology to the Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot it allows was your book not only for checking train times but also planning pretty much every conceivable major journeymine. TheoreticallyIn my defence, the train timetables change twice yearly, so I will say that as a reader of this type of book there is something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided itis subtle – I's worth getting an up ll allow creased corners, but not scribbles – for the latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about to date bookdo as soon as I have finished telling you why).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848481322</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Sarah Johnstone |title=Europe on Erligg Kagge is a Shoestring: Big Trips on Small Budgets (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides)|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=''Europe on a Shoestring'' comes from Norwegian explorer who has walked to the South Pole, the vast stable of Lonely Planet's travel guides North Pole and is very much aimed at the budget end summit of the marketEverest. He knows a thing or two about walking. Comparable to its nearest competitorHowever, Letthis isn's Go Europet a travelogue about any of those epic journeys, it's is instead a one-volume backpacker bible which attempts thoughtful exploration of what it means to provide the overview walk. It is a plenitude of unnumbered essays about walking. There is no 'contents' page and I haven't counted. In small format paperback, each essay is only a whole continentfew pages long. Perhaps then, every single country and the main destinations in each better thought of the countriesas a meditation rather than an essay.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1741045916</amazonuk>0241357705

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pete Brown Monica Connell|title=Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British Empire|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Being a beer writer can't be the easiest route to respect in journalism. But with this book Pete Brown has done much to counter the sceptical, even dismissive, attitudes which must surround his trade and its subject matter. He has attempted to combine a history of British imperialism and the brewing industry with the comic 'quest' genre of travel writing. Against all the odds, he has largely succeeded.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230706355</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rough Guides |title=The Rough Guide to Amsterdam|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=This Rough Guide is as comprehensive, up to date and well researched as most if not all Rough Guides seem to be. I have used numerous examples of their guides and I found them to be among the best if not the best ones there are. They do seem to have moved upmarket a bit since I first started to use them in the early 90s - but they still provide the best balance in descriptions covering practicalities, context, history, sightseeing, entertainment, drinking, clubbing and even (in Amsterdam at least) dope smoking.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843538091</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alistair Duncan |title=Close to Holmes: A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan DoylePeacock Sky

|summary=I'm rather at a loss Monica Connell went to Nepal to describe this book do the fieldwork for you, and her Ph.D. in social anthropology. I'm still uncertain how to categorise think it. It's part personal memoir and part analytical. Whether you regard this particular mix as brilliant or irritating is down, I suppose, important to personal taste and intellectual curiosityknow that.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571236111</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tim Fitzhigham |title=All at Sea: One Man. One Bathtub. One Very Bad Idea: Conquering the Channel in She went on a Piece of Plumbing|rating=4.5|genre=Travel|summary=Once more my life is made easy by saying this book does just what it claims on the cover grant- takes a narrator of zestysupported trip, wacky humour, throws him into an unlikely situation (with a bath) and gets him to do something unusual (row it across the Channel - and then beyond)relatively specific objective. This despite the fact he was the worldShe wasn's worst sculler at Universityt a hippy wanderer looking for Shangri-la.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090269</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Miller|title=St PeterShe wasn's (Wonders of the World)|rating=4t a mere tourist passing through.5|genre=History|summary=It is huge: not only in space but in time and structure; and in the non-material sphere of the complex interplay She went with a fundamental aim of meanings, symbols learning about these people and significanceshow they lived. Miller's bookShe also went, intentionally combining cultural and political historypresumably, art criticism and travel writingwith the academic discipline of how to find these things out, manages how to reflect that hugeness without weighting the reader down with too much austere detail.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861979088</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Guy Delisle|title=Burma Chronicles|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=What we have here are a male househusband and artistorganise them in her mind, and his MSF doctor wife, and their life in Burma or Myanmar for roughly a year. We get how to see the life "understand" them in the country, from the racks context of bootleg softwareher own paradigms, and how to the animation class he leads, keep enough notes and files and photos to their efforts to get into the lush country clubs, to their baby being adored by every passing girl. We see the state help her create some greater sense of the country, with its horrid drugs, HIV/AIDS and malaria problems, hidden beyond experience after the gentle Buddhist retreatsevent. We see the Delisles' interaction Fortunately, she also went with this singular country a sense of open- the censored press, ness and curiosity and the fact that their road is only made more busy because of the roadblock diverting everyone away from Aung San Suu Kyi's house a block away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087711</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Iain McCalman|title=Darwin's Armada: Four Voyagers willingness to the Southern Oceans and Their Battle for the Theory of Evolution|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=A look at Darwin's journey on The Beaglemuck-in, as well as journeys by Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley to break her own rules and Alfred Wallace. Darwin's Armada provides a broad overview that strikes a different tone to other books in a crowded market. Casual readers who usually steer clear truly connect with the people of non-fiction will enjoy itthe village where she hauled up.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184737266X</amazonuk>1780600429

 {{newreview|author=Patrick Wright|title=A Journey Through Ruins: The Last Days of London |rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=My good mood evaporated when Sue, my Bookbag partner, asked me if I'd read and review A Journey Through Ruins. She was right to ask because Thatcher's Britain is certainly an area of interest to me. The thing is, times are depressing enough. Margaret Hilda's neo-liberal legacy is crashing around us. Jobless queues are lengthening. Roofs are disappearing from over people's heads. The rampant cronyism and venal nature of our economic and political elites are slowly exposing themselves in ways likely to send my blood pressure soaring. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199541949</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David GrannNicolas Bouvier|title=The Lost City of Z: A Legendary British Explorer's Deadly Quest to Uncover the Secrets of the AmazonJapanese Chronicles

|summary=SoIt never does to start a review of a book with a quote from the blurb, therebut sometimes it's unavoidable. Le Monde reviewed this familybook, rightat some point, and with the parents have itchy feet, so they pack everything up and say goodbye to words ''what the dog, and leave Clifton, Bristol, and drive down to Italy and live old master craftsmen would call a fine and different life, and masterpiece.'' It is precisely that. A masterpiece in the plumbing might not be sense of the best but craft as well as the neighbours and art of writing. I'm going to hesitate to call it 'travel writing' because this is as much a history of Japan, a mythology-primer for the scrumping and the wine are all Japanese culture as it is a personal response to die for living and it all comes right travelling in the end with life-affirming brilliance.  There will be many people shuddering at that completely false description of this bookcountry.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571242561</amazonuk>1906011044

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pip Cheshire and Patrick ReynoldsStephen Fabes|title=Architecture Uncooked: An Architect Looks Around New Zealand Holiday HousesSigns of Life

|summary=This book immediately impresses by its I was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly written, yet intelligent writinghad which was the guts to simply go out and do it. I also didn't inherit the kind of steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and its photography basic practicality that would have meant that captures both I would have survived if I had been gifted with the structure and requisite 'bottle'. In order words I'm not the spirit sort of the holiday homes scattered around the New Zealand countrysideperson who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years. Fabes did precisely that.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1869621549</amazonuk>1788161211

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dean StarnesRob Baker|title=RoamToubab Tales: The Joys and Trials of Expat Life in Africa

|summary=Languages, customs, rituals, fascinating things ''"Go to doMali, places to see" they said. "The music is amazing, people to visit – all in the one book, covering almost " they said. "And you get ten hours of sunshine every nook and cranny throughout the worldday. This is a travel book covering, well, pretty well everything" So I did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1869507118</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Tim Moore|title=I Believe in Yesterday: My Adventures in Living History|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Common opinion has it that the television programme Rob Baker is an ethnomusicologist. ''Time TeamA what?'' did a lot for the public image of archaeologists – bringing them out of their holes I hear you cry. Well, an ethnomusicologist studies music in the groundrelation to culture, and making them seem so rather like exciting, interesting people with a good way of putting their knowledge across. However it was clearly a much harder task when it came folklorist studies the oral and written story traditions relating to those background artistes they have sometimes, walking up and down in Roman centurion gear, or living the historical lifestyle as a re-enactmentculture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224077813</amazonuk>B089CSNFT7

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brian W Pugh and Paul R SpiringChristine Brown|title=On the Trail of Arthur Conan DoyleBucket Showers and Baby Goats: An Illustrated Devon Tour|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=This slim volume, comprising just four chapters, is both a detailed chronology of the life of Arthur Conan Doyle and, for those that want to follow Volunteering in the footsteps of ACD (I adopt the authors' abbreviation gladly), 'The Complete Arthur Conan Doyle Devon Tour' – locations that inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles and more.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846241987</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=William Gray|title=Adventure Travel (AA Travel Guides)West Africa|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Last Friday, my local branch of Cotswold Outdoor had several travel guides and physical activity handbooks on the shelves, but nothing similar to this book, a compendium of physically active travel, with some nods to responsible tourism. The format of information on activities, well-written taster articles and plenty of attractive photos make for an inspiring armchair read for dreamers and planners. 'World class' locations are always debatable, but I found interesting suggestions in several sections. I loved the book enough to brush off the toast crumbs so that I can present it to one of my adventurous offspring this Christmas, but I'm very much afraid the easy-opening pages may give the game away!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749555815</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Daniel Everett|title=Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes|rating=5

|summary=I nearly didn't select In the summer of 2008, this book to review as I thought it 's author was spending her days working in an office job in the USA while spending her nights dreaming about snakes - I was expecting some kind of Bear Grylls* adventure travel survival book for the Amazonbeing somewhere else, doing something else. How-to-survive-Long story short, she ended up volunteering in-the-jungle-armed-with-only-a-sharp-stick-and-a-six-pack sort of thingGhana, West Africa. FortunatelyNow coincidentally, I looked into in the content a little furthersummer of 2010, and found that this is review's author was spending ''her'' days working in an anthropological and linguistic study of the life of the Pirahas, a tribe living office job (albeit in the remote Amazonian jungle. The title comes from the fact that the Pirahas donUK) while spending 't have a word for 'her'goodnight'nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something else, and ' – their nearest equivalent when they are leaving someone for the night is 'she'Don't Sleepended up just 3 countries away, There Are Snakes''volunteering in Sierra Leone, West Africa. So you can see why, when this book came up, said reviewer was delighted to have the opportunity to read and critique it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846680301</amazonuk>171024299X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul TherouxMourby_Rooms|title=Ghost Train to the Eastern StarRooms with a View: The Secret Life of Great Hotels|author=Adrian Mourby

|summary=Some 30-odd years ago Paul TherouxAdrian Mourby has given us a flying visit to each of fifty grand hotels, then half from fourteen regions of the world, with the age he is nowhotels in each section being arranged chronologically rather than by region, travelled overland across Europe and Asiawhich helps to give something of an overall picture. The result was So what makes a hotel 'his best known bookgrand' (apparently) – ? The first hotel to call itself 'grand'was in Covent Garden in 1774 and it ushered in the beginning of a period when a hotel would be a lifestyle choice rather than a refuge for those without friends and family conveniently nearby. The Great Railway Bazaar''hotels we visit all began life in different circumstances and each faced a different set of challenges. We begin in the Americas, move to the United Kingdom, circumnavigate Europe, briefly visit Russia and Turkey then northern Africa, India and Asia. Australia, it seems, does not go for the grand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241142539</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Buckley1908745819|title=An Indian OdysseySurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie

|genre=TravelHistory|summary=More than Sometimes when people suggest that you read a quarter of a century ago Martin Buckley went to Sri Lanka and then on to India. It was time off before settling down to the business of earning a living. Two things happened to him – he fell in love with India and knew that he wanted to stay there - and he discovered the certain book, they tell you ''Ramayanathis one has your name on it''. ValmikiMostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn's epic was written round about 500 to 700 BC – much t like the same time as Homerbook. That's ''Odyssey'' (the title of this book is a very clever play on words) – but it still holds rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a central place in the hearts and minds of Indians although book calling your name, rarely get it is strangely unknown in the Westwrong. In this case, I was told why. ''Ramayana'' – The Wanderings blurb speaks of Rama – tells the story of Lord Ramaauthor considering ''s search for his kidnapped wife and his subsequent battles with Ravan. Much of it is certainly myth. Some may well be based on factan older, but it's inspirational and has achieved the status less tethered sense of Holy Writherself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925762</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Clarke |title=A Year in the Merde|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''A Year In The Merde Older. Less tethered. That'' was recommended to me by s not a friend whose sense bad description of humour is very much on a par with minewhere I am. I read it a couple of years ago and decided, on discovering that Stephen Clarke had written a couple of not-Add to-be-missed follow-ups, that I would treat myself to the tale once more as a warm-up exercise to prepare me for the ''beaucoup de merde'' to come.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552772968</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Fran Sandham|title=Traversa|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=When you reach the end my love of Fran Sandham's solo walk across Africa, as he finally dips his toe into the Indian Oceannatural world, you need to go back to of those aspects of the beginning poetic and start again.  Lots of books make you want to do lyrical that. In this case, you actually need to: in order to fully understand the manare about style not form, and so many substance most of the things he says and does along the wayall, about connection. OtherwiseOf course, you're in danger of thinking this guy book had my name on it. It was a fool written for even trying me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to attempt a solo walk across the African continenthave it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715637673</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christina Thompson1912242052|title=Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You AllO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=4.53|genre=TravelArt|summary=Subtitled ''an unlikely love storyOh Joy for me!''gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, this was an interesting and inspiring memoir written by an American academicnot because he had to for work, who met and fell in love with as a Maori miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack- horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and what a beautiful tale it tells! Referred to as a 'contact' encounter (i.eadventure. His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, chance meeting) it sounds almost like a fairy taleand its literary consequences, and in part it is - but a fairy tale which includes huge amount changed our view of hard work toothe world''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747582521</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicola J Watson Woolf_Great|title=The Literary TouristGreat Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration|author=Jo Woolf

|genre=TravelHistory|summary=''As Jo Woolf has compiled a brilliant set of fifty short insights into the lives and achievements of some amazingly brave people. Their fearless journeys have helped us unlock many of the mysteries of the wildest parts of our resident travel writer this might interest you…'' came my introduction world, and also given us an understanding of what it is like to this be faced with the most terrible conditions and still have the determination and grit to carry on. This book. Misguidedly could be viewed as it turned a taster which encourages us to seek out, for the emphasis in Watson's work is much and read more heavily on about some of the ''literary'' than on the ''tourist''most iconic explorers. Their stories are pretty incredible and Woolf does them justice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230210929</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Suzanna Clarke Hailstone_Berlin|title=A House Berlin in Fezthe Cold War: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco1959 to 1966|author=Allan Hailstone

|genre=AutobiographyHistory|summary=Perhaps it's a little unfair to come to ''A House Berlin in Fezthe Cold War: 1959-1966'' still inspired contains almost 200 photographs taken by the storytelling of Tahir Shah's [[In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah|In Arabian Nights]], because this is a very different take on Morocco, aimed (as a book) no doubt at a very different market, but reading the two author/photographer Allan Hailstone in quick succession it is hard his visits to avoid comparison.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925223</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul Richardson |title=A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of Spain|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=Although subtitled ''discovering the food of Spain'', city during this excellently written, engaging and interesting book is about so much moreperiod. Yes, the focus is on food, mouthwateringly described, but it is also about culture, people, travel, tourism, history and geography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747593809</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rowan Simons|title=Bamboo Goalposts|rating=4 |genre=Sport|summary=When it comes to football, I'm in agreement with The images provide an insight into the great Bill Shankly when he said: ''Football is not a matter changing nature of life and death, it's far more important than that''. When it comes to China, my knowledge is limited to what I've seen on the TV recently about the earthquake, the Olympics divide between East and the protests; vague memories of Tiananmen Square West Berlin and a love of the cuisine, or at least the version that comes from my local takeaway. Like many in the Western world, I have no concept of what glimpse into life is truly like in China.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230703720</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tahir Shah |title=In Arabian Nights|rating=5 |genre=Travel|summary=Once upon a time there was a traveller who travelled through Pakistan to visit far Afghanistan, where he would seek out the lost treasure of city during the MughalsCold War. Sadly the traveller had an English passport and a Muslim name, and he was travelling from one enemy state to another. His story was not believed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385612079</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Daniel Kalder|title=Strange Telescopes|rating=3 |genre=Travel|summary=''Bill Bryson with Tourette's'' was one of the epithets that met Kalder's previous travelogue ([[Lost Cosmonaut]]) along with 'sharp absurdist insight', 'deliberately crass' and 'revelatory'. I can't actually disagree with any of that if you were to apply it to the latest offering ''Strange Telescopes''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571231233</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Mole |title=I Was a Potato Oligarch: Travels and Travails in the New Russia|rating=1 |genre=Travel|summary=I remember getting this book in post, reading the title and thinking no, even though I am Russian, I will try to be unbiased and judge it like I would judge any other book about a foreign country experience. I now have to regretfully admit I failed. In my defence, John Mole's focus on mocking the nation and country made that all too easy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1857885090</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sun Shuyun Stewart_Marches|title=A Year in Tibet|rating=4 |genre=Politics and Society|summary=Tibet is an emotive word these days. Rightly so. Since long before the dawn of Communism, China has been adept at numbering the rights and wrongs of history, with the three this and the seven that. Sadly, she does not yet see the invasion of Tibet as a wrong. I am in no position to know what the majority of ordinary Chinese know about Tibet, nor what they think of their government's official standpoint on it. Along with many others, I can only hope that one day they will have full and free access to the internet and other media where they will be able to read the many and varied opinions of people from around the world, and will be allowed not only to make up their own mind – but to then debate that standpoint, publicly and freely.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007265115</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewThe Marches|author=Fuchsia Dunlop |title=Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-sour Memoir of Eating in ChinaRory Stewart

|summary=The British EmpireObserver quote on the front of the paperback edition of Stewart's latest book observes ''This is travel writing at its finest.'' Perhaps, lawd bless but to call it – so large the sun never set on 'travel writing' is to totally under-sell it. Also never resting upon This is erudition at its surface, if finest. Stewart has the background to do this book is anything to go by, was : he had an increasing spread of international upbringing and followed his father in both the Army and the moneyed classesForeign Office, gallivanting off and then (to all cornershis father's, bemusement, whether as imperial missionariesshall we say) became an MP. Oh, explorersand he walked 6, or just plain travellers000 miles across Afghanistan in 2002. A walk along the Scottish borders should be a doddle by comparison.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316731048</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Gimlette Bristow China|title=Panther SoupChina in Drag: A European Journey in War and Peace Travels with a Cross-dresser|author=Michael Bristow

|genre=TravelAutobiography|summary=In 1945Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a journalist for the BBC, Americans came in their millions author Michael Bristow decided to liberate a Europe smashed by warwrite about Chinese history. It was a movement of men and machinery on a scale never seen before. Many men died; more are dying off today. Sixty Having been learning the local language for several years on, travel writer John Gimlette chanced upon Bristow asked his language teacher for guidance - the language teacher, born in the early fifties, offered Bristow a survivor compelling picture of life in Communist China - but added to that campaign. His meeting prompted a decision to retrace the GIs' progress through France, Austria and Germany Bristow was greatly surprised to try and relive those events, and to discover what remains of them todayfind that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothing. ''Panther Soup'' It soon becomes clear that the tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a fascinating portrait of one of the story of that journeyworld's most intriguing nations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091921384</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=George Saunders Hurst_Norfolk|title=The Brain-dead Megaphone|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=American author George Saunders is known for his short stories and fiction, but he is also a journalist for publications such as ''The Guardian'', ''The New Yorker Magazine'' and ''GQ''. ''The Brain-Dead Megaphone'' is his first collection of essays and it's an interesting propositionOn My Way: sixteen pieces ranging from travel writing, literary appreciation, political essays, to surrealist short fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747594260</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNorfolk Coastal Walks|author=Geert Mak |title=The BridgeJohn Hurst|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryArt|summary=The current Galata Bridge in Instanbul is It was pure serendipity: after a concrete structure less than 15 years old. A bascule bridge of some 490mfive-hour drive, we were, it carries a four-lane highwayannoyingly, a tramway and pedestrian walkways on its open upper deck left with arcaded market areas beneath on an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the outer spans. At first sight it has little keys to recommend itour holiday cottage. None of There was an art exhibition in the grandeur church hall, so we went in - and found a display of the Charles Bridge in Praguemost gorgeous pictures. I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, nor the ostentation but thought that I would have to make do with a couple of Tower Bridge in London, nor even the elegance of the Golden Gategreetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and I couldn't resist buying it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846551382</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Tom Fort |title=Downstream: Across England in a Punt|rating=3.5|genre=Travel|summary=In summer 2005, journalist and angler Tom Fort set off to follow the river Trent from its source near Stoke to its confluence with the Humber. ''Downstream'' is the aptly meandering story of his 170-mile trip. Travelling light, first Move on foot, then in a purpose-built 15-foot plywood punt, and finishing off on a bike, Fort traces the course of the river, surveying the towns and landscapes it shaped, and exploring the history which surrounds it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184605169X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview |title=Blood River|author=Tim Butcher|genre=Travel|rating=5|summary=Tim Butcher started working as a journalist in Africa in 2000…15 years after Live Aid gave us all hope that maybe the continent’s problems were solvable…and almost as long since we’d begun to realise that it wasn’t going to be that easy. Two years into the bloodiest war in the world, the Congo – at the very heart of Africa – was seeing 1,000 deaths a day to the violence. And the world wasn’t even looking. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099494280</amazonuk>}} {{newreview |title=Lessons From The Land Of Pork Scratchings|author=Greg Gutfeld|genre=Travel|rating=4.5|summary=Greg Gutfeld came to England to take up a job as editor of a men’s mag. Leaving New York as a stressed yet slim high-achiever, he soon settles into life in the UK and embraces a new world where the food is crap and the beer lukewarm, but where the people seem remarkably laid back and happy nonetheless. Two years later he leaves to return to his homeland, somewhat heavier and generally less fit than when he arrived, but with a newfound understanding of the secret of happiness, which weirdly has nothing to do with herpes (see chapter 66). |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847370667</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Trivia Reviews]]