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[[Category:New Reviews|Travel]]==Travel==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove --> <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Yangzom Brauen and Katy DarbyshireAlastair Humphreys|title=Across Many Mountains: Three Daughters of TibetLocal|rating=45|genre=BiographyTravel |summary=Fleeing your home can never be easy but when you are six, your only shoes are roughly hand-sewn Alastair Humphreys has walked and stuffed with hay, and your route is cycled all over the world's highest mountain range . And then written about it. For this book he walked and cycled very close to home and then wrote about it must be particularly challenging. This was As he says in his introduction, the journey that Yangzom Brauenbook is an attempt ''s mother took with her parents when they fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion of 1959to share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. They were leaving behind all that they knew Nature loss, pollution, land use and travelling to India in access, agriculture, the food system, rewilding…'' One of the joys of the hope book for me was that they could find sanctuary in the country where the Dalai Lama biggest thing he learned about all of these things was in exile. that there are no easy answers, no single 'Across Many Mountainsright or wrong' , that every upside is their storylikely to have a downside for somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184655344X</amazonuk>1785633678

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith Hern0957181167|title=Zimbabwe in PicturesBlue Skies and Boat Trips: The Norfolk of Brian Lewis|author=Alan Marshall|rating=35|genre=TravelArt|summary=There are few positive things which can be said about a substandard apartment when you’re on holiday but this time, in trying to avoid looking at a problem I'm found myself looking more closely at a bit couple of an amateur photographer, pictures on the walls - and since was completely taken by the advent work of digital cameras Brian Lewis. I always come back from holidays with thousands searched online and could only find ‘used’ versions of photos, over-excited by this book and the fact that print I am no longer limited to 24 or 36 exposure films! wanted was ‘not available’. I enjoyOh, thereforedear - then a few doors down from the apartment, flicking through photography I found a gift shop with a stack of brand new books, to see - and a framed print of the images that have captured someone else's imagination and to see if picture I can pick up any interesting framing ideas, or subject settingswanted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685707</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher Winn1785633457|title=I Never Knew That About the River Thames|rating=4.5|genre=Trivia|summary=Here are the remains of the building that could be said to have sired two important British royal dynasties. Here is the place of ill-repute, where 'Rule Britannia' was premiered, and which also bizarrely saw a death by cricket ball that inspired the most famous gardens in the world. Here too is the largest lion in the world. To where am I referring? Well the answer is either the Thames valley, or this very book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091933579</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Roland Huntford|title=Race for the South PoleCharging Around: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=In 1910 two European ships set out for the Antarctic. 'Terra Nova' was carrying British explorers under Exploring the leadership Edges of Captain Robert Scott, while 'Fram' sailed with a rival Norwegian expedition led England by Roald Amundsen. The basic facts can be briefly summarized. Amundsen arrived at the South Pole on 14 December 1911 and returned home to a hero's welcome, while Scott reached the same destination 35 days later, only to perish with his men on the return journey. Their bodies were found by a search party some eight months after they had died.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441169822</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewElectric Car|author=Aatish Taseer|title=Stranger to History: A Son's Journey Through Islamic LandsClive Wilkinson|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Aatish Taseer was born of out of a short week of passion between a Sikh Indian mother and a Pakistani Muslim father. The mother was a journalist; the father a politician.  That week of passion was to be all it was, despite subsequent attempts at hushing up the pregnancy, then pretending a marriage until finally a clean break was made when the boy was about 18 months old. Ah, but such breaks never are clean are they? There's always a certain amount of meddling from the side-lines, and then there's a child's longing to know who he is, where he is really from.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847671314</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jim Perrin|title=West: A Journey Through the Landscapes of Loss|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Where would you go if the love of your life, and your son, both died within a short few months of each other? Jim Perrin headed West - to the scraggly patches of land off Ireland, closer to the setting sun, nearer to the further horizon, beyond the noise, information and opinion of humanity. Of course, that question could also be answered in a more metaphoric way. Jim went inward, before coming outward. He suffered - "involuntarily, the tears have come. Who would have thought that death would release so many.." He also, although he would probably hate me for saying it, went on a "psycho-geographical ramble" - both in life, and in making this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843546116</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sam Miller|title=Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity|rating=4

|summary=Miller is probably one Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the best people to take you on a tour edges of DelhiEngland in an electric car was not totally outrageous. He's not In fact, it should be a native so has no in-bred partisanshippleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, but he does love the place so will make sure you do tooJoan, but mainly because to begin with he HATED it… so he will understand if you donshouldn't share his ironic good humour about the shit squirter or the fact that sometimes the only way to cross the road is to take a rickshaw taxi.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099526743</amazonuk>it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brian W Pugh, Paul R Spiring and Sadru BhanjiMerryn Glover|title=Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Devon: A Complete Tour Guide and Companion|rating=4|genre=History|summary=''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is one of the most famous mystery novels of all, and also one of the most famous English novels set in Devon. This alone would probably give more or less enough material for an entire book on connections between the story and the location which inspired it. Yet the authors have found several more links between the county, and Conan Doyle alongside those associated with him. The result has revealed much information of which even I, who have lived in the county nearly all my life, was previously unaware.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312861</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Lane|title=England 'Til I Die - A celebration of England's amazing supporters|rating=3.5|genre=Sport|summary=To start with, an admission. I am an English fan of football, but I am not a fan of England’s football squad. Hardly ever would I prefer to see the Three Lions triumphant. I never got into the habit, partly because I never saw the singularly English habit of supporting the underdog as making any sense. Plus you'll never get me standing up and singing that awful tune before the match. But here are testimonies from twenty or so people who see things completely differently to me.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906796505</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Justine Hardy|title=In the Valley of Mist: Kashmir's Long War - One Family's Extraordinary StoryHidden Fires

|summary=Kashmir. Is It is always about the book, not the writer, but there are times when the author's hinterland is also the background to the book and so it is necessary to understand that not context, in order to appreciate the most romantic of names? book. To those Merryn Glover is of us entranced by tales from the EastAustralian parentage, was born in Kathmandu, it echoes with grew up in the same essence Annapurna and Himalayan and now lives in Badenoch in Scotland. I can think of myth as ''Shangno-rione better a combination to give us a re-la'' – and for good reasonappraisal of Nan Shepherds work than the first Writer in Residence in the Cairngorms National Park. Geographically situated Merryn walks, not so much in the Himalaya but with the abundant fertility shadow of the valleyShepherd, lakes and meadows, it should be a kind of paradisebut in her spirit. To I think the people who live there, it once wastwo would have gotten along famously. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846041511</amazonuk>1846975751

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael BoothB0B7289HKQ|title=Sushi Conversations Across America: A Father and Beyond: What Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Japanese Know About CookingSoul of America|author=Kari Loya

|summary=The title of this book suggests another travel book about adventure in Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the frozen north, but Sara Wheeler mixes her tales of her own travels way) wanted to spend some time with some history of polar exploration his father and the period between two jobs seemed like a serious examination of the impact of visitors and of those who wish good time to exploit the Arctic’s natural resources on the region and its peopledo it. Rather than setting off on another expedition The decision was made to reach ride the North PoleTrans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, she travels around bits of the Arctic divided between different countries and governments, including Chukotka (Russia), Alaska (USA), Canada, GreenlandVirginia to Astoria, Svalbard (Norway) and Lapland (Russia and Scandinavia). There is a huge amount Oregon - all 4250 miles of material it - in 2015. They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the book recommended time - but Wheeler organises there were factors which pointed this up as more of a challenge that it would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and presents it in a very readable, accessible stylehe was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516888</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Mark Griffiths|title=The Lotus Quest|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Mark Griffiths Erligg Kagge is one a Norwegian explorer who has walked to the South Pole, the North Pole and the summit of Britain's leading plant expertsEverest. He knows a thing or two about walking. I know However, this because his brief biog in the front isn't a travelogue about any of The Lotus Quest tells me so; just as those epic journeys, it tells me that he is the editor instead a thoughtful exploration of The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary what it means to walk. It is a plenitude of Gardening unnumbered essays about walking. There is no 'contents'the largest work on horticulture ever publishedpage and I haven't counted. His prior works list includes five other plant book creditsIn small format paperback, three of them for the RHSeach essay is only a few pages long. I shall take all Perhaps then, better thought of this on trust, since attempts to find out more about the author and his background through the usual internet search mechanisms has failed miserably. He remains as elusive as the sacred flower that is the subject of this latest work: the lotusa meditation rather than an essay.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184595100X</amazonuk>0241357705

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jason WebsterMonica Connell|title=Sacred Sierra: A Year on Against a Spanish Mountain|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Jason Webster and his partner, Salud searched and bought forty acres of valley and mountainside halfway up the Penyagolosa Ridge in Southern Spain, complete with two derelict sets of farm buildings. These ''mas'', or smallholdings, formed the backbone of Spanish agriculture until young people abandoned rural life for towns in the mid-twentieth century. The agro-economics of the EEC enforced obsolescence of the ''mas'' system. As old timers retired or died, their farms were abandoned, leaving most of the land returning to wild.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099512947</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lawrence Osborne|title=Bangkok DaysPeacock Sky|rating=45

|summary=Laurence Osborne has hit upon a bizarre way Monica Connell went to Nepal to do the fieldwork for her Ph.D. in social anthropology. I think it is important to save money know that. She went on dentistry – pay a grant-supported trip, with a relatively specific objective. She wasn't a hippy wanderer looking for Shangri-la. She wasn't a mere tourist passing through. She went with a month's rent in Bangkok fundamental aim of learning about these people and get his fillings done therehow they lived. She also went, presumably, which works with the academic discipline of how to find these things out cheaper than dental insurance , how to organise them in her mind, how to "understand" them in America. During the course context of many visits her own paradigms, and how to keep enough notes and files and photos to Thailand, he meanders around Bangkokhelp her create some greater sense of the experience after the event. Fortunately, along she also went with various other motley foreignersa sense of open-ness and curiosity and a willingness to muck-in, passing through hospitals, brothels to break her own rules and mobile restaurants selling waterbugsto truly connect with the people of the village where she hauled up.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099535971</amazonuk>1780600429

 {{newreview|author=Nicholas Jubber|title=Drinking Arak off an Ayatollah's Beard |rating=3.5|genre=Travel|summary=closed doors and how people really think, challenging the idea that both countries are defined only by 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 culture, the ''Shahnameh'' which he soon learns all Iranians know and love and in doing so he unearths a vibrant culture that preceded the conversion of Persia to Islam and with it 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 and was run by German and Italian nuns and for a while he was the only white child amongst a couple of hundred Africans. Even when he was joined by others he was still part of an ethnic minority although he didn't realise it! He was taught in the local language and grew up with the local children. It was his home and was to be the centre of his life for decades to come.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gary BlackwoodNicolas Bouvier|title=The Great Race: The Amazing Round-The-World Auto Race Of 1908Japanese Chronicles

|summary=In her latest literary outing, the now elderly and increasingly opinionated travel writer and veteran cyclist Dervla Murphy describes It never does to start a series review of trips to Cuba. The opening section deals a book with a family trip in late 2005. Readers who have followed Dervla's books quote from the beginning will have grown up with Rachelblurb, the authorbut sometimes it's daughter, who accompanied her on a number of trips between the ages of five and eighteenunavoidable. Now Dervla travels with Rachel and Rachel's three young daughtersLe Monde reviewed this book, Clodaghat some point, Rose and Zea, known for ease throughout with the book as words ''what the Trioold master craftsmen would call a masterpiece.''It is precisely that. The middle section sees Dervla return alone to spend several months trekking A masterpiece in places such the sense of the craft as well as the Sierra del Escambray mountains, and in the final third art of the book, Dervla returns writing. I'm going to hesitate to the city call it 'travel writing' because this is as much a history of Santa Clara Japan, a mythology-primer for the commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of Japanese culture as it is a personal response to living and travelling in the death of Ernesto ''Che'' Guevaracountry.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190601146X</amazonuk>1906011044

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan Buckley, Mark Ellingham and Tim JepsonStephen Fabes|title=The Rough Guide to Tuscany and UmbriaSigns of Life

|summary=There's a general Rough Guide to Italy, but revisiting again this regional guide in the process of writing up our trip to Tuscany two years ago, I was reminded brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of how good indeed this particular Rough Guide isfar away places. I bought it because I wanted to supplement the general Rough Guide to Italy I had with more detailed coverage of the region in which we were going to spend the whole trip was birth- righted wanderlust and I was extremely happy with the result.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843530554</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Guy Delisle|title=Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Meet Guycuriosity. He's a French-Canadian animatorUnfortunately, leaving home for a short stay in the capital of one of the worldI didn's most intriguing, unknown and alien cultures - Pyongyang, North Korea - so he can work on a TV cartoon co-productiont inherit what Dr. Forced Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the guts to stay in one of the three official hotels designed for foreigners, so that the locals simply go out and people such as he do not have to mix, he see glimpses of it. I also didn't inherit the unique socialist dictatorship, stunning views kind of the buildings forced through the povertysteady nerve, and thousands of unreadable faces.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079905</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Charley Boorman |title=Right ability to the Edge: Sydney talk to Tokyo by Any Means|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Forgive me strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if Ihad been gifted with the requisite 'm wrong, but there seems a ever-diminishing sense of surprise with Charley Boormanbottle's continuing adventures. One hopes at least they started with very daring, courageous, envelope-pushing exploits, where we might have doubted his success. Now heIn order words I's m not the sort of person who will get on his fifth trip in as many years, BBC TV crew in hand as always, a bike outside a London hospital and we can hardly hope not come home for much in the way of an ordeal, or doubt concerning a failuresix years. And, as he admits, this does feel much like an add-on for his Ireland-to-Sydney trekFabes did precisely that.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847443516</amazonuk>1788161211

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rolf PottsRob Baker|title=VagabondingToubab Tales: An Uncommon Guide to the Art The Joys and Trials of Long-Term World TravelExpat Life in Africa

|summary=Rolf Potts is a travel writer as well as a bit of a backpacker guru and his book distils his experiences in, exactly as the title suggests, ''an uncommon guide "Go to long-term travel''Mali," they said. "The operative word here music is ''uncommon''amazing, as ''Vagabonding" they said. "And you get ten hours of sunshine every day." So I did.'' is not really a guide as we know them, more of a pep-talk combined with a resource list.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0812992180</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Marika McAdam|title=Western Balkans (Lonely Planet Multi Country Guide) |rating=3Rob Baker is an ethnomusicologist. ''A what?'' I hear you cry.5|genre=Travel|summary=Lonely Planet does well from its multi-country guides as members of its peripateticWell, Inter-railingan ethnomusicologist studies music in relation to culture, backpacker audience often 'do' more than one country (so rather like a folklorist studies the oral and sometimes written story traditions relating to a whole continent or region at least) within one tripculture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1741047293</amazonuk>B089CSNFT7

 {{newreview|author=Thomas Cook Publishing |title=European Rail Timetable Summer 2009|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=This volume is an absolutely essential resource for anybody travelling in Europe by train. A compilation of all major train routes, it allows not only for checking train times but also planning pretty much every conceivable major journey. Theoretically, the train timetables change twice yearly, so it's worth getting an up to date book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848481322</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Johnstone |title=Europe on a Shoestring: Big Trips on Small Budgets (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides)|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=''Europe on a Shoestring'' comes from the vast stable of Lonely Planet's travel guides and is very much aimed at the budget end of the market. Comparable to its nearest competitor, Let's Go Europe, it's a one-volume backpacker bible which attempts to provide the overview of a whole continent, every single country and the main destinations in each of the countries.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1741045916</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pete Christine Brown |title=Hops Bucket Showers and GloryBaby Goats: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British EmpireVolunteering in West Africa|rating=4.5

|summary=Being a beer writer canIn the summer of 2008, this book't be s author was spending her days working in an office job in the easiest route to respect USA while spending her nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something else. Long story short, she ended up volunteering in journalismGhana, West Africa. But with Now coincidentally, in the summer of 2010, this book Pete Brown has done much to counter review's author was spending ''her'' days working in an office job (albeit in the scepticalUK) while spending ''her'' nights dreaming about being somewhere else, even dismissivedoing something else, 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 writingshe'' ended up just 3 countries away, volunteering in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Against all So you can see why, when this book came up, said reviewer was delighted to have the odds, he has largely succeededopportunity to read and critique it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230706355</amazonuk>171024299X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rough Guides Mourby_Rooms|title=Rooms with a View: The Rough Guide to AmsterdamSecret Life of Great Hotels|author=Adrian Mourby

|summary=This Rough Guide is as comprehensiveAdrian Mourby has given us a flying visit to each of fifty grand hotels, up to date and well researched as most if not all Rough Guides seem to be. I have used numerous examples from fourteen regions of their guides and I found them to be among the best if not world, with the best ones there arehotels in each section being arranged chronologically rather than by region, which helps to give something of an overall picture. They do seem to have moved upmarket So what makes a bit since I hotel 'grand'? The first started hotel to use them call itself 'grand' was in Covent Garden in 1774 and it ushered in the early 90s - but they still provide 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 hotels we visit all began life in different circumstances and each faced a different set of challenges. We begin in the best balance in descriptions covering practicalitiesAmericas, contextmove to the United Kingdom, historycircumnavigate Europe, sightseeingbriefly visit Russia and Turkey then northern Africa, entertainmentIndia and Asia. Australia, drinkingit seems, clubbing and even (in Amsterdam at least) dope smokingdoes not go for the grand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843538091</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alistair Duncan 1908745819|title=Close to Holmes: A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan DoyleSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie

|summary=It is huge: Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not only in space , but in time and structure; and in rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn't like the non-material sphere book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the complex interplay author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of meanings, symbols and significancesherself.'' Older. Less tethered. MillerThat's booknot a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the natural world, intentionally combining cultural of those aspects of the poetic and political historylyrical that are about style not form, art criticism and travel writingsubstance most of all, about connection. Of course, manages this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to reflect that hugeness without weighting the reader down with too much austere detailme eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861979088</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guy Delisle1912242052|title=Burma ChroniclesO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=43|genre=Graphic NovelsArt|summary=What we have here are a male househusband and artist, and his MSF doctor wife, and their life in Burma or Myanmar ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for roughly a year. We get being ''the first person to see the life in walk the country, from the racks of bootleg softwaremountains alone, not because he had to the animation class he leadsfor work, to their efforts to get into the lush country clubsas a miner, to their baby being adored by every passing girl. We see the state of the countryquarryman, with its horrid drugsshepherd or pack-horse driver, HIV/AIDS but because he wanted to for pleasure and malaria problems, hidden beyond the gentle Buddhist retreatsadventure. We see the Delisles' interaction His rapturous encounters with this singular country - the censored presstheir natural beauty, and the fact that their road is only made more busy because its literary consequences, changed our view of the roadblock diverting everyone away from Aung San Suu Kyiworld''s house a block away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087711</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain McCalmanWoolf_Great|title=Darwin's ArmadaThe Great Horizon: Four Voyagers to the Southern Oceans and Their Battle for the Theory 50 Tales of EvolutionExploration|author=Jo Woolf

|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=A look at Darwin's journey on The Beagle, as well 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 by Joseph Hookerhave helped us unlock many of the mysteries of the wildest parts of our world, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallacealso given us an understanding of what it is like to be faced with the most terrible conditions and still have the determination and grit to carry on. Darwin's Armada provides a broad overview that strikes This book could be viewed as a different tone taster which encourages us to other books in a crowded marketseek out and read more about some of the most iconic explorers. Casual readers who usually steer clear of non-fiction will enjoy itTheir stories are pretty incredible and Woolf does them justice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737266X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick WrightHailstone_Berlin|title=A Journey Through RuinsBerlin in the Cold War: The Last Days of London 1959 to 1966|author=Allan Hailstone

|genre=Politics and SocietyHistory|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 HildaBerlin in the Cold War: 1959-1966's neo-liberal legacy is crashing around us. Jobless queues are lengthening. Roofs are disappearing from over people's headscontains almost 200 photographs taken by author/photographer Allan Hailstone in his visits to the city during this period. The rampant cronyism and venal images provide an insight into the changing nature of our economic the divide between East and political elites are slowly exposing themselves West Berlin and a glimpse into life in ways likely to send my blood pressure soaringthe city during the Cold War. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199541949</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David GrannStewart_Marches|title=The Lost City of Z: A Legendary British Explorer's Deadly Quest to Uncover the Secrets of the AmazonMarches|author=Rory Stewart

|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=For Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Fawcett there was more to The Observer quote on the front of the Amazonian jungle than El Doradopaperback edition of Stewart's latest book observes ''This is travel writing at its finest. His target was a treasure of a different nature – a lost city '' Perhaps, but to be discovered because call it was a city, not for any spurious material wealth 'travel writing' is to totally under-sell it might hold. Could This is erudition at its finest. Stewart has the background to do this: he had an entire civilisation have been founded international upbringing and followed his father in both the Army and the inhospitable tracks of rain forestForeign Office, and then (to his father's, bemusement, shall we say) became an MP. Oh, and left remains he might find fame walked 6,000 miles across Afghanistan in locating? As this brilliant biography shows, Fawcett was 2002. A walk along the best man around to find itScottish borders should be a doddle by comparison.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847374360</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel CuskBristow China|title=The Last SupperChina in Drag: A Summer in ItalyTravels with a Cross-dresser|author=Michael Bristow

|genre=TravelAutobiography|summary=So, there's this family, right, and Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a journalist for the parents have itchy feetBBC, so they pack everything up and say goodbye author Michael Bristow decided to write about Chinese history. Having been learning the doglocal language for several years, and leave CliftonBristow asked his language teacher for guidance - the language teacher, Bristolborn in the early fifties, and drive down to Italy and live offered Bristow a fine and different compelling picture of lifein Communist China - but added to that, and the plumbing might not be the best but the neighbours and the scrumping and the wine are all Bristow was greatly surprised to die for and it all comes right find that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothing. It soon becomes clear that the end with lifetale told here is immensely personal -affirming brilliance.  There will be many people shuddering at that completely false description yet also paints a fascinating portrait of one of this bookthe world's most intriguing nations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571242561</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pip Cheshire and Patrick ReynoldsHurst_Norfolk|title=Architecture UncookedOn My Way: An Architect Looks Around New Zealand Holiday Houses|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=This book immediately impresses by its clearly written, yet intelligent writing, and its photography that captures both the structure and the spirit of the holiday homes scattered around the New Zealand countryside.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1869621549</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNorfolk Coastal Walks|author=Dean Starnes|title=RoamJohn Hurst

|genre=TravelArt|summary=LanguagesIt was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, customswe were, ritualsannoyingly, fascinating things left with an hour to do, places fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to see, people to visit – all our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in the one bookchurch hall, covering almost every nook so we went in - and cranny throughout found a display of the worldmost gorgeous pictures. This is I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to make do with a travel book covering, well, pretty well everythingcouple of greetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and I couldn't resist buying it.|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 ''Time Team'' did a lot for the public image of archaeologists – bringing them out of their holes in the ground, and making them seem like exciting, interesting people with a good way of putting their knowledge across. However it was clearly a much harder task when it came to those background artistes they have sometimes, walking up and down in Roman centurion gear, or living the historical lifestyle as a re-enactment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224077813</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Brian W Pugh and Paul R Spiring|title=On the Trail of Arthur Conan Doyle: 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 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)|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|genre=Travel|summary=I nearly didn't select this book to review as I thought it was about snakes - I was expecting some kind of Bear Grylls* adventure travel survival book for the Amazon. How-to-survive-in-the-jungle-armed-with-only-a-sharp-stick-and-a-six-pack sort of thing. Fortunately, I looked into the content a little further, and found that this is an anthropological and linguistic study of the life of the Pirahas, a tribe living in the remote Amazonian jungle. The title comes from the fact that the Pirahas don't have a word for ''goodnight'' – their nearest equivalent when they are leaving someone for the night is ''Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680301</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul Theroux|title=Ghost Train to the Eastern Star|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Some 30-odd years ago Paul Theroux, then half the age he is now, travelled overland across Europe and Asia. The result was 'his best known book' (apparently) – ''The Great Railway Bazaar''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241142539</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Martin Buckley|title=An Indian Odyssey|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=More than 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 ''Ramayana''. Valmiki's epic was written round about 500 to 700 BC – much the same time as Homer's ''Odyssey'' (the title of this book is a very clever play on words) – but it still holds a central place in the hearts and minds of Indians although it is strangely unknown in the West. ''Ramayana'' – The Wanderings of Rama – tells the story of Lord Rama's search for his kidnapped wife and his subsequent battles with Ravan. Much of it is certainly myth. Some may well be based on fact, but it's inspirational and has achieved the status of Holy Writ.|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'' was recommended to me by a friend whose sense of humour is very much on a par with mine. I read it a couple of years ago and decided, on discovering that Stephen Clarke had written a couple of not-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 of Fran Sandham's solo walk across Africa, as he finally dips his toe into the Indian Ocean, you need to go back to the beginning and start again.  Lots of books make you want to do that. In this case, you actually need to: in order to fully understand the man, and so many of the things he says and does along the way. Otherwise, you're in danger of thinking this guy was a fool for even trying to attempt a solo walk across the African continent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715637673</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Christina Thompson|title=Come Move on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All|rating=4.5|genre=Travel|summary=Subtitled ''an unlikely love story'', this was an interesting and inspiring memoir written by an American academic, who met and fell in love with a Maori - and what a beautiful tale it tells! Referred to as a 'contact' encounter (i.e., chance meeting) it sounds almost like a fairy tale, and in part it is - but a fairy tale which includes huge amount of hard work too.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747582521</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nicola J Watson |title=The Literary Tourist|rating=3.5|genre=Travel|summary=''As our resident travel writer this might interest you…'' came my introduction to this book. Misguidedly as it turned out, for the emphasis in Watson's work is much more heavily on the ''literary'' than on the ''tourist''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230210929</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Trivia Reviews]]