Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Travel]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove --> <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jo WoolfAlastair Humphreys|title= The Great Horizon: 50 Tales of ExplorationLocal|rating= 3.5|genre= HistoryTravel |summary= Jo Woolf Alastair Humphreys has compiled a brilliant set of fifty short insights into walked and cycled all over the lives world. And then written about it. For this book he walked and cycled very close to home and achievements of then wrote about it. As he says in his introduction, the book is an attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some amazingly brave peoplebig issues from a year exploring a small map. Their fearless journeys have helped us unlock many Nature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, the food system, rewilding…'' One of the mysteries joys of the wildest parts book for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of our worldthese things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', and also given us an understanding of what it that every upside is like likely to be faced with the most terrible conditions and still have the determination a downside for somebody and grit to carry onthat there are some hard choices ahead. This book could |isbn=1785633678}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0957181167|title=Blue Skies and Boat Trips: The Norfolk of Brian Lewis|author=Alan Marshall|rating=5|genre=Art|summary=There are few positive things which can be viewed as said about a taster which encourages us substandard apartment when you’re on holiday but this time, in trying to seek out avoid looking at a problem I found myself looking more closely at a couple of pictures on the walls - and read more about some was completely taken by the work of Brian Lewis. I searched online and could only find ‘used’ versions of this book and the most iconic explorersprint I wanted was ‘not available’. Their stories are pretty incredible Oh, dear - then a few doors down from the apartment, I found a gift shop with a stack of brand new books - and Woolf does them justicea framed print of the picture I wanted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910985880</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adrian Mourby1785633457|title=Rooms with a ViewCharging Around: The Secret Life Exploring the Edges of Great HotelsEngland by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=45

|summary=Adrian Mourby Clive Wilkinson has given us a flying visit to each history of fifty grand hotels, from fourteen regions travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the world, with the hotels edges of England in each section being arranged chronologically rather than by region, which helps to give something of an overall pictureelectric car was not totally outrageous. So what makes a hotel 'grand'? The first hotel to call itself 'grand' was in covent Garden in 1774 and In fact, it ushered in the beginning of a period when a hotel would should be a lifestyle choice rather than a refuge pleasant holiday for those without friends and family conveniently nearby. The hotels we visit all began life in different circumstances Clive and each faced a different set of challenges. We begin in the Americashis wife, move to the United Kingdom, circumnavigate Europe, briefly visit Russia and Turkey then northern Africa, India and Asia. AustraliaJoan, shouldn't it seems, does not go for the grand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785782754</amazonuk>?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rory StewartMerryn Glover|title= The MarchesHidden Fires|rating= 5|genre= Travel|summary= The Observer quote on It is always about the book, not the front of writer, but there are times when the paperback edition of Stewartauthor's latest book observes ''This hinterland is travel writing at its finest.'' Perhaps, but also the background to call the book and so it travel writing is necessary to understand that context, in order to totally under-sell itappreciate the book. This Merryn Glover is erudition at its finestof Australian parentage, was born in Kathmandu, grew up in the Annapurna and Himalayan and now lives in Badenoch in Scotland. Stewart has I can think of no-one better a combination to give us a re-appraisal of Nan Shepherds work than the background to do this: he had an international upbringing and followed his father first Writer in Residence in both the Army and the Foreign Office, and then (to his father's, bemusement, shall we say) became an MPCairngorms National Park. Oh Merryn walks, and he walked 6not so much in the shadow of Shepherd,000 miles across Afghanistan but in 2002her spirit. A walk I think the two would have gotten along the Scottish borders should be a doddle by comparisonfamously.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099581892</amazonuk>1846975751

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=NicholsonB0B7289HKQ|title=Mr Tambourine ManConversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America|author=Kari Loya|rating=3.54|genre=LifestyleTravel|summary=Back in 1965 we heard ''Mr Tambourine Man'' Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the Byrds on way) wanted to spend some time with his father and the radio very regularlyperiod between two jobs seemed like a good time to do it. Nicholson The decision was thirteen and saw made to ride the 45rpm recording Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of the song it - in the window of the local music store and would have loved to be able to buy it but didn't have the money2015. Thirteen-year olds didn't in those They had 73 days unless to do it was a birthday or Christmas and you couldn't get a part-slightly less than the recommended time job until you - but there were fifteen. There factors which pointed this up as more of a challenge that it would be a few of those badly-paid jobs before he finished his A levels and went to New York for three monthsmost people who considered taking it on. ItMerv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's this trip which Nicholson feels turned him from being a boy into a man and allowed him to see the bigger picture.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524681822</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Michael BristowErling Kagge|title= China in DragWalking: Travels with a Cross-dresserOne Step At A Time|rating= 45|genre= Autobiography Lifestyle|summary=Having worked for nine years in Bejing as Those who have read my reviews before will know that how much I loved a journalist for book is evidenced by the BBCnumber of pages with corners turned, author Michael Bristow decided so let me start this one with an apology to write about Chinese history. Having been learning the local language for several years, Bristow asked his language teacher for guidance - the language teacher, born in the early fifties, offered Bristow a compelling picture of life in Communist China - but added to that, Bristow Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot it was greatly surprised to find that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothingyour book not mine. It soon becomes clear In my defence, I will say that the tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints as a fascinating portrait reader of one this type of the world's most intriguing nations. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910985902</amazonuk>}} <!-- Jenkins -->[[image:Jenkins_100.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/024197898X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=024197898X]] ===[[Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]], [[:Category:Art|Art]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] In the mid twentieth century the railway was book there is something which harked back to the Victorian age with trains being supplanted by cars and planes, but steam was being replaced by oil, even then and in the twenty-first century oil connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided it is giving way to electricity. Itsubtle – I's cleanerll allow creased corners, more environmentally friendly and but not scribbles – for the stations latter we must buy our own copy – which we'd all rushed through I am about to do as quickly soon as possible, keen to escape their grime, were restored and became places to be admired, possibly even lingered in. Simon Jenkins has chosen his hundred best railway stationsI have finished telling you why). [[Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins|Full Review]]<br>

{{newreview|author= Colin Thubron|title= Mirror to Damascus|rating= 4.5|genre= Travel|summary= Damascus today Erligg Kagge is a monument Norwegian explorer who has walked to her pastthe South Pole, to all the people North Pole and civilisations that helped shape herthe summit of Everest. He knows a thing or two about walking. In However, this enthusiastic piece isn't a travelogue about any of travel writingthose epic journeys, Collin Thubron tells the tale it is instead a thoughtful exploration of what it means to walk. It is a city that has seen empires rise and fall, conquerors come and go and has lasted for over two thousand yearsplenitude of unnumbered essays about walking. ItThere is no 'contents's rich in impressive history page and this book I haven't counted. In small format paperback, each essay is rich in impressive detailonly a few pages long. Perhaps then, better thought of as a meditation rather than an essay.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099532298</amazonuk>0241357705

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Stuart MaconieMonica Connell|title= Long Road From JarrowAgainst a Peacock Sky|rating= 5|genre= Travel |summary= Monica Connell went to Nepal to do the fieldwork for her Ph.D. in social anthropology. I cancelled my think it is important to know that. She went on a grant-supported trip, with a relatively specific objective. She wasn't a hippy wanderer looking for Shangri-la. She wasn'Country Walking'' magazine subscription about t a year ago and the only thing I miss is Stuart Maconie's columnmere tourist passing through. His down-to-earth approach She went with a fundamental aim of learning about these people and sharp wit belie an equally sharp intellect and a soul more sensitive than he might be willing to admithow they lived. Let's be honestShe also went, thoughpresumably, I picked this one up because with the academic discipline of someone else's reviewhow to find these things out, how to organise them in which I spotted names like Ferryhill and Newton Aycliffe. Places I grew up her mind, how to "understand" them in. Like Maconie I have no connection (that I know the context of) her own paradigms, and how to keep enough notes and files and photos to help her create some greater sense of the Jarrow Crusade but when he talks about it being ''experience after the event. Fortunately, she also went with a whole matrix sense of events reducible open-ness and curiosity and a willingness to one word like Aberfanmuck-in, Hillsborough, or Orgreave'' then somehow it does become part to break her own rules and to truly connect with the people of my history too. Tangentially, at leastthe village where she hauled up.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785030531</amazonuk>1780600429

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John HurstNicolas Bouvier|title=On My Way: Norfolk Coastal WalksThe Japanese Chronicles

|genre=SportTravel|summary=It was pure serendipity: after never does to start a review of a book with a five-hour drive we werequote from the blurb, but sometimes it's unavoidable. Le Monde reviewed this book, annoyinglyat some point, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottagewords ''what the old master craftsmen would call a masterpiece.'' It is precisely that. There was an art exhibition A masterpiece in the church hall, so we went in - and found a display sense of the most gorgeous picturescraft as well as the art of writing. I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have m going to hesitate to make do with call it 'travel writing' because this is as much a couple history of greetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' Japan, a mythology-primer for the Japanese culture as it is a personal response to living and I couldn't resist buying ittravelling in the country.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095444003X</amazonuk>1906011044

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=S Morris and N GrueningerStephen Fabes|title=In the Footsteps Signs of the Six Wives of Henry VIII: The visitor's companion to the palaces, castles & houses associated with Henry VIII's iconic queens|rating= 5|genre= History|summary= It was inevitable that each of the six wives of Henry VIII would have left their mark in some way on the places they lived and visited. This book straddles several categories; history, gazetteer or guide book, and collection of potted biographies. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>144567114X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Adrian Mourby|title=Rooms of One's Own: 50 Places That Made Literary HistoryLife|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment |summary=The debate is never-ending about how much of the author's life we can find in their pages, and what bearing every circumstance of their lot had on their output. Things perhaps are heightened when they do a Hemingway or a Greene and travel the world, but so often they have had a cause to stay in one place and write. Does that creative spirit survive in the walls and air of the room they worked in, and do those four walls, or the view, feature in the books? And does any of this really matter in admiring the great works of literature? Well, this volume itself kind of relies on that as being the case, but either way it's a real pleasure.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785781855</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Thomas H Cook|title= Tragic Shores: A Memoir Of Dark Travel|rating= 4

|summary= Thomas H Cook, an American author valued for the quality I was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of writing far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and compelling intrigues of his numerous thrillerscuriosity. Unfortunately, has written a collection of nearly thirty accounts of visits to the I didn''tragic shores'' of t inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the titleguts to simply go out and do it. There is no noticeable rhyme or reason to I also didn't inherit the order kind of presentationsteady nerve, apart from the last, and the most personal tale which links the travel report ability to talk to the author's personal loss of his wife strangers and long-time travel companion, who features in many of the chapters, as does basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the couplerequisite 's daughter, but they all the pertain to Cook's visits to what he describes as bottle'. In order words I'm not the saddest places sort of person who will get on Earth''a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years. Fabes did precisely that.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184916326X</amazonuk>1788161211

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tim MooreRob Baker|title=Toubab Tales: The Cyclist Who Went Out Joys and Trials of Expat Life in the Cold: Adventures Along the Iron Curtain TrailAfrica

|summary= One of the results I find from travel documentaries, often on TV but also in book form, is the verdict 'rather him than me' (and it generally is a he). Yes, I'd like "Go to go there and see what he's seen, but I'm damned if I would risk the dangerMali, the potential consequences and/or the effort the whole experience required" they said. This book "The music is the epitome of thatamazing, for as much as I love most " they said. "And you get ten hours of the twenty countries it hits on – give me a chance, sunshine every day." So Idid.'ve not quite been to them all – I wouldn't countenance making this exact and exacting trip Rob Baker is an ethnomusicologist. ''A couple of years agowhat?'' I hear you cry. Well, those an ethnomusicologist studies music in the know somewhere in an office deemed the route of the entire old Iron Curtain – the fringe of the Soviet Unionrelation to culture, plus Romania, Bulgaria etc – to be a pan-continental biking route. With the news that he can dismiss other attempts and still have so rather like a claim to being the first person to clock folklorist studies the whole mammoth trip, our gutsy author undertakes it all, oral and thus surveys a scar across the entire continent written story traditions relating to see if it's still visible, and what flesh it once upon a time dividedculture. Oh and he did it on a Communist-era piddly little bike, lacking in both gears and good brakes, that was designed for nothing more strenuous than conveying you around a campsite, not for 6,000 miles…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224100211</amazonuk>B089CSNFT7

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Amelia DaltonChristine Brown|title=Mistress Bucket Showers and CommanderBaby Goats: High Jinks, High Seas and Highlanders Volunteering in West Africa|rating= 34.5

|summary= NowadaysIn the summer of 2008, Amelia Dalton runs a travel agency which, by this book's author was spending her days working in an office job in the look of itUSA while spending her nights dreaming about being somewhere else, is a doing something of a modern version of how Thomas Cook began: excusiveelse. Long story short, she ended up volunteering in Ghana, tailor-made holidaysWest Africa. Now coincidentally, cruises and expeditions all around in the world catering to those who can afford summer of 2010, this kind of thing. review's author was spending 'Mistress and Commander'her'' shows how she got there: from days working in an upper-middle class wife whose life involved landed gentry, boarding schools and county hunts to scrubbing stinky goop from office job (albeit in the cargo hold of what used to be a Danish Arctic trawlerUK) while spending ''her'' nights dreaming about being somewhere else, running charters to St Kildadoing something else, dealing with doubtful mechanicsand ''she'' ended up just 3 countries away, lecherous skippersvolunteering in Sierra Leone, and getting her own Master's ticketWest Africa. So you can see why, by the way of family tragedywhen this book came up, martial drama and what seemed like said reviewer was delighted to have the steepest learning curve related opportunity to marine engines one could possibly imagineread and critique it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910985171</amazonuk>171024299X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael ForemanMourby_Rooms|title=Travels With My SketchbookRooms with a View: The Secret Life of Great Hotels|author=Adrian Mourby

|genre=ArtTravel|summary=I guess the best children's literature can do away with complete veracity, as long as it Adrian Mourby has something about it that is recognisable – given us a little flying visit to each of fifty grand hotels, from fourteen regions of the spiritworld, heart and character of with the real thinghotels in each section being arranged chronologically rather than by region, whatever it may bewhich helps to give something of an overall picture. And if thatSo what makes a hotel 's the case then it definitely applies grand'? The first hotel to childrencall itself 'grand's literature illustrations, such as 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 provided close on two hundred times by [[:Category:Michael Foreman|Michael Foreman]]without friends and family conveniently nearby. This prolific artist leapt at The hotels we visit all began life in different circumstances and each faced a scholarship different set of challenges. We begin in the US when he'd completed his officialAmericas, move to the United Kingdom, circumnavigate Europe, formal studiesbriefly visit Russia and Turkey then northern Africa, India and Asia. Australia, it would appear – huge credits list regardless – that he's never stopped moving sinceseems, as this book takes us to all corners of does not go for the world, and back home againgrand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783704721</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Graham and Stephen Biesty1908745819|title=Stephen Biesty's TrainsSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie

|summary=Trains look imposing''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work, as a miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but true fans (little boys, usually from about three years old because he wanted to for pleasure and upwards) want to know what lies beneath the skin which you can seeadventure. They want to know how it works. Getting to grips His rapturous encounters with one in real life is quite a big asktheir natural beauty, and its literary consequences, but changed our view of the next best thing is world''Stephen Biesty's Trains'' which features trains from all over .}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Woolf_Great|title=The Great Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration|author=Jo Woolf|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=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 world , and spanning the early steam train (complete also given us an understanding of what it is like to be faced with cow catcher) right through to the trains of most terrible conditions and still have the future which can reach a speed of 430 kph determination and don't even run grit to carry on rails. Once the train reaches This book could be viewed as a speed taster which encourages us to seek out and read more about some of 150 kph the wheels most iconic explorers. Their stories are raised pretty incredible and the train is held up by magnetic forces aloneWoolf does them justice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783704241</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gavin FrancisHailstone_Berlin|title= True NorthBerlin in the Cold War: 1959 to 1966|author=Allan Hailstone|rating= 54|genre= TravelHistory|summary=''True North'', while very much a travel book Berlin in the grand tradition of the best travel writing that combines the trip report with the soCold War: 1959-called background information is classified 1966'' contains almost 200 photographs taken by Amazon author/photographer Allan Hailstone in Cultural History and it's not as much of a mis-classification as it could initially appear. Francis, a Scottish GP who ''divides his time between writing and doctoring'', starts visits to the body proper of ''True North'' with one of city during this period. The images provide an insight into the best opening lines I have read recently: ''I began to dream changing nature of the North divide between East and West Berlin and a glimpse into life in a stinking African hospital ward''the city during the Cold War. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971306</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Peter IrvineStewart_Marches|title= Scotland the BestThe Marches|author=Rory Stewart|rating= 45|genre= TravelHistory|summary= Peter IrvineThe Observer quote on the front of the paperback edition of Stewart's latest book advertises itself as observes ''The true ScotThis is travel writing at its finest.'s insider's guide Perhaps, but to the very best Scotland has to offercall it 'travel writing' and is to totally under-sell it. This is erudition at its finest. Stewart has throughout its many years of existence became a bit of the background to do this: he had an institution. And no wonder. It is indeed a guide like no other international upbringing and followed his father in both the Army and the Foreign Office, and although it's unlikely then (to completely fulfil anybodyhis father's guidebook needs, it will offer bemusement, shall we say) became an MP. Oh, and he walked 6,000 miles across Afghanistan in 2002. A walk along the Scottish borders should be a unique perspective and some top-notch inspirationdoddle by comparison. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007319657</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Simon BennettBristow China|title= In Search of Sundance, Nessie...and ParadiseChina in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser|author=Michael Bristow|rating= 4|genre= Travel Autobiography|summary= Books are personal. There are three things that signal good books to me: how I feel while reading them and Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a journalist for the enforced spaces between reading themBBC, author Michael Bristow decided to write about Chinese history. Having been learning the degree to which I bore everyone around me local language for ages afterwards by quoting them and talking about themseveral years, and whether I remember howBristow asked his language teacher for guidance - the language teacher, when and where I first read them. That last criterion can only be judged laterborn in the early fifties, offered Bristow a compelling picture of life in Communist China - but on added to that, Bristow was greatly surprised to find that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothing. It soon becomes clear that the first two ''In Search tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a fascinating portrait of one of Sundance…'the world' definitely qualifiess most intriguing nations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524666173</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin TaylorHurst_Norfolk|title=The Life of a Scilly SergeantOn My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks|author=John Hurst|rating=4.5|genre=TravelArt|summary=Meet the Isles of Scilly. (I know they should be called that – the author provides It was pure serendipity: after a handy guide to the etiquette of their namefive-hour drive, their nature and locationwe were, etc.) For our more distant readersannoyingly, they're several chunks of granite rock out left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, with just 2,200 permanent residentskeys to our holiday cottage. They're big on tourism, and big on growing flowers There was an art exhibition in the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather is bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within years. They're so weechurch hall, and so idyllicwe went in -seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for and found a police presencedisplay of the most gorgeous pictures. But there is – at least two working at any I'd cheerfully have bought every one time. And one of and hung them in recent years has been Colin Tayloron our walls, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining but thought that I would have to make do with a well-known online existence, which has brought to life all the whimsical comedy couple of his workgreetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and I couldn't resist buying it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178475515X</amazonuk>