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[[Category:New Reviews|Travel]]==Travel==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Sonia Faleiro|title=Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars|rating=4.5|genre=Travel|summary=In 2005, there were 1,500 dance bars in Bombay, so called because they employed women to dance to popular music. Bar dancers could earn a lot of money compared to women in other traditional female jobs outside the sex industry, such as cleaners. Many of them also slept with men for money, but because her job was dancing not sex, a bar dancer could also see herself as infinitely superior to sex workers, whether street prostitutes, those working in brothels or call girls.|amazonuk= <amazonuk!-- Remove -->0857861697</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Booth|title=Eat, Pray, Eat|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=I really enjoyed ''Eat, Pray, Love'' by Elizabeth Gilbert. Initially I thought I'd picked up a ''Me too'' variant with ''Eat, Pray Eat'' and must admit to my heart sinking. But no, here is a different personality with another story and writing style and after a few, doubting pages, I was away. This is a story of a family adventure to India, a hard!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-fought encounter with yoga, and some culinary interest thrown in. But like Elizabeth Gilbert, like most other visitors, India moved his life-view dramatically and for the better.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224089633</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mick ConefreyAlastair Humphreys|title=How to Climb Mont Blanc in a Skirt: A Handbook for the Lady AdventurerLocal|rating=45|genre=Travel|summary=Scott, Amundsen, Bleriot, Stanley Alastair Humphreys has walked and Livingstone, John Glenn, et cycled all - any child should be drummed out of school if they can't name half a dozen explorers, travel pioneers and adventurersover the world. But give them a gold star if they can name a single female entrant to history's listAnd then written about it. Hence For this book, for while some mountains have been topped by a lady first of all, he walked and some landmark achievements by the guys have been quickly followed by the gals, there is just too much ground cycled very close to be made up in recognising what the fairer sex have done in the world of, well, going round our worldhome and then wrote about it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851688412</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jasper Rees|title=Bred of Heaven: One man's quest to reclaim his Welsh roots|rating=3.5|genre=Travel|summary=Jasper Rees is a Welshman As he says in his dreams. Despite his surnameintroduction, he was born in England, but wishes he was from Wales. Seeking to find his inner Welshman – hethe book is an attempt ''s sure he has one as he had Welsh grandparents – he journeys around the land of his fathers trying to work out share what it means to be Welsh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682991</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Siddhartha Deb|title=The Beautiful and the Damned: Life in the New India|rating=4.5|genre=Travel|summary=This book immediately caught my eye with its terrific front cover. A picture says more than I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a thousand words ..small map. But I was conscious thatNature loss, as a work of non-fictionpollution, it may be full of rather dry facts land use and figures that I was going to have to plough through with grace and patience. Couple that withaccess, agriculture, in my opinionthe food system, most rewilding…'' One of the Indian writers that I have read, have in my experience been unnecessarily wordy and flowery (and exasperating) choosing to use fifteen words when one or two would be nicely. So, a little bit joys of trepidation as I open the book. The first thing to strike for me is was that the intriguing contents page. As Deb is going to concentrate on a mere handful biggest thing he learned about all of individuals I'm not going to feel bombarded by hundreds of different stories vying for space on the page. Good start.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917303</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Bond|title=Paddington's Guide to London|rating=4|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Some these things are just a brilliant idea. Young Paddington Bear has written a guide book to his adopted home in the way was that only he could do it. All his old friends there are there – Mr and Mrs Brown and their children Jonathan and Judy along with their housekeeper Mrs Bird and of course we mustnno easy answers, no single 't forget Paddingtonright or wrong's old friend Mr Gruber who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of London. So, where that every upside is Paddington planning likely to take you?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007415915</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Palin|title=Ox Travels|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Ox Travels is an anthology of travel writing compiled to raise funds have a downside for Oxfam, but it is well worth buying somebody and reading in its own right. Its generous 432 pages offer the chance to meet 36 writers, including travel writers, journalists and novelists, with an introduction by Michael Palin and an afterword by Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's Chief Executivethat there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184668496X</amazonuk>1785633678

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Karen Blixen0957181167|title=Out Of AfricaBlue Skies and Boat Trips: The Norfolk of Brian Lewis|author=Alan Marshall

|genre=AutobiographyArt|summary=It's 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 found myself looking more than closely at a quarter couple of a century since I first saw pictures on the walls - and was completely taken by the film ''Out work of Africa'' Brian Lewis. I searched online and it's one could only find ‘used’ versions of this book and the few that have stayed with me over the intervening yearsprint I wanted was ‘not available’. It wasn't just Oh, dear - then a few doors down from the storyapartment, but the personality I found a gift shop with a stack of Karen Blixen brand new books - and the wonderful landscape a framed print of the Ngong Hills, south of Nairobi, in Kenya's Rift Valley. picture I remember looking for this book at the time, but being unable to find it, so the opportunity to read it now was too good to misswanted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951437</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Wheeler1785633457|title=Access All AreasCharging Around: Selected Writings 1990-2010Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson

|summary=This is Clive Wilkinson has a great book to acquire if your general knowledge history of historical adventurers is as haphazard as minetravelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. Somewhere along As he neared his eightieth birthday the line, I'd missed out on Scott and Shackletonidea of exploring the edges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, and it's very satisfying indeed to fill those gaps from such should be a reliable informant. One brisk sectionpleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, for exampleJoan, managed to encapsulate both Antarticashouldn's history and further outlook, along with sufficient atmospheric detail to ensure we mortals understood just what t it feels like to sleep in Scott's hut during a wintry gale.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090712</amazonuk>?

 {{newreview|author=Tim Butcher|title=Chasing the Devil: On Foot Through Africa's Killing Fields|rating=4.5|genre=Travel|summary=Tim Butcher's day job from 1990 to 2009 was "journalist".  I wonder what today's school-kids imagine when they say they want to be a journalist… do they envisage writing about science, or economics, or celebrities, or do they see themselves as television reporters standing in flak jackets doing the obligatory piece-to-camera in the latest war zone? Do they even read newspapers any more? Do they realise that there are still also people out there in those war zones, without the glamour flak-jacket, just (if they're lucky) the ordinary pock-marked one, that they prefer not to wear because it's way too hot? People who still ply the classic trade of actually writing what they see and trusting that they can do it well enough for the words to stand alone without the sound effects, without (quite often) any pictures, to make it "real"?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532069</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael WilliamsMerryn Glover|title=On The Slow Train AgainHidden Fires

|summary=A few years ago Michael WilliamsIt is always about the book, not the railway expert whowriter, but there are times when the author's written for numerous newspapers and magazines on hinterland is also the background to the subject, released a book called ''On The Slow Train'' about some of Britain's best railway trips. With far too many journeys and so it is necessary to fit into one volume, he's given us a dozen more in this sequel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092857</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Gimlette|title=Wild Coast: Travels on South America's Untamed Edge|rating=4.5|genre=Travel|summary=Apart from knowing understand that it borders Venezuela, Brazil and Surinamecontext, a fact hammered into me in Year 8 Geography, I know very little about Guiana. And while you may think that's understandable, I'm not sure that it is, seeing as I read this order to appreciate the book while living just two countries over. The thing Merryn Glover is, it's a sort of tinyAustralian parentage, forgotten countrywas born in Kathmandu, isn't it? Over grew up in the years it has been involved in border disputes, has come under various nations' rule, Annapurna and has changed names more often the P Diddy, Himalayan and even after you take all that into account, now lives in Badenoch in Scotland. I bet you can't think of no-one better a single thing there combination to go and seegive us a re-appraisal of Nan Shepherds work than the first Writer in Residence in the Cairngorms National Park. Merryn walks, not so much in the shadow of Shepherd, but in her spirit. I think the two would have gotten along famously.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846682525</amazonuk>1846975751

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Yangzom Brauen and Katy DarbyshireB0B7289HKQ|title=Conversations Across Many MountainsAmerica: Three Daughters A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of TibetAmerica|author=Kari Loya

|summary=I'm a bit of an amateur photographerKari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, and since by the advent of digital cameras I always come back from holidays way) wanted to spend some time with thousands of photos, over-excited by his father and the fact that I am no longer limited period between two jobs seemed like a good time to 24 or 36 exposure films! do it. I enjoyThe decision was made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, therefore, flicking through photography booksVirginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of it - in 2015. They had 73 days to see do it - slightly less than the images recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of a challenge that have captured someone elseit would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's imagination and to see if I can pick up any interesting framing ideas, or subject settings.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685707</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Christopher Winn|title=I Never Knew That About Erligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who has walked to the South Pole, the River Thames|rating=4.5|genre=Trivia|summary=Here are North Pole and the remains summit of the building that could be said to have sired Everest. He knows a thing or two important British royal dynastiesabout walking. Here is the place of ill-reputeHowever, where this isn'Rule Britannia' was premieredt a travelogue about any of those epic journeys, and which also bizarrely saw it is instead a death by cricket ball that inspired the most famous gardens in the worldthoughtful exploration of what it means to walk. Here too It is the largest lion in the worlda plenitude of unnumbered essays about walking. To where am There is no 'contents' page and I referring? Well the answer haven't counted. In small format paperback, each essay is either the Thames valleyonly a few pages long. Perhaps then, or this very bookbetter thought of as a meditation rather than an essay.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091933579</amazonuk>0241357705

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Roland HuntfordMonica Connell|title=Race for the South Pole: 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 the leadership of Captain Robert Scott, while 'Fram' sailed with Against a rival Norwegian expedition led 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>}} {{newreview|author=Aatish Taseer|title=Stranger to History: A Son's Journey Through Islamic LandsPeacock Sky|rating=45

|summary=Aatish Taseer was born of out of Monica Connell went to Nepal to do the fieldwork for her Ph.D. in social anthropology. I think it is important to know that. She went on a short week of passion between grant-supported trip, with a Sikh Indian mother and relatively specific objective. She wasn't a Pakistani Muslim fatherhippy wanderer looking for Shangri-la. The mother was She wasn't a journalist; the father mere tourist passing through. She went with a politicianfundamental aim of learning about these people and how they lived.  That week She also went, presumably, with the academic discipline of passion was how to find these things out, how to be all it wasorganise them in her mind, despite subsequent attempts at hushing up how to "understand" them in the pregnancycontext of her own paradigms, then pretending a marriage until finally a clean break was made when and how to keep enough notes and files and photos to help her create some greater sense of the experience after the boy was about 18 months oldevent. AhFortunately, but such breaks never are clean are they? There's always she also went with a certain amount sense of meddling from the sideopen-lines, ness and curiosity and then there's a child's longing willingness to know who he ismuck-in, to break her own rules and to truly connect with the people of the village where he is really fromshe hauled up.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847671314</amazonuk>1780600429

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jim PerrinNicolas Bouvier|title=West: A Journey Through the Landscapes of LossThe Japanese Chronicles|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 of the best people It never does to take you on start a tour review of Delhi. Hea book with a quote from the blurb, but sometimes it's not a native so has no in-bred partisanshipunavoidable. Le Monde reviewed this book, but he does love the place so will make sure you do tooat some point, but mainly because to begin with he HATED it… so he will understand if you donthe words ''t share his ironic good humour about what the shit squirter or old master craftsmen would call a masterpiece.'' It is precisely that. A masterpiece in the fact that sometimes sense of the craft as well as the only way art of writing. I'm going to hesitate to cross call it 'travel writing' because this is as much a history of Japan, a mythology-primer for the road Japanese culture as it is a personal response to take a rickshaw taxiliving and travelling in the country.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099526743</amazonuk>1906011044

 {{newreview|author=Brian W Pugh, Paul R Spiring and Sadru Bhanji|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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Justine HardyStephen Fabes|title=In the Valley Signs of Mist: Kashmir's Long War - One Family's Extraordinary StoryLife

|summary=KashmirI was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. Is that not Unfortunately, I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the most romantic of names? guts to simply go out and do it. To those I also didn't inherit the kind of us entranced by tales from the Eaststeady nerve, it echoes ability to talk to strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the same essence of myth as ''Shang-ri-larequisite 'bottle' – and for good reason. Geographically situated in the Himalaya but with In order words I'm not the abundant fertility sort of the valley, lakes person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and meadows, it should be a kind of paradisenot come home for six years. To the people who live there, it once wasFabes did precisely that. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846041511</amazonuk>1788161211

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael BoothRob Baker|title=Sushi Toubab Tales: The Joys and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About CookingTrials of Expat Life in Africa

|summary=''"Go to Mali," they said. "The title of this book suggests another travel book about adventure in the frozen northmusic is amazing, but Sara Wheeler mixes her tales of her own travels with some history of polar exploration and a serious examination of the impact of visitors and of those who wish to exploit the Arctic’s natural resources on the region and its people" they said. Rather than setting off on another expedition to reach the North Pole, she travels around bits "And you get ten hours of the Arctic divided between different countries and governments, including Chukotka (Russia), Alaska (USA), Canada, Greenland, Svalbard (Norway) and Lapland (Russia and Scandinavia)sunshine every day. There is a huge amount of material in the book but Wheeler organises and presents it in a very readable, accessible style" So I did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516888</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Mark Griffiths|title=The Lotus Quest|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Mark Griffiths Rob Baker is one of Britainan ethnomusicologist. 's leading plant experts. I know this because his brief biog in the front of The Lotus Quest tells me so; just as it tells me that he is the editor of The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening 'the largest work on horticulture ever publishedA what?''I hear you cry. His prior works list includes five other plant book creditsWell, three of them for the RHS. I shall take all of this on trustan ethnomusicologist studies music in relation to culture, since attempts to find out more about so rather like a folklorist studies the author oral 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 lotuswritten story traditions relating to a culture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184595100X</amazonuk>B089CSNFT7

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jason WebsterChristine Brown|title=Sacred SierraBucket Showers and Baby Goats: A Year on a Spanish MountainVolunteering in West Africa|rating=4.5

|summary=Jason Webster and his partnerIn the summer of 2008, this book's author was spending her days working in an office job in the USA while spending her nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something else. Long story short, Salud searched and bought forty acres of valley and mountainside halfway she ended up the Penyagolosa Ridge volunteering in Southern SpainGhana, West Africa. Now coincidentally, complete with two derelict sets in the summer of farm buildings. These 2010, this review's author was spending ''her'' days working in an office job (albeit in the UK) while spending ''masher''nights dreaming about being somewhere else, or smallholdingsdoing something else, 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 and ''masshe'' systemended up just 3 countries away, volunteering in Sierra Leone, West Africa. As old timers retired or diedSo you can see why, their farms were abandonedwhen this book came up, leaving most of said reviewer was delighted to have the land returning opportunity to wildread and critique it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099512947</amazonuk>171024299X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lawrence OsborneMourby_Rooms|title=Bangkok DaysRooms with a View: The Secret Life of Great Hotels|author=Adrian Mourby

|summary=Laurence Osborne Adrian Mourby has hit upon given us a bizarre way flying visit to save money on dentistry – pay for each of fifty grand hotels, from fourteen regions of the world, with the hotels in each section being arranged chronologically rather than by region, which helps to give something of an overall picture. So what makes a monthhotel 'grand'? The first hotel to call itself 'grand's rent was in Bangkok Covent Garden in 1774 and get his fillings done there, which works out cheaper it ushered in the beginning of a period when a hotel would be a lifestyle choice rather than dental insurance a refuge for those without friends and family conveniently nearby. The hotels we visit all began life in Americadifferent circumstances and each faced a different set of challenges. During We begin in the course of many visits Americas, move to Thailandthe United Kingdom, circumnavigate Europe, he meanders around Bangkokbriefly visit Russia and Turkey then northern Africa, along with various other motley foreignersIndia and Asia. Australia, passing through hospitalsit seems, brothels and mobile restaurants selling waterbugsdoes not go for the grand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535971</amazonuk>

 {{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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mathie1908745819|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>}} {{newreviewSurfacing|author=Gary Blackwood|title=The Great Race: The Amazing Round-The-World Auto Race Of 1908Kathleen Jamie

|genre=Children's Non-FictionHistory|summary=In 1908Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, Henry Fordthey tell you ''this one has your name on it''s Model T hadn. Mostly 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't yet brought cars like the book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to the masseshearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The pioneers blurb speaks of the world author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of automobiles were experimenting and discovering just what the car could do, by driving right round the worldherself.'' Older. Less tethered. Except they didnThat't want s not a bad description of where I am. Add to be pioneers. One that my love of the competitorsnatural world, Antonio Scarfoglioof those aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, put it so perfectly when he said 'We had set out to perpetuate an act and substance most of splendid follyall, not about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to open up a new way for menme eventually. We wished I am pleased to be madmen, not pioneershave it fall onto my path so quickly.' Isn't that about the best quote you've ever read?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0810994895</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dervla Murphy1912242052|title=The Island That Dared: Journeys in CubaO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=43|genre=TravelArt|summary=In her latest literary outing, ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the now elderly and increasingly opinionated travel writer and veteran cyclist Dervla Murphy describes a series of trips first person to Cuba. The opening section deals with a family trip in late 2005. Readers who have followed Dervla's books from walk the beginning will have grown up with Rachelmountains alone, the author's daughternot because he had to for work, who accompanied her on as a number of trips between the ages of five and eighteen. Now Dervla travels with Rachel and Rachel's three young daughtersminer, Clodaghquarryman, Rose and Zeashepherd or pack-horse driver, known but because he wanted to for ease throughout the book as ''the Trio''pleasure and adventure. The middle section sees Dervla return alone to spend several months trekking in places such as the Sierra del Escambray mountains His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and in the final third of the bookits literary consequences, Dervla returns to the city changed our view of Santa Clara for the commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the death of Ernesto world''Che'' Guevara.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190601146X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Buckley, Mark Ellingham and Tim JepsonWoolf_Great|title=The Rough Guide to Tuscany and Umbria|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=There's a general Rough Guide to Italy, but revisiting again this regional guide in the process Great Horizon: 50 Tales of writing up our trip to Tuscany two years ago, I was reminded of how good indeed this particular Rough Guide is. 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 - and I was extremely happy with the result.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843530554</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewExploration|author=Guy Delisle|title=Pyongyang: A Journey in North KoreaJo Woolf|rating=43.5|genre=Graphic NovelsHistory|summary=Meet Guy. He's a French-Canadian animator, leaving home for Jo Woolf has compiled a brilliant set of fifty short stay in insights into the capital lives and achievements of some amazingly brave people. Their fearless journeys have helped us unlock many of one the mysteries of the wildest parts of our world's most intriguing, unknown and alien cultures - Pyongyang, North Korea - so he can work on a TV cartoon co-production. Forced also given us an understanding of what it is like to stay in one of be faced with the three official hotels designed for foreigners, so that most terrible conditions and still have the locals determination and people such grit to carry on. This book could be viewed as he do not have a taster which encourages us to mix, he see glimpses seek out and read more about some of the unique socialist dictatorship, stunning views of the buildings forced through the poverty, most iconic explorers. Their stories are pretty incredible and thousands of unreadable facesWoolf does them justice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079905</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charley Boorman Hailstone_Berlin|title=Right to Berlin in the EdgeCold War: Sydney 1959 to Tokyo by Any Means1966|author=Allan Hailstone

|genre=TravelHistory|summary=Forgive me if I'm wrong, but there seems a ever'Berlin in the Cold War: 1959-diminishing sense of surprise with Charley Boorman1966'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 contains almost 200 photographs taken by author/photographer Allan Hailstone in his fifth trip in as many years, BBC TV crew in hand as always, and we can hardly hope for much in visits to the way of an ordeal, or doubt concerning a failurecity during this period. And, as he admits, this does feel much like The images provide an add-on for his Ireland-to-Sydney trek.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443516</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rolf Potts|title=Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to insight into the Art of Long-Term World Travel|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Rolf Potts is a travel writer as well as a bit changing nature of the divide between East and West Berlin and a backpacker guru and his book distils his experiences glimpse into life in, exactly as the title suggests, ''an uncommon guide to long-term travel''city during the Cold War. The operative word here is ''uncommon'', as ''Vagabonding'' is not really a guide as we know them, more of a pep-talk combined with a resource list.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0812992180</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marika McAdamStewart_Marches|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>}} {{newreviewThe Marches|author=Thomas Cook Publishing |title=European Rail Timetable Summer 2009Rory Stewart

|genre=TravelHistory|summary=The Observer quote on the front of the paperback edition of Stewart's latest book observes ''This volume is an absolutely essential resource for anybody travelling in Europe by traintravel writing at its finest. A compilation of all major train routes'' Perhaps, but to call it 'travel writing' is to totally under-sell it allows not only for checking train times but also planning pretty much every conceivable major journey. Theoretically, This is erudition at its finest. Stewart has the background to do this: he had an international upbringing and followed his father in both the Army and the train timetables change twice yearlyForeign Office, so itand then (to his father's worth getting , bemusement, shall we say) became an up to date bookMP. Oh, and he walked 6,000 miles across Afghanistan in 2002. A walk along the Scottish borders should be a doddle by comparison.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848481322</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Johnstone Bristow China|title=Europe on China in Drag: Travels with a Shoestring: Big Trips on Small Budgets (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides)Cross-dresser|author=Michael Bristow

|genre=TravelAutobiography|summary=''Europe on Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a Shoestring'' comes from journalist for the vast stable of Lonely Planet's travel guides and is very much aimed at BBC, author Michael Bristow decided to write about Chinese history. Having been learning the budget end of local language for several years, Bristow asked his language teacher for guidance - the market. Comparable to its nearest competitorlanguage teacher, Let's Go Europeborn in the early fifties, it's offered Bristow a onecompelling picture of life in Communist China -volume backpacker bible which attempts but added to provide 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 overview tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a fascinating portrait of a whole continent, every single country and the main destinations in each one of the countriesworld's most intriguing nations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1741045916</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pete Brown Hurst_Norfolk|title=Hops and GloryOn My Way: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British EmpireNorfolk Coastal Walks|author=John Hurst

|genre=TravelArt|summary=Being It was pure serendipity: after a beer writer can't be five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the easiest route keys to respect our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in journalism. But with this book Pete Brown has done much to counter the scepticalchurch hall, even dismissive, attitudes which must surround his trade so we went in - and its subject matterfound a display of the most gorgeous pictures. He has attempted I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to combine make do with a history couple of British imperialism greetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and the brewing industry with the comic I couldn'quest' genre of travel writingt resist buying it. 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 Doyle|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Even today, London is a remarkable compromise of the old and the new. As Alistair Duncan shows in this volume, the city of Conan Doyle and Holmes has changed – yet not changed. There have been a handful of books in the past Move on 'Holmes's London', but this is the first of its kind to place equal emphasis on places associated with the detective and his creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312500</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Trivia Reviews]]