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[[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 achievements of cycled very close to home and 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 Those who have read my reviews before will know that how much I loved a book is evidenced by the number of pages with corners turned, so let me start this one with an apology to the Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot it was your book not mine. In my defence, I will say that as a journalist reader of this type of book there is something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided it is subtle – I'll allow creased corners, but not scribbles – for the BBC, author Michael Bristow decided latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about to write about Chinese historydo as soon as I have finished telling you why). Having been learning  Erligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who has walked to the local language for several yearsSouth Pole, Bristow asked his language teacher for guidance - the language teacher, born in North Pole and the early fiftiessummit of Everest. He knows a thing or two about walking. However, offered Bristow this isn't a compelling picture travelogue about any of life in Communist China - but added to thatthose epic journeys, Bristow was greatly surprised it is instead a thoughtful exploration of what it means to find that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothingwalk. It soon becomes clear that the tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a fascinating portrait plenitude of one unnumbered essays about walking. There is no 'contents' page and I haven't counted. In small format paperback, each essay is only a few pages long. Perhaps then, better thought of the world's most intriguing nationsas a meditation rather than an essay. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910985902</amazonuk>0241357705

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon JenkinsMonica Connell|title=Britain's 100 Best Railway StationsAgainst a Peacock Sky

|genre=ReferenceTravel|summary=In Monica Connell went to Nepal to do the mid twentieth century the railway was something which harked back fieldwork for her Ph.D. in social anthropology. I think it is important to the Victorian age 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't a mere tourist passing through. She went with trains being supplanted by cars a fundamental aim of learning about these people and planeshow they lived. She also went, but steam was being replaced by oilpresumably, even then and with the academic discipline of how to find these things out, how to organise them in her mind, how to "understand" them in the twenty-first century oil is giving way context of her own paradigms, and how to keep enough notes and files and photos to electricityhelp her create some greater sense of the experience after the event. It's cleanerFortunately, more environmentally friendly she also went with a sense of open-ness and the stations which we'd all rushed through as quickly as possiblecuriosity and a willingness to muck-in, keen to escape their grime, were restored break her own rules and became places to be admired, possibly even lingered in. Simon Jenkins has chosen his hundred best railway stationstruly connect with the people of the village where she hauled up.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>024197898X</amazonuk>1780600429

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Colin ThubronNicolas Bouvier|title= Mirror to DamascusThe Japanese Chronicles|rating= 4.5|genre= Travel|summary= Damascus today is It never does to start a review of a book with a monument to her pastquote from the blurb, but sometimes it's unavoidable. Le Monde reviewed this book, at some point, to all with the words ''what the people and civilisations old master craftsmen would call a masterpiece.'' It is precisely that helped shape her. In this enthusiastic piece A masterpiece in the sense of the craft as well as the art of writing. I'm going to hesitate to call it 'travel writing' because this is as much a history of Japan, Collin Thubron tells a mythology-primer for the tale of Japanese culture as it is a city that has seen empires rise personal response to living and fall, conquerors come and go and has lasted for over two thousand years. It's rich travelling in impressive history and this book is rich in impressive detailthe country.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099532298</amazonuk>1906011044

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Stuart MaconieStephen Fabes|title= Long Road From Jarrow|rating= 5|genre= Travel |summary= I cancelled my ''Country Walking'' magazine subscription about a year ago and the only thing I miss is Stuart Maconie's column. His down-to-earth approach and sharp wit belie an equally sharp intellect and a soul more sensitive than he might be willing to admit. Let's be honest, though, I picked this one up because of someone else's review, in which I spotted names like Ferryhill and Newton Aycliffe. Places I grew up in. Like Maconie I have no connection (that I know of) to the Jarrow Crusade but when he talks about it being ''a whole matrix Signs of events reducible to one word like Aberfan, Hillsborough, or Orgreave'' then somehow it does become part of my history too. Tangentially, at least.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785030531</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=John Hurst|title=On My Way: Norfolk Coastal WalksLife

|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, but true fans (little boys, usually from about three years old and upwards) want to know what lies beneath the skin which you can see. They want to know how it works. Getting to grips with one in real life is quite a big ask, but the next best thing is ''Stephen BiestyOh Joy for me!''s Trainsgives Coleridge credit for being '' which features trains from all over the world and spanning first person to walk the early steam train (complete with cow catcher) right through mountains alone, not because he had to the trains of the future which can reach for work, as a speed of 430 kph miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and don't even run on railsadventure. Once the train reaches a speed His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of 150 kph the wheels are raised and the train is held up by magnetic forces aloneworld''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783704241</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gavin FrancisWoolf_Great|title= True NorthThe Great Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration|author=Jo Woolf|rating= 3.5|genre= TravelHistory|summary=''True North'', while very much Jo Woolf has compiled a travel book in brilliant set of fifty short insights into the grand tradition lives and achievements of some amazingly brave people. Their fearless journeys have helped us unlock many of the best travel writing that combines mysteries of the trip report with the so-called background information is classified by Amazon in Cultural History and it's not as much wildest parts of a mis-classification as it could initially appear. Francisour world, a Scottish GP who ''divides his time between writing and doctoring'', starts the body proper also given us an understanding of ''True North'' what it is like to be faced with one of the best opening lines I most terrible conditions and still have the determination and grit to carry on. This book could be viewed as a taster which encourages us to seek out and read recently: ''I began to dream more about some of the North in a stinking African hospital ward''most iconic explorers. Their stories are pretty incredible and Woolf does them justice. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971306</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Peter IrvineHailstone_Berlin|title= Scotland Berlin in the BestCold War: 1959 to 1966|author=Allan Hailstone|rating= 4|genre= TravelHistory|summary= Peter Irvine's book advertises itself as 'Berlin in the Cold War: 1959-1966'The true Scot's insider's guide contains almost 200 photographs taken by author/photographer Allan Hailstone in his visits to the very best Scotland has to offer'' city during this period. The images provide an insight into the changing nature of the divide between East and has throughout its many years of existence became a bit of an institution. And no wonder. It is indeed a guide like no other West Berlin and although it's unlikely to completely fulfil anybody's guidebook needs, it will offer a unique perspective and some top-notch inspirationglimpse into life in the city during the Cold War. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007319657</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Simon BennettStewart_Marches|title= In Search of Sundance, Nessie...and ParadiseThe Marches|author=Rory Stewart|rating= 45|genre= Travel History|summary= Books are personalThe Observer quote on the front of the paperback edition of Stewart's latest book observes ''This is travel writing at its finest.'' Perhaps, but to call it 'travel writing' is to totally under-sell it. This is erudition at its finest. There are three things that signal good books Stewart has the background to medo this: how I feel while reading them he had an international upbringing and followed his father in both the Army and the enforced spaces between reading themForeign Office, the degree and then (to which I bore everyone around me for ages afterwards by quoting them and talking about themhis father's, bemusement, shall we say) became an MP. Oh, and whether I remember howhe walked 6, when and where I first read them000 miles across Afghanistan in 2002. That last criterion can only A walk along the Scottish borders should be judged later, but on the first two ''In Search of Sundance…'' definitely qualifiesa doddle by comparison.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524666173</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin TaylorBristow China|title=The Life of China in Drag: Travels with a Scilly SergeantCross-dresser|author=Michael Bristow|rating=4.5|genre=TravelAutobiography|summary=Meet the Isles of Scilly. (I know they should be called that – Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a journalist for the BBC, author provides a handy guide Michael Bristow decided to write about Chinese history. Having been learning the etiquette of their namelocal language for several years, their nature and locationBristow asked his language teacher for guidance - the language teacher, etc.) For our more distant readersborn in the early fifties, they're several chunks offered Bristow a compelling picture of granite rock out life in the AtlanticCommunist China - but added to that, where Cornwall is pointing, with just 2,200 permanent residentsBristow was greatly surprised to find that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothing. They're big on tourism, and big on growing flowers in It soon becomes clear that the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather tale told here is bad enough to turn any car to a rust bucket within years. They're so wee, and so idyllicimmensely personal -seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for yet also paints a police presence. But there is – at least two working at any one time. And fascinating portrait of one of them in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, which has brought to life all the whimsical comedy of his workworld's most intriguing nations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178475515X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=G A JonesHurst_Norfolk|title=The Cruise of NaromisOn My Way: August in the Baltic 1939Norfolk Coastal Walks|author=John Hurst

|genre=TravelArt|summary=There's braveIt was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, and there is brave. I may well left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have been born in a coastal county but certainly would baulk at the idea of setting out keys to sea with four colleagues our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in a 37'-long boat. Boats to me are like planes – the bigger the betterchurch hall, so we went in - and the safer I feel as found a result. But luckily for the purpose display of this book, George Jones was born with a much different pair of sea-legs to mine, and took to the waters of the English Channel, the North Sea and beyond in ''Naromis'' with briomost gorgeous pictures. But – I'd cheerfully have bought every one and this is where the further definition of bravery comes in – he did it in August 1939hung them on our walls, knowing full well but thought that he I would be sailing full tilt into the teeth have to make do with a couple of war.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1899262334</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Paul Thurlby|title= NY is for New York|rating= 5|genre= Emerging Readers|summary= Long gone are the days greetings cards when children didn't travel, and picture books had to be about animals. And while your pre-schoolers might not be planning solo trips to the States any time soon, itI saw 's never too early to get them and older siblings interested in other places and other cultures. 'On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'NY is for New York'' is a themed alphabet book, based around the city that never sleeps, and it's chock full of facts and figures about a city I love, teaching me many new things I didncouldn't know about a place I'm familiar with from visits and TV shows and many, many Manhattan booksresist buying it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444930311</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Duncan Gough|title= Sketches of Spain|rating= 2.5|genre= Travel|summary= I salute Duncan Gough for many things: for his spirit of adventure, his willingness to trail the backroads, his desire to document these and share them and encourage others to follow in his wheel-ruts. I love his willingness to engage with locals and fellow-travellers. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785899759</amazonuk>