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 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

|genre=SportTravel|summary=It I was pure serendipity: after a fivebrought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-hour drive we wererighted wanderlust and curiosity. Unfortunately, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottageI didn't inherit what Dr. There Stephen Fabes clearly had which was an art exhibition in the church hall, so we went in - guts to simply go out and found a display of the most gorgeous picturesdo it. Ialso didn'd cheerfully t inherit the kind of steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and basic practicality that would have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought meant that I would have to make do survived if I had been gifted with a couple of greetings cards when I saw the requisite 'bottle'On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'. In order words I' m not the sort of person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and I couldn't resist buying itnot come home for six years. Fabes did precisely that.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095444003X</amazonuk>1788161211

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=S Morris and N GrueningerRob Baker|title=In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIIIToubab Tales: The visitor's companion to the palaces, castles & houses associated with Henry VIII's iconic queensJoys and Trials of Expat Life in Africa|rating= 54|genre= HistoryTravel|summary= It was inevitable that each ''"Go to Mali," they said. "The music is amazing," they said. "And you get ten hours of the six wives of Henry VIII would have left their mark in some way on the places they lived and visitedsunshine every day." So I did.'' Rob Baker is an ethnomusicologist. ''A what?'' I hear you cry. This book straddles several categories; historyWell, gazetteer or guide bookan ethnomusicologist studies music in relation to culture, so rather like a folklorist studies the oral and collection of potted biographieswritten story traditions relating to a culture. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>144567114X</amazonuk>B089CSNFT7

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adrian MourbyChristine Brown|title=Rooms of One's OwnBucket Showers and Baby Goats: 50 Places That Made Literary HistoryVolunteering in West Africa

|summary= Thomas H CookIn the summer of 2008, this book's author was spending her days working in an American author valued for office job in the USA while spending her nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something else. Long story short, she ended up volunteering in Ghana, West Africa. Now coincidentally, in the quality of writing and compelling intrigues summer of his numerous thrillers2010, has written a collection of nearly thirty accounts of visits to this review's author was spending ''her'' days working in an office job (albeit in the UK) while spending ''tragic shoresher'' of the title. There is no noticeable rhyme or reason to the order of presentationnights dreaming about being somewhere else, apart from the lastdoing something else, and the most personal tale which links the travel report to the author's personal loss of his wife and long-time travel companion'she'' ended up just 3 countries away, who features volunteering in many of the chaptersSierra Leone, West Africa. So you can see why, as does the couple's daughterwhen this book came up, but they all said reviewer was delighted to have the pertain opportunity to Cook's visits to what he describes as ''the saddest places on Earth''read and critique it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184916326X</amazonuk>171024299X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tim MooreMourby_Rooms|title=Rooms with a View: The Cyclist Who Went Out in the Cold: Adventures Along the Iron Curtain TrailSecret Life of Great Hotels|author=Adrian Mourby

|summary= One Adrian Mourby has given us a flying visit to each of fifty grand hotels, from fourteen regions of the results I find from travel documentariesworld, often on TV but also with the hotels in book form, is the verdict 'each section being arranged chronologically rather him than me' (and it generally is a he). Yesby region, I'd like which helps to go there and see give something of an overall picture. So what hemakes a hotel 's seen, but Igrand'm damned if I would risk the danger, the potential consequences and/or the effort the whole experience required. This book is the epitome of that, for as much as I love most of the twenty countries it hits on – give me a chance, I? The first hotel to call itself 've not quite been to them all – I wouldngrand't countenance making this exact was in Covent Garden in 1774 and exacting trip. A couple of years ago, those in the know somewhere it ushered in an office deemed the route beginning of the entire old Iron Curtain – the fringe of the Soviet Union, plus Romania, Bulgaria etc – to a period when a hotel would be a pan-continental biking routelifestyle choice rather than a refuge for those without friends and family conveniently nearby. With the news that he can dismiss other attempts The hotels we visit all began life in different circumstances and still have each faced a claim to being different set of challenges. We begin in the first person Americas, move to clock the whole mammoth tripUnited Kingdom, our gutsy author undertakes it allcircumnavigate Europe, briefly visit Russia and thus surveys a scar across the entire continent to see if it's still visibleTurkey then northern Africa, India and what flesh it once upon a time dividedAsia. Oh and he did Australia, 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 campsiteseems, does not go for 6,000 miles…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224100211</amazonuk>the grand.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Amelia Dalton1908745819|title=Mistress and Commander: High Jinks, High Seas and Highlanders Surfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie|rating= 3.5|genre=TravelHistory|summary= Nowadays, Amelia Dalton runs Sometimes when people suggest that you read a travel agency whichcertain book, by the look of they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, is but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn't like the book. That's a something of rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a modern version of how Thomas Cook began: excusivebook calling your name, tailor-made holidaysrarely get it wrong. In this case, cruises and expeditions all around I was told why. The blurb speaks of the world catering to those who can afford this kind author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of thingherself. ''Mistress and Commander Older. Less tethered. That''' shows how she got there: from an upper-middle class wife whose life involved landed gentry, boarding schools and county hunts s not a bad description of where I am. Add to scrubbing stinky goop from that my love of the cargo hold natural world, of those aspects of what used to be a Danish Arctic trawlerthe poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, running charters to St Kildaand substance most of all, dealing with doubtful mechanicsabout connection. Of course, lecherous skippers, and getting her own Master's ticket, by the this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way of family tragedy, martial drama and what seemed like the steepest learning curve related to marine engines one could possibly imagineme eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910985171</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Foreman1912242052|title=Travels With My SketchbookO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=43

|summary=I guess ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the best children's literature can do away with complete veracityfirst person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work, as long as it has something about it that is recognisable – a little of the spiritminer, quarryman, heart and character of the real thingshepherd or pack-horse driver, whatever it may be. And if that's the case then it definitely applies but because he wanted to children's literature illustrations, such as those provided close on two hundred times by [[:Category:Michael Foreman|Michael Foreman]]for pleasure and adventure. This prolific artist leapt at a scholarship in the US when he'd completed his official, formal studiesHis rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and it would appear – huge credits list regardless – that he's never stopped moving sinceits literary consequences, as this book takes us to all corners changed our view of the world, and back home again''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783704721</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Graham and Stephen BiestyWoolf_Great|title=Stephen Biesty's TrainsThe Great Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration|author=Jo Woolf|rating=3.5|genre=ArtHistory|summary=Trains look imposingJo 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, but true fans (little boys, usually from about three years old and upwards) want to know also given us an understanding of what lies beneath the skin which you can see. They want to know how it works. Getting is like to grips be faced with one in real life is quite a big ask, but the next best thing is ''Stephen Biesty's Trains'' which features trains from all over most terrible conditions and still have the world determination and spanning the early steam train (complete with cow catcher) right through grit to the trains of the future which can reach a speed of 430 kph and don't even run 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>