Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Travel]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove --><!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{Frontpage|author=Alastair Humphreys|title=Local|rating=5|genre=Travel |summary= Alastair Humphreys has walked and cycled all over the world. And then written about it. For this book he walked and 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 big issues from a year exploring a small map. Nature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, the food system, rewilding…'' One of the joys of the book for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', that every upside is likely to have a downside for somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead.|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 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 closely at a couple of pictures on the walls - and was completely taken by the work of Brian Lewis. I searched online and could only find ‘used’ versions of this book and the print I wanted was ‘not available’. Oh, dear - then a few doors down from the apartment, I found a gift shop with a stack of brand new books - and a framed print of the picture I wanted.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1785633457|title=Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, Joan, shouldn't it?}}{{Frontpage|author=Merryn Glover|title=The Hidden Fires|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary= It is always about the book, not the writer, but there are times when the author's hinterland is also the background to the book and so it is necessary to understand that context, in order to appreciate the book. Merryn Glover is of Australian parentage, was born in Kathmandu, grew up in the Annapurna and Himalayan and now lives in Badenoch in Scotland. I can think of no-one better a combination to give 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.|isbn=1846975751}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0B7289HKQ|title=Conversations 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=4|genre=Travel|summary=Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the way) wanted to spend some time with his father and the period between two jobs seemed like a good time to do it. The decision was made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of it - in 2015. They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of a challenge that it would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's.}}{{Frontpage|author=Erling Kagge|title=Walking: One Step At A Time|rating=5|genre= Lifestyle|summary= 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 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 latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about to do as soon as I have finished telling you why).

{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--><!-- Potts -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1501329413.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/ISBN/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Souvenir (Object Lessons) by Rolf Potts]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] I know a lot about the subject of this book – although please don't think for one minute that Erligg Kagge is akin to a boast that I could have written it; far from it. But I too have a mountain of souvenirs here and there. They come in five kinds, don't you know – including a miniature version of what you've been to see (my porcelain Field of Miracles from Pisa, that Norwegian explorer who has long since lost its miraculous ability walked to act as both memento and leaning hygrometer); pictorial representation, such as postcards (oh so many postcards); and physical bits of the place (a particularly Klimtian bit of stone found on a beach on Jersey only this autumn past). I am such a collector of souvenirs I get narked when I go to a place such as a cathedral and all that's on offer is religious product and nothing branded with the siteSouth Pole, which is rich considering the whole souvenir industry came from religion North Pole and religious pilgrimage in the first place – you only need consider that in buying a souvenir you're trying to take a bit summit of its source home with you, and for that very reason people sought Everest. He knows a continuance of some kind of holiness via religious artefactthing or two about walking. You only need consider it, I sayHowever, but rest assured all that history and everything else has been considered in the making of this wonderful book. [[Souvenir (Object Lessons) by Rolf Potts|Full Review]] <!-- Woolf -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Woolf_Great.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1910985880?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1910985880]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Great Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration by Jo Woolf]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] Jo Woolf has compiled isn't a brilliant set travelogue about any of fifty short insights into the lives and achievements of some amazingly brave people. Their fearless those epic journeys have helped us unlock many of the mysteries of the wildest parts of our world, and also given us an understanding it is instead a thoughtful exploration of what it is like means to be faced with the most terrible conditions and still have the determination and grit to carry onwalk. This book could be viewed as It is a taster which encourages us to seek out and read more plenitude of unnumbered essays about some of the most iconic explorerswalking. Their stories are pretty incredible and Woolf does them justice. [[The Great Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration by Jo Woolf|Full Review]] <!-- Mourby -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Mourby_Rooms.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785782754?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785782754]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Rooms with a View: The Secret Life of Great Hotels by Adrian Mourby]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:History|History]] Adrian Mourby has given us a flying visit to 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 hotel There is no 'grandcontents'? The first hotel to call itself page and I haven'grand' 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 without friends and family conveniently nearbyt counted. The hotels we visit all began life in different circumstances and In small format paperback, each faced essay is only a different set of challengesfew pages long. We begin in the Americas, move to the United Kingdom, circumnavigate Europe, briefly visit Russia and Turkey Perhaps then northern Africa, India and Asia. Australia, it seems, does not go for the grand. [[Rooms with better thought of as a View: The Secret Life of Great Hotels by Adrian Mourby|Full Review]] <!-- Stewart -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Stewart_Marches.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.comeditation rather than an essay.uk/gp/product/0099581892?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0099581892]]  | styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|0241357705===[[The Marches by Rory Stewart]]===}} [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:History|History]]Frontpage The 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. Stewart has the background to do this: he had an international upbringing and followed his father in both the Army and the Foreign Office, and then (to his father's, 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 doddle by comparison. [[The Marches by Rory Stewart|Full Review]] <!-- Nicholson -->author=Monica Connell|-| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Against a Peacock Sky[[image:Nicholson_Tambourine.jpg|left|linkrating=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1524681822?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1524681822]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|Travel===[[Mr Tambourine Man by Nicholson]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] Back in 1965 we heard ''Mr Tambourine Man'' by the Byrds on the radio very regularly. Nicholson was thirteen and saw the 45rpm recording of the song in the window of the local music store and would have loved Monica Connell went to be able Nepal to buy it but didn't have do the moneyfieldwork for her Ph.D. Thirteen-year olds didn't in those days unless social anthropology. I think it was a birthday or Christmas and you couldn't get a part-time job until you were fifteenis important to know that. There would be She went on a few of those badlygrant-paid jobs before he finished his A levels and went to New York for three months. It's this supported trip which Nicholson feels turned him from being a boy into a man and allowed him to see the bigger picture. <!-- Bristow -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Bristow China.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1910985902?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1910985902]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[China in Drag: Travels , with a Cross-dresser by Michael Bristow]]=== [[image:4starrelatively specific objective.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] Having worked for nine years in Bejing as She wasn't a journalist hippy wanderer looking for the BBC, author Michael Bristow decided 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 Shangri- but added to that, Bristow was greatly surprised to find that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothingla. It soon becomes clear that the tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints She wasn't a fascinating portrait of one of the world's most intriguing nationsmere tourist passing through. [[China in Drag: Travels She went with a Cross-dresser by Michael Bristow|Full Review]] <!-- Jenkins -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jenkins_100fundamental aim of learning about these people and how they lived.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/024197898X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=024197898X]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]]She also went, [[:Category:Art|Art]]presumably, [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] In the mid twentieth century the railway was 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 is giving way academic discipline of how to electricity. It's cleanerfind these things out, more environmentally friendly and the stations which we'd all rushed through as quickly as possible, keen how to escape their grimeorganise them in her mind, were restored and became places how to be admired, possibly even lingered in. Simon Jenkins has chosen his hundred best railway stations. [[Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins|Full Review]] <!-- Hailstone -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;understand"|[[image:Hailstone_Berlin.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1445672901?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1445672901]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Berlin them in the Cold War: 1959 to 1966 by Allan Hailstone]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]]context of her own paradigms, [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] ''Berlin in the Cold War: 1959-1966'' contains almost 200 photographs taken by author / photographer Allan Hailstone in his visits and how to the city during this period. The images provide an insight into the changing nature of the divide between East keep enough notes and West Berlin files and a glimpse into life in photos to help her create some greater sense of the city during experience after the Cold War. [[Berlin in the Cold War: 1959 to 1966 by Allan Hailstone|Full Review]] <!-- Taylor -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:aylor_Scilly.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.coevent.uk/dp/178475515X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]]Fortunately, [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Meet the Isles of Scilly. (I know they should be called that – the author provides she also went with a handy guide to the etiquette sense of their name, their nature open-ness and location, etc.) For our more distant readers, they're several chunks of granite rock out in the Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, with just 2,200 permanent residents. They're big on tourism, curiosity and big on growing flowers in the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather is bad enough to turn any car a willingness to a rust bucket within years. They're so wee, and so idyllicmuck-seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for a police presence. But there is – at least two working at any one time. And 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 break her own rules and to truly connect with the whimsical comedy people of his workthe village where she hauled up. [[The Life of a Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor|Full Review]]isbn=1780600429 |}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Stuart MaconieNicolas Bouvier|title= Long Road From JarrowThe Japanese Chronicles|rating= 5|genre= Travel |summary= I cancelled my ''Country Walking'' magazine subscription about It never does to start a review of a book with a year ago and quote from the only thing I miss is Stuart Maconieblurb, but sometimes it's columnunavoidable. His down-to-earth approach and sharp wit belie an equally sharp intellect and Le Monde reviewed this book, at some point, with the words ''what the old master craftsmen would call a soul more sensitive than he might be willing to admitmasterpiece. 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 AycliffeIt is precisely that. Places I grew up A masterpiece inthe sense of the craft as well as the art of writing. Like Maconie I have no connection (that I know of) 'm going to hesitate to the Jarrow Crusade but when he talks about call it being 'travel writing'because this is as much a whole matrix history of events reducible to one word like AberfanJapan, Hillsborough, or Orgreave'' then somehow a mythology-primer for the Japanese culture as it does become part of my history too. Tangentially, at leastis a personal response to living and travelling in the country.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785030531</amazonuk>1906011044

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John HurstStephen Fabes|title=On My Way: Norfolk Coastal WalksSigns of Life

|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

<!-- Morris -->[[image:Morris_FootstepsRob Baker is an ethnomusicologist.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/144567114X''A what?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=144567114X]] ===[[In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII: The visitor's companion to the palaces, castles & houses associated with Henry VIII's iconic queens by S Morris and N Grueninger]]=== [[image:5starI hear you cry.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]]Well, [[:Category:Travel|Travel]]an ethnomusicologist studies music in relation to culture, [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] It was inevitable that each of so rather like a folklorist studies the six wives of Henry VIII would have left their mark in some way on the places they lived oral and visited. This book straddles several categories; it is part history, part gazetteer or guide book, and also written story traditions relating to a collection of potted biographiesculture. [[In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII: The visitor's companion to the palaces, castles & houses associated with Henry VIII's iconic queens by S Morris and N Grueninger|Full Review]]<br> <br> <br>isbn=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

|genre=Entertainment Travel|summary=The debate is never-ending about how much In the summer of the author2008, this book's life we can find author was spending her days working in an office job in their pagesthe USA while spending her nights dreaming about being somewhere else, and what bearing every circumstance of their lot had on their outputdoing something else. Things perhaps are heightened when they do a Hemingway or a Greene and travel the worldLong story short, but so often they have had a cause to stay she ended up volunteering in one place and writeGhana, West Africa. Does that creative spirit survive Now coincidentally, in the walls and air summer of 2010, this review's author was spending ''her'' days working in an office job (albeit in the room they worked inUK) while spending ''her'' nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something else, and do those four walls''she'' ended up just 3 countries away, volunteering in Sierra Leone, or the viewWest Africa. So you can see why, feature in the books? And does any of when this really matter in admiring the great works of literature? Wellbook came up, this volume itself kind of relies on that as being said reviewer was delighted to have the case, but either way opportunity to read and critique it's a real pleasure.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785781855</amazonuk>171024299X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Thomas H CookMourby_Rooms|title= Tragic ShoresRooms with a View: A Memoir Of Dark TravelThe Secret Life of Great Hotels|author=Adrian Mourby|rating= 4

|summary= Thomas H Cook, an American author valued for the quality of writing and compelling intrigues of his numerous thrillers, Adrian Mourby has written given us a collection flying visit to each of nearly thirty accounts fifty grand hotels, from fourteen regions of visits the world, with the hotels in each section being arranged chronologically rather than by region, which helps to the give something of an overall picture. So what makes a hotel 'grand'tragic shores? The first hotel to call itself 'grand' 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 without friends and family conveniently nearby. The hotels we visit all began life in different circumstances and each faced a different set of challenges. We begin in the title. There is no noticeable rhyme or reason Americas, move to the order of presentationUnited Kingdom, apart from the lastcircumnavigate Europe, briefly visit Russia and the most personal tale which links the travel report to the author's personal loss of his wife Turkey then northern Africa, India and long-time travel companionAsia. Australia, who features in many of the chaptersit seems, as does not go for the couple's daughter, but they all the pertain to Cook's visits to what he describes as ''the saddest places on Earth''grand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916326X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1908745819|title=Surfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie|rating=5|genre=History|summary=Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn't like the book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the authorconsidering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the natural world, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1912242052|title=O Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=3|genre=Art|summary=Tim Moore''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 because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of the world''.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Woolf_Great|title=The Cyclist Who Went Out 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 also given us an understanding of what it is like to be faced with the most terrible conditions and still have the determination and grit to carry on. This book could be viewed as a taster which encourages us to seek out and read more about some of the most iconic explorers. Their stories are pretty incredible and Woolf does them justice.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Hailstone_Berlin|title=Berlin in the ColdWar: Adventures Along the Iron Curtain Trail1959 to 1966|author=Allan Hailstone

|genre=TravelHistory|summary= One of the results I find from travel documentaries, often on TV but also ''Berlin in book form, is the verdict Cold War: 1959-1966'rather him than me' (and it generally is a he)contains almost 200 photographs taken by author/photographer Allan Hailstone in his visits to the city during this period. Yes, I'd like to go there and see what he's seen, but I'm damned if I would risk The images provide an insight into the danger, changing nature of the potential consequences divide between East and West Berlin and/or a glimpse into life in the effort city during the whole experience requiredCold War. This book is }}{{Frontpage|isbn=Stewart_Marches|title=The Marches|author=Rory Stewart|rating=5|genre=History|summary=The Observer quote on the epitome front of that, for as much as I love most the paperback edition of the twenty countries it hits on – give me a chance, IStewart's latest book observes 've not quite been to them all – I wouldn't countenance making this exact and exacting tripThis is travel writing at its finest. A couple of years ago'' Perhaps, those in the know somewhere in an office deemed the route of the entire old Iron Curtain – the fringe of the Soviet Union, plus Romania, Bulgaria etc – but to call it 'travel writing' is to be a pantotally under-continental biking routesell it. This is erudition at its finest. With Stewart has the news that background to do this: he can dismiss other attempts had an international upbringing and still have a claim to being followed his father in both the first person to clock Army and the whole mammoth trip, our gutsy author undertakes it allForeign Office, and thus surveys a scar across the entire continent then (to see if ithis father's still visible, and what flesh it once upon a time dividedbemusement, shall we say) became an MP. Oh , and he did it on walked 6,000 miles across Afghanistan in 2002. A walk along the Scottish borders should be a doddle by comparison.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Bristow China|title=China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser|author=Michael Bristow|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a Communistjournalist for the BBC, author Michael Bristow decided to write about Chinese history. Having been learning the local language for several years, Bristow asked his language teacher for guidance -era piddly little bikethe language teacher, lacking born in both gears and good brakesthe early fifties, offered Bristow a compelling picture of life in Communist China - but added to that , Bristow was designed for nothing more strenuous than conveying you around greatly surprised to find that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothing. It soon becomes clear that the tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a campsite, not for 6,000 miles…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224100211</amazonuk>fascinating portrait of one of the world's most intriguing nations.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Amelia DaltonHurst_Norfolk|title=Mistress and CommanderOn My Way: High Jinks, High Seas and Highlanders Norfolk Coastal Walks|author=John Hurst|rating= 3.54|genre=TravelArt|summary= Nowadays, Amelia Dalton runs It was pure serendipity: after a travel agency whichfive-hour drive, by the look of it, is a something of a modern version of how Thomas Cook began: excusivewe were, tailor-made holidaysannoyingly, cruises and expeditions all around left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the world catering keys to those who can afford this kind of thingour holiday cottage. ''Mistress and Commander''' shows how she got there: from There was an upperart exhibition in the church hall, so we went in -middle class wife whose life involved landed gentry, boarding schools and county hunts to scrubbing stinky goop from found a display of the cargo hold of what used to be a Danish Arctic trawlermost gorgeous pictures. I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, running charters but thought that I would have to St Kilda, dealing make do with doubtful mechanics, lecherous skippers, a couple of greetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and getting her own MasterI couldn's ticket, by the way of family tragedy, martial drama and what seemed like the steepest learning curve related to marine engines one could possibly imaginet resist buying it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910985171</amazonuk>

<!-- Foreman -->[[image:Foreman_Travel.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1783704721?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1783704721]] ===[[Travels With My Sketchbook by Michael Foreman]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Art|Art]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] I guess the best children's literature can do away with complete veracity, as long as it has something about it that is recognisable – a little of the spirit, heart and character of the real thing, whatever it may be. And if that's the case then it definitely applies to children's literature illustrations, such as those provided close Move on two hundred times by [[:Category:Michael Foreman|Michael Foreman]]. This prolific artist leapt at a scholarship in the US when he'd completed his official, formal studies, and it would appear – huge credits list regardless – that he's never stopped moving since, as this book takes us to all corners of the world, and back home again. [[Travels With My Sketchbook by Michael Foreman|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Biesty -->[[image:Biesty Trains.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1783704241?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1783704241]] ===[[Stephen Biesty's Trains by Ian Graham and Stephen Biesty]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Newest Trivia Reviews]] [[:Category:Art|Art]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Children's Non-Fiction|Children's Non-Fiction]] 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 Biesty's Trains'' which features trains from all over the world and spanning the early steam train (complete with cow catcher) right through to the trains of the future which can reach a speed of 430 kph and don't even run on rails. Once the train reaches a speed of 150 kph the wheels are raised and the train is held up by magnetic forces alone. [[Stephen Biesty's Trains by Ian Graham and Stephen Biesty|Full Review]]<br> {{newreview|author= Gavin Francis|title= True North|rating= 5|genre= Travel|summary=''True North'', while very much a travel book in the grand tradition of the best travel writing that combines the trip report with the so-called background information is classified by Amazon 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 the body proper of ''True North'' with one of the best opening lines I have read recently: ''I began to dream of the North in a stinking African hospital ward''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971306</amazonuk>}}