Difference between revisions of "Newest Travel Reviews"

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==Travel==
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Alastair Humphreys
 
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|title=Local
{{newreview
 
|author=Gary Blackwood
 
|title=The Great Race: The Amazing Round-The-World Auto Race Of 1908
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|genre=Travel
|summary=In 1908, Henry Ford's Model T hadn't yet brought cars to the masses. The pioneers of the world of automobiles were experimenting and discovering just what the car could do, by driving right round the world. Except they didn't want to be pioneers. One of the competitors, Antonio Scarfoglio, put it so perfectly when he said ''We had set out to perpetuate an act of splendid folly, not to open up a new way for men. We wished to be madmen, not pioneers.'' Isn't that about the best quote you've ever read?
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|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0810994895</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1785633678
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0957181167
|author=Dervla Murphy
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|title=Blue Skies and Boat Trips: The Norfolk of Brian Lewis
|title=The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba
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|author=Alan Marshall
|rating=4
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|rating=5
|genre=Travel
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|genre=Art
|summary=In her latest literary outing, the now elderly and increasingly opinionated travel writer and veteran cyclist Dervla Murphy describes a series of trips to Cuba. The opening section deals with a family trip in late 2005. Readers who have followed Dervla's books from the beginning will have grown up with Rachel, the author's daughter, who accompanied her on a number of trips between the ages of five and eighteen. Now Dervla travels with Rachel and Rachel's three young daughters, Clodagh, Rose and Zea, known for ease throughout the book as ''the Trio''. The middle section sees Dervla return alone to spend several months trekking in places such as the Sierra del Escambray mountains, and in the final third of the book, Dervla returns to the city of Santa Clara for the commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the death of Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara.
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|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190601146X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1785633457
|author=Jonathan Buckley, Mark Ellingham and Tim Jepson
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|title=Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car
|title=The Rough Guide to Tuscany and Umbria
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|author=Clive Wilkinson
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=There's a general Rough Guide to Italy, but revisiting again this regional guide in the process 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.
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|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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843530554</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Merryn Glover
|author=Guy Delisle
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|title=The Hidden Fires
|title=Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
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|rating=5
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Meet Guy.  He's a French-Canadian animator, leaving home for a short stay in the capital of one of the world's most intriguing, unknown and alien cultures - Pyongyang, North Korea - so he can work on a TV cartoon co-production.  Forced to stay in one of the three official hotels designed for foreigners, so that the locals and people such as he do not have to mix, he see glimpses of the unique socialist dictatorship, stunning views of the buildings forced through the poverty, and thousands of unreadable faces.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079905</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Charley Boorman
 
|title=Right to the Edge: Sydney to Tokyo by Any Means
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=Forgive me if I'm wrong, but there seems a ever-diminishing sense of surprise with Charley Boorman's continuing adventuresOne hopes at least they started with very daring, courageous, envelope-pushing exploits, where we might have doubted his successNow he's on his fifth trip in as many years, BBC TV crew in hand as always, and we can hardly hope for much in the way of an ordeal, or doubt concerning a failureAnd, as he admits, this does feel much like an add-on for his Ireland-to-Sydney trek.
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|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 bookMerryn Glover is of Australian parentage, was born in Kathmandu, grew up in the Annapurna and Himalayan and now lives in Badenoch in ScotlandI 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 spiritI think the two would have gotten along famously.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443516</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1846975751
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=B0B7289HKQ
|author=Rolf Potts
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|title=Conversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America
|title=Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel
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|author=Kari Loya
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=Rolf Potts is a travel writer as well as a bit of a backpacker guru and his book distils his experiences in, exactly as the title suggests, ''an uncommon guide to long-term travel''. 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.
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|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0812992180</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Erling Kagge
|author=Marika McAdam
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|title=Walking: One Step At A Time
|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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Thomas Cook Publishing
 
|title=European Rail Timetable Summer 2009
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
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|genre= Lifestyle
|summary=This volume is an absolutely essential resource for anybody travelling in Europe by train. A compilation of all major train routes, it allows not only for checking train times but also planning pretty much every conceivable major journey. Theoretically, the train timetables change twice yearly, so it's worth getting an up to date book.
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|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).
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848481322</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Erligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who has walked to the South Pole, the North Pole and the summit of Everest. He knows a thing or two about walking. However, this isn't a travelogue about any of those epic journeys, it is instead a thoughtful exploration of what it means to walk. It is a plenitude of 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 as a meditation rather than an essay.
|author=Sarah Johnstone
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|isbn=0241357705
|title=Europe on a Shoestring: Big Trips on Small Budgets (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=''Europe on a Shoestring'' comes from the vast stable of Lonely Planet's travel guides and is very much aimed at the budget end of the market. Comparable to its nearest competitor, Let's Go Europe, it's a one-volume backpacker bible which attempts to provide the overview of a whole continent, every single country and the main destinations in each of the countries.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1741045916</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Monica Connell
|author=Pete Brown
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|title=Against a Peacock Sky
|title=Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British Empire
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Being a beer writer can't be the easiest route to respect in journalism. But with this book Pete Brown has done much to counter the sceptical, even dismissive, attitudes which must surround his trade and its subject matter. He has attempted to combine a history of British imperialism and the brewing industry with the comic 'quest' genre of travel writing.
 
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
 
|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 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>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lucy Wadham
 
|title=The Secret Life of France
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=I'm rather at a loss to describe this book for you, and I'm still uncertain how to categorise it.  It's part personal memoir and part analytical. Whether you regard this particular mix as brilliant or irritating is down, I suppose, to personal taste and intellectual curiosity.
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|summary= 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 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 a fundamental aim of learning about these people and how they lived. She also went, presumably, with the academic discipline of how to find these things out, how to organise them in her mind, how to "understand" them in the context of her own paradigms, and how to keep enough notes and files and photos to help her create some greater sense of the experience after the event. Fortunately, she also went with a sense of open-ness and curiosity and a willingness to muck-in, to break her own rules and to truly connect with the people of the village where she hauled up.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571236111</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1780600429
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Nicolas Bouvier
|author=Tim Fitzhigham 
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|title=The Japanese Chronicles
|title=All at Sea: One Man. One Bathtub. One Very Bad Idea: Conquering the Channel in a Piece of Plumbing
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Once more my life is made easy by saying this book does just what it claims on the cover - takes a narrator of zesty, wacky humour, throws him into an unlikely situation (a bath) and gets him to do something unusual (row it across the Channel - and then beyond).  This despite the fact he was the world's worst sculler at University.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090269</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Keith Miller
 
|title=St Peter's (Wonders of the World)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=It is huge: not only in space but in time and structure; and in the non-material sphere of the complex interplay of meanings, symbols and significances. Miller's book, intentionally combining cultural and political history, art criticism and travel writing, manages to reflect that hugeness without weighting the reader down with too much austere detail.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861979088</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Guy Delisle
 
|title=Burma Chronicles
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=What we have here are a male househusband and artist, and his MSF doctor wife, and their life in Burma or Myanmar for roughly a year.  We get to see the life in the country, from the racks of bootleg software, to the animation class he leads, to their efforts to get into the lush country clubs, to their baby being adored by every passing girl.  We see the state of the country, with its horrid drugs, HIV/AIDS and malaria problems, hidden beyond the gentle Buddhist retreats.  We see the Delisles' interaction with this singular country - the censored press, and the fact that their road is only made more busy because of the roadblock diverting everyone away from Aung San Suu Kyi's house a block away.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087711</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Iain McCalman
 
|title=Darwin's Armada: Four Voyagers to the Southern Oceans and Their Battle for the Theory of Evolution
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=A look at Darwin's journey on The Beagle, as well as journeys by Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallace. Darwin's Armada provides a broad overview that strikes a different tone to other books in a crowded market. Casual readers who usually steer clear of non-fiction will enjoy it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737266X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Patrick Wright
 
|title=A Journey Through Ruins: The Last Days of London
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=My good mood evaporated when Sue, my Bookbag partner, asked me if I'd read and review A Journey Through Ruins. She was right to ask because Thatcher's Britain is certainly an area of interest to me. The thing is, times are depressing enough. Margaret Hilda's neo-liberal legacy is crashing around us. Jobless queues are lengthening. Roofs are disappearing from over people's heads. The rampant cronyism and venal nature of our economic and political elites are slowly exposing themselves in ways likely to send my blood pressure soaring.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199541949</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Grann
 
|title=The Lost City of Z: A Legendary British Explorer's Deadly Quest to Uncover the Secrets of the Amazon
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=For Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Fawcett there was more to the Amazonian jungle than El Dorado.  His target was a treasure of a different nature – a lost city to be discovered because it was a city, not for any spurious material wealth it might hold.  Could an entire civilisation have been founded in the inhospitable tracks of rain forest, and left remains he might find fame in locating?  As this brilliant biography shows, Fawcett was the best man around to find it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847374360</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rachel Cusk
 
|title=The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=So, there's this family, right, and the parents have itchy feet, so they pack everything up and say goodbye to the dog, and leave Clifton, Bristol, and drive down to Italy and live a fine and different life, and the plumbing might not be the best but the neighbours and the scrumping and the wine are all to die for and it all comes right in the end with life-affirming brilliance.
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|summary= It never does to start a review of a book with a quote from the blurb, but sometimes it's unavoidable. Le Monde reviewed this book, at some point, with the words ''what the old master craftsmen would call a masterpiece.'' It is precisely that. 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, a mythology-primer for the Japanese culture as it is a personal response to living and travelling in the country.  
 
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|isbn=1906011044
There will be many people shuddering at that completely false description of this book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571242561</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Stephen Fabes
|author=Pip Cheshire and Patrick Reynolds
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|title=Signs of Life
|title=Architecture Uncooked: An Architect Looks Around New Zealand Holiday Houses
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=This book immediately impresses by its clearly written, yet intelligent writing, and its photography that captures both the structure and the spirit of the holiday homes scattered around the New Zealand countryside.
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|summary= I was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity.  Unfortunately, I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the guts to simply go out and do it.  I also didn't inherit the kind of steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the requisite 'bottle'.  In order words I'm not the sort of person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years.  Fabes did precisely that.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1869621549</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1788161211
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Rob Baker
|author=Dean Starnes
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|title=Toubab Tales: The Joys and Trials of Expat Life in Africa
|title=Roam
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=Languages, customs, rituals, fascinating things to do, places to see, people to visit – all in the one book, covering almost every nook and cranny throughout the world. This is a travel book covering, well, pretty well everything.
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|summary=''"Go to Mali," they said. "The music is amazing," they said. "And you get ten hours of sunshine every day." So I did.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1869507118</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Rob Baker is an ethnomusicologist. ''A what?'' I hear you cry. Well, an ethnomusicologist studies music in relation to culture, so rather like a folklorist studies the oral and written story traditions relating to a culture.
|author=Tim Moore
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|isbn=B089CSNFT7
|title=I Believe in Yesterday: My Adventures in Living History
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Humour
 
|summary=Common opinion has it that the television programme ''Time Team'' did a lot for the public image of archaeologists – bringing them out of their holes in the ground, and making them seem like exciting, interesting people with a good way of putting their knowledge across.  However it was clearly a much harder task when it came to those background artistes they have sometimes, walking up and down in Roman centurion gear, or living the historical lifestyle as a re-enactment.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224077813</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Christine Brown
|author=Brian W Pugh and Paul R Spiring
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|title=Bucket Showers and Baby Goats: Volunteering in West Africa
|title=On the Trail of Arthur Conan Doyle: An Illustrated Devon Tour
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|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=This slim volume, comprising just four chapters, is both a detailed chronology of the life of Arthur Conan Doyle and, for those that want to follow in the footsteps of ACD (I adopt the authors' abbreviation gladly), 'The Complete Arthur Conan Doyle Devon Tour' – locations that inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles and more.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846241987</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=William Gray
 
|title=Adventure Travel (AA Travel Guides)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Last Friday, my local branch of Cotswold Outdoor had several travel guides and physical activity handbooks on the shelves, but nothing similar to this book, a compendium of physically active travel, with some nods to responsible tourism.  The format of information on activities, well-written taster articles and plenty of attractive photos make for an inspiring armchair read for dreamers and planners.  'World class' locations are always debatable, but I found interesting suggestions in several sections. I loved the book enough to brush off the toast crumbs so that I can present it to one of my adventurous offspring this Christmas, but I'm very much afraid the easy-opening pages may give the game away!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749555815</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Daniel Everett
 
|title=Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=I nearly didn't select this book to review as I thought it was about snakes - I was expecting some kind of Bear Grylls* adventure travel survival book for the Amazon. How-to-survive-in-the-jungle-armed-with-only-a-sharp-stick-and-a-six-pack sort of thing. Fortunately, I looked into the content a little further, and found that this is an anthropological and linguistic study of the life of the Pirahas, a tribe living in the remote Amazonian jungle. The title comes from the fact that the Pirahas don't have a word for ''goodnight'' – their nearest equivalent when they are leaving someone for the night is ''Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes''.
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|summary=In 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, she ended up volunteering in Ghana, West Africa. Now coincidentally, in the summer of 2010, this review's author was spending ''her'' days working in an office job (albeit in the UK) while spending ''her'' nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something else, and ''she'' ended up just 3 countries away, volunteering in Sierra Leone, West Africa. So you can see why, when this book came up, said reviewer was delighted to have the opportunity to read and critique it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680301</amazonuk>
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|isbn=171024299X
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Mourby_Rooms
|author=Paul Theroux
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|title=Rooms with a View: The Secret Life of Great Hotels
|title=Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
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|author=Adrian Mourby
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=Some 30-odd years ago Paul Theroux, then half the age he is now, travelled overland across Europe and Asia. The result was 'his best known book' (apparently) – ''The Great Railway Bazaar''.
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|summary=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 'grand'? 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 Americas, move to the United Kingdom, circumnavigate Europe, briefly visit Russia and Turkey then northern Africa, India and Asia. Australia, it seems, does not go for the grand.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241142539</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1908745819
|author=Martin Buckley
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|title=Surfacing
|title=An Indian Odyssey
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|author=Kathleen Jamie
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
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|genre=History
|summary=More than a quarter of a century ago Martin Buckley went to Sri Lanka and then on to India.  It was time off before settling down to the business of earning a living.  Two things happened to him – he fell in love with India and knew that he wanted to stay there - and he discovered the ''Ramayana''. Valmiki's epic was written round about 500 to 700 BC – much the same time as Homer's ''Odyssey'' (the title of this book is a very clever play on words) – but it still holds a central place in the hearts and minds of Indians although it is strangely unknown in the West''Ramayana'' – The Wanderings of Rama – tells the story of Lord Rama's search for his kidnapped wife and his subsequent battles with Ravan.  Much of it is certainly myth.  Some may well be based on fact, but it's inspirational and has achieved the status of Holy Writ.
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|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 author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I amAdd 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925762</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Stephen Clarke
 
|title=A Year in the Merde
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=''A Year In The Merde'' was recommended to me by a friend whose sense of humour is very much on a par with mineI read it a couple of years ago and decided, on discovering that Stephen Clarke had written a couple of not-to-be-missed follow-ups, that I would treat myself to the tale once more as a warm-up exercise to prepare me for the ''beaucoup de merde'' to come.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552772968</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Fran Sandham
 
|title=Traversa
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=When you reach the end of Fran Sandham's solo walk across Africa, as he finally dips his toe into the Indian Ocean, you need to go back to the beginning and start again.
 
 
 
Lots of books make you want to do that.  In this case, you actually need to: in order to fully understand the man, and so many of the things he says and does along the way.   Otherwise, you're in danger of thinking this guy was a fool for even trying to attempt a solo walk across the African continent.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715637673</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1912242052
|author=Christina Thompson
+
|title=O Joy for me!
|title=Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All
+
|author=Keir Davidson
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=3
|genre=Travel
+
|genre=Art
|summary=Subtitled ''an unlikely love story'', this was an interesting and inspiring memoir written by an American academic, who met and fell in love with a Maori - and what a beautiful tale it tells! Referred to as a 'contact' encounter (i.e., chance meeting) it sounds almost like a fairy tale, and in part it is - but a fairy tale which includes huge amount of hard work too.
+
|summary=''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''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747582521</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Woolf_Great
|author=Nicola J Watson
+
|title=The Great Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration
|title=The Literary Tourist
+
|author=Jo Woolf
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Travel
+
|genre=History
|summary=''As our resident travel writer this might interest you…'' came my introduction to this book.  Misguidedly as it turned out, for the emphasis in Watson's work is much more heavily on the ''literary'' than on the ''tourist''.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230210929</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Hailstone_Berlin
|author=Suzanna Clarke
+
|title=Berlin in the Cold War: 1959 to 1966
|title=A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco
+
|author=Allan Hailstone
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=History
|summary=Perhaps it's a little unfair to come to ''A House in Fez'' still inspired by the storytelling of Tahir Shah's [[In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah|In Arabian Nights]], because this is a very different take on Morocco, aimed (as a book) no doubt at a very different market, but reading the two in quick succession it is hard to avoid comparison.
+
|summary=''Berlin in the Cold War: 1959-1966'' contains almost 200 photographs taken by author/photographer Allan Hailstone in his visits to the city during this period. The images provide an insight into the changing nature of the divide between East and West Berlin and a glimpse into life in the city during the Cold War.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925223</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Stewart_Marches
|author=Paul Richardson
+
|title=The Marches
|title=A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of Spain
+
|author=Rory Stewart
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Although subtitled ''discovering the food of Spain'', this excellently written, engaging and interesting book is about so much more. Yes, the focus is on food, mouthwateringly described, but it is also about culture, people, travel, tourism, history and geography.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747593809</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rowan Simons
 
|title=Bamboo Goalposts
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=When it comes to football, I'm in agreement with the great Bill Shankly when he said: ''Football is not a matter of life and death, it's far more important than that''.  When it comes to China, my knowledge is limited to what I've seen on the TV recently about the earthquake, the Olympics and the protests; vague memories of Tiananmen Square and a love of the cuisine, or at least the version that comes from my local takeaway.  Like many in the Western world, I have no concept of what life is truly like in China.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230703720</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tahir Shah
 
|title=In Arabian Nights
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Once upon a time there was a traveller who travelled through Pakistan to visit far Afghanistan, where he would seek out the lost treasure of the Mughals.  Sadly the traveller had an English passport and a Muslim name, and he was travelling from one enemy state to another.  His story was not believed.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385612079</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Daniel Kalder
 
|title=Strange Telescopes
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=''Bill Bryson with Tourette's'' was one of the epithets that met Kalder's previous travelogue ([[Lost Cosmonaut]]) along with 'sharp absurdist insight', 'deliberately crass' and 'revelatory'.  I can't actually disagree with any of that if you were to apply it to the latest offering ''Strange Telescopes''.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571231233</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=John Mole 
 
|title=I Was a Potato Oligarch: Travels and Travails in the New Russia
 
|rating=1 
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=I remember getting this book in post, reading the title and thinking no, even though I am Russian, I will try to be unbiased and judge it like I would judge any other book about a foreign country experience. I now have to regretfully admit I failed. In my defence, John Mole's focus on mocking the nation and country made that all too easy.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1857885090</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sun Shuyun 
 
|title=A Year in Tibet
 
|rating=4 
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=Tibet is an emotive word these days.  Rightly so.
 
 
Since long before the dawn of Communism, China has been adept at numbering the rights and wrongs of history, with the three this and the seven that.  Sadly, she does not yet see the invasion of Tibet as a wrong.  I am in no position to know what the majority of ordinary Chinese know about Tibet, nor what they think of their government's official standpoint on it.  Along with many others, I can only hope that one day they will have full and free access to the internet and other media where they will be able to read the many and varied opinions of people from around the world, and will be allowed not only to make up their own mind – but to then debate that standpoint, publicly and freely.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007265115</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Fuchsia Dunlop 
 
|title=Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-sour Memoir of Eating in China
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=On her first trip to the orient Fuchsia Dunlop is appalled at the preserved duck eggs served as hors d'oeuvre in Hong Kong.  Her description of this first encounter with the Chinese delicacy is rich with words like filthy, revolting, nightmarish, translucent, oozy, mouldy, toxic, slime…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091918308</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Nicholas Murray 
 
|title=A Corkscrew is Most Useful: The Travellers of Empire 
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=History
 
|genre=History
|summary=The British Empire, lawd bless it – so large the sun never set on it. Also never resting upon its surface, if this book is anything to go by, was an increasing spread of the moneyed classes, gallivanting off to all corners, whether as imperial missionaries, explorers, or just plain travellers.
+
|summary=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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316731048</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Bristow China
|author=John Gimlette 
+
|title=China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser
|title=Panther Soup: A European Journey in War and Peace
+
|author=Michael Bristow
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In 1945, Americans came in their millions to liberate a Europe smashed by war. It was a movement of men and machinery on a scale never seen before. Many men died; more are dying off today. Sixty years on, travel writer John Gimlette chanced upon a survivor of that campaign. His meeting prompted a decision to retrace the GIs' progress through France, Austria and Germany to try and relive those events, and to discover what remains of them today. ''Panther Soup'' is the story of that journey.
+
|summary=Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a journalist 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 - but 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 tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a fascinating portrait of one of the world's most intriguing nations.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091921384</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Hurst_Norfolk
|author=George Saunders 
+
|title=On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks
|title=The Brain-dead Megaphone
+
|author=John Hurst
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
+
|genre=Art
|summary=American author George Saunders is known for his short stories and fiction, but he is also a journalist for publications such as ''The Guardian'', ''The New Yorker Magazine'' and ''GQ''.  ''The Brain-Dead Megaphone'' is his first collection of essays and it's an interesting proposition: sixteen pieces ranging from travel writing, literary appreciation, political essays, to surrealist short fiction.
+
|summary=It was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in the church hall, so we went in - and found a display of the most gorgeous pictures.  I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to make do with a couple of greetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and I couldn't resist buying it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747594260</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Geert Mak 
 
|title=The Bridge
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=The current Galata Bridge in Instanbul is a concrete structure less than 15 years old.  A bascule bridge of some 490m, it carries a four-lane highway, a tramway and pedestrian walkways on its open upper deck with arcaded market areas beneath on the outer spans.  At first sight it has little to recommend it. None of the grandeur of the Charles Bridge in Prague, nor the ostentation of Tower Bridge in London, nor even the elegance of the Golden Gate.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846551382</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Trivia Reviews]]
|author=Tom Fort 
 
|title=Downstream: Across England in a Punt
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=In summer 2005, journalist and angler Tom Fort set off to follow the river Trent from its source near Stoke to its confluence with the Humber. ''Downstream'' is the aptly meandering story of his 170-mile trip. Travelling light, first on foot, then in a purpose-built 15-foot plywood punt, and finishing off on a bike, Fort traces the course of the river, surveying the towns and landscapes it shaped, and exploring the history which surrounds it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184605169X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Blood River
 
|author=Tim Butcher
 
|genre=Travel
 
|rating=5
 
|summary=Tim Butcher started working as a journalist in Africa in 2000…15 years after Live Aid gave us all hope that maybe the continent’s problems were solvable…and almost as long since we’d begun to realise that it wasn’t going to be that easy.
 
 
 
Two years into the bloodiest war in the world, the Congo – at the very heart of Africa – was seeing 1,000 deaths a day to the violence. And the world wasn’t even looking.
 
 
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099494280</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Lessons From The Land Of Pork Scratchings
 
|author=Greg Gutfeld
 
|genre=Travel
 
|rating=4.5
 
|summary=Greg Gutfeld came to England to take up a job as editor of a men’s mag. Leaving New York as a stressed yet slim high-achiever, he soon settles into life in the UK and embraces a new world where the food is crap and the beer lukewarm, but where the people seem remarkably laid back and happy nonetheless. Two years later he leaves to return to his homeland, somewhat heavier and generally less fit than when he arrived, but with a newfound understanding of the secret of happiness, which weirdly has nothing to do with herpes (see chapter 66).
 
 
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847370667</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 11:59, 26 December 2023

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Review of

Local by Alastair Humphreys

5star.jpg Travel

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. Full Review

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Review of

Blue Skies and Boat Trips: The Norfolk of Brian Lewis by Alan Marshall

5star.jpg Art

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. Full Review

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Review of

Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car by Clive Wilkinson

5star.jpg Travel

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? Full Review

1846975751.jpg

Review of

The Hidden Fires by Merryn Glover

5star.jpg Travel

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. Full Review

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Review of

Conversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America by Kari Loya

4star.jpg Travel

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. Full Review

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Review of

Walking: One Step At A Time by Erling Kagge

5star.jpg Lifestyle

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).

Erligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who has walked to the South Pole, the North Pole and the summit of Everest. He knows a thing or two about walking. However, this isn't a travelogue about any of those epic journeys, it is instead a thoughtful exploration of what it means to walk. It is a plenitude of 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 as a meditation rather than an essay. Full Review

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Review of

Against a Peacock Sky by Monica Connell

5star.jpg Travel

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 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 a fundamental aim of learning about these people and how they lived. She also went, presumably, with the academic discipline of how to find these things out, how to organise them in her mind, how to "understand" them in the context of her own paradigms, and how to keep enough notes and files and photos to help her create some greater sense of the experience after the event. Fortunately, she also went with a sense of open-ness and curiosity and a willingness to muck-in, to break her own rules and to truly connect with the people of the village where she hauled up. Full Review

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Review of

The Japanese Chronicles by Nicolas Bouvier

5star.jpg Travel

It never does to start a review of a book with a quote from the blurb, but sometimes it's unavoidable. Le Monde reviewed this book, at some point, with the words what the old master craftsmen would call a masterpiece. It is precisely that. 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, a mythology-primer for the Japanese culture as it is a personal response to living and travelling in the country. Full Review

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Review of

Signs of Life by Stephen Fabes

5star.jpg Travel

I was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the guts to simply go out and do it. I also didn't inherit the kind of steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the requisite 'bottle'. In order words I'm not the sort of person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years. Fabes did precisely that. Full Review

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Review of

Toubab Tales: The Joys and Trials of Expat Life in Africa by Rob Baker

4star.jpg Travel

"Go to Mali," they said. "The music is amazing," they said. "And you get ten hours of sunshine every day." So I did.

Rob Baker is an ethnomusicologist. A what? I hear you cry. Well, an ethnomusicologist studies music in relation to culture, so rather like a folklorist studies the oral and written story traditions relating to a culture. Full Review

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Review of

Bucket Showers and Baby Goats: Volunteering in West Africa by Christine Brown

4.5star.jpg Travel

In 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, she ended up volunteering in Ghana, West Africa. Now coincidentally, in the summer of 2010, this review's author was spending her days working in an office job (albeit in the UK) while spending her nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something else, and she ended up just 3 countries away, volunteering in Sierra Leone, West Africa. So you can see why, when this book came up, said reviewer was delighted to have the opportunity to read and critique it. Full Review

Mourby Rooms.jpg

Review of

Rooms with a View: The Secret Life of Great Hotels by Adrian Mourby

4star.jpg Travel

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 'grand'? 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 Americas, move to the United Kingdom, circumnavigate Europe, briefly visit Russia and Turkey then northern Africa, India and Asia. Australia, it seems, does not go for the grand. Full Review

1908745819.jpg

Review of

Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie

5star.jpg History

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 author considering 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. Full Review

1912242052.jpg

Review of

O Joy for me! by Keir Davidson

3star.jpg Art

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. Full Review

Woolf Great.jpg

Review of

The Great Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration by Jo Woolf

3.5star.jpg History

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. Full Review

Hailstone Berlin.jpg

Review of

Berlin in the Cold War: 1959 to 1966 by Allan Hailstone

4star.jpg History

Berlin in the Cold War: 1959-1966 contains almost 200 photographs taken by author/photographer Allan Hailstone in his visits to the city during this period. The images provide an insight into the changing nature of the divide between East and West Berlin and a glimpse into life in the city during the Cold War. Full Review

Stewart Marches.jpg

Review of

The Marches by Rory Stewart

5star.jpg History

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. Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Bristow China/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser by Michael Bristow

4star.jpg Autobiography

Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a journalist 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 - but 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 tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a fascinating portrait of one of the world's most intriguing nations. Full Review

Hurst Norfolk.jpg

Review of

On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks by John Hurst

4star.jpg Art

It was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in the church hall, so we went in - and found a display of the most gorgeous pictures. I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to make do with a couple of greetings cards when I saw On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks and I couldn't resist buying it. Full Review

Move on to Newest Trivia Reviews