Difference between revisions of "Newest Travel Reviews"

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[[Category:Travel|*]]
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==Travel==
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Alastair Humphreys
{{newreview
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|title=Local
|author=Jean-Paul Kauffmann
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|rating=5
|title=A Journey to Nowhere: Among the Lands and History of Courland
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|genre=Travel  
|rating=4.5
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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.
|genre=Travel
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|isbn=1785633678
|summary=When I turn to travel writing, it is a healthy balance of that about places I have been to, and places I've not.  But without sounding too big-headed it is seldom places I have never heard of in any context - especially those I have passed through, what's more.  The 'nowhere' in focus here is Courland, which was more-or-less the coastal slither of the top of Latvia, and was once an independent DuchyIn one fell swoop Kauffmann seems to become the only travel writer to have written a book about the place, at least for many a generation, and, it's pleasant to say, probably the best one could have hoped for.
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050362</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0957181167
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|title=Blue Skies and Boat Trips: The Norfolk of Brian Lewis
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|author=Alan Marshall
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|rating=5
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|genre=Art
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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.
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1785633457
|author=Agatha Christie and Mathew Prichard (editor)
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|title=Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car
|title=The Grand Tour: Letters and photographs from the British Empire expedition
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|author=Clive Wilkinson
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=In 1922 Agatha Christie, already the author of three very successful books, was happily married with a small daughter, and her heart's desire was to continue writing while she led a quiet life in the country. However her husband Archie was becoming increasingly restless and disenchanted with working in the City, and his longing for a change was suddenly to be fulfilled in a most unexpected way.  An old friend, Major Belcher, 'blessed with great powers of bluff', presented them both with the opportunity of a lifetime – to join him on a trip to several imperial outposts in preparation for the forthcoming British Empire Exhibition to be staged at Wembley. Archie would be his financial adviser, and Agatha was cordially invited for the trip, as his wife.  (Two-year-old Rosalind would have to stay at home, a decision which involved some soul-searching).
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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>000744768X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Merryn Glover
|author=Tessa Hainsworth
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|title=The Hidden Fires
|title=Home to Roost
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|rating=5
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=There seems to be a plethora of books about people who have moved to unusual places, or changed lifestyle in middle age for a variety of reasons. This book features a London family who have moved to Cornwall, and is the third (so far) in a series about their transition.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848093756</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Andrew Martin
 
|title=Underground Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=Although he was born in Yorkshire, Andrew Martin has long been enthralled by the London Underground.  His father worked on British Rail, and Andrew himself therefore had free travel on the system as well as a Privilege Pass which entitled him to free first-class train travel on the national rail network.  Having lived in London for twenty-five years, commuting to various newspaper offices in his employment as a journalist, a job which has included writing a regular magazine column, Tube Talk, he is well qualified to write this entertaining and enlightening social history of the world's most famous underground railway.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684773</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Karen Wheeler
 
|title=Tout Soul
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=Meet Karen. Expat fashion writer. French cottage owner. Devoted mother of Biff. Frustrated girlfriend of a dashing Portuguese hunk. Tout Soul is her 3rd book about a relocated life in rural France and after her previous tales of upping and leaving Blighty (book 1) and falling in love with the aforementioned dashing hunk (book 2) she’s now moved her focus to the pursuit of happiness.
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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>0957106602</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1846975751
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{{newreview
 
|author=Donovan Hohn
 
|title=Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=In January 1992 a container ship was on its way from China to the USA when it was caught in a storm and two containers broke loose from the deckThey held nearly thirty thousand bath toys - yellow ducks, green frogs, red beavers and blue turtles - which were freed when the containers broke up and have circumnavigated the globe for almost twenty yearsDonovan Hohn was a teacher and when one of his students wrote an essay describing what had happened to the toys it caught Hohn's imagination.  The rest is - as they say - history and a very good book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908526009</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Paul Watson
 
|title=Up Pohnpei: A quest to reclaim the soul of football by leading the world's ultimate underdogs to glory
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=I'm a huge fan of both football and reading, so a book about football is always likely to appeal to me as the best way of combining the two. Recently, I've read books set at the pinnacle of the game in [[Life with Sir Alex: A Fan's Story of Ferguson's 25 Years at Manchester United by Will Tidey]] and about one man's struggle to bring football to a foreign land in [[Bamboo Goalposts by Rowan Simons]]''Up'' ''Pohnpei'' is firmly in the latter category, treading very similar ground to Simons' book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668501X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=B0B7289HKQ
|author=Colin Thubron
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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=To a Mountain in Tibet
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|author=Kari Loya
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=This must go down as the least apposite indefinite article in a book title yet.  Yes, there are many other mountains dotting the plains of Tibet, but calling this one just 'a' mountain, when it is sacred to a fifth of the world's religious people...  Hindu and Buddhist faiths alike venerate Mount Kailas, and devotees are supposed to visit and circle round it to cleanse a lifetime's sinsThubron takes us on his own pilgrimage, from impoverished cliff-side villages in Nepal, through to Chinese-occupied Tibet and to the sacred route around the mountain.
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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>0099532646</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Elisabeth Eaves
 
|title=Wanderlust
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Egypt. Australia. Papua New Guinea. Spain. Pakistan. New Zealand. France. For some that list will be a random list of places, mixing those they know with those they’ve never considered. Others might tick off a few and have the remainder on a ‘to do’ list. It’s probably only a small subset who will have passed through all of them, and an ever tinier one who will have spent considerable time in each. Canadian native Elisabeth Eaves is one of the lucky few who has been there, done that, and this book is essentially her travel diaries of those years wandering the globe.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1580053114</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Erling Kagge
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|title=Walking: One Step At A Time
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|rating=5
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|genre= Lifestyle
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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).
  
{{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=Andrew Wilson
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|isbn=0241357705
|title=Shadow of the Titanic
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=Lesson one in writing non-fiction articles and journalism seems to be to find out what is topical.  April 2012 is the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, and there are going to be hoards of people finding it topical to celebrate that. Lesson two seems to be to find your own unique angle on the story. Wilson approaches the Titanic disaster by sinking her at the end of chapter one, for he looks more at the lives of the people on board, and how they took the calamity and dealt with it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847377300</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Monica Connell
|author=Ed Vulliamy
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|title=Against a Peacock Sky
|title=Amexica: War Along the Borderline
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=More than 38,000 people have been killed in the last 3 years in what Ed Vulliamy argues is an unacknowledged war, on the long border (2,100 miles) between Mexico and the United States. The war is between drug trafficking gangs over control of the lucrative drugs trade from Mexico to the US. In this compelling and disturbing work of reportage Vulliamy travels through the borderlands meeting some of the people affected.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546566</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Thomas Bruce Wheeler
 
|title=The London of Sherlock Holmes - Over 400 Computer Generated Street Level Photos
 
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=Should I trust a book that has a typo on the FRONT cover? Would I purchase a book that practically says, as its first words, the e-book version is better than this paper thing?  This, despite setting up very much the wrong impression, is a gateway into the world of Sherlock Holmes - but does, as I say, blatantly show itself up as flawed, while the electronic version could count as a very worthwhile app for the Conan Doyle buff.
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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>1780922094</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1780600429
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Nicolas Bouvier
|author=Ian Mathie
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|title=The Japanese Chronicles
|title=Supper With The President
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=It's such a pleasure to read an Ian Mathie book, so I really looked forward to 'Supper with the President'. No surprises, then, to find this book every bit as delightful, intriguing and informative as his others. Ian Mathie knows exactly how to stitch up a good story; the occasional photographs - proving the stories are not fiction – come almost as a surprise. The books are helpfully illustrated with simple maps placing the stories in geographical context. To me, Ian Mathie is simply the best of the relatively unknown writers I have come across as a reviewer. Interestingly, the two men in my household grab and devour Ian Mathie's books, and I imagine anyone interested in development issues and/or Africa would welcome one or two of his titles for Christmas.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906852103</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Elizabeth Chatwin and Nicholas Shakespeare (ed)
 
|title=Under the Sun. The Letters of Bruce Chatwin
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=Bruce Chatwin was best known as a travel writer – this collection both confirms his 'wanderlust' but also clearly establishes that his writing was far more of a creative process than the usual journalistic approach to travel writing. Nicholas Shakespeare’s selection and passages of narration makes this a mix of the biographical and the autobiographical, a fascinating insight into a restless spirit, but also into the experimentation and literary reflection that made him outstanding amongst his peers.
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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.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224089897</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1906011044
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Stephen Fabes
|author=Sonia Faleiro
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|title=Signs of Life
|title=Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars
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|rating=5
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=In 2005, there were 1,500 dance bars in Bombay, so called because they employed women to dance to popular music. Bar dancers could earn a lot of money compared to women in other traditional female jobs outside the sex industry, such as cleaners. Many of them also slept with men for money, but because her job was dancing not sex, a bar dancer could also see herself as infinitely superior to sex workers, whether street prostitutes, those working in brothels or call girls.
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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>0857861697</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1788161211
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Rob Baker
|author=Michael Booth
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|title=Toubab Tales: The Joys and Trials of Expat Life in Africa
|title=Eat, Pray, Eat
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=I really enjoyed ''Eat, Pray, Love'' by Elizabeth Gilbert. Initially I thought I'd picked up a ''Me too'' variant with ''Eat, Pray Eat'' and must admit to my heart sinking. But no, here is a different personality with another story and writing style and after a few, doubting pages, I was away. This is a story of a family adventure to India, a hard-fought encounter with yoga, and some culinary interest thrown in. But like Elizabeth Gilbert, like most other visitors, India moved his life-view dramatically and for the better.
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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>0224089633</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Mick Conefrey
 
|title=How to Climb Mont Blanc in a Skirt: A Handbook for the Lady Adventurer
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Scott, Amundsen, Bleriot, Stanley and Livingstone, John Glenn, et all - any child should be drummed out of school if they can't name half a dozen explorers, travel pioneers and adventurers.  But give them a gold star if they can name a single female entrant to history's list.  Hence this book, for while some mountains have been topped by a lady first of all, and some landmark achievements by the guys have been quickly followed by the gals, there is just too much ground to be made up in recognising what the fairer sex have done in the world of, well, going round our world.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851688412</amazonuk>
 
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{{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=Jasper Rees
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|isbn=B089CSNFT7
|title=Bred of Heaven: One man's quest to reclaim his Welsh roots
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Jasper Rees is a Welshman in his dreams. Despite his surname, he was born in England, but wishes he was from Wales. Seeking to find his inner Welshman – he's sure he has one as he had Welsh grandparents – he journeys around the land of his fathers trying to work out what it means to be Welsh.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682991</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Christine Brown
|author=Siddhartha Deb
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|title=Bucket Showers and Baby Goats: Volunteering in West Africa
|title=The Beautiful and the Damned: Life in the New India
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=This book immediately caught my eye with its terrific front cover.  A picture says more than a thousand words ...  But I was conscious that, as a work of non-fiction, it may be full of rather dry facts and figures that I was going to have to plough through with grace and patience. Couple that with, in my opinion, most of the Indian writers that I have read, have in my experience been unnecessarily wordy and flowery (and exasperating) choosing to use fifteen words when one or two would be nicely. So, a little bit of trepidation as I open the book.  The first thing to strike me is the intriguing contents page.  As Deb is going to concentrate on a mere handful of individuals I'm not going to feel bombarded by hundreds of different stories vying for space on the page.  Good start.
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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>0670917303</amazonuk>
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|isbn=171024299X
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=Mourby_Rooms
|author=Michael Bond
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|title=Rooms with a View: The Secret Life of Great Hotels
|title=Paddington's Guide to London
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|author=Adrian Mourby
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary=Some things are just a brilliant idea.  Young Paddington Bear has written a guide book to his adopted home in the way that only he could do it.  All his old friends are there – Mr and Mrs Brown and their children Jonathan and Judy along with their housekeeper Mrs Bird and of course we mustn't forget Paddington's old friend Mr Gruber who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of London.  So, where is Paddington planning to take you?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007415915</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michael Palin
 
|title=Ox Travels
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|genre=Travel
|summary=Ox Travels is an anthology of travel writing compiled to raise funds for Oxfam, but it is well worth buying and reading in its own right. Its generous 432 pages offer the chance to meet 36 writers, including travel writers, journalists and novelists, with an introduction by Michael Palin and an afterword by Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's Chief Executive.
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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>184668496X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1908745819
|author=Karen Blixen
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|title=Surfacing
|title=Out Of Africa
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|author=Kathleen Jamie
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
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|genre=History
|summary=It's more than a quarter of a century since I first saw the film ''Out of Africa'' and it's one of the few that have stayed with me over the intervening yearsIt wasn't just the story, but the personality of Karen Blixen and the wonderful landscape of the Ngong Hills, south of Nairobi, in Kenya's Rift Valley.  I remember looking for this book at the time, but being unable to find it, so the opportunity to read it now was too good to miss.
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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>0241951437</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1912242052
|author=Sara Wheeler
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|title=O Joy for me!
|title=Access All Areas: Selected Writings 1990-2010
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|author=Keir Davidson
|rating=5
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|rating=3
|genre=Travel
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|genre=Art
|summary=This is a great book to acquire if your general knowledge of historical adventurers is as haphazard as mine. Somewhere along the line, I'd missed out on Scott and Shackleton, and it's very satisfying indeed to fill those gaps from such a reliable informant. One brisk section, for example, managed to encapsulate both Antartica's history and further outlook, along with sufficient atmospheric detail to ensure we mortals understood just what it feels like to sleep in Scott's hut during a wintry gale.
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|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>0224090712</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=Woolf_Great
|author=Tim Butcher
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|title=The Great Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration
|title=Chasing the Devil: On Foot Through Africa's Killing Fields
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|author=Jo Woolf
|rating=4.5
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|rating=3.5
|genre=Travel
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|genre=History
|summary=Tim Butcher's day job from 1990 to 2009 was "journalist". 
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|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.
 
 
I wonder what today's school-kids imagine when they say they want to be a journalist…  do they envisage writing about science, or economics, or celebrities, or do they see themselves as television reporters standing in flak jackets doing the obligatory piece-to-camera in the latest war zone?  Do they even read newspapers any more?  Do they realise that there are still also people out there in those war zones, without the glamour flak-jacket, just (if they're lucky) the ordinary pock-marked one, that they prefer not to wear because it's way too hot?  People who still ply the classic trade of actually writing what they see and trusting that they can do it well enough for the words to stand alone without the sound effects, without (quite often) any pictures, to make it "real"?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532069</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michael Williams
 
|title=On The Slow Train Again
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=A few years ago Michael Williams, the railway expert who's written for numerous newspapers and magazines on the subject, released a book called ''On The Slow Train'' about some of Britain's best railway trips. With far too many journeys to fit into one volume, he's given us a dozen more in this sequel.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092857</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=John Gimlette
 
|title=Wild Coast: Travels on South America's Untamed Edge
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Apart from knowing that it borders Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname, a fact hammered into me in Year 8 Geography, I know very little about Guiana. And while you may think that's understandable, I'm not sure that it is, seeing as I read this book while living just two countries over. The thing is, it's a sort of tiny, forgotten country, isn't it? Over the years it has been involved in border disputes, has come under various nations' rule, and has changed names more often the P Diddy, and even after you take all that into account, I bet you can't think of a single thing there to go and see.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682525</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Hailstone_Berlin
|author=Yangzom Brauen and Katy Darbyshire
+
|title=Berlin in the Cold War: 1959 to 1966
|title=Across Many Mountains: Three Daughters of Tibet
+
|author=Allan Hailstone
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
+
|genre=History
|summary=Fleeing your home can never be easy but when you are six, your only shoes are roughly hand-sewn and stuffed with hay, and your route is over the world's highest mountain range then it must be particularly challenging. This was the journey that Yangzom Brauen's mother took with her parents when they fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion of 1959.  They were leaving behind all that they knew and travelling to India in the hope that they could find sanctuary in the country where the Dalai Lama was in exile. 'Across Many Mountains' is their story.
+
|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>184655344X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Stewart_Marches
|author=Keith Hern
+
|title=The Marches
|title=Zimbabwe in Pictures
+
|author=Rory Stewart
|rating=3
+
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
+
|genre=History
|summary=I'm a bit of an amateur photographer, and since the advent of digital cameras I always come back from holidays with thousands of photos, over-excited by the fact that I am no longer limited to 24 or 36 exposure films!  I enjoy, therefore, flicking through photography books, to see the images that have captured someone else's imagination and to see if I can pick up any interesting framing ideas, or subject settings.
+
|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>1907685707</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Bristow China
|author=Christopher Winn
+
|title=China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser
|title=I Never Knew That About the River Thames
+
|author=Michael Bristow
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|summary=Here are the remains of the building that could be said to have sired two important British royal dynasties.  Here is the place of ill-repute, where 'Rule Britannia' was premiered,  and which also bizarrely saw a death by cricket ball that inspired the most famous gardens in the world.  Here too is the largest lion in the world.  To where am I referring?  Well the answer is either the Thames valley, or this very book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091933579</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Roland Huntford
 
|title=Race for the South Pole: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=In 1910 two European ships set out for the Antarctic.  'Terra Nova' was carrying British explorers under the leadership of Captain Robert Scott, while 'Fram' sailed with a rival Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen.  The basic facts can be briefly summarized.  Amundsen arrived at the South Pole on 14 December 1911 and returned home to a hero's welcome, while Scott reached the same destination 35 days later, only to perish with his men on the return journey.  Their bodies were found by a search party some eight months after they had died.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441169822</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Aatish Taseer
 
|title=Stranger to History: A Son's Journey Through Islamic Lands
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Aatish Taseer was born of out of a short week of passion between a Sikh Indian mother and a Pakistani Muslim father.  The mother was a journalist; the father a politician.
 
 
That week of passion was to be all it was, despite subsequent attempts at hushing up the pregnancy, then pretending a marriage until finally a clean break was made when the boy was about 18 months old.  Ah, but such breaks never are clean are they?  There's always a certain amount of meddling from the side-lines, and then there's a child's longing to know who he is, where he is really from.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847671314</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jim Perrin
 
|title=West: A Journey Through the Landscapes of Loss
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Where would you go if the love of your life, and your son, both died within a short few months of each other?  Jim Perrin headed West - to the scraggly patches of land off Ireland, closer to the setting sun, nearer to the further horizon, beyond the noise, information and opinion of humanity.  Of course, that question could also be answered in a more metaphoric way. Jim went inward, before coming outward.  He suffered - "involuntarily, the tears have come.  Who would have thought that death would release so many.."  He also, although he would probably hate me for saying it, went on a "psycho-geographical ramble" - both in life, and in making this book.
+
|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>1843546116</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Hurst_Norfolk
|author=Sam Miller
+
|title=On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks
|title=Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity
+
|author=John Hurst
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
+
|genre=Art
|summary=Miller is probably one of the best people to take you on a tour of DelhiHe's not a native so has no in-bred partisanship, but he does love the place so will make sure you do too, but mainly because to begin with he HATED it… so he will understand if you don't share his ironic good humour about the shit squirter or the fact that sometimes the only way to cross the road is to take a rickshaw taxi.
+
|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 picturesI'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>0099526743</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Trivia Reviews]]
|author=Brian W Pugh, Paul R Spiring and Sadru Bhanji
 
|title=Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Devon: A Complete Tour Guide and Companion
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is one of the most famous mystery novels of all, and also one of the most famous English novels set in Devon.  This alone would probably give more or less enough material for an entire book on connections between the story and the location which inspired it.  Yet the authors have found several more links between the county, and Conan Doyle alongside those associated with him.  The result has revealed much information of which even I, who have lived in the county nearly all my life, was previously unaware.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312861</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Lane
 
|title=England 'Til I Die - A celebration of England's amazing supporters
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=To start with, an admission.  I am an English fan of football, but I am not a fan of England’s football squad.  Hardly ever would I prefer to see the Three Lions triumphant.  I never got into the habit, partly because I never saw the singularly English habit of supporting the underdog as making any sense.  Plus you'll never get me standing up and singing that awful tune before the match.  But here are testimonies from twenty or so people who see things completely differently to me.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906796505</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Justine Hardy
 
|title=In the Valley of Mist: Kashmir's Long War - One Family's Extraordinary Story
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Kashmir.  Is that not the most romantic of names?  To those of us entranced by tales from the East, it echoes with the same essence of myth as ''Shang-ri-la'' – and for good reason.  Geographically situated in the Himalaya but with the abundant fertility of the valley, lakes and meadows, it should be a kind of paradise.  To the people who live there, it once was.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846041511</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michael Booth
 
|title=Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=Japanese food has a tendency to sound a bit freakish or even controversial.  Raw fish?  Octopus ice cream?  Whale meat?  Yet it is slowly infiltrating the UK with sushi conveyor belt restaurants popping up everywhere and noodle bars offering Westernised bowls of steaming noodles.  In this book Michael Booth takes his wife and two young children to experience the real thing, travelling across the whole of Japan tasting an enormous range of foods and learning about their history, how the foods have been produced and are cooked and eaten.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516446</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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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