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[[Category:New Reviews|Travel]]==Travel==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove --> <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Justine HardyAlastair Humphreys|title=In the Valley of Mist: Kashmir's Long War - One Family's Extraordinary StoryLocal

|genre=Travel|summary=KashmirAlastair Humphreys has walked and cycled all over the world. And then written about it. Is that not the most romantic of names? For this book he walked and cycled very close to home and then wrote about it. To those of us entranced by tales from the EastAs he says in his introduction, it echoes with the same essence of myth as book is an attempt ''Shang-ri-la'' – and for good reasonto share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. Geographically situated in Nature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, the Himalaya but with food system, rewilding…'' One of the abundant fertility joys of the valleybook for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of these things was that there are no easy answers, lakes and meadowsno single 'right or wrong', it should be that every upside is likely to have a kind of paradise. To the people who live downside for somebody and that there, it once wasare some hard choices ahead. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846041511</amazonuk>1785633678

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Booth0957181167|title=Sushi Blue Skies and BeyondBoat Trips: 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 The Norfolk of foods and learning about their history, how the foods have been produced and are cooked and eaten.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516446</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBrian Lewis|author=Sara Wheeler|title=The Magnetic North: Travels in the ArcticAlan Marshall|rating=4.5|genre=TravelArt|summary=The title of this book suggests another travel book There are few positive things which can be said about adventure in the frozen north, but Sara Wheeler mixes her tales of her own travels with some history of polar exploration and a serious examination of the impact of visitors and of those who wish to exploit the Arctic’s natural resources substandard apartment when you’re on the region and its people. Rather than setting off on another expedition to reach the North Pole, she travels around bits of the Arctic divided between different countries and governments, including Chukotka (Russia), Alaska (USA), Canada, Greenlandholiday but this time, Svalbard (Norway) and Lapland (Russia and Scandinavia). There is a huge amount of material in the book but Wheeler organises and presents it in trying to avoid looking at a very readable, accessible style.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516888</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mark Griffiths|title=The Lotus Quest|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Mark Griffiths is one of Britain's leading plant experts. problem I know this because his brief biog in the front found myself looking more closely at a couple of The Lotus Quest tells me so; just as it tells me that he is pictures on the editor of The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening 'walls - and was completely taken by the largest work on horticulture ever published'of Brian Lewis. His prior works list includes five other plant book credits, three of them for the RHS. I shall take all of this on trust, since attempts to searched online and could only find out more about the author and his background through the usual internet search mechanisms has failed miserably. He remains as elusive as the sacred flower that is the subject ‘used’ versions of this latest work: the lotus.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184595100X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jason Webster|title=Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Jason Webster and his partner, Salud searched and bought forty acres of valley book and mountainside halfway up the Penyagolosa Ridge in Southern Spain, complete with two derelict sets of farm buildingsprint I wanted was ‘not available’. These ''mas'', or smallholdingsOh, formed the backbone of Spanish agriculture until young people abandoned rural life for towns in the middear -twentieth century. The agro-economics of the EEC enforced obsolescence of the ''mas'' system. As old timers retired or died, their farms were abandoned, leaving most of the land returning to wild.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099512947</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lawrence Osborne|title=Bangkok Days|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Laurence Osborne has hit upon then a bizarre way to save money on dentistry – pay for a month's rent in Bangkok and get his fillings done there, which works out cheaper than dental insurance in America. During the course of many visits to Thailand, he meanders around Bangkok, along with various other motley foreigners, passing through hospitals, brothels and mobile restaurants selling waterbugs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535971</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nicholas Jubber|title=Drinking Arak off an Ayatollah's Beard |rating=3.5|genre=Travel|summary=closed few doors and how people really think, challenging the idea that both countries are defined only by a religious fervour and fundamentalism that is the accepted way of life. At the heart of Jubber's quest is down from the epic poem of Persian cultureapartment, the ''Shahnameh'' which he soon learns all Iranians know and love and in doing so he unearths I found a vibrant culture that preceded the conversion of Persia to Islam and gift shop with it the transformation a stack of Persia into Iran. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818841</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ian Mathie|title=The Man of Passage|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Ian Mathie's association with Africa began when his father was posted to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four years old. School was in a convent and was run by German and Italian nuns brand new books - and for a while he was the only white child amongst a couple framed print of hundred Africans. Even when he was joined by others he was still part of an ethnic minority although he didn't realise it! He was taught in the local language and grew up with the local childrenpicture I wanted. It was his home and was to be the centre of his life for decades to come.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Blackwood1785633457|title=The Great RaceCharging Around: The Amazing Round-The-World Auto Race Of 1908Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson

|summary=In her latest literary outing, the now elderly and increasingly opinionated travel writer and veteran cyclist Dervla Murphy describes Clive Wilkinson has a series history of trips to Cuba. The opening section deals travelling by unconventional means with a family trip in late 2005preference for slow travel. Readers who have followed Dervla's books from the beginning will have grown up with Rachel, As he neared his eightieth birthday the author's daughter, who accompanied her on a number idea of trips between exploring the ages edges of five and eighteenEngland in an electric car was not totally outrageous. Now Dervla travels with Rachel and Rachel's three young daughtersIn fact, Clodagh, Rose it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and Zeahis wife, 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 mountainsJoan, 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 ''Cheshouldn'' Guevara.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190601146X</amazonuk>t it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan Buckley, Mark Ellingham and Tim JepsonMerryn Glover|title=The Rough Guide to Tuscany and UmbriaHidden Fires

|summary=There's a general Rough Guide to ItalyIt is always about the book, not the writer, but revisiting again this regional guide in there are times when the process of writing up our trip to Tuscany two years ago, I was reminded of how good indeed this particular Rough Guide author's hinterland is. I bought it because I wanted also the background to supplement the general Rough Guide book and so it is necessary to Italy I had with more detailed coverage of the region understand that context, in which we were going order to spend the whole trip - and I was extremely happy with appreciate the result.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843530554</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Guy Delisle|title=Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Meet Guybook. He's a French-Canadian animatorMerryn Glover is of Australian parentage, leaving home for a short stay was born in the capital of one of the world's most intriguingKathmandu, unknown and alien cultures - Pyongyang, North Korea - so he can work on a TV cartoon co-production. Forced to stay grew up in one of the three official hotels designed for foreigners, so that the locals Annapurna 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, Himalayan and thousands now lives in Badenoch in Scotland. I can think of unreadable faces.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079905</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Charley Boorman |title=Right no-one better a combination to the Edge: Sydney to Tokyo by Any Means|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Forgive me if I'm wrong, but there seems give us a everre-diminishing sense appraisal of surprise with Charley Boorman's continuing adventures. One hopes at least they started with very daring, courageous, envelope-pushing exploits, where we might have doubted his success. Now he's on his fifth trip Nan Shepherds work than the first Writer in as many years, BBC TV crew Residence in hand as alwaysthe Cairngorms National Park. Merryn walks, and we can hardly hope for not so much in the way shadow of an ordealShepherd, or doubt concerning a failurebut in her spirit. And, as he admits, this does feel much like an add-on for his Ireland-to-Sydney trekI think the two would have gotten along famously.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847443516</amazonuk>1846975751

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rolf PottsB0B7289HKQ|title=VagabondingConversations Across America: An Uncommon Guide to A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Art Soul of Long-Term World TravelAmerica|author=Kari Loya

|summary=Rolf Potts is a travel writer as well as a bit of a backpacker guru Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the way) wanted to spend some time with his father and his book distils his experiences in, exactly as the title suggests, ''an uncommon guide period between two jobs seemed like a good time to long-term travel''do it. The operative word here is ''uncommon''decision was made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, as ''Vagabonding'' is not really a guide as we know themVirginia to Astoria, more Oregon - all 4250 miles of a pepit -talk combined with a resource listin 2015.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0812992180</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Marika McAdam|title=Western Balkans (Lonely Planet Multi Country Guide) |rating=3.5|genre=Travel|summary=Lonely Planet does well from its multi They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the recommended time -country guides but there were factors which pointed this up as members more of its peripatetic, Intera 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-railing, backpacker audience often stage Alzheimer'do' more than one country (and sometimes a whole continent or region at least) within one trips.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1741047293</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Thomas Cook Publishing Erling Kagge|title=European Rail Timetable Summer 2009Walking: One Step At A Time

|genre=TravelLifestyle|summary=This volume Those who have read my reviews before will know that how much I loved a book is an absolutely essential resource for anybody travelling in Europe evidenced by train. A compilation the number 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 yearlypages with corners turned, so it's worth getting let me start this one with an up apology to date the Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot it was your booknot mine.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848481322</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Johnstone |title=Europe on In my defence, I will say that as 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 reader of this type of Lonely Planet's travel guides and book there is very much aimed at the budget end of the market. Comparable to its nearest competitor, Let's Go Europe, something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided itis subtle – I's a one-volume backpacker bible which attempts to provide the overview of a whole continentll allow creased corners, every single country and the main destinations in each of the countries.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1741045916</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Pete Brown |title=Hops and Glory: One Man's Search but not scribbles – 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 latter we must buy our own copy – which must surround his trade and its subject matter. He has attempted I am about to combine a history of British imperialism and the brewing industry with the comic 'quest' genre of travel writingdo as soon as I have finished telling you why). Against all the odds, he has largely succeeded.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230706355</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Rough Guides |title=The Rough Guide Erligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who has walked to Amsterdam|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=This Rough Guide is as comprehensivethe South Pole, up to date the North Pole and well researched as most if not all Rough Guides seem 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 bewalk. I have used numerous examples It is a plenitude of their guides unnumbered essays about walking. There is no 'contents' page and I found them to be among the best if not the best ones there arehaven't counted. They do seem to have moved upmarket In small format paperback, each essay is only a bit since I first started to use them in the early 90s - but they still provide the best balance in descriptions covering practicalitiesfew pages long. Perhaps then, context, history, sightseeing, entertainment, drinking, clubbing and even (in Amsterdam at least) dope smokingbetter thought of as a meditation rather than an essay.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843538091</amazonuk>0241357705

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alistair Duncan Monica Connell|title=Close to Holmes: A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan DoyleAgainst a Peacock Sky

|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 Monica Connell went to Nepal to do something unusual (row it across the Channel - and then beyond)fieldwork for her Ph. This despite the fact he was the world's worst sculler at UniversityD.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090269</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Miller|title=St Peter's (Wonders of the World)|rating=4in social anthropology.5|genre=History|summary=It I think it is huge: not only in space but in time and structure; and in the nonimportant to know that. She went on a grant-material sphere of the complex interplay of meaningssupported trip, symbols and significanceswith a relatively specific objective. MillerShe wasn'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 t a male househusband and artist, and his MSF doctor wife, and their life in Burma or Myanmar hippy wanderer looking for roughly Shangri-la. She wasn't a yearmere tourist passing through. We get to see the life in the countryShe went with a fundamental aim of learning about these people and how they lived. She also went, presumably, from with the racks academic discipline of bootleg softwarehow to find these things out, how to the animation class he leadsorganise them in her mind, how to their efforts to get into "understand" them in the lush country clubscontext of her own paradigms, and how to their baby being adored by every passing girl. We see keep enough notes and files and photos to help her create some greater sense of the state of experience after the countryevent. Fortunately, she also went with its horrid drugs, HIV/AIDS a sense of open-ness and curiosity and malaria problems, hidden beyond the gentle Buddhist retreats. We see the Delisles' interaction with this singular country a willingness to muck- the censored pressin, to break her own rules and to truly connect with the fact that their road is only made more busy because people of the roadblock diverting everyone away from Aung San Suu Kyi's house a block awayvillage where she hauled up.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224087711</amazonuk>1780600429

 {{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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David GrannNicolas Bouvier|title=The Lost City of Z: A Legendary British Explorer's Deadly Quest to Uncover the Secrets of the AmazonJapanese Chronicles

|summary=SoIt never does to start a review of a book with a quote from the blurb, therebut sometimes it's unavoidable. Le Monde reviewed this familybook, rightat some point, and with the parents have itchy feet, so they pack everything up and say goodbye to words ''what the dog, and leave Clifton, Bristol, and drive down to Italy and live old master craftsmen would call a fine and different life, and masterpiece.'' It is precisely that. A masterpiece in the plumbing might not be sense of the best but craft as well as the neighbours and 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 scrumping and the wine are all Japanese culture as it is a personal response to die for living and it all comes right travelling in the end with life-affirming brilliance.  There will be many people shuddering at that completely false description of this bookcountry.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571242561</amazonuk>1906011044

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pip Cheshire and Patrick ReynoldsStephen Fabes|title=Architecture Uncooked: An Architect Looks Around New Zealand Holiday HousesSigns of Life

|summary=This book immediately impresses by its 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 written, yet intelligent writinghad 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 its photography basic practicality that would have meant that captures both I would have survived if I had been gifted with the structure and requisite 'bottle'. In order words I'm not the spirit sort of the holiday homes scattered around the New Zealand countrysideperson who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years. Fabes did precisely that.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1869621549</amazonuk>1788161211

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dean StarnesRob Baker|title=RoamToubab Tales: The Joys and Trials of Expat Life in Africa

|summary=Languages, customs, rituals, fascinating things ''"Go to doMali, places to see" they said. "The music is amazing, people to visit – all in the one book, covering almost " they said. "And you get ten hours of sunshine every nook and cranny throughout the worldday. This is a travel book covering, well, pretty well everything" So I did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1869507118</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Tim Moore|title=I Believe in Yesterday: My Adventures in Living History|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Common opinion has it that the television programme Rob Baker is an ethnomusicologist. ''Time TeamA what?'' did a lot for the public image of archaeologists – bringing them out of their holes I hear you cry. Well, an ethnomusicologist studies music in the groundrelation to culture, and making them seem so rather like exciting, interesting people with a good way of putting their knowledge across. However it was clearly a much harder task when it came folklorist studies the oral and written story traditions relating to those background artistes they have sometimes, walking up and down in Roman centurion gear, or living the historical lifestyle as a re-enactmentculture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224077813</amazonuk>B089CSNFT7

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brian W Pugh and Paul R SpiringChristine Brown|title=On the Trail of Arthur Conan DoyleBucket Showers and Baby Goats: An Illustrated Devon TourVolunteering in West Africa|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=45

|summary=Last Friday, my local branch In the summer of Cotswold Outdoor had several travel guides and physical activity handbooks on the shelves2008, but nothing similar to 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, a compendium of physically active travelshe ended up volunteering in Ghana, with some nods to responsible tourismWest Africa. The format Now coincidentally, in the summer of information on activities2010, well-written taster articles and plenty of attractive photos make for this review's author was spending ''her'' days working in an inspiring armchair read for dreamers office job (albeit in the UK) while spending ''her'' nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something else, and planners. 'World class' locations are always debatableshe'' ended up just 3 countries away, but I found interesting suggestions volunteering in several sectionsSierra Leone, West Africa. I loved the So you can see why, when this book enough came up, said reviewer was delighted to brush off have the toast crumbs so that I can present opportunity to read and critique it to one of my adventurous offspring this Christmas, but I'm very much afraid the easy-opening pages may give the game away!.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749555815</amazonuk>171024299X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel EverettMourby_Rooms|title=Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes|rating=5|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-Rooms 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 View: The Secret Life 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''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680301</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewGreat Hotels|author=Paul Theroux|title=Ghost Train to the Eastern StarAdrian Mourby

|summary=Some 30-odd years ago Paul TherouxAdrian Mourby has given us a flying visit to each of fifty grand hotels, then half from fourteen regions of the world, with the age he is nowhotels in each section being arranged chronologically rather than by region, travelled overland across Europe and Asiawhich helps to give something of an overall picture. The result was So what makes a hotel 'his best known bookgrand' (apparently) – ? 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 Great Railway Bazaar''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>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Buckley1908745819|title=An Indian OdysseySurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie

|genre=TravelHistory|summary=More than Sometimes when people suggest that you read 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 certain book, they tell you ''Ramayanathis one has your name on it''. ValmikiMostly 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's epic was written round about 500 to 700 BC – much t like the same time as Homerbook. That's ''Odyssey'' (the title of this book is a very clever play on words) – but it still holds rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a central place in the hearts and minds of Indians although book calling your name, rarely get it is strangely unknown in the Westwrong. In this case, I was told why. ''Ramayana'' – The Wanderings blurb speaks of Rama – tells the story of Lord Ramaauthor considering ''s search for his kidnapped wife and his subsequent battles with Ravan. Much of it is certainly myth. Some may well be based on factan older, but it's inspirational and has achieved the status less tethered sense of Holy Writherself.|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 Older. Less tethered. That'' was recommended to me by s not a friend whose sense bad description of humour is very much on a par with minewhere I am. I read it a couple of years ago and decided, on discovering that Stephen Clarke had written a couple of not-Add 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 my love of Fran Sandham's solo walk across Africa, as he finally dips his toe into the Indian Oceannatural world, you need to go back to of those aspects of the beginning poetic and start again.  Lots of books make you want to do lyrical that. In this case, you actually need to: in order to fully understand the manare about style not form, and so many substance most of the things he says and does along the wayall, about connection. OtherwiseOf course, you're in danger of thinking this guy book had my name on it. It was a fool written for even trying me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to attempt a solo walk across the African continenthave it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715637673</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christina Thompson1912242052|title=Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You AllO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=4.53|genre=TravelArt|summary=Subtitled ''an unlikely love storyOh Joy for me!''gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, this was an interesting and inspiring memoir written by an American academicnot because he had to for work, who met and fell in love with as a Maori miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack- horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and what a beautiful tale it tells! Referred to as a 'contact' encounter (i.eadventure. His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, chance meeting) it sounds almost like a fairy taleand its literary consequences, and in part it is - but a fairy tale which includes huge amount changed our view of hard work toothe world''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747582521</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicola J Watson Woolf_Great|title=The Literary TouristGreat Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration|author=Jo Woolf

|genre=TravelHistory|summary=''As 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 resident travel writer this might interest you…'' came my introduction world, and also given us an understanding of what it is like to this be faced with the most terrible conditions and still have the determination and grit to carry on. This book. Misguidedly could be viewed as it turned a taster which encourages us to seek out, for the emphasis in Watson's work is much and read more heavily on about some of the ''literary'' than on the ''tourist''most iconic explorers. Their stories are pretty incredible and Woolf does them justice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230210929</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Suzanna Clarke Hailstone_Berlin|title=A House Berlin in Fezthe Cold War: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco1959 to 1966|author=Allan Hailstone

|genre=AutobiographyHistory|summary=Perhaps it's a little unfair to come to ''A House Berlin in Fezthe Cold War: 1959-1966'' still inspired 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 storytelling changing nature of Tahir Shah's [[In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah|In Arabian Nights]], because this is the divide between East and West Berlin and a very different take on Morocco, aimed (as a book) no doubt at a very different market, but reading glimpse into life in the city during the two in quick succession it is hard to avoid comparisonCold War.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925223</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Richardson Stewart_Marches|title=A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of SpainThe Marches|author=Rory Stewart

|genre=TravelHistory|summary=Although subtitled ''discovering The Observer quote on the front of the food paperback edition of SpainStewart's latest book observes ', this excellently written, engaging and interesting book 'This is about so much moretravel writing at its finest. Yes'' Perhaps, the focus but to call it 'travel writing' is on food, mouthwateringly described, but to totally under-sell it . This is also about cultureerudition 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, peopleand then (to his father's, travelbemusement, tourismshall we say) became an MP. Oh, history and geographyhe walked 6,000 miles across Afghanistan in 2002. A walk along the Scottish borders should be a doddle by comparison.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747593809</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rowan SimonsBristow China|title=Bamboo GoalpostsChina in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser|author=Michael Bristow|rating=4 |genre=SportAutobiography|summary=When it comes to football, I'm Having worked for nine years in agreement with Bejing as a journalist for the great Bill Shankly when he said: ''Football is not a matter of life and deathBBC, it's far more important than that''. When it comes author Michael Bristow decided to China, my knowledge is limited to what I've seen on the TV recently write about Chinese history. Having been learning the earthquakelocal language for several years, Bristow asked his language teacher for guidance - the Olympics and language teacher, born in the protests; vague memories of Tiananmen Square and early fifties, offered Bristow a love compelling picture of the cuisinelife in Communist China - but added to that, or at least the version Bristow was greatly surprised to find that comes from my local takeawayhis language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothing. Like many in It soon becomes clear that the tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a fascinating portrait of one of the Western world, I have no concept of what life is truly like in China's most intriguing nations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230703720</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tahir Shah Hurst_Norfolk|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>}} {{newreviewOn My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks|author=Daniel Kalder|title=Strange TelescopesJohn Hurst|rating=3 4|genre=TravelArt|summary=''Bill Bryson with Tourette's'' It was one of the epithets that met Kalder's previous travelogue ([[Lost Cosmonaut]]) along with 'sharp absurdist insight'pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, 'deliberately crass' and 'revelatory'. I can't actually disagree with any of that if you we 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 noannoyingly, even though I am Russian, I will try left with an hour to be unbiased and judge it like I would judge any other book about a foreign country experience. I now fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to regretfully admit I failedour holiday cottage. 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 There was an art exhibition in Tibet|rating=4 |genre=Politics and Society|summary=Tibet is an emotive word these days. Rightly so. Since long before the dawn of Communismchurch hall, China has been adept at numbering the rights so we went in - and wrongs found a display of history, with the three this and the seven that. Sadly, she does not yet see the invasion of Tibet as a wrongmost gorgeous pictures. 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 d cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on it. Along with many othersour walls, but thought that I can only hope that one day they will would have full and free access to the internet and other media where they will be able to read the many and varied opinions make do with a couple of people from around the world, greetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and will be allowed not only to make up their own mind – but to then debate that standpoint, publicly and freelyI couldn't resist buying it.|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|summary=The British Empire, lawd bless it – so large the sun never set Move 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316731048</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Trivia Reviews]]