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==Travel==
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{{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>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Yangzom Brauen and Katy Darbyshire
|summary=Languages, customs, rituals, fascinating things to do, places to see, people to visit – all in the one book, covering almost every nook and cranny throughout the world. This is a travel book covering, well, pretty well everything.
|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 ''Time Team'' did a lot for the public image of archaeologists – bringing them out of their holes in the ground, and making them seem like exciting, interesting people with a good way of putting their knowledge across. However it was clearly a much harder task when it came to those background artistes they have sometimes, walking up and down in Roman centurion gear, or living the historical lifestyle as a re-enactment.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224077813</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Brian W Pugh and Paul R Spiring
|title=On the Trail of Arthur Conan Doyle: An Illustrated Devon Tour
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=This slim volume, comprising just four chapters, is both a detailed chronology of the life of Arthur Conan Doyle and, for those that want to follow in the footsteps of ACD (I adopt the authors' abbreviation gladly), 'The Complete Arthur Conan Doyle Devon Tour' – locations that inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles and more.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846241987</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=William Gray
|title=Adventure Travel (AA Travel Guides)
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
|summary=Last Friday, my local branch of Cotswold Outdoor had several travel guides and physical activity handbooks on the shelves, but nothing similar to this book, a compendium of physically active travel, with some nods to responsible tourism. The format of information on activities, well-written taster articles and plenty of attractive photos make for an inspiring armchair read for dreamers and planners. 'World class' locations are always debatable, but I found interesting suggestions in several sections. I loved the book enough to brush off the toast crumbs so that I can present it to one of my adventurous offspring this Christmas, but I'm very much afraid the easy-opening pages may give the game away!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749555815</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Daniel Everett
|title=Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
|summary=I nearly didn't select this book to review as I thought it was about snakes - I was expecting some kind of Bear Grylls* adventure travel survival book for the Amazon. How-to-survive-in-the-jungle-armed-with-only-a-sharp-stick-and-a-six-pack sort of thing. Fortunately, I looked into the content a little further, and found that this is an anthropological and linguistic study of the life of the Pirahas, a tribe living in the remote Amazonian jungle. The title comes from the fact that the Pirahas don't have a word for ''goodnight'' – their nearest equivalent when they are leaving someone for the night is ''Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680301</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Paul Theroux
|title=Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
|summary=Some 30-odd years ago Paul Theroux, then half the age he is now, travelled overland across Europe and Asia. The result was 'his best known book' (apparently) – ''The Great Railway Bazaar''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241142539</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Martin Buckley
|title=An Indian Odyssey
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
|summary=More than a quarter of a century ago Martin Buckley went to Sri Lanka and then on to India. It was time off before settling down to the business of earning a living. Two things happened to him – he fell in love with India and knew that he wanted to stay there - and he discovered the ''Ramayana''. Valmiki's epic was written round about 500 to 700 BC – much the same time as Homer's ''Odyssey'' (the title of this book is a very clever play on words) – but it still holds a central place in the hearts and minds of Indians although it is strangely unknown in the West. ''Ramayana'' – The Wanderings of Rama – tells the story of Lord Rama's search for his kidnapped wife and his subsequent battles with Ravan. Much of it is certainly myth. Some may well be based on fact, but it's inspirational and has achieved the status of Holy Writ.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925762</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Stephen Clarke
|title=A Year in the Merde
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''A Year In The Merde'' was recommended to me by a friend whose sense of humour is very much on a par with mine. I read it a couple of years ago and decided, on discovering that Stephen Clarke had written a couple of not-to-be-missed follow-ups, that I would treat myself to the tale once more as a warm-up exercise to prepare me for the ''beaucoup de merde'' to come.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552772968</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Fran Sandham
|title=Traversa
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
|summary=When you reach the end of Fran Sandham's solo walk across Africa, as he finally dips his toe into the Indian Ocean, you need to go back to the beginning and start again.
 
Lots of books make you want to do that. In this case, you actually need to: in order to fully understand the man, and so many of the things he says and does along the way. Otherwise, you're in danger of thinking this guy was a fool for even trying to attempt a solo walk across the African continent.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715637673</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Christina Thompson
|title=Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All
|rating=4.5
|genre=Travel
|summary=Subtitled ''an unlikely love story'', this was an interesting and inspiring memoir written by an American academic, who met and fell in love with a Maori - and what a beautiful tale it tells! Referred to as a 'contact' encounter (i.e., chance meeting) it sounds almost like a fairy tale, and in part it is - but a fairy tale which includes huge amount of hard work too.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747582521</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Nicola J Watson
|title=The Literary Tourist
|rating=3.5
|genre=Travel
|summary=''As our resident travel writer this might interest you…'' came my introduction to this book. Misguidedly as it turned out, for the emphasis in Watson's work is much more heavily on the ''literary'' than on the ''tourist''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230210929</amazonuk>
}}

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