White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World by Geoff Dyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In this series of ten essays, Geoff Dyer explores the reasons why we travel using examples from the excursions that he makes. He travels to China to see the Forbidden City in Beijing where he starts to become besotted with his guide there. From his home-town of Los Angeles, he makes a pilgrimage to visit the residence of TW Adorno and the art that is the Watts Towers. There is a trip to Mexico to visit the art installation of Walter De Maria called The Lightning Field and the amazing Spiral Jetty draws him to Utah. A trip north to see the aurora borealis with his wife and she is with him again in New Mexico after visiting White Sands where they collect a hitchhiker and then see a sign advising against it…

A trip that has lots of activity for him would be boring, as we see when he goes to French Polynesia to trace the ghosts of Gauguin and it falls a little flat. But it is the journeys that don’t work that gives him scope to explore the inner recesses of his mind and to explore the reasons behind us travelling. Is it for the experiences or the desire to tell people what we have done? Slightly surreal at times, it is really well written in some of the essays, he is very perceptive and his bone-dry wit makes this book amusing quite often. Some of it is fictionalised, and it does feel embellished at times, almost as though he is responding to the desire to convince people that he had great time. You can travel in the mind as much as in the physical world, but his final essay is about a profound life changing event that he has. Some great parts; others less so, but interesting nonetheless.

View all my reviews

Station to Station: Searching for Stories on the Great Western Line by James Attlee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All roads lead to London, and so do the railway lines. The one connecting Bristol with our capital has been around for over 150 years now. This line was constructed by the brilliant and indomitable Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Originally built in wide gauge it was described as his ‘billiard table as the alignment was almost completely level along the whole route. Attlee has been a regular traveller on the route for many years, but he has been fortunate to be appointed ‘writer on the Train’ with a pass for unlimited travel and a letter of authorisation allowing him to talk to anyone on the network.

His journey along the route begins at the architectural masterpiece that is Paddington Station. This is the first of many of the listed and significant tunnel portals, bridges and viaducts the enable the line to remain perfectly level. The chapters are titled, location, diversion and digression, and he uses those headings to good effect as he travels west. We learn about the history of the line as well as places of significance that stretch way back in time to the Neolithic. There are profiles of the famous and infamous people that line the route from royalty to the wild parties of Diana Dors. He meets the people that keep the railway moving, drivers, guards and ticket officers. The foundation of all of these stories is centred on Isambard Kingdom Brunel; his presence still permeates the route and the architecture all the way.

It is quite amazing the quantity of stories that can be drawn just from one point to point journey and Attlee’s book makes for entertaining reading. It is well researched, full of fascinating anecdotes, tales and facts about all manner of random details and well worth reading even if you’re not a train fan.

View all my reviews

Squirrel Pie (and other stories): Adventures in Food Across the Globe by Elisabeth Luard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The travel experience is not just the sights and sounds of new locations, the tastes and the flavours make a place too. How many times has that bottle of wine that you bought back from holiday, not tasted quite as good as you remember it?. In this delightful book, Elisabeth Luard travels from deserts to rivers, forests to islands trying new foods and speaking to those that grow or make them. Luard joins hunters in the forests of Maine, looking for their native grey squirrel to make the title of the book. In Sardinia, she samples the finest, and eye wateringly expensive bottarga. Her river trip on the Danube brings a cross between a doughnut and churro, scented with vanilla and in Gujarat learns that it is as much about the customs as it is the food. Tasmania brings the salty tang of oysters and sweet sharp strawberries.

This is not the first of Luard’s books that I have read; that was Family Life an account of her life in Andalusia with her husband Nicolas and four children. Squirrel Pie has that same warm, calm authoritative voice of a lady who takes great delight in finding and sharing fine foods in the countries that she visits. The book is peppered with her lovely sketches of scenes from the markets and kitchens that she visited. At the end of each chapter there are a few selected recipes, each chosen to reflect the location she visits and the flavours encountered that you can recreate in your own kitchen. What permeates the book is the pure delight she has in finding something really nice to eat, and the joy in sharing that experience with you.

View all my reviews

Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads by Paul Theroux
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After five decades spent exploring and writing about the far-flung and exotic places of the world, Paul Theroux has looked to his home country for inspiration. America has always been a place of contrasts and there is none as stark as the differences between the rest of America and the Deep South. Unlike his other journeys, this is one difference; he can climb in his car and drive there. So he does, leaving his home and traveling to the area over the course of four seasons. Each time he catches up with friends made from the previous visit, dodges twisters, sees new places and experiences fresh things.

The American South has a long history, there are deeply ingrained attitudes and prejudices, widespread poverty, high unemployment and collectively some of the worst performing schools in the country. The contradiction is that he has some of the warmest welcomes, listens to some brilliant music and eats probably too much of the fine local cuisine. He will talk to anyone regardless of colour or status, the mayor, the homeless, authors, church leaders, gun traders and those that stood up to segregation. The stories that he draws out from these people in his return trips vary from the fascinating to the sad, there are happy moments and some frankly horrifying stories.

Theroux tells it as it is, not seeking to judge those he meets, but to let them tell their story in their own words. What comes across is a part of a nation that feels unwanted. The fantastic but equally melancholic photos by Steve McCurry show just how abandoned and derelict some of the towns are, haunted only by ghosts and echoes from the past. It is a poignant book, one that shows just how tough life is there. It is my first book by Paul Theroux, even though I have had a number of his books sitting on my shelves for ages, and it definitely won’t be my last.

View all my reviews

Love of Country: A Hebridean Journey by Madeleine Bunting
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To describe the Outer Hebrides as remote is somewhat of an understatement. Even today it can take the best part of a day to get to, but once you are there you have reached not only some of the oldest parts of our planet, but also the epicentre of one of our country’s ancient cultures. This edgeland is the very periphery of our landscape and faces the full brunt of everything that the Atlantic can throw at it; even the summer can have five days of gales a month. This tough, uncompromising landscape shapes the place and the people that inhabit it.

People belong to places, rather than place belong to people

These islands have attracted a variety of people over the millennia. There were those who sought religious solitude on Iona and whilst there created the works of art that are the Book of Kells. Jura’s simple way of life gave George Orwell the space that he needed to create the dystopian horror that is 1984. The traditional way of life on the islands is formed as much by the landscape as it is by the language, and these tough, resilient people took those qualities with them as they left the islands either by choice or enforced by landowners. It is to this landscape that Bunting returns to countless times over six years, immersing herself into it, teasing out stories of the people and history and letting the place soak into her.

‘I couldn’t conceive of living on this land without getting my hands dirty. It keeps me connected with the place.’

This is another really well written book by Bunting, she has managed to capture the very essence of the Outer Hebrides as she travels around and crosses the straits between the islands including a boat trip heads out to the Strait of Corryvreckan, the place where Orwell nearly drowned and is the location of one of the world’s most powerful whirlpools. Well worth reading.

View all my reviews

Cycling the Earth: A Life-changing Race Around the World by Sean Conway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sean Conway was stuck in a rut, working as a portrait photographer he was bored of taking photos of uncooperative children; and his relationship had just gone south too. Whilst in this limbo, he heard about Mark Beaumont breaking the record for cycling around the world. He had managed over 100 miles a day and obliterated the previous record. Even though he hadn’t been on a bike for years, this was a challenge that immediately inspired him; but could he actually do it?

An arduous six-month training schedule would prove it one way or the other…

Somehow, he survived it. He packed his entire belongings into a set of boxes and joined some other like minded maniacs on the start line in Greenwich Park for the adventure of a lifetime. His aim was simple, cycle around 180 miles per day, every day and claim the record for himself. He started well, managing to reach his daily total and he cycled across Europe and then on to South America and the pan-American highway Atacama desert. Tracking the opther swho set out on their own journey. As America beckoned, with the wide road and good tarmac, he realised that he was in for a good chance of the record.

Then disaster! As he came to, he now realised that not only was record may slipping from his grasp, but he might not even be able to finish the challenge.

What comes across in this is his relentless drive to complete the challenge that he set himself. He wears his heart on his sleeve too as we follow his high days and low days, dodge tornadoes and chases dogs. He is no wordsmith though, but there is plenty of self-depreciating humour in the text, making this is an enjoyable read as we follow Conway racing around the world. He is quite inspirational too, proving that anyone can be ambitious and achieve their dreams. Not the best round the world cycling adventure, but still worth reading.

View all my reviews

Crossing the Congo: Over Land and Water in a Hard Place by Mike Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When someone says that a journey is impossible, most people will leave it at that, but not these three. The crossing of the Congo River Basin, heading from Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Juba, in South Sudan had be done before, but not for a very long time and not since the region had descended into war and conflict. On top of that, this 2,500 mile journey was to be driven in a 25 year old Land Rover called 9Bob, which had already been driven around a large portion of West Africa and was really on its last legs.

On this unbelievably tough journey, the route they followed could not be described as tracks, let alone roads. However, this was only one of the challenges that they faced; as well as the sheer hard graft it took to carve a way through the jungle, they had to cope with tropical diseases and fevers, fire ants that numbed their legs after biting, suspicious locals who thought that they were prospecting for minerals. The hardest part for all of them though, was dealing with the endemic corruption and bureaucracy from petty officials and kleptocracy that was rife. The three had to rely on every single ounce of ingenuity and effort to get themselves through the jungle, digging themselves out of mud, building and strengthening bridges and even rafts to get their Land Rover and gear across rivers. Sometimes they were assisted by the locals, who appeared almost magically out of the forest anytime they stopped, but frequently they were just watched as they struggled against the elements.

Even though this was a short journey compared to other travel books, it was unbelievable tough. It strained their relationships to breaking point; occasionally beyond. Some days their distance travelled was just a handful of miles, the relentless dealing with the petty officials and the people and the daily battle to keep the Land Rover going slowing progress to a crawl. It is a well-written book, even though it feels a little clinical at times, they manage to convey the tension of daily life. What makes this book really special though is the stunning images of their journey taken by award winning photographer Charlie Hatch-Barnwell. It also gives us an insight into the harsh lives of the Congolese people, still affected by the ongoing conflicts and the legacy left by their Belgian colonial masters. It is a tough book about an astonishing journey.

View all my reviews