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Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North

Childrens Toy Shop > Travel > General
by: Stuart Maconie

February 07, 2008
I found this quite funny, but a chapter or two - or make that an essay, really would be enough. After a while the ever samey tone and chippiness (which he tries to disguise but can't) starts to grate a bit.

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I Never Knew That About England

Childrens Toy Shop > Travel > General
by: Christopher Winn

September 04, 2008
Along with G Meehan I find the errors irritating having found two more in the first 24 pages.
One is often repeated and may be considered trivial by many - the line from Gray's Elegy (page 18)
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
True, several websites print this version but they may well be just
copies of other sites.
Reputable poetry sites and Oxford University's Gray archive print the version that also appears in the Oxford Book of English Verse:
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,

Yes, it does seem odd, but if that's what Gray wrote, that's what should appear.
The editors at the publishers, if not the author, should be capable of spotting this.

A far less trivial error is the ... Read More:

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The Discovery of France

Childrens Toy Shop > Travel > General
by: Graham Robb

July 04, 2008
This is a superbly written history-cum-travelogue. Robb is known for his books on French writers (Balzac, Hugo and Rimbaud) but here he ventures into peasant France, riding on his bicycle to make the time for the small details of life in rural France. He writes extremely well about landscape, an the book throughout is enjoyable to read. Drawing on travelogues of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Robb accentuates the backwardness of peasant France - mainly for effect, it seems. I found this increasingly annoying. It is an imbalance in the book. The French peasants come across as a nation of troglodytes. The second half of the book is more conventional history on the theme of nation-building in the nineteenth century. This is perhaps better covered in Eugene ... Read More:

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Yes Man

Childrens Toy Shop > Travel > General
by: Danny Wallace

April 06, 2006
Well here's one of those books that could change the world, were enough people to read it and embrace its simple philosophy of saying "yes" to whatever life presents them and going after treats like some tongue-hanging cute and lovable dog. Danny's an innocent - gullible, even - and I guess that's why he succeeds, because he perseveres where the more sensible of us would fail. But, to prove the point, he's the one that ends up happily married and on TV - and if that's not enough to make people want to say "yes" more I don't know what is. Certainly it's got me inspired - I just hope the inspiration lasts longer than the few hours it usually does after whatever life-affirming movie/book I've just digested. But God bless Danny Wallace for being out there and doing it for us!
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Wainwright Anniversary Boxed Set Pictorial Guides to the Fells 1-7 (Wainwright 50th Anniversary ed)

Childrens Toy Shop > Travel > General
by: Alfred Wainwright

May 01, 2007
This series of books may well be on the expensive side but they are an essential purchase for anyone that enjoys walking in the Lakeland Fells.The Wainright's are rightly regarded as the pinnacle of books of their type and it is easy to see why.Beautifully illustrated by the author and with several different routes described for the many fells covered,this is by far the best set of books I have seen on the subject.
Some of the routes are a little out of date now but that doesn't really matter as you can still find your way round.Also,the seven books in the series are a very handy size for you to carry in your ruck sack or even your pocket.
If you aren't sure if you should spend this amount of money on this set the best thing that I can advise is that you do splash ... Read More:

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Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of 'The Great Railway Bazaar'

Childrens Toy Shop > Travel > General
by: Paul Theroux

September 04, 2008
I have enjoyed Theroux's books of his other rail journeys, particularly Black Star Safari but this one left me cold and bored. There's little or nothing in this book that hasn't been said before and you will get neither a sense for a country nor will you learn anything particularly new.

Apologies to Macclesfield, by the way

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Thailand (Lonely Planet Country Guide)

Childrens Toy Shop > Travel > General
by: China Williams, Aaron Anderson, Becca Blond, Brett Atkinson, Tim Brewer, Virginia Jealous, Lisa Steer

August 01, 2007
I have enjoyed Theroux's books of his other rail journeys, particularly Black Star Safari but this one left me cold and bored. There's little or nothing in this book that hasn't been said before and you will get neither a sense for a country nor will you learn anything particularly new.

Apologies to Macclesfield, by the way

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The Good Food Guide 2009

Childrens Toy Shop > Travel > General
from: Which? Books

September 08, 2008
As usual this guide makes compulsive reading, if you're interested in good food. For the last two years there's been a greater use of colour printing and the whole appearance of the book is more attractive. It's inevitably weighted towards more populated areas with very few entries for far-flung places, where in truth one needs guidance even more. The Guide is limited by he fact that it is alerted to good places by recommendations from the general public to which it then sends inspectors. So, for example, an excellent eating place in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland will have a lesser chance of inclusion if a volunteer inspector is unavailable to travel and stay there (at their own expense) to do the inspection--most inspectors only get the meal reimbursed. In recent years the Guide's ... Read More:

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Don't Stop Me Now

Childrens Toy Shop > Travel > General
by: Jeremy Clarkson

May 01, 2008
I went to school with him, and contrary to what he says in the Sunday Times, he was expelled for smoking dope at the prep school !
I am a fan , however; Top gear is great and his books are good fun to read but give me a break , they are all the same !
I live abroad , but when I come back to visit I like to go into the big bookshops and am invariably bombarded with the latest Jeremy Clarkson offering. This is getting annoying .

However funny he might be , there is only so much that can be written about cars, late seventies rock music and what there is still good about England.

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Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour

Childrens Toy Shop > Travel > General
by: Kate Fox

April 11, 2005
I was given this by a Canadian colleague to read. She thought it was hysterical. I am irked that those from abroad will take this as truth. The "class system" here is ever changing and we really are not so archaic as this book would have others believe. We are not the quaint, backward group of red bus riding, "Blimey Guvnor" people that this book would have them believe. I think that this book has put us back 50 years.