Uploaded September 2018 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
When it comes to mass-produced travel guides, Fodor's, Frommer's and The Lonely Planet are all very well, but they don't pretend to rise above routine accommodations.
Enter Alastair Sawday, whose distinguished "Special Places to Stay" series, covering unusual watering holes in Britain, France and Europe in general, has carved out a much respected niche, in an otherwise saturated market, for the traveller willing to indulge in something special - and not necessarily out of the way, either.
His autobiography, Travelling Light, in which he reminisces about the singular places and splendid characters he has encountered in the wake of his life's researches, is one of the most engaging such accounts since the late Peter Mayle's, whose paeans to Provence precipitated an unfortunate wave of tourism that overran the immediate region. Not so Mr. Sawday, whose delightfully humorous anecdotes and recommendations always belie an extremely savvy acquaintance with the inns (and outs) of travel amidst the overlooked.
As he says himself, "If you have ever woken under a plump eiderdown duvet to the lowing of Charolais cattle beneath your window, and the unmistakable whiff of French coffee, you will know why I wanted to write this book." And, dear reader, why you might wish to read it.
Armchair travel at its delightful - and practical - best.
More travel book review videos at
bookreviewsandvideos.com/category/travel
When it comes to mass-produced travel guides, Fodor's, Frommer's and The Lonely Planet are all very well, but they don't pretend to rise above routine accommodations.
Enter Alastair Sawday, whose distinguished "Special Places to Stay" series, covering unusual watering holes in Britain, France and Europe in general, has carved out a much respected niche, in an otherwise saturated market, for the traveller willing to indulge in something special - and not necessarily out of the way, either.
His autobiography, Travelling Light, in which he reminisces about the singular places and splendid characters he has encountered in the wake of his life's researches, is one of the most engaging such accounts since the late Peter Mayle's, whose paeans to Provence precipitated an unfortunate wave of tourism that overran the immediate region. Not so Mr. Sawday, whose delightfully humorous anecdotes and recommendations always belie an extremely savvy acquaintance with the inns (and outs) of travel amidst the overlooked.
As he says himself, "If you have ever woken under a plump eiderdown duvet to the lowing of Charolais cattle beneath your window, and the unmistakable whiff of French coffee, you will know why I wanted to write this book." And, dear reader, why you might wish to read it.
Armchair travel at its delightful - and practical - best.
More travel book review videos at
bookreviewsandvideos.com/category/travel
