I'd been eyeing him since I heard that his “Short History of Nearly Everything” was quite good, but I rarely make it to the travel literature section in the library (because I've collected too many books browsing the fiction shelves). Then I saw this, his musings about his trip around the UK, and decided to read it first. I just love reading about places that I’ve been to, and places that I could visit (I took out my UK map to follow his tracks), so this was a good first read.
He has a nice conversational tone to his book, and humorous takes on stories and other things that happened to him on his travels. He also describes some cliff and inland walks (eg. the Jurassic Coast trek) that I'd love to do someday, and now have an inkling of how to start (like getting an AA Map.. LoL). In some ways he's better than a guide book, as he goes to all the small overlooked towns/villages around the UK. Granted, some of them are fit to be overlooked by the average tourist, but it's always nice to know that you're not missing much by not going to that particular place.
Look forward to reading more from him.
Rating: *** out of 5
