travel snippets
Visit Sunny Chernobyl
Andrew Blackwell, Random House, £12.99
The weirdest travel book you’ll read this
year, Blackwell’s focus isn’t just off the beaten
path, but off the piste, through the woods and
over to the local sewage works. Visiting the
‘
world’s most polluted places’, including a
massive rubbish patch and the titular nuclear
disaster site can’t have been much fun for the
environmental writer. Nevertheless, his witty,
informed romp through ecological disasters
gives the reader an eye-opening glimpse into
some seriously fascinating destinations.
foodie manual
Al Dente
David Winner, Simon & Schuster, £8.99
Subtitled, ‘Madness, Beauty and the Food
of Rome’, this enjoyable exploration of the
streets and dishes of the Eternal City is
likely to have you salivating from the start.
Delving into the history, culture, art
and religion through the medium of food,
the book takes the reader to side street
trattoria
,
back street
osteria
and pretty
much everywhere in between in its
search of the secrets of the ancients. An
excitable, sometimes even crazed tour
guide, Winner is certainly never boring,
regardless of whether he’s looking for
answers to questions you would never
have thought to ask – where are
communion wafers made for the Vatican?
What happened to all the marble of the
Roman Empire? – and those you
definitely would. It’s the latter: lip-licking
tips, such as where to find the best ice
cream and the “sexiest tiramisu”, that
make this of real value to the foodie
reader planning a holiday in this great
city. A collection of travel snippets that
sharpen the mind as well as the appetite.
beach read
The Red House
Mark Haddon, Vintage, £7.99
From the author of
The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-
Time
comes this brutally honest
peek into a family gathering that
many of us will identify with. In a
cottage in Wales, siblings gather to
remember their mother, but it’s not
long before the cracks start to
show. This gripping drama, now
out in paperback, is our chosen
beach companion for May.
city guide
Cool Amsterdam
City Guide, teNeues, €8.95
Tired of guidebooks that tell you what to
do instead of showing what a place is like?
This latest in art-book company teNeues’
series of pocket guides is a visual treat,
with its selection of hotels, restaurants,
shops and highlights – from post-industrial
nightclub Melkweg to legendary cheese
shop De Kaaskamer – all beautifully
photographed. Now you can really browse
the city before you get there.
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