Traveler’s Bookshelf: Hidden Treasures of England

by Sean McLachlan on

I’ve been to 25 countries and I’ve never seen any place with so many overlooked treasures as England. Maybe that’s why I keep making excuses to work here. A wonderful new book by Michael McNay, Hidden Treasures of England, reveals some of England’s lesser-known artistic and historical highlights.

McNay spends much of his time exploring churches in search of rare stonework and fine Medieval stained glass, and he’s had some fun along the way. When he visited Eyam to see a ninth-century cross outside the famous plague church, he relates, “I asked Mrs Furness, the duty parishioner on the church bookstall, how Eyam should be pronounced: Eeyam? Iyam? ‘Eem,’ she said severely, ‘as in redeem.'”

In Durham Cathedral he lavishes praise on the elegant tomb of St. Cuthbert, with its unique Anglo-Saxon wood carvings, and the stunning pectoral cross of the saint himself, now in the cathedral treasury. The omission of the somber and imposing tomb of the Venerable Bede, also in Durham Cathedral, is a bit strange, but highlights the fact that for every jewel McNay shows us, England has several more hidden away.

It’s not all churches. We get the “mildly erotic” tapestries of Newby Hall, Yorkshire, an impressive promenade at Bridlington, Yorkshire, seaside from the days before the easyJet generation, even an old milestone at Brampton, Cambridgeshire, with carved hands pointing the way to London and other towns. Such milestones used to be a common sight in the English countryside but were buried during World War Two to confuse the Nazis in case they invaded. McNay knows just when to throw in an interesting anecdote.

McNay also has an eye for overlooked elements of famous places. The section on Trafalgar Square skips Nelson’s Column in favor of the monument to King Charles I, the first bronze equestrian statue made in England. You can often see it in photos of the square, but it’s rarely the focus of attention.

The book is richly illustrated with color photographs and while its 550 hardcover pages will make you think twice about putting it in your suitcase, it makes an engaging read for armchair travelers and a useful guide for those planning their next trip. Hidden Treasures of England is published by Random House and distributed in England by Guardian Books.

Travel Read: ‘First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria’

by Annie Scott on

First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria is a new book (available starting today) by Eve Brown-Waite, an East Coast girl who did what many of us said we would and never did: she joined the Peace Corps after college — just the beginning of an extraordinary and adventurous life.

If you want to know what you’re getting into with this book, the subtitle, “How a Peace Corps Poster Boy Won My Heart and a Third World Adventure Changed My Life” is a good clue. Though Brown-Waite’s experiences of travels, service, and shenanigans in Ecuador and Uganda have a universal appeal, the memoir reads a bit like chick lit.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The book is immensely fast-paced, and the hijinx Brown-Waite gets into are both entertaining and fascinating. I only comment on the tone because you’re going to have to page through a lot of schlock about how much she loves her husband — but it’s worth it. The book grows along with the progress of the author, and really takes off around the time she finds her first calling in Ecuador — returning lost boys from a local orphanage to their homes in other towns, a seemingly simple task that no one had thought to do or had the organizational support to do. The book is delightful, funny, and very touching at times.

First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria follows Brown-Waite, alternating narrative with actual letters she sent back to the States, through marriage and a bumpy pregnancy in Uganda, intestinal parasites, termites, a hostage situation, bombings, and, as you might guess, malaria — always with an upbeat grin and a wink.

This is the perfect read for any young woman you know who is on the Peace Corps track or is considering any kind of 3rd world work. And for those of us who are really more on the manicures-and-cocktails-in-New-York track? Well, I found it pretty darn entertaining.

Available in Hardcover and for Kindle on Amazon.com.

Travel Read: 100 Places Every Woman Should Go

by Brenda Yun on

I never knew there could be a book so thoughtful and inspiring for women as this one. Stephanie Elizondo Griest’s second travel book, which lists far more than just 100 Places Every Woman Should Go, is truly an encyclopedia for women travelers. It’s the kind of book that could never have existed fifty years ago, but is so refreshing that free-spirited, female travelers should feel grateful that it exists now, and fully prepared for that next trip into the wide, wonderful world.

Griest’s great book is packed with helpful historical information, inspiring stories, and travel tips. It’s broken up into nine sections — my favorite being the first: “Powerful Women and Their Places in History.” There’s so much worth digesting in each locale described. For instance, I had no idea that the word “lesbian” came from the birthplace of Sappho (Lesbos, Greece). Griest fills each description with great travel tips that often include specific street addresses for particularly noteworthy sights.What I like most about the 100 places she chooses is that she shies away from identifying places that every woman obviously dreams of traveling to, like Venice, Rome, and Paris. Instead, she paves a new path for women, encouraging us to visit Japan’s 88 sacred temples or stroll through the public squares of Samarkand, one of the world’s oldest cities in Uzbekistan.

Griest does not limit her list to concrete or singular places. Sometimes, she finds a way to take us to virtual spots like the Museum of Menstruation or creates lists like “Best Bungee Jumping Locales,” “Sexiest Lingerie Shops,” or “Places to Pet Fuzzy Animals.” These 100 “places” are really all-encompassing, and Griest manages to take us on an imaginative journey around the world, packing all her feminine know-how into each description.

I did find, occasionally, that there were some places missing from some of the identified places in her list. For instance, I was baffled as to why two Russian writers were on Griest’s list of “Famous Women Writers and Their Creative Nooks,” but Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, and Jane Austen were absent. I was additionally confused that cooking classes in India and Thailand were not on the list of “Culinary Class Destinations.”

Griest’s opinions of places are somewhat biased, too. While she does a fairly good job covering the globe, a single locale in French Polynesia or the South Pacific is missing, and some places like Oaxaca, Angkor Wat, and New York are mentioned several times. Her college town of Austin landed on the list, but places like Budapest and Cairo are never acknowledged.

With every list, however, there is bound to be some bias and some personal flair and choice involved, and Griest’s original and creative sensibilities are still well-worth reading about. The great thing about this book is that you can flip to a place description, be perfectly entertained and inspired, and then tuck the book away until the next time you feel compelled to read about the places you can go. Or, you can read it in one sitting like I did and be completely blown away by the amazing places in this one world that it’s hard to imagine why we live in one city for so long and not just pack our bags and get out there and see some if not all of it.

Click here to read my review of Griest’s first travel book, “Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana.” My review of Griest’s third travel book, “Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines” is forthcoming, along with my interview with the author in early January. Feel free to jot me an email (Brenda DOT Yun AT weblogsinc DOT com) if you have a question for Stephanie.

Click the images to learn about the most unusual museums in the world — featuring everything from funeral customs, to penises, to velvet paintings, to stripping.