Travel Books

I love travel books, any travel books, but especially those that tell a story at the same time. I suppose my favorite has to be Bill Bryson but having recently discovered Peter Moore I am a convert, he writes with so much humour that you are there on the road with him, very clever.

One of my loves is to trawl old book stalls and charity shops for obscure writers and one of the best I found was SPB Mais. His 'Spanish Holiday' is a classic. Written in 1955, it charts his journey by coach from London, through France and Spain. SPB (you never learn his first name) lists, with monotonous regularity, the price of water, tea and their mid morning Brandy, which his wife had 'to settle her stomach'

I personally think that Gillian (his wife) took the Brandy to cope with being stuck on a coach with SPB.............his comments on Franco's Spain are priceless and in these politically correct time really quite outrageous, but of his time brilliant.

We followed part of the 1955 route down to San Sebastian and will pick it up again in Toledo and Madrid and I'll let know how things have changed in the past 50 years, especially the price of brandy.