May 2011. Ras Abaydah, Benghazi, ‘Free Libya’

A patch of wasteland outside Benghazi’s Middle Class suburb of Ras Abaydah would not normally be home to a Bedouin encampment.  However, as early evening skies turned from blue to ochre this is where I found myself, drinking coffee under the shady woollen canvas of the community’s security tent, as Abu Faris’s steely gaze probed my journalistic disinterest.  ‘None of the Arab leaders know the meaning of freedom.  None of the Arab leaders know what people mean.  None of the Arab leaders know what a President is, they just read it, they have no respect at all for this word “freedom”, everybody feel it.’  Though his delivery verged on the polemic Abu Faris remained engaging – he was just getting started…  My cup was topped up and a pile of sweets and cakes started to collect on a small table at my elbow. I tried to imagine how a similar encounter might play out in the UK.  Abu Faris left his cup untouched and continued.  ‘You know, I believe that the West planted this… this creature (Gaddafi) in Libya in 1969.  All Arabs believe that these leaders were planted by the West.  This is why Al Qaida, Bin Laden or somebody the same makes a lot of trouble.  Not because we hate the West, but because we know that the West planted these leaders.  It is now their duty to throw these leaders away.  Just let us get rid of them, once we get rid of them, then the West will be forgiven by the Arabs. The time for these kind of leaders is in the past.  So what the NATO is doing is not because they love us or not because they want something, it’s because they’ve woken up and acknowledged that they made a mistake.  This is why they help, for forgiveness, it’s their duty.’ Some uncomfortable truths even for wishy-washy European liberals like myself.  I thanked Abu Faris for his hospitality, drained my cold coffee and left the cakes.

Bradt’s Nick Redmayne travelled to ‘Free Libya’ on assignment with the Glasgow Herald.

North Africa: The Roman Coast by Ethel Davies covers the remarkable wealth of antiquity to be found in Libya and other countries bordering the southern Mediterranean.  More…

New Titles

Eccentric Britain
For the first time in hardback, with new illustrations, and updated and expanded content, Ben le Vay again shows that despite being pretty much broke, Britain’s rich vein of eccentricity has proved delightfully immune to the attentions of sharp-suited banksters.  From expletive-rich shin-kicking festivals, via enraptured religious cheese rolling and revivifying visits to electric shock museums Eccentric Britain points the way.

Publication: May 2011.  More…

Slow Cotswolds: Including Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon & Oxford
Caroline Mills, author of Bradt’s new Slow Cotswolds… guide says, ‘For many years I’ve watched as tourists have flown in from all over the globe, ‘done’ Stratford-upon-Avon, hopped on a coach to take a photograph of Lower Swell (from the coach door) en route to Bath before ‘doing’ Oxford, then climb back into an aeroplane to tell friends and family that they’ve been to ‘the Cotswolds’.  I’m not knocking this approach to travel (entirely) but I really hope that you can see a little more and get under the skin of what the Cotswolds are all about, meeting the communities that live and work here.’  Latest in Bradt’s Slow… series this guide is a practical travel companion to part of Britain that doesn’t claim to be unknown.  However, with an ethos that borrows from the appreciation of ‘slow food’ and applies it to travel, Slow Cotswolds reveals often overlooked aspects of a reassuringly British landscape and lifestyle.
Publication: May 2011.  More…

Slow Sussex & South Downs National Park
The first travel guide to Britain’s newest national park, Slow Sussex takes its cues from sustainable tourism and promotes those aspects that have miraculously maintained a ‘deeply rural character’ in a national park already receiving twice the visitors of any other in Britain.
The book also covers much of the rest of Sussex, across which resident author Tim Locke has picked his favourite places – both well known and obscure.  He describes the peculiarly local game of stoolball that is still widely played in these parts, a phantom railway station (Newhaven Marine) that has no trains but is still officially extant, an ancient Wealden cottage (Priest House) covered with anti-witch devices, an artist’s retreat (Farley Farm House) where Picasso painted a kitchen tile above the Aga, a tour through the Brighton sewers, and the pleasures of cruising round Chichester Harbour in a solar-powered craft.
Publication April 2011.  More…

New Editions

Mozambique, edition 5
As most will have realised from the flurry of TV and radio coverage, Bob Dylan, peace be upon him, is approaching his 70th birthday.  Dylan sang about Mozambique on his 1976 album Desire:
‘I like to spend some time in Mozambique
The sunny sky is aqua blue
And all the couples dancing cheek to cheek
It’s very nice to stay a week or two’
Dylan’s strumming coincided with Mozambique’s emergence from a war of liberation – if you think British colonialism was bad, the Portuguese were in a different league.  However, almost immediately upon independence the country submerged into a prolonged and brutal civil war which saw the majority of foreign ‘visitors’ being either Cuban mercenaries or CIA-backed Rhodesian or South African military ‘advisors’.  Fortunately, times change and though the country still has its problems, Bradt’s fifth edition Mozambique guide describes a hopeful country.  ‘The south coast of Mozambique is exceptionally beautiful – truly the archetype of palm-lined tropical beach nirvana – as well as boasting snorkelling, diving and game fishing to rank with the very best in the world’ enthuses author and Africa expert Philip Briggs.
Publication: March 2011.  More…

Madagascar, edition 10
Reaching double figures, this tenth edition guide to Madagascar does not rest upon its laurels.  Updated, expanded and improved Madagascar describes an African island whose profound biodiversity still holds secrets, and whose human culture in many aspects remains similarly unknown.  Author Hilary Bradt has led more than 30 tours to Madagascar and her personal anecdotes and unparalleled knowledge, combined with input from around 50 experts, makes her Madagascar the definitive guide.
Publication April 2011.  More…

Armenia with Nagorno Karabagh, edition 2
I don’t remember if Armenia had a vote in Eurovision but if they did I can’t imagine they cast it for Azerbaijan’s winning entry – the two countries are still technically at war and tensions over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabagh remain high. Bradt’s new edition of Armenia, a country whose iconic national symbol, Mount Ararat, lies across a foreign border, describes a nation occupying complicated geopolitical real estate.  Bordering Iran, Georgia, Turkey and the aforementioned Azerbaijan makes Armenian current affairs akin to Forest Gump’s unpredictable but strangely addictive box of chocolates.  Taking over the reigns from her sorely missed late husband Nicholas, Deidre Holding has revised and updated Armenia.  Thorough coverage of Yerevan includes a self-guided walking tour, places to eat and where to stay.  Whilst beyond the capital, the architectural wealth of Armenia’s Christian heritage is defined through exploration of the country’s many unique monasteries.
Publication: May 2011.  More…

Sri Lanka, edition 4
Described as ‘The definitive gazetteer to the island’ by Wanderlust magazine, Bradt’s Sri Lanka owes much to the character of its author, and long time Sri Lanka resident, Royston Ellis – the paperback writer to whom The Beatles referred in their eponymous song.  Now in post LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) Sri Lanka, areas that have been off limits for twenty years have been re-connected with the rest of the island.  A boom in domestic tourism has seen thousands of Sri Lankans spending the weekend making ‘pleasure trips’ across the country, visiting relatives and childhood haunts.  Sri Lanka points the way for short-term visitors using insight that only a resident could acquire.  Sections on land and marine natural history, colourful contemporary Buddhist culture, colonial ports, UNESCO World Heritage sites, zinging first-class curries, ‘short eats’ and thambili are all encompassed in a comprehensive update.
Publication: May 2011.  More…

Dominica, edition 2
Most northerly of the Windward Islands mass tourism has never touched Dominica, indeed it has no airport large enough to accommodate jetliners.  Author Paul Crask sets the record straight and puts clear-blue Caribbean water between Dominica and its oft-confused all-inclusive infested neighbour the Dominican Republic: ‘Hikers, scuba divers, bird watchers and culture vultures will all love it here.  It is an island of mountains, rainforest, rivers and waterfalls, a place of nature, of creation and of tranquillity… still unspoilt by large-scale tourism and truly off-the-beaten-track… arguably the most naturally beautiful island in the Caribbean.’  Along with a thorough update this second edition of Dominica sees the addition of a new chapter describing the recently designated 200km Wai’tukubuli National Trail.
Publication: June 2011.  More…

And finally…

At the new Bradt Towers HQ a no-expense spared, hi-fidelity, DAB enhanced audio tuner is being employed to better appreciate Bradt Director Adrian Phillips’ elevation to resident Radio 5 Live ‘travel expert’.  Indeed the valves on Debbie’s wireless are already aglow in readiness for the time when Adrian next addresses the nation. For your diaries that’ll be June 4th on Chris Warburton’s 8pm Saturday Edition show.  If you miss it there’s always BBC iPlayer and… I understand there’s a webcam link too… See http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/