Laurence Mackinreviews Butcher & Boltand the St Petersburg City Guide
Butcher & Bolt David LoynHutchinson, £18.99
This is a terrific reminder of how effective a book can be when the place it depicts is beyond the average traveller's reach. Here, BBC foreign correspondent David Loyn lays out 200 years of Afghan history, beginning with a British expedition two centuries ago that saw Mountstuart Elphinstone arrive to find the emir of Afghanistan wearing the allegedly cursed Koh-i-Noor diamond (which is now part of the British crown jewels). The book brings us into the 20th century, with Texan congressman Charlie Wilson funding a war from his hotel room, and then up to the present day as largely British troops struggle to deal with a situation that continues to confound foreign armies. The personalities that loom largest in Loyn's book are ever present in modern coverage of the region, but here they become flesh-and-blood people rather than sound-bite characters that function as journalistic shorthand for good and evil. This is a riveting and incisive analysis of a country that refuses to become predictable.
St Petersburg City GuideLonely Planet, £12.99
Russia may want to forget about its Afghanistan adventures, but one of the byproducts of its predilection for foreign invasions is a host of superb museums. Perhaps the best is the Hermitage, reason enough on its own to visit St Petersburg. This Italian-designed city enjoys an air of cultural grandeur on the one hand and a vibrant counterculture on the other. This guide attempts to balance the books on both accounts, but judging by the sparse listings for cheap accommodation, the new wealth of Russia seems to have spread farther than Moscow.
lmackin@irishtimes.com