Laurence Mackinreviews Britain and Ireland's Best Wild Places: 500 Ways to Discover the Wildby Christopher Somerville and the Lonely Planet Ireland
Britain and Ireland's Best Wild Places: 500 Ways to Discover the Wild Christopher Somerville Allen Lane, £25
What an utterly charming book this is, in concept and in execution. Christopher Somerville has travelled the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland in search of dramatic and rugged nature, and small hidden pockets of verdant wildness.
The choice of sites in Ireland is, somewhat understandably, heavily dominated by the west, but Somerville's selection criteria are quixotic and opaque; that said, there is something terrifically accessible about how a tumbledown cottage can hold as much fascination and mystery as the might of Newgrange. A wonderful book and elegant reference guide that is, by turns, dramatic and definitive to those places that most tourists are drawn to - namely those that wear the hand of man lightly. This book deserves a place on your bookshelf.
Lonely Planet Ireland Lonely Planet, £14.99
Why would you ever buy a guide to your own country? Well, ask most people what a tourist should see in Dublin, for example, and they'll give you a list as long as their arm. Ask them how much of it they've seen and they'll suddenly come over all sheepish. Here at Go we've long argued that Ireland is the perfect place for a holiday, and this guidebook would agree. Unbelievably, the pubs recommended are places you would actually want to sink a pint in, and there is also a good section on tracking down that most elusive venue: a place that serves quality traditional Irish food, not dishes simply pinched from the Italians or the French. A well-written book that is good for the native and the foreigner.