Exploring cultures and communities – the slow way

A new edition of Helen Martin's book on the Lot region of southwest France is much to be welcomed. Textured prose that nicely evokes a sense of the region's limestone landscapes. Get a flavour of this new edition.

article summary —

with text by Helen Martin

We love books! You may have noticed. Our desks are cluttered with old Baedekers and Soviet era guides to towns whose names have long since been changed. Who now remembers Molotovsk? Or even Sverdlovsk? It is not just old guidebooks but also the accounts of early travellers that often influence our own writing. Some of the best prose ever written about Andalucía came from the pens of two mid nineteenth-century writers, Richard Ford and George Borrow. Mark Twain's account of the Azores, Chekhov's letters from the end of the Russian Empire, Mary Wollstonecraft's reports from Sweden, the passionate desert essays of Isabelle Eberhardt and Thackeray's Irish sketchbook are all travel gems - as relevant to the modern traveller as the latest guidebook.

Yet good prose that nicely evokes a sense of place is not something reserved to writers who have long since departed this planet.


This is just an excerpt. If you are a subscriber to hidden europe magazine, you can log in to read the full text online. Of course you can also read the full article in the print edition of hidden europe 21.

About the authors

hidden europe

and manage hidden europe, a Berlin-based editorial bureau that supplies text and images to media across Europe. Together they edit hidden europe magazine. Nicky and Susanne are dedicated slow travellers. They delight in discovering the exotic in the everyday.

This article was published in hidden europe 21.