Have you noticed how nowadays travel writing is becoming an utterly disposable commodity? Newspaper travel supplements and even guidebooks are something to be read, used and then too often thrown away. So full marks to Lonely Planet for producing a lavish and beautiful coffee table volume called The Europe Book.

Published in September 2008, The Europe Book is a remarkable compilation of stunning images and oddball facts about the fifty-two nations which, say the experts at Lonely Planet, make up modern Europe. hidden europe may not quite agree with their reckoning on the nation count, but that does little to diminish the appeal of this splendid book. Treat it as being a photographic essay, complemented by some nicely eclectic facts that will be disputed in pub quizzes for years to come. Like the assertion that one third of all the world’s raspberries come from Serbia or the remarkable revelation that the phrase “We are about to land” when rendered in Azeri will be interpreted by Turkish air passengers as “We are about to crash.”