Three Book reviews
Mark Charlton, our e-news editor, reviews three new guides from Cicerone Press.
It's often said that here in the UK we're blessed with the best maps in the world. And I agree, but I reckon Cicerone Press must rank equally highly as a guidebook publisher. With hundreds of titles, it's a challenge to pick favourites, but three recent offerings showcase the quality of their catalogue. What's more, each illustrates an aspect of what makes these pocket-sized companions so valuable, whether that's on the trail or planning for a journey.
Cicerone: (noun) a guide who shows you places and items of interest.
Like many of their guides, Walking St Oswald's Way and Northumberland Coast Path by Rudolf Abraham alerts us to the delights of a lesser-known area. Indeed, Northumberland must have a strong claim to being one of the UK's most underrated and under-visited counties. As a local lad, I'm rather ashamed to say that St Oswald rather passed me by, but I do know there must be few finer introductions to what this county has to offer than this delightful route.
Starting just north of Hexham in the Tyne Valley, it crosses the moors north of Hadrian's Wall to Rothbury before heading east down the Coquet Valley and finishing with 40 or so miles of the Northumberland Coast path to Holy Island (Lindisfarne). On the high ground you'll likely see more geese than people, while at the coast you'll find castles and coves - and ice cream - aplenty! And it's this contrast between mountain and sea that makes Northumberland so special. So too, the palpable sense of history that's intrinsic to these borderlands. This slim guide covers some of the basics on that score, but the route itself is the star turn. In all, it's about a week's walking with excellent transport links easing the logistics of this magical tour of coast and country.
Top tip - go in the autumn, when the steel skies and skeins of geese make Northumberland extra special.
And talking of magic, the Bernese Oberland must surely be among the most picturesque of all alpine regions. Written by Cicerone owners Jonathan and Lesley Williams, Walking in the Bernese Oberland - Jungfrau Region is a new guide giving a selection of day walks, founded on knowledge that only true aficionados can offer. In this case it's not slim at all, it has 50 routes accompanied by clear maps and supplementary descriptions of paths and points of interest - GPS files are also free to download.
Which brings me to another signature quality of Cicerone - their authors not only absolutely know their technical stuff but their enthusiasm is clear too, inspiring confidence in the recommendations which are ultimately why we buy these guides in the first place.
The Oberhorn has long been on my 'to do' list; this stunning new guide has given me the nudge to tick it off.
Which brings me to Trekking Austria's Adlerweg - the Eagle's Way across the Austrian Alps in Tyrol by Mike Wells. A full revision of the 2012 guide, it covers one of Austria's premier long-distance paths, traversing the length of Tirol from St Johann to St Anton. At over 300km and with 24 stages this a committing route, not far short of the Alpine GR5 in time and height gain.
The guide is typical of Cicerone's coverage of Europe's major trails, with clear maps, elevation graphs and detailed route-finding instructions. There's also a significant introduction and a stage-by-stage summary splitting the route into sections... somehow, it all seems so doable! Indeed, I've long wanted to undertake a significant trail in the Tirol. Austria, of course, is special to our club and was where I first discovered the delights of alpine huts. Next year, I'd planned to walk again the Rucksack Route as a fortieth anniversary celebration. I'm now sorely tempted to follow at least part of the Eagle's Way as well.
Return to the top of this page or to this Archive's Index
