Best history/guidebook ever - Andrew Hussey's "Paris The Secret History" Penguin 2006. Extraordinarily interesting.

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To really begin to appreciate Avignon you should take the book The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears with you and read it on the train on the way there.

It brings to life Avignon in the 5th, 11th and 20th centuries with three glorious plot lines interwoven to give you glimpses of the secrets that the city holds. Then go and see what you can find in the city from these periods - it is the ultimate starting point for the imaginative journey which matches the physical one.

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There are many Maori stories about how the country, natural phenomena and fauna were created, and reading up on them before you visit the country can enrich your journey.

Ranging from creation myths to stories of love and loss, these often humorous tales will enhance your understanding of the spirituality invested in the landscape by the Maori.

Maori Myth and Legend" by A.W. Reed is a nice introduction.

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This wonderful little book really made our shopping trip to Edinburgh. It's full of inside information, and having it in our pocket was like having a knowledgeable local with us. An added bonus was discovering parts of the city that we would otherwise have missed.

You can buy it from bookshops or online at www.edinburghshopguide.com

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Sit back beside a log fire in a beautiful old fashioned stone room. Stories rush forth, to engulf you in imagination. From the evil Baba Yaga to flying ships. Have a break to raid the cafe. I recommend any parents to take their offspring.

Joe Webb (age 10).

Art room, Ruskin mill, Nailsworth, near Stroud.

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This book (by Hunter S Thompson) is essential reading if you are planning a trip to Vegas.
Everything that's bad about the American Dream/ Nightmare can be found on this city's streets. Grossly overloaded all-you-can-eat buffets, pornography vending machines, hotels that use more electricty than a small thrid world country in one night, drive through marriage kiosks, unbearable daytime heat, no trees, a threatening atmosphere in the downtown area etc etc, it's quite a spectacle. For best results get high on something mind-altering and go and check out the revolving restaurant at the Circus Circus.

Your nearest bookshop.

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An absolutely invaluable guide book to everything Chamonix. I picked up a copy last time I was out there and it really did help me experience Chamonix. Loads of information on great places to ski, shop, eat, drink, and party, as well as the history of the place, where to stay, and even a complete phone directory.

www.chamonixexperience.com

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The outsider's insider, poet Bukowski brings the full force of his muscular prose to bear on the vain vagaries of Hollywood as he tells the semi-autobiographical tale of the efforts to turn a screenplay he is writing into a film. But more than a portrait of Hollywood, Bukowski also offers an insight into life in the pre-gentrified Venice, a world of nighttime terrors. A very funny book.

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The best book about why LA today is the way it is and looks as it does.

New edition just out.

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The best introduction you can get to this gem is to read the book "Coming Slowly" published earlier this year by Anne Ibbotson. Describes life through the seasons there much better than I can!

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Thin Cities, Cities & Desire, Hidden Cities, Cities & the Sky. Marco Polo tells Kublai Khan tales of many different cities, but I think they're all Venice.

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A square at the seedy end of the old city off the Ramblas in Barcelona, named in memory of George Orwell, author of Homage to Catalonia. Pictures of the square, and of the security camera therein, are part of this photo essay from our trip in 1994: www.netcharles.com/orwell/pics/spain.htm

On Escudellers, east of the Ramblas near the port

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A brilliant library with facilities and a collection that many library visitors in the UK would give their right arm for. Excellent free internet facilities and - while you wait - a great selection of English language fiction to browse. For those of an impressionable nature, there are transparent lifts to play with - oops, that was me!

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The novels of Graham Swift, a contemporary London writer, and the Clash's London Calling, a classic album!

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Neither here nor there by Bill Bryson reveals his love affair with Copenhagen. He travels throughout Europe in the book but his passages about CPH are great. He loved it and was convinced that all the old and ugly people are put away in the summer so that only beautiful people are on the streets.

Bookshops or online

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The Nobel Prize-winning writer abandons his trademark magical realism and returns to his roots as a journalist. A meticulously researched, compelling account of a particularly common crime in Colombia, the politically motivated kidnapping. This particular multiple kidnap was orchestrated by Pablo Escobar at the height of the drug kingpin’s power.

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The downtown musci scene in all its gory glory. Great fun.

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