Bettina Selby

I enjoyed this book. A friend who'd read it gave it to me as she knew I've often hankered after walking some part of the Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage route, whether in France or the more traditional later Spanish stages. This book whets the appetite anew. Selby's descriptions of the varying countryside, of churches and monasteries, whether simple or splendid, of hostel life and fellow travellers encountered are described with affection and enthusiasm. Yes, I'd still like to go, and she's converted me to the idea of a winter or very early Spring journey. But cycling, sometimes on busy main roads? Camping alone? No, not a chance. I admire Selby's resilience, and noted with interest her growing spirituality as the journey proceeded, but spending a freezing night in a chilly field doesn't feature high on my list of Things to Achieve in life. If you enjoy travel books, Spain and France, if you're thinking of doing the Compostella Pilgrimage route, you'll find reading this book should tempt you afresh.… (más)

Selby explores the Outer Hebrides in detail and writes well about them, although the book suffers from an annoying paucity of commas and Selby's, or her editors', inability to tell the difference between "effect" and "affect", which are repeatedly misused. If you know every corner of the islands, you will find the book interesting, evocative, and occasionally insightful. Those not intimately familiar with the islands, however, may be somewhat frustrated by the lack of photographs. There is a section in the middle of the book with a few colour photos, but they do not nearly sate the curiosity of an armchair traveller and in one case the labels of two photos ("Lewis" and "Callanish") are even transposed. I loved the book because I've been to all the inhabited islands in the archipelago (and thanks to one of the inevitable island ferry delays and a missed bus, have seen every habitation on the island of South Uist, surely a distinction shared by few tourists) and I did enjoy the book. My elder daughter, whose Hebridean experiences ended at the remotest end of Skye, found it less interesting than the Pennells' "Our Journey to the Hebrides" which recounts a similar journey, on foot (and frequently bemoaning the lack of a bicycle; how they would have envied Bettina Selby!) , 100 years earlier.… (más)