Alastair Sawday

The return of the work horse?

2008-09-10T09:31:00.003+01:00

Years ago I ran a horse-and-cart waste-paper collection system in Bristol, convinced that horses would do a better job than lorries. Well, they did, though the area they worked in was limited to a smallish circle. People queued up to help, to clean out the stables and to ride the beast. The local council even turned blind eyes to every council property 'stable squat' we used, though horses were never seen to squat. Eventually the horse and cart moved on to Radstock when the driver fell in love with her supervisor. But I remember interviewing an elderly Polish man for the job; he had worked horses in Poland before the war and then in Bristol for the railway company, shunting carriages about with heavy horses. So I was utterly delighted to bump into an old friend, Julian Rose, who has gone to live in Poland and is devoting his vast energies to helping to save Polish agriculture from the fate that has befallen ours - with few now on the land, communities struggling and farmers facing rising costs etc. He has been hugely impressed by the continuing and efficient use of horses, so much so that he plans to open a retraining centre for horse-handlers here in the UK.

Have a look at his website

Coat hangers from Marseille...

2008-08-11T16:06:00.003+01:00

It is good, if painful, to be reminded of the grim impact of some hotels. Here is a letter, edited, from one of our editors. She was responding crossly to the following PR announcement from a Moroccan hotel:

When we designed our Hotel , we set out to create the ultimate luxury hotel in Morocco. A project of passion, blood, sweat & tears, and a big dollop of romanticism, has resulted in one of the finest, luxury Marrakech riads available in the city. Our Marrakech luxury hotel is not really a hotel, but is more our home from home. It is a cool, romantic, sophisticated house right in the middle of the Marrakech medina, just a two minute stroll from the main square with its fire eaters, jugglers, snake charmers, and ancient story tellers.

Attention to detail is our mantra – our toiletries are imported from Paris, our water comes from Norway, and our coat hangers from Marseille. So, if you're looking for a contemporary, luxury riad in Morocco, then we are here waiting to welcome you.

Each room in our luxury Moroccan hotel has the wow-factor, with stunning rooms and funky designs. This really is…pure indulgent chic.

Our editor's comment: "And their initial handout says "situated in the affluent heart of Marrakech..." The old Arab city! the medina! where some of the poorest people still live. And they are proud to be part of the transformation/elimination of this authentic culture, have not the slightest idea of the destructions they wreak."

My own thoughts are similar, with a special plaudit for the Marseilles coat-hangers. Now that is a serious case of supporting the host-country's economy....

Do we alway want more tourists?

2008-06-23T15:36:00.001+01:00

Costa Rica has long had a reputation as a model of eco tourism. They had gone for high paying tourists instead of mass market bargain chasers and, in doing so, had managed to build up their tourist dollars and create protected conservation areas without having to build vast sprawling resorts. Other countries that had taken the opposite approach watched ruefully at the Costa Rican tourism scene gently developed.

But no longer. The country seems to have changed tack, opening its coast line to rampant and often unplanned development.
This article shows the sort of damage that tourism can do when greed is involved, and where quick profits are pursued over long term sustainability. The Spanish Costas have suffered a similar fate - the only sort of tourism that their wrecked, overbuilt shores can support is low-end and bargain, bringing only a trickle of income to the local economy and leaving little room for conservation. Countries that are just beginning their journey into tourism have many similar examples from which to learn (areas such as Goa, Thailand and the Med), so it's a massive shame to see history repeating itself. It couldn't be further from the whole philosophy of 'slow travel', which we think offers the most poetic alternative to this madness.

More on B&Bs Under Fire

2008-06-19T15:30:00.001+01:00

This is going to run and run: Fire Regs and the world of B&B. I hope it is more helpful than tedious.

The latest story is of a B&B in Suffolk that has now had four visits from the Fire Officer, each one costing hundreds of pounds in alterations, such as re-hanging a door or blocking up an entrance.

Meanwhile, the B&B in the South West that kicked this story off is now threatened with closure unless it installs £000s of computer-based kit - during the height of the season. She may have to close.

It is entirely possible that Fire Officers all over the UK are out of control and the whole system needs to be revised. (Many of them, upon retirement, set up installation services, strangely enough, and become Fire consultants.) They are almost certainly being 'disproportionate' in their application of regulations to small B&Bs. I have heard of one who forced a B&B to close on the spot - at huge cost in lost business - in order to fit a couple of fire doors.

Any further thoughts out there? What would you do in my position? Of, more to the point, what would you do if you were a B&B owner threatened with closure after you ahve done a respectable Fire Risk Assessment and consider your house to be utterly safe?

The end of cheap flights?

2008-06-16T08:59:00.001+01:00

posted by Toby Sawday

News would have it that the US airline industry, the world's largest, is struggling to stay afloat as the new price of oil adds $30 billion to their total annual fuel bill. Airline closures are predicted and industry analysts forecast major economic ripples across a country that relies heavily on air travel to connect its disparate towns and sprawling economy.

Are these the first signs of the unravelling of the aviation industry as we know it? What starts in America will, no doubt, spread across the pond and we can expect to see climbing prices for flights and, perhaps, a shift in travel and tourism patterns.

There had always been a whiff of madness about the sort of short-haul, pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap tourism that had been driven by low-cost flights. It was so dependent on a source of energy that was being devoured like never before by the emerging middle classes in Indian, China et al, but which had also reached its peak of production.

Tourism that is 'light' on energy use is more insulated from spikes in energy prices or changes in exchange rates. So, fostering a healthy domestic tourism scene that doesn't rely on air travel not only avoids the carbon emissions associated with long-haul voyages, but goes some way to avoiding the risk attached to relying on a single energy source whose price is so fickle.

We made a decision in recent months not to promote any more long haul destinations, but to focus instead on European places to stay. And we plan to work hard to promote those places to which you can travel by train. We made this decision for environmental reasons, but it now looks to have been a prudent decision for other reasons too. Let's just hope the dreary British summer doesn't drive people onto planes in spite of the new prices.

British B&Bs under fire

2008-05-19T11:44:00.000+01:00

I am gathering evidence for a nation-wide discussion on Fire Regulations and B&Bs.

Just to whet your apppetites: a clutch of them are under immediate threat of closure unless they install, under pressure from their Fire Services, very sophisticated and expensive (£3-£8k) alarm systems that are linked to a computer screen. In fact, should this handful close the threat will then hang over thousands and thousands of them.I understand that one of the main purposes of the system is to reveal the source of the fire!

I suspect that institutional madness is gripping the Fire Services, as it grips those Councils who chop down good trees because they may pose a Health and Safety threat. (See previous blog). If a house, equipped with fire alarms, detectors, fire blankets etc, is unsafe for B&B guests it may well prove also to be unsafe for visiting grand-children. The logic is unstoppable.

Does anyone have views, experience, information? Please try to make it specific to Fire Regs and B&Bs! Thank you.

Make the world a safer place - chop down all the trees

2008-05-15T15:43:00.001+01:00

I have just been reminded how far down the road to institutionalised lunacy we have travelled.

Big handsome trees in fine condition have been felled by the Council this week in Bristol because of Health and Safety fears. If their branches were to fall, they might hurt someone. More trees are in line for the chop. In fact, would it not make sense to fell alll the trees in the city? They are all dangerous.

More worrying than the Council's position is our own complicity. We see these things happen and do nothing, for we are busy, or rushing off to a meeting, or believe that the Council knows best. We get the institutional behaviour we deserve, don't we?

I'm off to capture all the local dogs - they are a hazard. As for those bloody birds that wake me up in the morning.... But somebody somewhere is no doubt working on a genetically modifed warble-free blackbird. Thank Heavens for science.

Future of UK tourism

2008-03-18T15:27:00.005Z

I went to dinner last night at the National Trust's HQ to discuss the future of tourism with their boss and with senior folk at Visit Britain. Apparently, Visit Britain is conducting a wide-ranging review of tourism's future. We were an eclectic group of tourism experts, gathered for our range of views. It was an interesting and unusual gathering; full marks to the National Trust and to Visit Britain for making it happen.

What did happen? Well, there was general agreement that tourism needed to face up to the vast challenges of climate change and Peak Oil; that distinctiveness of place is one of Britain's greatest strengths; that we need to encourage the British to explore their own country more. (Our new Go Slow England is obviously well-timed). There was much talk of sustainability, much dismay over the creeping 'cloning' of Britain's towns and villages and hotels.

Needless to say, I urged a focus on variety, less regulation that might drive out small B&Bs. It was good to be heard, and there is hope that food, agriculture and our regional variety will become more and more of a focus for policy-makers. But the background is not encouraging: 50% of visitors stay in London, there is a £20billion tourism deficit (we spend more abroad than we earn through tourists coming here), and - apparently - we are not widely seen as lovely hosts.

Special Places owners: keep up the good work!

ARE PEOPLE IN THEIR 20s AND 30s STILL ABLE TO ENJOY THE SIMPLE THINGS IN LIFE??

2008-03-06T10:33:00.001Z

I write this in the hope that there are people out there who can advise me.

ARE PEOPLE IN THEIR 20s AND 30s STILL ABLE TO ENJOY THE SIMPLE THINGS IN LIFE??

This is in response to an interview question from Metro Magazine when I was asked if 'standards' were rising in our B&Bs and hotels. It is the sort of question I dread, for while I know that they are rising - if 'standards' means material comfort - a large part of me suspects that babies are disappearing with the bath water.

As power showers and 'en-suite' bathrooms become more common are we losing some big, handsome bedrooms? Are prices rising inexorably because we are demanding more comfort? Are we losing those places which are a bit chaotic but gorgeous? Would young people now tolerate a cold bedroom, even if it was in a 12th-century castle of remarkable distinction?

Is there anyone who can persuade me that the vogue for camping means that there might also be a vogue for simplicity? Getting back to nature? I hope so.

Climate Change - radical action NOW!

2008-01-31T10:49:00.000Z

I went to a lecture on Climate Change by Sir David King, the recently retired Chief Government Scientist, in the Bristol Council building this week. It was packed - about 400 people waiting to hear the facts and the arguments put by someone with impeccabble authority. He delivered it all in a dry, academic style that employed facts and research to drive home the message that time is short. Among the more chilling revelations was that England will be largely flooded under the Worst Case Scenario, if we don't rapidly re-build our flood defences and drainage systems. There was much talk of the upper limit of tolerable carbon emissions of 450 parts per million in the atmosphere. This is what the international community is working to, but in order to achieve it there needs to be very rapid and radical action right now - not next year or after the 'next round of talks'. Asked what his own recommended upper limit would have been, he suggested 300 ppm.

So - how does this leave us all feeling? Most people seem to be stunned into inactivity by such talk. Those of us who talk publicly about Climate Change are advised never to alarm people lest we generate despair. Yet is seems to be only a form of desperation that drives people to take really effective measures. My own view is that we need to see this as a moral issue as well as a practical one - and go from there, making our own small (or big) changes as we respond to our own moral questioning. Decent behaviour isn't something we need to argue about, is it?

I would be interested in your thoughts. We are tackling these issues in a new book to be called What About China? It will be out in the Spring.

Trains, planes and help please

2008-01-08T11:28:00.001Z

Another good train journey over the New Year, from Bristol down to La Rochelle. I talk so much about carbon footprints that I am trying hard massively to cut back on flying - so far with success for about a year. I trained to the south of France and Frankfurt in 2007, in both cases with serious benefits - such as getting to know the beautiful Strasbourg, largely ignored by British travellers becasue there is no nearby airport. For New Year we spent a night en route in Paris, which was a real plus. I don't pretend for one minute that train travel is cheap - though it can match air travel on many routes - but I do think that a train creates a proper 'journey'. And they don't get diverted because of fog.

Having said all that, what on earth to do about my long-awaited trip to Mount Athos, in Greece? I fear that the train will be painfully long-winded and expensive and that I will be reduced to flying. Any better ideas - other than 'don't go'. Mt Athos is a special case...

Pubs

2007-12-12T10:44:00.000Z

The English pub is even more alive and well, in parts, than I had thought. On Friday I was at the Stag in Balls Cross, Sussex, and felt myself gently drawn into the embrace of a fine old tradition: welcoming landlord, good ale and open fire of Olympian proportions. Then on Saturday I was at the Welldiggers, close by on the edge of Petworth, and ate the sort of pub meal that I thought was almost extinct. Not 'gastro' - just delicious, honest and generous. Long may those landlords reign! They are local heroes.

Embercombe

2007-12-10T11:32:00.000Z

Sometimes the gods smile upon the good. A very nice man called Mac was running a garden to which visitors came in droves. One day one of them, impressed by the impact Mac had had upon him, offered to buy him a small estate/farm/valley in which he could pursue his dream of self-sufficiency and support for those seeking deep personal fulfilment. Embercombe is the result, a stunning valley in Devon. Mac has been there for 8 years and has erected a dozen yurts and converted a great metal barn into a beautiful space with wood-burners and meeting rooms. There is a splendid kitchen garden too. I went to see it in a rain-storm, was soaked and blown about - and loved every minute of it. It was wonderful to be among people with warmth and passion, doing their thing with mad enterprise.

More anon. We may go there as a company on our annual outing.

luxury vs budget

2007-12-06T15:13:00.000Z

I was delighted to read an article about Budget Travel from Kate Quill of the Times on Dec 1st. "The best travel", she wrote," is not about blowing the cash on rooms with gold taps; it’s about adventure, discovery and serendipity: that magic find, chance meeting or thrilling ride. Often, it’s the budget experience that offers these things in bucket-loads, while the luxury version, in its drive to make everything comfortable and hassle-free, has had all the fun, vigour and danger drained out of it – rather like the modern office, in fact."

Kate puts it well. We are all in danger of falling into the luxury trap and forgetting that the things which really make us tick are nothing to do with luxury at all. Fun, vigour, danger - to which I might add: the unexpected, spontaneity, conviviality, a warm smile, an unexpected kindness, a sight that beggars belief. If you have been, say, to India you will remember that first drive into town from the airport: almost everything you see is brand new and almost impossible to imagine. Once you arrive at your luxury hotel the fascination is over, however great the temporary relief.

Go with the Slow

2007-11-29T13:03:00.000Z

I am deep into the writing of the Introduction to the first book in new series - Go Slow. It is called Go Slow England. I wonder if any of you out there have strong views on what the word Slow means? I am beginning to think that it is, deep down, about the pursuit of happiness - or ways of being/living that tend to produce happiness. So: contact wiith friends, time with family, close encounters with Nature, eating food produced with integrity, not rushing about in the vacuous pursuit of wealth.... That sort of thing. I will be intrigued to hear your views.

Paris Bike Scheme - je l'aime

2007-11-26T10:18:00.000Z

I had a few hours to kill in Paris recently and was blown away by their new bike scheme. I wandered into a rank of them near the Gare du Nord and found someone to take me gently through the process of logging in - because I enjoyed the chat. It is easy enough and involves you giving your credit card details so the system can dock 150 euros as a deposit. It then tells you which bike to take, and off you go. They are sturdy, 3-geared and slightly eccentric-looking but work perfectly. It is hard to suppress a grin as you pedal past the stuck traffic and down your separated bike lane. I followed the Canal St Martin and when I needed a coffee I just found another bike-rank and slotted my bike back into the sturdy post rooted to the pavement. As I had only spent 20 minutes I was not charged anything. After coffee there was another bike available there and I pedalled back to the station, paying 10 euros this time. Luckily there was space in the bike rack and I walked away to catch the train. Had there been no space I would have had to find another nearby rack, or even leave the bike and forfeit the 150 euros. What a brilliant system. And apparently Paris is expanding it as I write. Nobody, other than the cognoscenti, thought the Parisians would take to it. Would Londoners? Bristolians?

Bury St Edmunds

2007-10-23T13:42:00.001+01:00

I spent an hour in Bury St Edmunds recently, on a warm autumn day, and was hugely impressed by the place - and by my own ignorance of it. I had no idea that its ruined Priory was once the 4th largest Benedictine monastic building in Europe - a mighty edifice that would have dwarfed what is now the cathedral and was once a mere chapel to the Priory. I also had no idea that the cathedral has a brand new tower, finished in 2005 and soaring impressively high above the otherwise modest building. It is good to know that we are still capable of doing such things, illogical perhaps when there are so many demands on our money and enthusiasms, but inspiring.

Bureaucracy V Humanity

2007-10-10T14:39:00.000+01:00

I always delight in unexpected touches of humanity or conviviality. Train conductors, when they let slip their official masks, can put smiles on the faces of the most hardened travellers. I chatted to an especially cheerful conductor recently, and wondered why he had to stick so tediously to the company script when making his announcements. He explained: a colleague had got into trouble for doing just that. His crime was to refer in teasing terms to the train in front which was holding them up. A rail company director was on board and took offence. The poor conductor, who had probably cheered the whole train up and averted the likelihood of complaints about the delay, was moved to another job – saved from the sack by the union. Thus bureaucracy and caution conspire to keep unexpected dashes of colour out of our lives.

French B&Bs

2007-09-28T17:27:00.000+01:00

Two of our France inspectors dropped by for lunch a couple of weeks ago. They are English, living in France and addicted to the work. Part of me would love to be out there with them. It was 'news from the front line' and one of their most interesting, and depressing, revelations was that the old French B&B is slowly dying.

Our French Bed and Breakfast was our first book, filled with farming families opening their rooms to make ends meet. The book opened doors all over France, to English travellers who were unused to the idea that the French would welcome them. Thousands of relationships and friendships have been forged over the years. It is sad to hear that this wonderfully tatterdemalion community is gradually wearing away, replaced by families - equally interesting in their own way - with more money and pandering to travellers with higher expectations. Houses are converted to be little businesses. Rooms are ripped apart and bathrooms and wet-rooms installed. That old farmer's wife whose sense of colour was execrable but whose warmth and humanity were touching, who opened her doors to boost a meagre income, may be about to retire.

So if there are any of you out there who share my sense of woe, do go and spend your time and money with the people who most need it. The same applies, of course, to the UK, though perhaps less dramatically. Let us know if there are B&B providers whom we should support.

The Big Earth Book launch

2007-09-19T16:26:00.000+01:00

Last Wednesday we officially 'launched' our Big Earth Book, at Stanfords book shop in Bristol.

Why the launch? Why the excitement? Well, this has been a giant project for us. We were told by one publisher that we couldn't possibly get it out on time, so the launch was something of a cathartic exercise. But, more to the point, we think that this is an important book. It is, as far as I know, the only serious environmental book that brings together such a vast array of subjects and then links them. You can learn about Energy, Trees, Biofuels, Worgl (sic), Bhutan and gross national happiness, Poverty, Free Trade, War, the US Empire, Bees, Mammals, Microbes and Honest Scientists - and much much more.

No chapter is more than five minutes' read, each one is stuffed either with unusual ideas or with old ideas put into a fresh perspective. It is very far from dull, and leaves you with that 'Ah - I am beginning to get it' feeling. There are lavish photos, easy graphs, great ideas and a lot of solutions. It is designed not to depress you but to make you angry - and then, perhaps, active.

Yeo Valley Organic, a local family-owned company and fellow Queen's Award winner, has been massively supportive. Look out for their half-price offer on organic yogurt pots and milk cartons, an offer so generous that some of you will take up yogurt-eating just to get hold of the book. We will be biting our cheeks and praying that some of you nevertheless go to the bookshops to buy it.

Tales from a proud father

2007-09-12T12:04:00.000+01:00

Ever heard of Slam Poetry? I hadn't, until my son Rowan took it up and started entering Slam Poetry competitions. It is performance poetry - where the poet stands up in front of a crowd and, in competition with other poets, delivers his stuff as he thinks fit. He may be wry, ironic, triumphant, sly, witty, funny, anarchic - whatever mood is right. He is judged for his delivery, content, style, and audience reaction. It makes for exhilarating entertainment and I am hooked.

Rowan has been performing in odd places for a while, and won a national championship last year. There are several of them, however, and we could never quite get a hook on how he was doing. But this year he entered for the new Radio 4 Slam Poetry competition and got through to the semi-finals in London a month or so ago. The family piled in to see it all and were caught up in the atmosphere. Young poets, old poets, housewives, mothers, rebels, students - they all gave their best in front of an audience that wanted them all to win. Rowan slipped through to the finals with a performance of his satire on Little Englanders and another one about Politicians.

Last Saturday the Finals were held in Bristol, three finalists from the North and three from the South. Sara Davies of the BBC held it all together with consummate skill and a delightfully easy way with the audience. We worked ourselves up into open-hearted enthusiasm for them all, willing them to do their best. The scoring seemed slightly chaotic but worked fairly enough. Three poets were eliminated, unfairly - it felt to us. One told a symbolic story of the Central Line. Another amused us with statistics about ourselves, and another spoke in Pam Ayres tones of a dreadful holiday. The three who emerged into the light for the last fling were Rowan, with musings on bewilderment after a friend's death, and two Northerners, both accomplished and slightly older. The man scored 28, the woman 28.4 and Rowan 28.5.

Hear it on radio 4 at 11.00pm this Thursday 13th. You, too, may be hooked.

Bristol's Organic Food Fair

2007-09-10T10:49:00.000+01:00

We had a stall there last weekend and enjoyed it hugely. So much so that I have wondered why.

Everyone who came by seemed to be in a good mood. They were open and friendly in a way not common in the UK, curious about what each stall offered, willing to learn. Many who came to our stand knew our books well and had tales to tell - most of them delightful. The one that touched me most was of the man who tried to put down a deposit by credit card with a little French chateau, and was politely refused: "We always trust Sawday readers."

The main excitement for us was that this was the first day we could sell our new The Big Earth Book. The piles of them looked impressive - and they generated a lot of interest and a lot of helium-filled balloons advertising the book. The book is beautiful, perhaps disarmingly so for it packs a terrific punch. It is the biggest project we have ever done and has the backing of Yeo Valley Organic Yoghurts, generous and supportive to a remarkable degree. This week they are beginnning a massive promotion of the book on their yoghurt and milk pots.

Back to the Fair. Perhaps the organic world really does have its own culture, for the Fair passed in a glow of 'decency'. Every stall-holder had a tale to tell; the food is the product, for the most part, of commitment - and even passion. I bought a tweed waist-coat from a farmer on the Isle of Mull whom I have known for a while as a dedicated and inspiring farmer of rare-breed cattle but who has now rescued the Mull weaving industry too. Hearing that the last looms were off to the scrap heap he begged the old weaver to sell them to him and to show him how to weave. He now employs 6 weavers and is producing the finest tweed from the wool of Hebridean sheep, wool that otherwise would have almost no value. You could wander from stall to stall hearing similar stories: the Cornish farmers who have created a Cornish wool business, the ice-cream makers working on a shoe-string - and so on. All the food was of the highest quality.

No wonder the crowds were in a good mood, and I hardly saw any litter. British culture is not, after all, impermeable.

One of those traveller’s moments

2007-09-05T09:55:00.000+01:00

High up on the Mendips is an ugly building above Charterhouse on Mendip, rather like a grim family house. I drove past it on Sunday and was intrigued to see a sign outside saying ‘St Hugh’s Chapel. Welcome’. It was an irresistible invitation. Inside, there was an oak-panelled chapel of pure beauty, the Arts and Crafts creation of an architect called Caroe for a well-heeled London vicar who had fallen for the Mendips. The rood screen carried the rood – so unexpected if you have seen very few such screens and even fewer with the rood intact. Beyond it stands the reredos, exquisitely and intricately carved in the same wood. One can imagine the wind-swept congregations gathering to be inspired by such a place.

These spontaneous ‘discoveries’ are a joy – like entering the nearly-destroyed church of St James in Bristol, to find a Norman church of unaffected and ravishing beauty. It is by the bus station, a monument to modern banality.

Publishing and the environment

2007-08-28T09:40:00.000+01:00

Publishing has long been a destructive industry, responsible for the felling of vast swathes of ancient forest, the use of energy on a considerable scale and the consumption of chemicals at the paper-making and printing stages. Suggesting change was whistling into the wind.

I am beginning to be impressed by the efforts now being made by publishers to reduce their ecological impact. The winds of the climate change debate have blown into more nooks and crevices than I had imagined possible, and quickly too. Recycled paper, and paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, are all the rage. Once all publishers are on board then the pace of change will quicken and will reach right down through the ‘supply chain’ to printers and paper-makers, many of whom are already making progress. Illegal logging in Russia and Indonesia, for example, may yet be halted. Much of the credit for all this can go to Greenpeace and their Forest Campaign.

The Big Green Gathering

2007-08-17T11:36:00.000+01:00

My son ‘fronts’ a band called Bad Science. They do a fusion of ska, funk, hip-hop, poetry – whatever it is, they make a fantastic sound and I am a fan. They are serious musicians and every song has a message. They were starring at the Big Green Gathering high up on the Mendips recently and I witnessed a delightful fusion of modern angst and green vulnerability: the horse and cart (no cars allowed) bringing their instruments decided to down tools. It is hard to be ‘chilled’ when you are due on stage, the audience is throbbing, and the horse and cart doesn’t appear. And a touch galling.

Hotel prices - UK v the Others

2007-03-27T15:43:00.000+01:00

I have just taken part in a radio discussion on 'Why hotels here are so expensive''. I wonder if, underlying everything else, there is a new(ish) culture of greed in this country. We are obsessed by the cost, and value, of our houses; we rush to snap up houses wherever they are cheap (France, Spain and now Bulgaria), largely just to avoid missing the bandwagon. We pay our fat-cat CEOs over 200 times more than their employees - and accept it as normal. We are all part of a hectic rat-race to the bottom. Our European cousins may well copy us one day, but meanwhile there remains a gentler attitude to money and success, especially in the south. No wonder that hotel prices are lower there.

Having said all that, our books DO succeed in tracking down the hotel-owners who sing from a different score. They are by no means all part of the grim, bigger picture.

Sawday's on Tour

2007-03-15T09:19:00.000Z

Just back from three days in Wales, much of the time spent with the whole company on a mass bonding exercise. We swam, walked, talked, ate as if starving and danced the last night away in wild ceilidh excesses. The venue was the Druidstone Hotel, a triumph of laid-back professionalism. It is rarely empty, breaks most of the rules on 'how to run a hotel', fills itself with fun, music and people wanting to be unpretentiously human. When we arrived there was a 20-piece jazz band filling the space with an exultant clamour. But back to our own gathering: the best bit, in my view, was the ceildih. It put a grin on every face and held it there for hours. How else can one achieve that? In fact, I wonder if ceildihs might take the place of the corporate consultants who change the ways companies work?

Please read and sign!

2007-03-13T09:11:00.000Z

After a long absence from blog-writing I hope that this is a positive way to re-start. The following letter is well worth a read, and I urge you to do what it asks:

Dear friend,

This Thursday, the environment ministers from the G8, the world's biggest contributors to climate change, will be meeting in Germany. The outcome of this meeting is crucial to world's response to global warming.

Avaaz.org has been invited to attend this meeting to present our climate change petition. A strong voice for action could help set the agenda for the G8. To help seize this opportunity, click this.

The G8 is a summit of world leaders from the "Group of 8" largest economies. Together, these countries account for 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions--the gasses that cause climate change. The full G8 summit is coming in June, but the agenda and outcome of this type of high-profile event is usually set far in advance--at meetings like the one this Thursday.

This year, the president of the G8 is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, is in charge of the ministers meeting Thursday. And at 4 pm on March 15th, we have a personal meeting with Mr. Gabriel to present our petition for binding emissions targets to stop catastrophic climate change.

Merkel has indicated an interest in making climate change a top priority. With a significant global petition, we can make the case that the world is ready for aggressive leadership on climate change--and pave the way for truly historic commitments at the G8 summit this June.

It's a rare opportunity to have a global impact. Add your voice to the petition here.

50,000 people from 131 countries have already demanded action. Our goal is to reach 100,000. Please sign the petition, forward this email to friends and family, and post the link on your blog--we only have a few days to make this statement count.

If we add our voices together, now, 2007 can become the year we took the first step to save the world.

With hope,

Ricken, David, Iain, Lee-Sean, Galit, Graziela, and the rest of the Avaaz.org team

Passion by Proxy

2007-02-08T10:45:00.000Z

For months now I have been interviewing people for a job in our environmental publishing 'wing'. I have been struck by how passionately they have proclaimed their interest in environmental issues. The passion has obviously come in varying degrees of sincerity, but not one of them (as far as I remember) has been interested enough to join with those who push for change. No membership of Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, not even of the RSPB or the Soil Asosciation, no activism, no political engagement. Leaving aside any cynicism about 'going for interviews', I wonder if we are inclined to splutter and bluster in our own isolated boxes rather than more effectively join with the wider community? Does the Internet encourage us to think that we are being effective (and I do know that we can be) when we are just ranting into the ether?

Keen to be Green (up to a point)

2007-02-05T12:29:00.000Z

It is heartening to be having so many conversations about climate change, however distressing the subject. There was a time - which seemed to be endless - when mention of the subject would produce groans and the rolling of eyeballs.

But most of the people with whom I chat about this seem to have taken it on board on one level and not on many more. They are happy to tell me about their recycling (usually compulsory now), about their hostility to short-sighted political behaviour, about the dangers to the Maldives. Then they climb back into their 4x4s or set off to Thailand and New Zealand - or to Barcelona for a long week-end. These are good people. What is needed to shake them out of their myopia?

Oh well - we will press on with our low-level campaign to introduce green ideas to our readers and, more importantly, to our owners. They are responding with some enthusiasm, especially to the pressure on them to provide only the best food: local and/or organic.

View from Symonds Yat inspires literary blog posting

2007-02-05T12:19:00.000Z

A week-end walk along the Wye began in thick, cold fog and ended in the sort of winter sunshine that would destroy any embryonic thought of emigration. These are my wistful notes from the moment the sun broke through at the top of the rock:

'A fog-dense shroud draped itself over every rock, every tree, occasionally lifting its hem to play with our hopes. A hint of autumnal gold here, a dark swathe of conifer there - then nothing.

There is nothing else to see until the sun, opaque yet brilliant, scorches aside a thin protective sheen of milky white. A tree's top is revealed, barely a hint. Then another, 'til a small band of brothers stands proud through the smoke, joined now by more, the cover sinking slowly into the valley and baring forest, field and now the valley under the sun's new domain.'

Perhaps there is no need to go walking in Andalucia after all, even by train.

The 'Green'ing of Andalucia and why it's not good

2007-01-16T09:50:00.000Z

As I write, in January ’07, I have just returned from a fortnight in Spain, neatly avoiding the grey of England’s New Year. Dancing before my eyes are long and beautiful views, of the Grazalema National Park, of the hills and forest of cork oaks beyond Aracena, of rolling green countryside stretching as far as my eyes would take me. I can smell the ‘jabugo’ ham made from acorn-fed pigs, the ‘fino’ that glistens gold and generous in the glass, and the thyme plucked from the hillside. I can hear the gravelly cacophany of men pontificating below the hanging hams in the bars, the genial chatter of women bent on nothing in particular. Spain is a sensual place, and the trick when travelling is to stay with the people who can get you under its skin.

Yet all is not entirely well in southern Spain. The drought is a real worry, less urgent in winter, of course, but lurking nonetheless. Economic growth is frantic, and – as elsewhere – is crushing some of the character and countryside that we all love. We English have much to answer for, invading the coast in our hordes, speculating obsessively in property and driving demand for golf-courses in places which cannot support them. Yet there may be redemption. This week, developers are taking to court in Ronda a trio of noble expatriates who have criticised their plans for a golf-course, 800 houses and 3 hotels on the edge of the national park. They are suing for £14 million of investment lost because of the criticism. It sounds mad, but it is true. If the developers lose, then perhaps golf-courses all over Spain will tremble. If they win, then pity the cause of democratic resistance to the bulldozer.

Sleeping with the Enemy

2006-12-12T10:37:00.000Z

It was on the train from Birmingham New Street to the National Exhibition Centre that I sensed that all was not well. I was pressed into a corner by gaggles of painted fashionistas, immaculate in their manicured talons and extended hair-pieces.

I was on my way to give a 'travel talk' at the Eve Magazine show, unaware of what I was letting myself into. For next door to the hall where I was to speak was a much bigger hall, taken up with the Clothes Style Show. You could hear it from a distance, a shrill ululation of raised voices. As I got closer, along the grim corridors of the Exhibition Centre, my heart drooped. I was a Gulliver marooned on a strange island. The crowds of teenage girls grew denser, and my alienation grew deeper. No wonder, for it It turned out that 300 coach loads of girls had been decanted into the Show for an educational day out. The education was, presumably (and according to one girl I chatted to) in 'how to shop'. Perhaps the celebrity crowd-animators who seemed to do nothing but offer the expectant girls another freebie ("Now what do I have in this bag for you?") were funded by the Department of Education. It was an education for me, anyway.

I ended the day, in some desperation after a last-minute error over hotel-bookings, at the Hyatt Regency hotel, kidding myself that I was testing the opposition. I had a handsome bedroom and ate superbly, all this in a chain hotel that I couldn't possibly include in my books. So I have to end on a defensive/offensive note: our Special Places do even better and are less expensive. So there!

New House of Windsor

2006-11-23T11:00:00.000Z

Prince Charles is soon to buy a small estate in Wales, I gather. Good news for the Welsh, though property prices will rise and generate flight among the locals. Apparently he hopes to use the place for holiday lets - and of course there is only one web-site to be on: Special Escapes. We will get onto the case, not least because the Prince is bound to convert the estate to organic. He is genuinely committed to the organic movement and has been willing to put his head above the parapet time and time again. Some of the media still take occasional swipes at him for it, but his support is now generally seen to be profoundly wise, given the concern about global warming.

White Plastic Chairs - love 'em or LOVE 'EM??

2006-11-21T11:26:00.000Z

Vile, uniform, mass-produced blots on the landscape of every country on earth - the white plastic chair. They drive all before them - the wicker, cast-iron, wooden, leather and fabric. Artisans yield to the invasion, furniture makers despair, craftsmen crumble. It is relentless, this uniformed rape of the chair business. Whither the hammocks, the deep leather retreats, the hand-carved heirlooms and well-crafted-but-rotting beasts brought annually out of retirement from the potting shed? Now it is plastic, white plastic, every one of the millions of them designed to fit together in smug unison. They lurk by every lakeside, on every lawn, in every sea-side cafe - from Uzbekistan to Uruguay. They are the triumph of the globalised market. They are perfection.

Feedback Frenzy

2006-11-13T15:31:00.001Z

Interesting article yesterday in The Sunday Times, pointing out the vulnerability of travel web sites to 'interference' from people with a vested interest. You can make a hotel's rating soar on, say, Trip Advisor by posting false rave reviews, and vice versa. Hotel and restaurant owners are not unknown to post their own glowing reviews.

Wikipedia has had the same bad press, though there still seems to be a blanket acceptance that if enough people use a website somehow the truth will get through unscathed. I doubt that the Times article will make a scrap of difference. The most savvy among you will continue to use the corruptible Trip Advisor - won't you?!

It all goes to remind us that information on the web is corruptible, and that we are infinitely gullible. If the future lies in the web - then where is there room for old-fashioned integrity? Dare we hope that where it survives - even on the web - it will carry a special value? When (and if) we open up our own site to readers' reviews we will, nevertheless, be crossing our fingers and biting our cheeks. But our own reviews will be the ones that really count - still.

I don't care what the weather man said

2006-11-08T09:27:00.000Z

An interview with Radio Solent this morning got off to the usual local-radio jolly start. I had a bit of light banter with the weather man who confessed to preferring hotels to B&Bs because 'you know what you are getting'. Was he winding me up? Anyway, I rose to the occasion - sure that the world would be more interesting if we didn't know what we were getting all the time. May the weather man never be surprised, never have a nourishing encounter with strangers and never learn something new from a chance encounter. At least the weather won't surprise him (on second thoughts, it probably will).

Stern Warning

2006-11-06T11:28:00.000Z

Panic in all the media this week after the Stern Review report here about the economic catastrophe facing us if we don't get our act together on climate change very soon. I was elated at first to hear that the message had finally got through to our dear leaders, albeit unbearably late. Then another thought took over: why does it take an economist to crack the nut after years of effort by others? Is it because the one thing that can move us is a threat to our purses? We can know that whole species - thousands of them - are under threat; that the Gulf Stream may stop working; that methane on a terrifying scale is escaping from the now-warming Siberian permafrost; that glaciers are in retreat and that ....and so on. We do nothing. Then an economist tells us that we may lose money on a vast scale - and we get it.

Having apparently got it - what now? Don't hold your breath, because there are two gigantic obstacles to change: one is the economic system that has us in its grip, the other is the political system. Both have failed, in spite of every inducement and years of warnings, to provide solutions to this crisis. There is little reason to imagine that they can deliver now. New institutions are needed, new 'paradigms' (help - I once swore I would never use that word). What can they be?

I don't know, though I wonder if the switch from traditional government in London to the mayoral system is not one possible model. And as for the economic system - the current one is palpably bonkers, needing continuing growth and consumption of resources to function. China is a grand example of the idiocy of it all - though only a repetition of what has happened elsewhere. We burn the rigging and masts on our ship to keep warm.

Fear of flying - it's not easy being green

2006-09-06T10:02:00.000+01:00

We are frequently challenged along the lines "yes - but you are encouraging flying..." My stock response is to point out that low-cost flights are a recent phenomenon and not of our making. The books preceded them. We encourage people to support rural economies, get to know the locals and avoid the excesses of mass-tourism/corporate hotellery. How they get there is slightly beyond our remit. So, if we generate about a million bed nights a year in continental Europe with our books, the net impact will be considerable - and beneficial. Might that be, say, 500,000 cafe/restaurant meals in a year? Similarly, we reckon that we generate about half a million breakfasts in the UK, most of them using local and/or organic produce. That is a shot in the arm for local agriculture and local businesses. And there must be about 200,000 pub meals generated over a year.

So I reckon we do our bit for the local economies of the countries for which we publish books.

How you calculate the net benefit - disbenefit of all this Heaven knows! How many of our readers take ferries and trains? No idea. Many of them share cars, that I know. A calculation would have to set off the total carbon emissions from flying (and, of course, driving and training) against the carbon emission saved by avoiding the wrong places (ref above) and the environmental and social benefits of the way we encourage readers to be in these places. How do you calculate the net effect of a philanthropist flying to Africa to set up an AIDS programme, or to introduce a wind--turbine generation system?

For our long--haul places, of which many will be, ironically, in our Green Places To Stay book, out September 28 buy it here! the arguments take on an extra edge, I know. But some of the points I make in the long para above still stand, and we feel that while people ARE travelling we must tell them how to avoid making things worse. If we ARE persuading people to fly long-haul then we have to do some hard thinking.

But, again, the arguments are complex. I am, for example, dead keen on farm-gate shops, even if one has to drive to them. I have not calculated the overall carbon/social costs and benefits.

However, what if we were NOT publishing our sort of books? Then the only major influences out there would be malign - encouraging mass tourism and swanky travel consumerism. Should we not work hard to get the message out there?

I would be happy with a reversion to domestic tourism: the Brits, French and Italians etc all staying at home. We would just focus more on those countries and sell into the domestic markets more. And for what it is worth, I am signed up to the Stop Bristol Airport expansion programme and am prepared to be actively involved. (I wonder if that cancels out that flight I took to Sark last year??)
The only places that will have solved the problem are those that have made Herculean efforts socially and environmentally, off-set all flights to get there, and calculate every last carbon emission they are responsible for in order finally to over-offset that as well. And I don't where they are. Unless you count the Peruvian hotel that encourages guests to distribute low-carbon stoves. Or Strattons Hotel's discount of 10% to those who arrive by public transport. Or the B&B in Herefordshire that only takes guests who come by bike or foot - Corner House 01981 510283.