Pam Hobbs' Britain: A Guide to Familiar and Not So Familiar Places

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, Japan Foundation Fellow 1991-92, and the author of
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered:
Leo Kennedy’s Story.

In a lively preface, award-winning travel writer Pam Hobbs tells us that
she was born and grew up in an English village, and began to learn her
craft in letters home as an evacuee in World War II. She has lived in
Canada for 45 years but continues to rediscover Britain in her frequent
return trips. As Hobbs notes, Britain, which occupies an area less than
one-quarter of that of Ontario, has an amazing variety of scenery,
history, and traditions. The travel data she includes in this book are
both current and very helpful.

The guide is organized in seven parts: London, the Southeast, the
Southwest, Central England, Wales, the North, and Scotland. Much of the
charm and interest of Hobbs’s travel writing lies in its personal
quality. Hobbs herself calls it a “personal, often in-depth look” at
her favorite places, the places she would recommend to friends. Her
lively writing will please an armchair traveler as well as the
determined tourist. In “A Walk in York Wakes the Past,” for example,
she notes that sifting through other people’s garbage is not her cup
of tea, but the results of archeological digs have allowed these patient
explorers to re-create a Viking street.

I’ve been exploring Britain for 25 years, and Hobbs’s information
and advice, which includes travelers’ tips, is top-notch.