CURRENT PROJECTS Writing about Travel I have been re-engaged as Festival Director for the Madeira Islands Walking Festival. The first five-day festival was held in January 2008, and the next will be from 13th-17th January 2009. Check out the website, but for more information call 01772 321243 or email madeirawalking@googlemail.com. Guidebook writing I have been working with Frommers on a new family guide to Ireland (now available), and completing a walkers' guidebook to 'The Forest of Bowland and Pendle' for Cicerone (also now available). My Globetrotter Travel Guide to The Azores, published by New Holland at £8.99 (ISBN 978-1-84773-163-0) is now available. I've also finished a practical guide to Walking for Fitness and Fun, and my book The Magic of the Scottish Islands originally published by David and Charles as a hardback, has now been reprinted and is available as a paperback. I am currently working on a walking guide to the West Pennine Moors in Lancashire, and have a book of 'Great Mountain Days in Snowdonia' to work on between now and next summer, along with four new Pathfinder titles to the Lake District for Crimson Publishing Ltd. Book revision work I have recently been revising the AA Spiral Guide to Madeira, and working on revisions to the Michelin Green Guides to the Auvergne and the French Alps. Internet writing I have considerable experience of writing for the internet, but most recently it was the information on Madeira for Arrival Guides. On-going magazine work I will be continuing my regular magazine work for Dalesman and Cumbria, and working on a number of features for Living France magazine. Places in France that I visited in 2008 included Cantal, Aude, the Pyrénées Orientales, Toulouse, the Hautes Pyrénées and Loire Atlantique. During 2009, I will be visiting Strasbourg, Alsace Lorraine (Bas Rhin and Haut Rhin), Moselle, and Limousin (Corrèze and Haute-Vienne), and Vendée. I spent September 2008 in Scotland, working on my Walker's Guide to the Isle of Skye for a new, fully revised Third Edition, due out in the spring of 2009 for Cicerone. Non-print media During 2006 I wrote the script for a DVD on the North York Moors, produced by Chromavision. This is now available from Yorkshire Video. With the same film producer, I have been working on a new title, called A Postcard from Yorkshire; a DVD postcard about Yorkshire for Chromavision Media. This, too, is now available. You can see the piece I wrote for The Weekend Australian on Strasbourg at Full of good cheer. There's another piece, which I wrote about Beatrix Potter, also for The Weekend Australian at Potter about. A piece about the Malvern Hills and Edward Elgar appeared on 28 April, 2007. Bits and bobs I'm back doing occasional radio work, for BBC Radio Lancashire. And on top of everything else I am taking on postgraduate research at Lancaster University, hopefully leading to a PhD, on the growth of hotels in the Lake District in response to the rise in tourism. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone with information about Lakeland hotels, especially those that existed before 1900. |