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07 FEBRUARY 2009
BELIZE
John McCarthy ventures far afield in the company of the adventurer Hugh Thomson to explore Belize, described by Aldous Huxley as ‘a place that is surely the end of the world’.
OLD TOURING GUIDES
John is also joined by historian and teacher, David Heathcote, for a tour of Britain using old travel guides; they discuss the pleasures of Victorian Baedekers and 1930s Shell guides, amongst others; writer and broadcaster Charlie Connelly shares his interest in the travel writer H.V. Morton.
Presented by John McCarthy
Photograph: Belize in December (photographer: Martin Lange ©)
This week’s guests:
Hugh Thomson is a writer who explores according to Geographical magazine. He’s travelled extensively throughout South America, written some well received books about it and made some award winning documentaries. His latest book, Tequila Oil, is the BBC Radio 4 Book Of The Week next week. It’s the story of Hugh’s trip across Mexico in an Oldsmobile. The last chapter recounts his return to Belize which is where he ended up on his original trip in the seventies.
The islands are very beautiful and many are being bought up and turned into luxury holiday retreats. There are jungle lodges in the interior; buses and boats are a very good way of seeing the islands on a budget. A significant part of Mayan history has been discovered in Belize, recently some extraordinary caves
Tequila Oil – Getting lost in Mexico
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN-10: 0297851926
ISBN-13: 978-0297851929
Book of The Week
BBC Radio 4 - Weekdays 9.45am-10.00am, repeated 00.30-00.45am
Tequila Oil (5 episodes from Monday 9 Feb 09 to Friday 13 Feb 09)
David Heathcote is a historian and teacher. David has made two programmes for BBC4 taking the premise of using old and well written guide books to tour around Britain today. David is an avid fan of old guidebooks.
Touring Britain on BBC4 at 9.00pm
1. Touring Britain - The Victorian Way
Thursday 26th February
“With his favourite 1887 Baedeker Guide in hand, David Heathcote discovers the delights and hidden treasures popular with Victorian tourists; following in the footsteps of the early American tourists who disembarked from transatlantic liners in Liverpool.”
2. Touring Britain – The Classic Motorist’s Way
Thursday 5th March
“David Heathcote explores tow of Britain’s most beautiful counties – Dorset and Cornwall with the Shell Guides.”
Charlie Connelly is a writer and broadcaster. H.V. Morton’s travel guides about Britain and Ireland (and further afield ) are models of excellent writing and very resonant today for their preoccupations with urban sprawl, loss of local identity, mass tourism, traffic growth etc. Charlie is a founder member of the H.V. Morton society. The BBC cannot be held responsible for
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 John McCarthy is a widely travelled journalist and presenter with a particular interest in the Middle East. | |
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