Simon Winder: Danubia

I find that I have two very different reactions to guide books (regardless of exactly how these are defined). With new places I find they can be invaluable but they need to be added to with guidance from friends who may have been to ones destination and perhaps some inline research. In fact ‘guide book’ should now be broadened to cover online guides as well I think.

However, with places I have been to I rarely find them helpful - unless they are written from a very personal point of view in which case I find myself reading them for the sake of the author and style, rather than for what it tells me about the location.

Danubia however is rather different. Having lived for a few years now in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as was and traveled around a few parts of it, I found this book combined the two qualities and characteristics that I mentioned above. There is much details about places that I thought I knew tat have the best effect that a guidebook can have - making one want to rush out and further explore - but this is also a fascinating personal journey, highly entertainingly written (like Bill Bryson but perhaps with his occasionally irritating facetiousness) where the character of the author comes across as an endearing and entertaining guide.

Enormous fun then - and I am sure his earlier Germania is very much in the same spirit, style and effectiveness as this one.