The Rough Guide to Paris begins with a ‘Colour Section’ on glossy paper consisting of an introduction, information on what to see and when to go, and twenty things not to miss. There are plenty of colour photographs as well as inserts on the Metro, the River Seine, and Paris climate. The names of monuments and sights are in bold so they are easy to spot. The twenty things not to miss include the obvious ones such as the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame cathedral, but also point out several lesser-known attractions, for example the hammam at the Paris mosque and art-house cinemas. Page references are given for each so that it is easy to find more details in the guide.

France, James McConnachie, Paris, Ruth Blackmore

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Flinn, a seemingly ordinary boy who likes pirates and dinosaurs, is on a school trip to see dinosaur skeletons at a museum. He and his friends are in awe of the huge skeleton of the giganotosaurus, which the guide tells them was even mightier than Tyrannosaurus Rex. They are also intrigued when the guide shows them an empty glass case from which Captain Rufus Rumblebelly’s treasure was stolen the night before.

Flinn and friends follow a trail of feathers and gold coins, thinking that it might hold a clue to the treasure.

Giles Andreae, picture book, Russell Ayto

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Flinn, like so many other boys his age, loves dinosaurs and pirates. One day at school his teacher sends him to a walk-in cupboard to look for the pens he needs to colour a dinosaur picture. While inside, Flinn hears the sound of a man crying. He is amazed to find Captain Stubble, a pirate, shaking and shuddering on the floor under a curtain. The reason for Captain Stubble’s despair is that his ship has been stolen. Flinn offers to help him get it back, and out of nowhere three of his friends appear, all clamouring to join in the adventure.

Giles Andreae, picture book, Russell Ayto

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‘Top 10 Cairo & the Nile‘ opens with the ten unmissable highlights including the pyramids of Giza, the mosque of Al-Azhar, the temple of Philae and the Valley of the Kings. Carrying on from there, other top tens featured in the guide are temples, Islamic architecture, museums, souvenirs, restaurants and children’s attractions. There is something for everyone, whether the interest is Egyptology, mosques, or contemporary culture. You can find out about festivals, whether religious or secular, and discover the ten most typical Egyptian dishes, including koshari and molokhiya.

The next section of the book gives top tens according to area: central Cairo, old Cairo, beyond Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan and Lake Nasser.

Andrew Humphreys, Cairo, Egypt

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A boy and girl try to convince their parents to let them get a dog; they say it could guard the house and play with them. Mum and dad protest at first, saying that dogs need to be fed and walked, and they make a lot of mess. The children promise that they will take care of everything, and Mum gives in. The children set off for the Dogs’ Home, pushing the baby in the buggy. Their parents stress that they must get a dog with a pedigree.

John Burningham, picture book

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This tiny guide to Brussels begins with a double-page spread of the top ten attractions, with a colour photograph and brief caption for each one. Included are the Grand-Place, Manneken-Pis and the Atonium, but Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp also feature here, so the attractions are not restricted to those of the capital of Belgium, Brussels.

Belgium, Brussels

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Any traveller needing a guidebook to Paris is likely to be spoilt for choice. Anyone interested in walking the streets of France’s capital city and discovering less well-known sights, however, would find “History and Mystery: Paris” a delightful book. The guide gives details of twenty-four walking tours in various districts of Paris; the titles of these tours range from “Pyramids and Palaces” to “Down and Out in Paris” or “How the Other Half Live”.

France, Paris, Peter and Oriel Cain

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When I lived in Cairo, I often used to watch the local television news bulletin in English. Rain is a pretty rare occurrence there, so one evening the Egyptian newsreader thought that a particularly heavy downpour was worth commenting on. He decided to go for a familiar colloquial expression to appear like a native speaker, and came out with ‘It’s been raining dogs and cats.’ It sounded so strange switching the order of the animals around, and next day at the English school where I taught everyone was have a chuckle over it.

It is a difficult thing, getting colloquial language right in any language other than your own. I certainly don’t remember being taught any French idioms at school or during the Open University courses I completed.

French, Jean-Marie Cassagne

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Reading aloud is an ideal activity to follow a free play session when the children are ready to sit still and be calm for a while. It fosters listening skills that are the basis of the learning process, encourages a love of books and instils a desire in the children to be able to read the stories themselves. Whilst the children I read to love traditional tales such as The Gingerbread Man or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, we usually read contemporary stories. I’m listing some of our favourite books here.

Shark in the Park by Nick Sharratt (Corgi Childrens, ISBN 0552549770) is the story of a young boy, Timothy Pope, who goes to the park with his telescope (which obviously rhymes with his name). Each time he looks through the telescope, he sees something that looks like the black fin of a shark, so he shouts out ‘There’s a shark in the park!’. This is repeated several times throughout the book, and the children know when it’s coming and love to shout the phrase out themselves each time.

Helen Oxenbury, Kathryn White, Michael Rosen, Michael Terry, Nick Sharratt, picture book, Sally Chambers

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A little white mouse comes running to a frog to ask for help because Big Bro’s coming: “He’s rough, he’s tough, and he’s big.” The mouse stretches his arms out as wide as he can to show just how big, then he runs away to hide. The worried frog conveys the same information to a parrot before hopping off to hide as well. The parrot tells the story to a chimpanzee and stretches out his wings to show just how big Big Bro is, but of course his wing span is far greater than the span of the mouse or the frog’s arms.

Jez Alborough, picture book

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If you don’t have the time or culinary skills to follow in the footsteps of celebrity chefs but won’t be satisfied with ready meals that take just a few minutes in the microwave, Tom Norrington-Davies’ ‘Cupboard Love’ could be the ideal cookbook for you. The idea is to establish an up-to-date version of an old-fashioned larder in your kitchen. This may entail an initial outlay to build up a well-stocked cupboard, but once you have the basic ingredients you can produce a variety of home-made dishes with the addition of fresh produce in a short time and without too much fuss. It does of course mean that you are in control of the ingredients and can use olive oil or butter rather than hydrogenated fat, and pure sugar as opposed to dextrose or corn syrup.

Tom Norrington-Davies

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