Another gorgeous book has come from the Hip Hotels stable, this time concentrating on those centres of hotel cool, cities. More of a coffee-table book than a practical guide, it makes excellent drooling and dreaming material even if the hotels are out of your price range.

Author Kev Reynolds' enthusiasm for his trek across the rolling farmlands and Downs of Sussex and Hampshire is infectious enough to activate a couch potato.

You thought cruising was easy. You come across a cruise, perhaps on these pages, you like where it's going and the ship looks like it won't sink. So you book it and potter about the open seas on a deckchair, right?

The history of food in England and a picture of its possibilities

A soldier turned journalist, he covered the 1953 Everest expedition, fathered five children and wrote acclaimed travel books before undertaking his most remarkable journey yet - a sex-change operation. Now 75, she says her latest book will be her last. Nicholas Wroe reports

Author Mark Reid, a 32-year-old former brewery sales manager, has made his living recently writing the Inn Way series of walking books that promote sustainable tourism in areas such as the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and the Lake District. But this summer has seen a disastrous slump in the sale of his, and other, books about country walking because of the foot and mouth crisis.

A read through of this book and it would be no surprise if you never set foot outside the house again. It is written by a former bodyguard who is now the operations director of an international risk management company - I think that means he stops people being kidnapped.

Walking in Britain (Lonely Planet Publications, August 25, £13.99)

Are phrase books a waste of time? Joanne O'Connor puts five of the best to the test while on holiday in Portugal.

If you like your guide books to have a bit of personality then you'll be hard pushed to find a better one than this.

This book aims to take the mystery out of sabbaticals - and its enthusiastic approach will inspire you.