Go Slow England

Keen To Be Green (Torquay)

11 April 2008

New public appearances (in Devon) by author Alastair Sawday

Posted by Thomas under accommodation, Alastair Sawday Publishing, England, environment, Go Slow England, green, holidays in England, London, Sawday's, slow, slow food, slow travel, Special Places to Stay, travel
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Hello and firstly I just want to remind you all that Alastair will be making his final promotional appearance for Go Slow England next Tuesday (15 April) at Stanfords in London. Audiences at his Bristol and Bath appearances have really enjoyed meeting him and hearing him discuss all things slow so for those of you in and around London, please don’t miss out on this event.

You probably should book ahead so please click here for more details.

Devon – Monday 28 April

Alastair will be in Devon on Monday 28 April to speak at an event in Torquay followed by an event in Bovey Tracey. First he will be at the Riviera International Conference Centre in Torquay to speak for half an hour about distinctive, green and slow holidays as part of the Keen To Be Green programme from 12:30pm – 4:15pm. Alastair will then head over to the Devon Guild Cafe in Bovey Tracey to present How to Choose a Green Holiday to Bovey Climate Action at 7:30pm.

Both events are free but booking ahead is strongly recommended. Click the below links for more information:

How to Choose a Green Holiday (Bovey Tracey)

Have a good weekend and note that there won’t be any blog entries next week until Thursday as most of us will be off at the London Book Fair.

Cheers, Thomas

9 April 2008

New sample pages! Angel Inn in Yorkshire

Posted by Thomas under accommodation, Alastair Sawday Publishing, England, food, Go Slow England, holidays in England, Sawday's, slow, slow food, slow travel, Special Places to Stay, Yorkshire
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As promised last week here is a new set of sample pages from Go Slow England that have not previously been available anywhere else. So I hope you enjoy the Angel Inn in Yorkshire and remember that all previous sample pages can be found here.

Also, for those of you in London don’t forget Alastair’s appearance at Standfords next Tuesday. Click here for more details.

Cheers, Thomas

27 March 2008

Go Slow England in The Guardian and The Observer this weekend and praise from Carl Honoré

Posted by Thomas under accommodation, Alastair Sawday Publishing, Carl Honoré, England, Go Slow England, holidays in England, In Praise of Slow, Sawday's, slow, slow food, slow travel, Special Places to Stay, The Guardian, The Observer, travel
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Hello everybody and I’m pleased to announce that the official publication date for Go Slow England is fast approaching (despite us managing to make it available a month ahead of schedule) and we’re anticipating a big media response.

The Guardian and The Observer

To kick things off The Guardian this Saturday and The Observer this Sunday will contain G2 sized supplements that both contain 10 of the special places featured in Go Slow England. So if you haven’t picked up a copy of the book yet grab these supplements over the weekend to get an idea of what you are missing out on!

Praise from Carl Honoré

Many of you interested in all things Slow will have heard about Carl Honoré as he is the author of In Praise of Slow, one of the first books to celebrate the Slow Movement. After Carl received a copy of Go Slow England, he wrote this back to us:

The book has just landed on my desk. Wow, it’s absolutely beautiful. I find myself gasping or nodding (or both) at whatever page I open to. Congratulations. This really is a triumph.

Considering Carl’s influence and stature in the Slow Movement, not to mention his passion for anything that promotes a better way of life, this is incredible praise that has left all of us at Sawday’s feeling very flattered!

Incidentally Carl’s book is well worth getting a hold of. It is available on Amazon UK, Amazon USA and Amazon Canada but Carl does request that you try to pick up a copy from a local independent bookshop if you can. Carl is also launching a new website soon, which will act as a hub for all the existing Slow related websites already out there. I’ll provide full details and links in this blog once it is all up and running.

Cheers, Thomas

25 March 2008

Easter in Glastonbury, Salisbury and Stonehenge

Posted by Thomas under accommodation, Alastair Sawday Publishing, B&Bs, British Bed & Breakfast, Easter, England, food, Glastonbury, Go Slow England, holidays in England, Salisbury, Sawday's, slow, slow food, slow travel, Special Places to Stay, Stonehenge, travel
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Hi everybody and I hope you had a wonderful and slow Easter.

I discovered the historical delights of Glastonbury and Salisbury for the first time, with a look in at Stonehenge – all by train and bus. I managed to constantly get myself caught in sudden snow storms where ice particles blew horizontally at face height rather than fall from the sky. I must admit though, it was very amusing coming down from the Glastonbury Tor on Friday to witness all the dogs and small children being literally blown off the path. It was also very funny at Stonehenge to witness all the people stand with their backs to the rocks who would briefly spin around to catch a look at the magnificent rocks before spinning around again to protect their faces from the shards of ice. I just fired my camera over my shoulder so I could look at the photos later. My wife had the better idea of us standing face-to-face so we could pivot on the spot and take turns peering over each others shoulder. It was actually all wonderful and what better way to appreciate such sites than to do so while caught in a furious tempest?

Before I sign off I’d like to give a special mention to the terrific B&B I stayed at while enjoying the delights of Salisbury. It is a Sawday’s place (of course!) named Bolhays, run by a pair of sisters who simply know their stuff when it comes to creating an inviting and relaxed atmosphere. Thank you Bar and Sue!

Cheers, Thomas

19 March 2008

Alastair Sawday Publishing wins environmental award at the IPG

Posted by Thomas under accommodation, Alastair Sawday Publishing, Bath, Bristol, England, environment, Go Slow England, green, holidays in England, Independent Publishers Guild, IPG, Sawday's, slow, slow food, slow travel, Special Places to Stay, UK tourism
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Hi everybody. I can’t believe I have waited over a week to announce to you all that Sawday’s won an Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) award at a ceremony held at the Grand Hotel in Brighton on Saturday 8 March. We scooped the Environmental Award for our continuing contribution to greener publishing!

At the risk of shamelessly blowing our own trumpet, here’s what the IPG say about us winning the award:

With green issues currently at the forefront of publishers’ minds, Alastair Sawday Publishing was singled out in this category as a model for all independents to follow. Its efforts to reduce waste in its office and supply chain have reduced the company’s environmental impact, and it works closely with staff to identify more areas of improvement. “Here is a publisher who lives and breathes green,” said the panel of judges. “Alastair Sawday has all the right principles and is clearly committed to improving its practice further.”

And here’s Alastair’s response:

Winning this award gives us a terrific boost! I admire the IPG for having the foresight to create it, thus bringing the urgent need for environmental awareness to so many small publishing companies. And our staff have been hugely encouraged by the award to make further efforts. In fact they will be even more ready, now, to challenge me when I don’t come up to scratch. The die is now fully cast.

For more information about the other awards and nominations visit the The Independent Publishing Awards 2008 page on the IPG website.

In other news, Alastair will be doing Go Slow England presentations and book signings in Bristol and Bath next week. Check out the author tour dates pages for details. Alastair has also written a new post on his personal blog so head over there to have a look at what he has to say about the future of UK tourism.

Cheers, Thomas

18 March 2008

Timberstone Bed & Breakfast

Posted by Thomas under accommodation, Alastair Sawday Publishing, B&Bs, British Bed & Breakfast, England, food, Go Slow England, holidays in England, Ludlow, Sawday's, Shropshire, slow, slow food, slow travel, Special Places to Stay, travel
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Hi everybody. Since Ludlow received the most votes in our poll on the best place to go slow in England and since I’m haven’t previously uploaded any sample pages from the region, I thought it was time to present you with Timberstone Bed & Breakfast in Shropshire.

This will be the last lot of sample pages that I upload for now as I’ve covered all the regions collected in Go Slow England. Remember that all previous samples can be found here.

Cheers, Thomas

14 March 2008

Alastair at the Journeys Festival, Alastair’s blog and more Hog Blog

Posted by Thomas under accommodation, Alastair Sawday Publishing, England, food, Go Slow England, hogs, holidays in England, pigs, Sawday's, slow, slow food, slow travel, Special Places to Stay, travel
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I know it’s a bit last minute for me to be announcing this but if you are near Bristol on Sunday morning then pop over to The Pierian Centre for the Journeys Festival. You’ll be able to meet Alastair in person as he’ll be there as part of the Books & Buns morning from 11:00am to 1:30pm. You can find details of the whole Journeys festival (which starts tonight) here and download their flyer here.

While we are on the topic of all things to do with Alastair, click here to have a look at his personal blog where he has recently started a discussion about whether or not people in their 20s and 30s are still able to enjoy the simple things in life.

But for now, time to end the week with a new instalment from The Hog Blog.

Cheers, Thomas

Previous instalments from The Hog Blog

The Hog Blog – November 2007, part 1

The Hog Blog - November 2007, part 1

They continue to grow. I wonder whether they are frightened of fireworks? They don’t seem to have fear really – the only time they freaked out was when I went into the field wearing a hat. Have read lots of stuff, mainly from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, about how much pigs love greens. Well mine don’t. They don’t like, or won’t eat: cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, onions, celery or swede. They do like eating seasonally however, blackberries and apples in abundance when they arrived, now they like nothing better than pumpkins and squashes. Bananas and melon are also a favourite. They adore pig nuts.

They still like to run around in the field whenever they can, rushing about tearing up grass (they will eat that), and snuffling their snouts into everything, sometimes coming up with an acorn or a beech nut and cracking it between their teeth happily. Bobbie continues to bark at them now and then but nothing like before. Occasionally they nibble at her. She rather likes sniffing their bottoms and stealing the pig nuts.

So, we have settled into a routine. Which is fine. Except my petrol bill is soaring because of all the extra trips to the office. Julia and Joe coming up with business plan apparently but still no plans to extend.

We were going to get a couple of pigs from another farm where there are also cattle, but they texted me to say they had just had a positive TB test and couldn’t move anything for months. Back to Devon then I suppose, but I quite wanted to get a couple of girls of a different breed for a bit of variation. Julia and Joe are going to attempt the fencing so I won’t hold my breath. Must get more before February though when Porker will be off. Cannot have Mabel on her own. Research for other pigs necessary, but what type? More Berkshires? (not so good for bacon) …or a Gloucester Old Spot or a Saddleback. Maybe a Large Black, but would it matter to only have black pigs?

Nicola

13 March 2008

The Griffin Inn

Posted by Thomas under accommodation, Alastair Sawday Publishing, Bath, Bristol, England, food, Go Slow England, holidays in England, Inns, London, Sawday's, slow, slow food, slow travel, Special Places to Stay, Sussex
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Hello and sorry about the two day absence. I’ve been away with the rest of the Sawday’s gang on our annual overnight gathering out of the office. We had a wonderful time doing lots of fun get-to-know-you type activities and even one or two things that resembled productive work. More about that later.

We got back yesterday in time for Alastair to make his first promotional appearance at Stanfords in Bristol. The event had already sold out earlier in the week and was a big success. If you want to see Alastair at his second Bristol appearance or catch him in either London or Bath then check the author tour dates page for more information.

For now I will leave you with another set of sample pages from Go Slow England. I haven’t uploaded anything from the South East before so I hope you enjoy reading these pages about The Griffin Inn in Sussex.

Cheers, Thomas

See other sample pages