Stories and Places

Readers who like to travel? Travellers who love a good book? We would love to get your comments and and ideas about books you've read which made you think, 'I want to go there,' or maybe just, 'I'd love to see pictures of that place'. For some books the setting is immaterial to the story. In other novels the setting is almost as important as the characters.

In Tony Hillerman's novels featuring Navajo cops Leaphorn and Chee, the landscape is more than background; it's character and context. I've never visited the homelands of the Navaho, Hopi or Zuna - but thanks to Tony's books I feel as though I have. Perhaps a Leaphorn lover has made the pilgrimage, taken the photos and would tell us all about it!

I love Greece and books set in Greece. I had already visited the leper colony described in The Island by Victoria Hislop many years before reading the book. Would I have found the place more interesting if I?d read the book beforehand? I certainly enjoyed the book in part because I had a clear idea of the setting. Having visited Perachora, Dilys Powell's deeply felt and movingly honest description of her return visits in the 1940's and 50's to what was then an isolated part of Greece, had an ever deeper resonance. Rereading 'An Affair of the Heart' makes me wonder if the lighthouse is still there. What does it look like now? Is there anyone out there who has photos to share?

This year a friend and I had five fantastic, if exhausting days following in the footsteps of David Hewson's characters in Rome's Centro Storico. If not for Sherpa Alison, I'd have probably found about four of the places. It's a wonderful city for so many reasons, but our reading just added something extra. Nic Costa's interest in Caravaggio's works led me to download pictures online but seeing them in place in the churches described so vividly in Hewson's novels added a layer of interest beyond the guidebooks. Despite previous research and rereading, it wasn't until we were home that we realised that we'd not only visited the dumpsite of one of the hideous murders in A Season for the Dead, but that Ngaio Marsh's When In Rome was also based on the same place - the church of San Clemente. Both books were re read with relish.

OK, I'm very much a crime thriller afficianado. If someone hasn't died in the first few pages I start to lose interest. But I know that there are GOOD books out there (I've even read a few) in other genres. I need help here, so please tell us about books you've read set in places you'd like to visit.

We want readers to show us the places they?ve visited. We want to give those going on holiday some ideas about books to read. We want everyone to share their experiences. Who knows, maybe we could even arrange trips!