Tunisia - Eyewitness Travel: 9/10

Thumbing through the thin selection of Tunisian guide books at my local Borders/Books etc. in Finchley Road I plumped for the cheapest one on the shelf: a terracota-coloured hardback from Thomas Cook weighing about 2 grams and costing £4.99. I thumbed through it in about 20 seconds, worried that my girlfriend would think me a schnorrer, and put it back.

I was loth to buy another US-twanged Lonely Planet, as they're annoying, aimed at students and generally do little to inspire me. Nestling nonchalently next to it, though, was a modest-looking, glossy, white number by EyeWitness Travel.

It looked alarmingly like something by Insight Guides, which appear to be translated from German, and not particularly proficiently.




It wasn't. I opened it up, to be dazzled by the dizzying array of pictures - so many, so beautifully-crafted - and amazingly-useful maps, the hardback-ish cover, and the elegant writing. I was astounded when I saw that these guides, though published in the UK, are actually translated from Polish (five stars to that translator!).

The only thing that put me off was that it cost £15.99 (in the shop - it's £11.99 on Amazon) and I was only going away for a week. But I'm glad I took the plunge. This guide is bloody brilliant! I feel like I'm putting away a friend I've just met but to whom I've grown inexorably attached. Perplexingly, Eyewitness Travel is so modest about its Tunisian tome (though not many of its others), that it doesn't even mention that it publishes one on its website. Bizarre.