Blessed with great natural beauty and steeped in history, Ireland remains the perfect destination for the adventurous traveller. In this guide, Andrew Sanger divides Ireland into its four ancient provinces - Connacht (or Connaught). Munster, Leinster and Ulster - selecting leisurely, explanatory tours through countryside, villages and small towns. Along the way, he provides a broad range of practical details (fully updated for this edition) - advice on getting to know Ireland, driving and parking, accomodation, eating out, and much more.
I'm the author of The J-Word. After thirty years as a travel journalist and guidebook writer, I found myself wanting to write about something much closer to home.
My first novel, The J-Word was published in the UK in 2009 by Snowbooks (and released in the US in 2010). I'm glad to say it was very well received and has had excellent reviews. It's set in Golders Green, a Jewish district in London, England.
The J-Word has been featured at London's Jewish Book Week and Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival. To read about The J-Word and see what reviewers thought of it, see http://www.andrewsanger.com/The-J-Word
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The J-Word tells the story of an elderly Jewish man called Jack Silver. I say he's Jewish, but he flatly denies it. Jack is resolutely secular and long ago repudiated everything Jewish. He likes to think of himself as English. Jack is asked to come to Golders Green (London's largest Jewish neighborhood) to care for his 10-year-old grandson, Danny. Of course, the brilliant young Danny knows nothing at all about his Jewish heritage, and Jack's certainly not about to discuss it with him.
When Jack is beaten up by an antisemitic gang, it changes everything. At first, Jack is helped by a more religious Jew, who advises him to go to the police. But Jack doesn't do that. He and Danny secretly set out to outwit and track down the thugs and bring them to justice. The hunt takes Jack into memories of his own childhood and the two unlikely heroes discover a shared identity spanning generations that eventually draws the whole family together.
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Apart from The J-Word, I've written about thirty travel guides, mainly to different regions of France - especially Provence, Languedoc, Burgundy and Picardy - but also to Flanders, Lanzarote, Tenerife, Ireland and Israel. Some have been successful, and most of them have been translated into several languages. I've contributed to a wide spectrum of British national newspapers, magazines and websites, too, and for ten years I was the editor of French Railways' customer magazine.
