Product details
- ISBN 9780241764169
- Weight: 394g
- Dimensions: 144 x 225mm
- Publication Date: 07 May 2026
- Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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"A real heartwarming portrait of Britain and our love of time off. I couldn't put it down.” – Cathy Adams, The Times travel desk
"How we spend our time off tells us a lot about who we are – and Thorpe understands that." – Tom Chesshyre, author of Slow Trains Around Britain
"Behind The Great Escape’s whimsical look at the Brits' love affair with the holiday is the true insider voice of Annabelle Thorpe. She has her finger on the pulse of past, present and future travel. "-- Jane Anderson, Travel Editor of Prima magazine
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Discover how our favourite holiday traditions began in this entertaining and fascinating social history.
Holidays. We dream of them, plan them and savour every moment of them. But where did the concept of “the holiday” come from? How has it become so essential to who we are as Brits? And what does the future hold for our treasured time off?
In The Great Escape, travel journalist Annabelle Thorpe takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of British holidays – from the 18th-century spa break to the age of the global nomad – to answer all these questions and more. Travelling the length and breadth of Britain (with a detour to the Mediterranean), Annabelle explores the wilds of Scotland, visits Bath, Blackpool and Butlins, and sets out on Victorian railway lines to uncover the stories of those who helped shape our holiday culture.
Weaving together history, social change, nostalgia and personal anecdotes, and illustrated with a colour plate section, The Great Escape is its own Grand Tour – 400 years of the high days and holidays we cherish as a nation.
Part travelogue, part social history, this book is a must-read for everyone who loves to travel and wants to know more about how the generations before us spent their precious free time.
Award-winning travel writer Annabelle Thorpe has spent two-and-a-half decades crisscrossing the world in search of stories. She’s driven through deserts and crossed continents by train, stayed in five-star palaces and basic B&Bs, and talked to hotel magnates and campsite owners, concierges and redcoats, campaigners and museum curators, and everyone in between.
Named one of the top 50 travel writers in the UK by Press Gazette, she has worked on The Times and The Observer travel desks and held the role of Deputy Travel Editor at the Express. Based in Sussex, UK, she is the author of four novels as well as two guidebooks: Great British Weekends and Britain’s Best Seaside Escapes.
