Guide books led the traveller in the 19th century, giving the latest information on travelling conditions as well as instructing on the places to visit. Murray and Baedekers guides, as well as covering all parts of Europe, featured Peking, Canada, the United States, Japan and New Zealand. This book contains unusual information taken from Alan Sillitoe's collection of guides. He becomes an imagined 19th-century tourist and visits Switzerland where he explains the dangers and delights of Alpine climbing, and Germany and the Rhine with its many gaming houses. Sillitoe dallies throughout Italy, contesting with the heat, the insects and the beggars, and is advised against cock and bull fighting in Spain where he has to fend for himself. He bemoans the condition of Hungarian inns, relates the ceaseless bartering needed in Turkey to achieve anything and the sights of the Holy Land and Russia.