Departures and Arrivals

OK so the longer review I just wrote and this excellent website decided not so save for me is is gone, so here is the short version.

This is a book of short stories from the charming Eric Newby, loosely themed as Departures and arrivals. I say loosely, because they really are just short travel stories without particular focus on arriving or departing.
There are a number in the UK and Italy (where his wife Wanda is from), and around half feature Wanda. There are also stories set further afield in (what I perceive as) more interesting locations - Syria, Yemen, China, Turkey, Australia.
I am a Newby fan, but find his autobiography works much stronger than his travel works, but enjoy his books nevertheless. This one suited a dip in dip out type reading, half an hour here, 20 minutes there, for which it worked out well.

A solid 3 stars.