'Vic Darkwood's exhaustive research has uncovered what many of you might already have suspected; that the Victorian 'gent' was a pompous lunatic in charge of an extensive vocabulary. He is here in all his frippery. This is a book best read in a loud, overbearing voice while twirling a fake moustache, but you will be too busy laughing to do anything like this' -- Graham Linehan 'Darkwood's collection of snippets from travel handbooks from the 19th and early 20th century are as fun as they are revelatory about how travel has changed' -- Clover Stroud, Sunday Telegraph 'Welcome to the cult of couth' -- Independent 'Let Darkwood's rallying cry - "Civility, Poetry, Martini" - ring in smoking rooms and gentlemen's bedchambers everywhere' -- ES Magazine 'A very funny guide' -- Publishing News 20060707 'A sure-fire hit' -- Bookseller 20060721 'When the oil has run out and air travel is nothing by a memory, the advice in The Lost Art of Travel will come into its own again' -- Celia Brayfield, The Times 20060721 'A perfect and hilarious Christmas triviality' -- Good Book Guide 20060721 'An amusing antidote to anodyne travel writing' -- Traveller: review, Winter issue 20060721 'A wonderfully off the wall collection of Victorian 'wisdom' on the subject of travel and exploration ... well researched and written, and with something to say on every area of travel, this will have you reaching for your tweed plus fours before you know it' -- Adventure Travel Magazine: review, Jan/Feb issue 20060721

Vic Darkwood is a writer, traveller and bon viveur, whose past projects include co-founding The Chap" magazine in 1998 and co-writing several tomes, including The Chap Manifesto" and Around the World in Eighty Martinis". Prone to an over-appreciation of malt whisky and leaning against classical architecture at an angle of 15 degrees to the perpendicular, Mr Darkwood is currently working on a Concise History of Marmalade".