In a world where information is readily available on the internet, the need for a properly good guidebook can sometimes seem…well…rather redundant. However, most outdoors enthusiasts worth their salt will tell you that you can never underestimate the value of having a genuinely useful guidebook near at hand.
Picture the scene. You’re lost. Your phone’s got no battery/has run out of signal/has fallen to the bottom of a ravine. Night is closing in, and your mind wanders back to that moment you almost bought a guidebook of the region you’re in now but decided not to. Now we don’t want this review to take a bleak turn so let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you somehow got rescued and lived to tell the tale. What’s the one thing you’re taking away from the experience? You guessed it. The importance of owning a really well put together guidebook.
Step forward: Cicerone. Cicerone do guidebooks specifically designed for walkers, mountaineers, trekkers, climbers and cyclists. This lot specialise in the outdoors. Seriously, they live and breathe the stuff. Their back catalogue includes publications on all the National Trails in Britain, a comprehensive range of titles dedicated to the Alps, guidebooks about the Himalayas, over 40 books focused entirely on Scotland, and so much more.
“Picture the scene. You’re lost. Your phone’s got no battery/has run out of signal/has fallen to the bottom of a ravine…”
Winding the clock back four decades, Cicerone started out by publishing a guidebook to some of the best climbs in the Lake District. All these years later, it’s reassuring to see just how much their collection of titles has grown. The way we see it, this lot must be doing something right if people keep coming back for more time and time again.
