Alastair Sawday

Alastair Sawday is the chairman and founder of Sawday's Special Places to Stay recommending over 5,000 inspected hotels, B&Bs and self-catering properties across Europe and beyond. He is committed to all things 'green' and endeavours to promote 'slow' living, sustainable travel and environmental awareness via the Special Places guide books and websites.

ALASTAIR'S FAVOURITE SITES

The Idler - Tom Hodgkinson, recently wrote the foreword for our new Gardens book, on how to be idle and much more. He's written some fantastic books: How to be an Idle Parent, How to Fish, Cloudspotting etc. His whole aim is, and I will quote liberally from the site,  to 'return dignity to the art of loafing, to make idling into something to aspire towards rather than reject.' As well as providing a radical and thought-provoking read, the Idler is also very funny. The Idler website has no forum as Tom finds that the forum medium itself encourages whingeing, procrastination and rudeness of an unacceptable order. However, a group of readers have set up their own forum called the Idle Foundation. On the homepage you find articles on patching clothes, a cartoon workshop, mind-control and - an awful Hymn to the Astra.  I have one and was seduced again:

Oh Astra, the finest of cars!
We bought you from Charlie,
Your name means the stars.
We bought you, fine Astra
For just six hundred quid.
At such a reasonable price,
I'm glad that we we did.
(I apologize for the poor scansion. TH)   

It is a challenging browse for someone like me who hasn't a clue how to be idle but knows he should. I am supposed to be something of an expert on Slow Living, but I can see that Tom knocks spots off me.

Living Architecture - A site for tired eyes and architectural cynics, this one, for it will put the sizzle back into their enthusiasms. First, it is run by a 'not-for-profit' organisation to promote exciting architecture. These are early days, so there is only a clutch of houses to look at, but they are all provocative, unusual and - best of all - for rent. I met the idea while walking along the beach at Thorpeness in Suffolk and wondered at an extraordinary house that was all glass on the ground floor and Suffolk-style clap-board on the first floor. It is one of the 'clutch'.  Another is the famous Balancing Barn, also in Suffolk, and with a dramatic cantilever which makes the long barn looks as though it has skidded fast across the grass over the edge of a steep slope and then stopped in the air way past the point when it should have tipped over. The site is full of ideas and teases us to be more imaginative.

Canopy & Stars - I'm sure it's probably considered bad form suggesting a Sawday's website, but last year we launched this site. It's a collection of beautiful and quirky treehouses, yurts, Gypsy caravans etc. The site is beautifully designed full of gorgeous images of our places and it's been great to see the collection and website grow. We're very proud of it.

Famous Poets and Poems - An irritating poetry site that nevertheless is so rich in content that it is irresistible. If you can ignore the banners and hyper-active links that lure you into losing weight or making a fortune while working at home, there is a gold mine to be dug. There are over 600 poets represented, with every poem of theirs that you might want to read, quotes, biographies - wonderful. 

Persephone Books - A gentle and charming reminder of the delight that beautiful books can bring, especially when they are published with such, well - love. This is a feminine company for females, about 20th- century female writers, and it is all the lovelier for that. Even the site has a feminine touch, a welcome relief from the brashness of the poetry site above. The site is simple, takes you by the hand and leads you quiet places to appreciate the books on offer. There is a diary/blog of travels in Europe - Paris and Sicily for example - in pursuit of female writers and their stories, unpretentious and touched with welcome enthusiasm. Both a resource and a lovely place to be on the internet.

The Guardian - The best of the bunch, a magnificent, well-designed source of world news. It is fast, easily navigable, elegantly edited and rich in content. And I rather like, of course, the tone and the politics.  Little more needs to be said.

13th January 2011