youth hostels, the history, people and ideas behind them
A new and illustrated edition Events change, times move and the up to date becomes old news. We all face the slow fade of what was new and exciting into rubbed, dull life so it's inevitable to want to revive and renew when time has passed. Open to All was published four years ago. Readers... Continue Reading →
Rudyard Lake in 1935, a year before Orwell's visit, photo courtesy YHA Archive I’ve always admired George Orwell. His beautiful prose is like a window pane. I studied his essays in sixth form and bought his collected essays and journalism that same year. I still have copies of those four volumes. Who couldn’t help but... Continue Reading →
“How does a life-changing experience start? With some, it’s a single event; with others it creeps up on them over time.” Sir Chris Bonington has been a long time supporter of youth hostels. He’s one of those who found adventure through youth hostels and never looked back, and youth hostels were one of the events... Continue Reading →
If you thought hostels weren’t for you, this might inspire and change your mind and I can think of no better reason for reading it. Hostels are all over the world. They’ve been around for more than 100 years and follow a trend that’s even older than that. But for some they’re still a mystery.... Continue Reading →
At the end of my research, when I came to write Open to All – how youth hostels changed the world, the story of Richard Schirrmann would not fit. I loved the story of the man who invented youth hostels but early readers commented that the story was too much in what was a history... Continue Reading →
SIMPLY HOSTELS 