Books
Born to write, books for me are a kind of religious experience. Both reading and writing them. I have just completed a book about my island home, Tasmania, and am seeking an agent and a publisher. I then have several other book proposals, all nonfiction narratives on travel, culture, France and Italy.
Through all the years of writing, to satisfy the urge to do just that, here are a few books – travel and cultural guides, coffee table books, and illustrated books – that have seen the light of day.
As an author, books are my babies. I know, we’ve heard that before from many writers. But it’s oh so true, especially when you don’t have other offspring. Each book seems momentous. Even simple travel guides such as these. I plan to build on those now with some personal writing … and a novel is underway.
Book News: Borneo
Soon, I will again be heading to Borneo to do the Borneo Bradt Travel Guide no.5. Borneo is a biodiversity wonder of the world, and I am so privileged to have visited many times over the past 15 years. I still have a way to go to match founder Hilary Bradt’s 12th edition of her Madagascar Guide.
2025 is going to be the year of the orangutan and the year of Borneo for me, as I also expect to update the Horizon Guide’s orangutans in Borneo responsible travel coverage.
Cultural and Illustrated Books
See Rome, or Die
Ok, it’s a slight variation on the original, see Naples and die! But I can’t imagine never having seen Rome, and given I wrote my parents a poem when I was five, claiming ‘My Home is in Rome’ (imagine their consternation and confusion!), it was the first place I wanted to visit on my first trip overseas. And I did. And the love affair continued from there.
It started, as I say, many years before, nurtured by teaching myself the language diligently, every night after work at the ABC, and cooking countless Italian dishes and hosting Italophile dinner parties. I even once took a job in an Italian radio station, just for the free cappuccino. While I was there, drinking coffee, I also presented the bilingual news program in English with a dishy Italian co-host.
So, it was a dream to be commissioned to research and write Chronicles of Old Rome, delving into Roman history at its nittiest and grittiest (and sometimes, truly gruesome). Tales of Rome’s beginnings, from Romulus and Remus to Ovid, Agrippina, and Nero. Plus, Puccini, Fellini, La Dolce Vita, and Roman Holiday …
Sin City Sydney
Sydney had a very seamy underbelly in the 70s and 80s – no doubt linked in part to the Italians who brought great espresso to the city! Espresso and crime. Good book stuff! Sydney is my home away from home. It’s been my chosen city, from my hometown, Hobart, for many years.
An affair that started as a child, when my parents would send me to Sydney to stay with my newly-discovered half-aunt. (Around the same era that all those dark underworld crims were emerging … but at its close, not beginning). Today, Sydney is more stunning and sizzling and sea-tastic than crime-ridden (let’s leave that to Melbourne … whoops, I can feel the barbs being thrown, but couldn’t resist.
I love Melbourne, but it does have a bigger crime problem.
I am based between Sydney and Paris. Sydney is my great love, not least of all for its cafes, but also for the sea … and sailing. My (relatively new) passion. This book is like a museum piece now, with slide images, yet they are timeless. A visual essay on Sydney’s neighborhood cafes. From Bondi to Bronte, Potts Point to Glebe … beachside, bayside, bohemian and ultra barista-fied cafes.
Some of the cafes are no longer there, others are. Many gems have joined them. For legends like Hernandez near Kings Cross, the book serves as a lasting tribute.
Viennese Attraction: A Waltzing Beauty
From Waltzing Matilda to waltzing Vienna. A bigger contrast you could not find. And that’s why I love the dichotomy of an Australian European existence. For as exasperating as the distance is, therein lies the wonder … Of the different … the new, the unattainable, or not easily attained. Found in foreign and faraway lands.
Another all-time favourite city, another book I took the photos for, as well as writing the essay. I did the Vienna chapter for Thames and Hudson’s stunning Style City Europe book – and was expecting to do a standalone Vienna book, but alas, it never came about. Vienna is the most intriguing mix of old and new, tradition and modernity. And the city is palatially endowed with gorgeous buildings and layers of artistic-meets-architectural heritage.
Barcelona Bliss
I keep hearing myself say this … but Barcelona is another of my favourite cities in the world. In fact, I’ve been lucky to do guidebooks on most of the places – city and countryside – that I adore.
Barcelona, to qualify, is bliss in the low season. Like many places today, alas. And I realize I need to include myself among those most unwanted Spanish tourists. And, I feel we need to respect the needs of locals – and that of the world – for less mass tourism abuse.
The Experience series by the Insight Guides was a fun concept to contribute to. Dipping into the best neighbourhoods and sites under an In the Mood For theme. So, quite different from your standard guide.
Eyewitness Books France and Italy
As a contributing writer and photographer to several other guidebooks, I’ve also worked on the Eyewitness Books guides to France, Italy, and Australia, among others. My spreads for the “Back Roads” series Italy and France guides were gorgeous (if I may say so myself) … and it was incredible putting around the Continent in quest of specc’y images.
I wrote and photographed the chapters on the Castelli Romani, Chianti, and the Veneto region. Click to see a sample spread.
Books on Australia
While we’re on DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, the first guidebook I ever worked on was their Australia guide, in 1998. I did the Tassie chapter, of course. I’ve been doing my best for years to lessen my little island’s anonymity to the world. I have funny memories of writing that guidebook. Not long into my first year in France, sitting on a bed in a chambre de bonne – a maid’s room – on the “crossroads of Europe”, as I called Strasbourg.
Each night after university (where I already had my work cut out for me, understanding the contents of the day’s courses in French). After translating recordings of the lessons into English, then back into French again, trying to understand, my head felt like it was going to explode.
I would then tackle the book commission. The next morning, I took a bath in the maid’s wash basin, before heading off to university again. But I digress …
Swiss Serenity
In 2019, I was involved in a renaissance of the Switzerland Insight Guide, which hadn’t been updated for 15 years. The book I rewrote was a doorstop. Small yet relatively serene, it’s incredible how you can still get lost in less-visited areas of Switzerland that are gorgeous, green and cow and cheese heaven.
An alpine and rural haven, with landscapes concertinaed within its intricate mountain and valley folds, I love backcountry travelling in Switzerland, encountering its quirky regional traditions. One thing I don’t love is the cost of living! Recently, a friend posted on Facebook how a bottle of water at a train station in Basel cost him 13 euros. That’s ridiculous! Or perhaps, Swiss-diculous!
Tamara Thiessen Travels
