Beautifully produced and a perfect gift for travellers newly wedded or not - by turn funny, tender, acerbic and charming.

Includes extracts from: Paul Bowles, Dorothy Sayers, D. H. Lawrence, Byron, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Dorothy Parker, A. N. Wilson, Thackeray, Trollope, Dickens, Ruskin, Maupassant, Martha Gellhorn, Graham Greene.

'A brilliant collection of writings on the subject of the honeymoon. Offering context and commentary where necessary, the editors have canvassed history, fact and fiction for the gamut of newlywed experience, from the Brownings' blissful elopement and Napoleon and Marie-Louise's swift exit from the marriage supper, to Charles Kingsley's bizarre proposal of chastity and Tess Durbeyfield's tragic disclosure of her rape...to the tenderly erotic writing from, of all people, Queen Victoria, who delights in sneaking in to watch her new husband shave. ' Time Out