Backpacks, Boots and Baguettes

Simon Calder and Mick Webb have been getting lost together in difficult terrain such as Columbia, Peru, and Stanstead Airport since 1998. Simon is travel editor of the Independent and a TV presenter for programmes including BBC1's Holiday. Mick Webb is an award-winning radio producer for BBC Radio 4.

High in the Pyrenees, a full day's hike from any trappings of civilisation, is no place for a human to be - unless you are searching for the time of your life. 
This is the roof of a mountain range that stretches from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean coasts, and provides some of the most breathtakingly beautiful landscape to be found in Europe. It is also the place for hikers to get soaked, roasted or scared out of their wits - not by the endangered brown bear, but by rights-of-way such as the precipitous Chemin de la Mature, hacked out of a cliff by 18th century convicts and is still used in the 21st century to punish anyone fearful of heights, such as TV presenter Simon Calder. Luckily, his friend and walking companion Mick Webb has a complementary range of phobias, such as being confined with 54 fellow hikers, and their socks, in a refuge two miles above sea level. 
Together, they step out to conquer the roof of the Pyenees, following the time honoured tradition of walking the GR10. the preferred route of the, at times eccentric, French Ramblers' Federation. Testing a hiker's emotional resilience as keenly as his walking boots, the GR10 is not for the faint-hearted. Weaving an occasionally treacherous, always exhilarating trajectory through a landscape of strong traditions and strange animals, Calder and Webb narrate an eventful and humerous travelogue. With their backpacks, boots and baguettes, they explore the region: meeting the people, savouring the views and the wines - and aguing about how best to cope with the constant surprises and challenges of magnificent mountains. They also very quickly learn that la loi de l'emmerdement maximum means 'sod's law' in French.

Simon Calder

(for previous edition) I'm glad Simon Calder was around to record the greatest upheavals in 
travel since the jet engine

Everything you need to know about slumming it in the skies.

Simon Calder records the greatest upheaval in travel since the jet engine

The truth behind the low-cost revolution in the skies

Following the tremendous success of the earlier editions of No Frills, leading TV presenter and top travel journalist Simon Calder now gives the low down on how these cheap ticket airlines have spread all round the world, enabling the eager traveller to plan economical and exciting long haul trips as well as taking advantage of the ever growing routes and destinations across Europe. 
Not a day goes by without there being a headline (or a TV programme!) about one or other of the highly successful low cost airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair. 
They have truly revolutionised air travel from the UK and No Frills is the highly entertaining story of how it all came about, and in particular, of the swashbuckling personalities of the entrepreneurs like Stelios Haji-Iannou and Michael O'Leary whose drive and inspiration made it all possible.

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Simon Calder

Praise for No Frills

(for previous edition) I'm glad Simon Calder was around to record the greatest upheavals in
travel since the jet engine

MUST FLY... MUST BUY

Everything you need to know about slumming it in the skies.

(for previous edition) I'm glad Simon Calder was around to record the greatest upheavals in
travel since the jet engine

MUST FLY... MUST BUY

Everything you need to know about slumming it in the skies.

(for previous edition) I'm glad Simon Calder was around to record the greatest upheavals in
travel since the jet engine

MUST FLY... MUST BUY

Everything you need to know about slumming it in the skies.

Books by Simon Calder

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Praise for No Frills

(for previous edition) I'm glad Simon Calder was around to record the greatest upheavals in travel since the jet engine

MUST FLY... MUST BUY

Everything you need to know about slumming it in the skies.

(for previous edition) I'm glad Simon Calder was around to record the greatest upheavals in travel since the jet engine

MUST FLY... MUST BUY

Everything you need to know about slumming it in the skies.

(for previous edition) I'm glad Simon Calder was around to record the greatest upheavals in travel since the jet engine

MUST FLY... MUST BUY

Everything you need to know about slumming it in the skies.

Books by Simon Calder

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter

(for previous edition) I'm glad Simon Calder was around to record the greatest upheavals in
travel since the jet engine

(for previous edition) I'm glad Simon Calder was around to record the greatest upheavals in
travel since the jet engine

(for previous edition) I'm glad Simon Calder was around to record the greatest upheavals in
travel since the jet engine