THREE WRITERS, all with new books out this month, share their TRAVEL TIPS …
Describing a decade of her life in New York city, Meg Fee’s latest book is a collection of essays about love, friendship and the city itself.
She opens her Brooklyn address book: COFFEE: Smith Canteen in Carroll Gardens is where I go to sit with girlfriends, drink hot lattes and share our very best secrets. BRUNCH: My absolute favourite place is Buttermilk Channel. Order the Pecan Pie French Toast and Esposito’s Hot Sausage Scramble and stay for the occasional celebrity sighting. I once made eyes at Usher from across the room, and on another occasion I sat near Beyoncé and Baby Blue.
DINNER: There is a tiny restaurant on a cobblestone street called Vinegar Hill House. Do get the Farmstead Cheese Plate and the Chocolate Guiness Cake. VINTAGE SHOPPING: Olive’s Very Vintage Shop on Court Street in Carroll Gardens is excellent and the owner has a good eye. It’s not cheap but finds are worth the investment.
Places I Stopped On the Way Home, by Meg Fee, £14.99, Icon.
Lucy Foley’s Last Letter From Istanbul is a timeless love story set in the 1920s. Foley wrote the novel in her back garden in Tehran and shares her address book for Istanbul.
STAY: I’ve had a lot of luck with Airbnb. I’ve rented several gorgeous apartments in Pera and Cihangir with roof terraces or tiny, jasmine-scented gardens. I also loved the Vault Karaköy Hotel, which is a chic boutique bolthole in a converted bank vault with excellent breakfasts (I recommend the pancakes!).
SHOP: I love traveling the antique shops of Cihangir’s cobbled streets; it’s Istanbul’s Brooklyn. I also recommend a browse in Beymen, one of the top department stores, which stocks a range of home-grown designers and gorgeous dresses by my friend, the talented Gül Hürgel. EAT: At Mandolin – on the rooftop of Soho House, it serves Mediterranean fare and is a wonderful spot from which to look out over the Golden Horn.
Last Letter from Istanbul by Lucy Foley, £14.99, HarperCollins.
Following in Mary Wesley’s footsteps, Anne Youngson has just published her first book at the age of 70. Meet Me At The Museum details the correspondence between the narrator and a museum curator in Denmark which unfolds as a story of second chances. Youngson lists her favourite museums:
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. I love it for the range of art and artefacts it holds, for the stunning effect of the refurbishment inside the old façade and for the many special exhibitions, wonderfully curated to tell a story. Silkeborg Museum, Silkeborg, Denmark. A charming and quite small museum which is the last home of the Tollund Man, as well as having an Iron Age exhibition which helps the visitor understand how he might have lived. The Tolsey Museum, Burford, Oxfordshire. A tiny community effort staffed by volunteers of whom I am one.
Meet Me At The Museum by Anne Youngson, Doubleday, £12.99.
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