The posts in this blog may include affiliate links. This means that when you decide to purchase anything through these links I get a small commission at NO extra cost to you.
Belgium may be a small country but it is packed full of beautiful towns and cities that are well worth visiting and exploring. To really make you want take a trip here are a selection of books to inspire you to visit Belgium.
Books to Inspire You to Visit Belgium
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Tuchman’s universally acclaimed, Pulitzer prize-winning account of how the first thirty days of battle determined the course of the First World War is to this day revered as the classic account of the conflict’s opening.
From the precipitous plunge into war and the brutal and bloody battles of August 1914, Tuchman shows how events were propelled by a horrific logic which swept all sides up in its unstoppable momentum.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Based on Charlotte Brontë’s personal experience as a teacher in Brussels, Villette is a moving tale of repressed feelings and subjection to cruel circumstance and position, borne with heroic fortitude.
Rising above the frustrations of confinement within a rigid social order, it is also the story of a woman’s right to love and be loved.
A Fish Trapped inside the Wind by Christien Gholson
It all begins in a small town in Belgium near the French border on the morning of the festival of St. Woelfred. There are dead fish scattered everywhere seemingly blown in by the wind. The empty quarries of Villon are soon to be used as toxic waste dumps. Are the fish a sign from the saint or a trick played by Contexture, the dance group who once got naked at the Vatican?
The lives of six people who live in the town are about to be changed forever.
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
Keen to demonstrate his new-found favour with the King, rising nobleman Jean le Viste commissions six tapestries to adorn the walls of his château. He expects soldiers and bloody battlefields. But artist Nicolas des Innocents instead designs a seductive world of women, unicorns and flowers, using as his muses Le Viste’s wife Geneviève and ripe young daughter Claude.
In Belgium, as his designs spring to life under the weavers’ fingers, Nicolas is inspired once more – by the master weaver’s daughter Aliénor and her mother Christine. They too will be captured by his threads.
What’s Cooking in Belgium
Having talked to chefs and farmers, historians and curators up and down Belgium, Anna Jenkinson and Neil Evans have put together a book of recipes and stories that explain Belgium’s love affair with food.
They travelled from the North Sea coast in the West to the Ardennes forest in the East and learned the secret to making Belgian chips, when the first chocolate praline was made, and how the Spanish, French and Germans have all influenced Belgian cuisine over the centuries. Illustrated with beautiful photographs by Diane Hendrikx this is a book that could live in the kitchen or on your coffee table.
The Rough Guide to Belgium and Luxembourg
Whether you plan to go on the beer crawl to end them all, a devoted art pilgrimage – think Ghent’s medieval masterpieces and the Magritte connection in Brussels – or an exploration of the Ardennes’ wildest reaches, The Rough Guide to Belgium & Luxembourg will show you the ideal places to sleep, eat, drink, shop and visit along the way.
The 500 Hidden Secrets of Brussels
The 500 Hidden Secrets of Brussels is a guide to the Brussels that no one knows. It takes you to undiscovered art museums, forgotten squares and secret shops. The aim is to challenge the idea that Brussels is a boring city and to uncover the hidden places that give this city its charm.
The book doesn’t mention everything there is to see. There are already more than enough guides that cover the familiar tourist places. This book goes one step further and lists the places the author would recommend to friends if they asked him where to go in Brussels.
Have you read any books that inspired you to visit Belgium?
Let me know in the comments.
New Post Notifications