Welcome to the Booktrail
Travelling somewhere? Match your next read to your destination with The BookTrail – A Literary Travel Agency… The Book Trail aims to inspire readers and travellers alike to travel literary style and place their favourite book, quite literarily, on the map.

Inspiration
It’s inspired by my childhood hero and fictional character Passepartout from Around the World in 80 Days. My dad read the story to me as a child and I was immediately fascinated by the story, the wanderlust and the sense of adventure. He sadly died when I was only five, but we’d travel together through the stories he told me. He got me well and truly hooked on the idea of travel and reading.

A book is your best travel guide
I’ve travelled with and via fiction for as long as I can remember so starting The BookTrail seemed the next natural step. For each book on the site, there is a map of locations, a travel guide showing how the book evokes the locations in question and the best places to experience – just as the characters in the novel do!

See a destination through the eyes of the author and their characters? What does Brighton look like through the eyes of Peter James? Ever wanted to go on Safari to Botswana? The books of Alexander McCall Smith will take you there. Authors and their characters make the most fascinating of guides.

Travel tips
Of course, if you are planning to go to a destination for real and would like to get a feel for the place before you even take off, you can ‘book’ your next holiday by entering a location into TheBookTrail.com and choosing between the novels which appear.

I’ve also grouped the books together, not just be genre, or destination but by setting too so “Books set in a castle” “books set in the woods” is another way to enjoy immersing yourself into a book. There’s just some days you want to live in the 1830s in a castle and see the world before technology isn’t there?

The BookTrail started as a blog and in January 2016, I launched the site as a fully immersive Literary Travel Agency. It’s won two awards since then – “Highly Commended” in the UK Blog Awards 2017 and “Winner of Most Informative Blog” in the Bloggers Bash 2017.

There’s been a Poldark inspired competition along with Mammoth Screen and Aidan Turner, Vera inspired trails and events with Ann Cleeves and now, I am especially excited about working with Julia Bradbury and the Outdoor Guide! Getting people walking, reading and enjoying the stunning British landscape.

Share Your Trail …

“If you have enjoyed a book and want to share this with others, particularly if the setting has inspired you, you can go to the website and upload your trail and any maps or photos you may have.

Take a journey around The BookTrail and discover more about the world of literary inspired travel!”

Susan Heads
Creator of The BookTrail

TOG Says …

“Julia Bradbury’s Outdoor Guide online resource is delighted that TheBookTrail have teamed up with The Outdoor Guide to inspire readers, travellers and walkers to seek out their favourite fictional locations around the country. A favourite of ours is Poldark by Winston Graham – the walk down at Botallack is absolutely stunning, you feel like you are in the book!”