Review: Bright Sun, Strong Tea

By Joan Peterson, author of Eat Smart in Turkey.

"Readers of Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea will be charmed by veteran travel guidebook author Tom Brosnahan’s humorous and sometimes tell-all autobiography, which recounts his introduction to Turkey as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in 1967, details his adventures and misadventures throughout Turkey in the ensuing decades—and describes how he stumbled into his career of being a travel writer and photographer.

"Tom Brosnahan is recognized as one of today’s foremost guidebook writers, making this book a must-read both for wannabe travel writers and for travelers, especially those whose discovery and exploration of the exotic destination of Turkey was enhanced and superbly aided by using Tom Brosnahan’s guidebooks.

"His guide to Turkey—Frommer’s Turkey on $5 a Day (1971) was the first of many to this country that were written for several major publishing houses, including his best-selling Lonely Planet Turkey guide (1985), which became a best-seller as did several more recent editions of it.

"One laments that nowadays many general guidebooks are penned by writers who have little to no prior experience in the destinations they will cover, and that guidebook production for large publishers often is a 'work for hire' proposition that allots insufficient time and resources for the endeavor.

"Indeed, longtime travelers might well yearn for the halcyon days when publishers of travel guides chose to afford writers like Tom Brosnahan, who had an intimate knowledge of the destinations they wrote about."

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Turkey: Bright sun, Strong Tea