Travel Courier
THE author, Paul Townend, risks, but effort- lessly overcomes, any invidious comparisons by subtitling his book Swiss Venture (Robert "ale, 21s.) 'a fresh look at Central Switzer- land,' for he provides an amusing and inform- ative story. He avoids the usual self-adulation of the autobiographer who is a rolling stone (civil servant, airman, advertising agent, journ- alist, etc., in London and Canada) and discusses very matter-of-factly how he came to be a travel courier in Switzerland. Learning the languages (and the essential diplomacy) as he went along, he opted to stay in the country after the tourist season ended; sensibly he worked his way through a Hotel School—from dishwashing to cocktail-mixing—and finished up as proprietor of a modest hotel which gives him and his family a living, plenty of head- aches and a great satisfaction. He packs in plenty of anecdotes about tourists and tourism, about village politics, scenery, Swiss history, and the backstage mYsteries of being a waiter, a barman, and a hotel manager, and keeps the whole thing light and effervescent, most of the way. A. V. COTON
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