5 APRIL 1957, Page 24

Spain on a Shoestring, by Bernard Newman (Herbert Jenkins, 18s.):

chirpy account of a

motor-cycle trip to Spain by a breezy professional travel-writer who has written at least twenty similar-sounding books, with titles like Pedalling Poland, Baltic Roundabout, Cycling in France and Ride to Russia. Aimed at the energetic lower- middlebrow who wants to get about on the cheap and is interested, up to a point, in more or less everything. Useful information about prices, practical advice on food and hotels, some interest- ing titbits of (mostly financial) information ('Let me illustrate to you just how poor Spain is,' says a Spaniard. 'You have a firm called Marks and Spencer. Their annual turnover is nearly one- half of the total revenue of the Spanish govern- ment).