Vegetarian Guides to the British Isles

Vegetarian Britain 2006.  Alex Bourke, editor.  Vegetarian Guides Ltd., 528 pp, pbk, £9-95.

Vegetarian Visitor 2006.  Annemarie Weitzel, editor.  Jon Carpenter Publishing, 112 pp, pbk, £2-50.

These two handy guides cover much the same ground, literally, although Vegetarian Britain includes Ireland (North and South) whereas Vegetarian Visitor covers Great Britain and the Isle of Man only.  As may be judged from the size and price, Vegetarian Britain is a comprehensive guide to places to “eat, shop and sleep vegetarian”.   The guide is arranged by region, and by county within region.   As with most counties, the chapter for Oxfordshire begins with some brief tourist information, followed by the entries themselves.   For the record, these include accommodation in Oxford and North Leigh, Nature’s Harvest health food shop in Banbury, The Crooked Billet restaurant near Henley-on-Thames, Uhuru Wholefoods in Oxford, and seven eating places in the city (The Magic Café, The Garden at The Gardeners Arms PH, Alpha Bar, The Beat Café, Chutneys Indian Brasserie, Meltz, and The Nosebag).  There is also a list of Holland & Barrett stores in the county.  You can quibble at the choice of eating places, and the omission of some independent health food shops such as Wantage Health Store and Frugal Food in Abingdon, but this is an impressive and invaluable guide.  In contrast, Vegetarian Visitor contains much less detail and is undoubtedly aimed at holidaymakers, with accommodation being given greater prominence than eating places (health food and wholefood shops are not included).  Abbreviations are used for brevity, but the reader must refer constantly to pages 6 and 7 to decipher, for example, “R/C L a pNS”.  In fact, this indicates that Wyatts, near Chipping Norton, is a licensed restaurant/café offering a selection of vegetarian dishes daily where smoking is restricted to certain areas (hopefully not the eating areas!).  Otherwise, Oxfordshire is represented by Highfield West B&B (the only exclusively vegetarian accommodation in the county), Café Quay at Banbury Museum, and seven eating places in Oxford (Bar Meze, Chiang Mai Kitchen, Edamame, Hi-Lo Jamaican Eating House, The Magic Café, Modern Art Oxford, and The Nosebag).  In summary, if you want a comprehensive guide to Vegetarian Britain buy this book, but if you are merely seeking holiday accommodation Vegetarian Visitor should meet your needs.

Paul Appleby, January 2006

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This page created 30 December 2006 by Paul Appleby.