Smelling the Breezes is an inspiring family adventure, a three-hundred mile walk down the spine of the Lebanon with four children, two donkeys and Elias, the family’s gardener, nursemaid and friend. The journey took them over towering passes, through immense gorges and into the lives of the mountain villages and highland herdsmen. The presence of four small but redoubtable blonde children proved to be a passport that threw open every door, whatever the politics, religion and ethnicity of the household.

Smelling the Breezes is a magnificent portrait of Lebanon in all its rich complexity and easy charm: broken castles, hashish smugglers, clan-feuds, festivals, forgotten temples, secretive headquarters and hospitable sheikhs.

‘This is the way to travel – four children and two donkeys – and this is the way to write a travel book.’ Birmingham Evening Post

‘a fascinating story of the adventure, the hardships and pleasures.’ Leicester Evening News