Great Escapes [antikvár]

FOREWORD"scape has meant different things to me atvarious stages of my life. You might thinkthat when I was growing up in the Borders of Scotland, surrounded by gentle rolling hills and wonderful views of the RiverTweed, the desire to escape would have been the farthest thing from my mind. But far from it: as a young teenager in the I 960s. the glamour of life in the city was one of my ultimate goals. And so I left, to experience it, for four years, while at university in Edinburgh.After this, escape of a different sort beckonedin the form of a spell working on a remote sheep station in Mackenzie country, on the Canterbury plains of New Zealand's South Island. Returning to Britain, I spent many years in Kent the "garden of England"before my work drew me to the metropolis. Having lived in London for some six years now, I often find myself longing once again for the wide open spaces.But where would I escape to now and what would I live in? Would I sensitively restore an ancient cottage, such as the Crooked House in Wales, or design the strikingly up-to-date perfectmodern retreat, like the spiritual dwelling in Tepotzlan, Mexico, or the high-tech minimalist Topanga Canyon home in California? Or perhaps I'd feel the lure of a traditionally designed group of palapas on the west coast of Mexico, where the jungle meets the Pacific Ocean. Would I opt for the totally different lifestyle offered by the water tower near Antwerp in Belgium, or the early-twentieth-century Great Camp escape in the beautiful Adirondacks? Or maybe I'd go "back to nature" in the Guest Tent in the Pennsylvania woods around the Delaware RivenIn addition to coping with scorpions and snakes in Mexico, and fleeing from a magnificent black bear on the banks of the Delaware, researching this book has allowed me to investigate these and many other escapes. As you will see, I have been lucky enough to discover some glorious locationssome truly Great Escapes. Each posesses different attractions and fulfills different needs, but each has some very special allure. I suspect you will find, as I did, that you could be quite happy living in almost any of them.FOREWORD