If you’ve ever read Pico Iyer, AA Gill, Paul Theroux, Jan Morris, Bill Bryson or even Pausanias, you know great travel writing is an art. Add Judy Williamson to that list. Ms. Williamson has just published PAPER GIRL’S WORLD, an extraordinary book of her adventures in the 1980s globetrotting the far corners of the earth in search of people, culture, cuisine and experiences.
Judy is astute, erudite and an amazing traveler. She gets the language of the place with wise prose and vivid photos while burrowing down into the culture to show us exactly how it ticks. She‘s got a novelist’s eye for detail and story. And a painter’s eye for composition and drama. PAPER GIRL’S WORLD is a truly inspired deep dive into what makes traveling so amazing. A true collector’s gem for your library.
The 1980s were a unique time for travel. We’ll never again see such glamor, grace and elegance in getting on a plane and exploring a new destination. Judy has done it all—On assignment for The Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle, she snapped tens of thousands of dazzling pictures and wrote miles of thrilling copy on Africa, India, Japan, Australia, the South Pacific, Galapagos, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Ireland, England, the Orient-Express, The Concorde, Yugoslavia, Italy, France, Russia, Scandinavia, and the U.S., especially Hawaii, Alaska, and her beloved hometown, New Orleans.
There are countless tales and antics plus more than 1000 images to savor. Like the bachelor tortoise looking for love, the gin-drinking goddess, man-eating lions, the museum hotels of Spain, waltzing in Vienna, Hamlet’s ghost and Danish bathing beauties, fly fishing in Nova Scotia, volcanic golfing, Tulum ruins, churches and castles, beaches and barges, gondolas and grappa, sausages and salsa, cognac and casinos, nothing has missed this confident pixie’s eyes.
To review collected reviews is a strange task. To sit down to read a series of reviews as a book is a peculiar endeavor. But you judge the quality by how many you get through before you put it down. We got through all of Judy’s.
With gusto and admiration. In addition to her clever take on things and her artistic eye, what comes through is her profound humanity and a quirky and sublime personality. She has a real knack for ferreting out the unexpected and unexplored. This is a book to be cherished, to give to a fellow traveler, to share with family, to reminisce with at night, reason to open a good bottle of wine and linger and dream with.
No less a reader than Emperor Hadrian said “Books showed me the way of life.” Judy Williamson passionately manages to do this for us in her magnus opus, a must for every one of us who’s ever been bitten by wanderlust. This is our top pick for the book of the year—2025. Available at $80 (a steal for these 396 gold-tipped pages) at www.papergirlsworld.com.
Travel by ENTREE 
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