Go Slow England

A pioneer in the environmental world, Alastair Sawday is the founder of the first carbon-neutral publishing company, planting trees to compensate for air travel, promoting environmental awareness and sustainable living. Alastair ran as parliamentary candidate for the Green Party in 1992, and was vice-chair of the Soil Association. He was the founder Chairman and Director of Avon Friends of the Earth. Alastair has had a miscellaneous and varied career which has taken him to the most far-flung corners of the globe: he headed up a VSO programme in Papua New Guinea, worked in St Lucia, ran a disaster relief team for Oxfam in Turkey, has taught French and Spanish, and has run a small travel company, conducting walking and cycling tours throughout Europe and pioneering 'ethical' travel. An essential ingredient of this was being with, eating with, local people - putting money into the local economy. It was this that inspired him to publish the much-loved Special Places to Stay series. "No traveller", he says "needs to sleep in those impersonal and banal hotels and B&Bs that litter the world. And it is silly to spend money on being 'chic' and 'exclusive'. There is such diverse humanity out there, so many richly rewarding and unexpected experiences to enjoy. I want to encourage people to travel lightly, with open minds - and slowly."