Editor: James Leavey
Photographer: Jan Olofsson
The world’s first travel guide for smokers has been acclaimed worldwide
since it was first published in November 1996, and has sparked more media
coverage and debate than any other travel guide to Britain’s capital in
recent years. The following is just a sample:
"... tobacco lovers are hitting back with a guide to where to have a smoke
without strife." The Herald (Glasgow)
" At last, a guide book with attitude! " Virgin FM
" The most politically incorrect book of the month, the Forest Guide to
Smoking in London, published yesterday, makes a bold stand not for what is
good for us but for what we know is bad for us." Alan Hamilton, The Times
" I grudgingly admire this book, in part because it has some sense of humour.
Leavey is a fund of knowledge The book is more significant as a challenge to
two qualities vital to a balanced urban life: tolerance and courtesy." Simon
Jenkins, Evening Standard
" Unite and abandon your outcast status, trumpets James Leavey’s Forest Guide
to Smoking in London The guide introduces smokers to a like-minded community
of puffers both past and present With gleeful complicity, this guide helps
those who light up to inhale freely and unashamedly. " Nadya Labi, Time
magazine
" This is a noble project designed to allay the paranoia of the smoker who
fears instant vilification when lighting up in public. It tells you where
to have a snout without some spiritual Californian reading the riot act ."
Pete Clark, ES magazine
" The revolutionary call to the new militant smokers, the Das Kapital of the
smoke-and-be-damned philosophy, is London’s first smoking guide. " Eleanor
Bailey, Independent on Sunday
" A sort of baccy bible and an entertaining one to boot. This is a bang up
to date ‘what’s on and where’ volume in its own right." Pete Bryen, Herald
Express (Torquay)
"...charming, idiosyncratic guide The best thing about it is Leavey’s urbane,
polite tone." The Guardian
" There was a book launch in the capital this week for a volume called The
Forest Guide to Smoking in London The celebration was a great success. News
of the event attracted media correspondents from Iceland, Austria, Brazil
and not surprisingly from Pravda newspaper in Moscow. Smokers, in one
sense, have become the heroes and heroines of our age. " Peter Tory, Daily
Express
" A savage indictment or welcome aid, according to the state of your lungs.
Right on! I see the shade of Che Guevara rising from his grave to join the
fight, wielding a fine Havana. " Noises Off, The Sunday Times