Tender Maps: Travel in search of emotions of place.
By Alice Maddicott
September Publishing, 2024
£12.99

Some travellers are driven by the need to scale a natural wonder, or to see a city’s sights or a place of history. Others, like Alice Maddicott, travel in search of a particular scene, feeling or atmosphere, often inspired by music, literature and art. Taking us deep into our emotional and creative responses to place, this extraordinary book explores the author’s relentless travelling, from the heat of Sicily to the mountains of Japan. With her uniquely lyrical approach to psycho-geography, Maddicott explores the relationship with landscape that is the very essence of human creativity.

‘A beautifully descriptive travel memoir…treasured memories of journeys to different destinations & environments around the world….the delight of finding yourself in tune with the atmosphere of an environment & its spirit…where on a good day your heart sings, & on a difficult day you find some peace. This idea of following a feeling & searching for the emotions of a place resonated strongly with me, & has inspired the new album I am working on…thank you Alice Maddicott & The Nose!’

- Catherine Shrubshall

‘Tender Maps made me re-think my idea of place. It's a book about atmosphere. Alice Maddicott suggests atmosphere is a collaborative act between the place and the visitor, and like us, places are sentient. "We all have moments in our life when we are more alert to our surroundings than others". I thought about the atmosphere of my favourite places and wondered how much these were created by my own preconceptions and baggage. The book explains the fluid nature of atmosphere and why when returning somewhere it will be different. "The atmosphere was so powerful because it functioned as a moment in time as well as place". Thought provoking and beautifully written.’

- Roger Crimlis