FORBIDDEN – DO NOT OPEN.

That could be the title of this disturbingly addictive book. Think of it as a coffee table book without the pretty pictures. Forbidden Places – An unusual
exploration of a forgotten heritage, is the result of 10 years of work
during which Sylvain Margaine travelled the world in search of abandoned and forgotten places. It is an exceptional photographic report.

As I turned the pages, mesmerized by the ‘warts and all’ honesty of the pictures, I found the filming location of 12 Monkeys, Michael Jackson’s
hometown turned ghost town, Berlin’s 1936 Olympic Village, deconsecrated churches, forgotten castles, deserted train stations, prisons and mental asylums, a cemetery of rusted locomotives, abandoned steel factories, phantom underground stations, and more.The publishers have already made a name for themselves with a collection of 'Secret guides' to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, the French Riviera, London, Paris (and another on bars and restaurants in Paris), Provence, Rome and Tuscany, with more to come.

They have also put together books on unusual hotels of the world, as well as UK and Ireland, another on unusual nights in Paris as well as unusual shopping in Paris.

Forbidden Places is the first of a series of off-beat larger book. Stay tuned!

Forbidden Places, Jonglez Publishing, 2009, rrp £29.99 (www.jonglezpublishing.com)