A bunch of baths books:
some of the better books on baths
published during the life of this website

This is a single frame, printer-friendly page taken from Malcolm Shifrin's website
Victorian Turkish Baths: their origin, development, and gradual decline
Visit the original page to see it complete—with its chronologies and notes

Original page
   
1913: Design of the Turkish bath / Cosgrave     2003: Turkish baths / Yılmazkaya
You are here     2004: Victoria Baths / Williams
2005: Hammams / Meunier     2006: Water is best / Durie
2010: Hammaming in the Sham / Boggs


A search for the perfect bath

Cathedrals of the flesh

Alexia Brue, visiting a hammam in Paris, feels inspired to open one in New York and, wondering how to go about this, sets off on a tour of baths round the world taking in Turkey, Greece, Russia, Finland, and Japan.

It's a thoroughly delightful, often amusing, account of Alexia's search for the perfect bath. Once started, the book is difficult to put down; by the end, you not only know a bit more about her 'on hold' relationship with Charles, and want to know even more about her fascinating putative business partner Marina, but you have painlessly absorbed as much information as you could want to know about the differing characteristics of a variety of national public baths. Along the way, you will also have met a number of characters who are not easy to forget, and you will have a guide to which baths to use and which to avoid—of not inconsiderable benefit to one visiting Turkey who, like Alexia, is warned to avoid the 'unhygienic' baths in Istanbul.

Alexia BrueCathedrals of the flesh is Alexia Brue's first book, although she has previously written for The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, and Spa Finder. The book is published in New York by Bloomsbury and is available from a variety of internet sources. Cathedrals of the flesh is also published in the UK by Bloomsbury. The UK edition was reviewed in the Guardian.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

Brue, Alexia Cathedrals of the flesh: my search for the perfect bath (Blooms-bury, 2003)



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