Places of the Imagination

'Stijn Reijnders has produced a lucid and engaging book with a fresh perspective. I had no idea the media (fictional literature, television, film) inspired so much tourism; now I have been introduced to some wonderful illustrations. Informed by a strong theoretical framework, employing the concept of lieux d’imagination, Reijnders nevertheless recognises the physical reality of places. I shall refer to this book in my teaching, using it as the key source for new lectures on media tourism.' Karen O'Reilly, Loughborough University, UK 'This book is a remarkable testimony to the popular culturist slogan, ’popular culture IS culture’. Through careful on-ground empirical observation, it relates how a variety of popular vehicles from the United kingdom and Europe have generated tourism and tourist culture fandom... The great strength of the ethnographic method is its emphasis on fieldwork, and it is in the reports of field observations that the detail of how media tourism adds layers onto the cultures studies that this work makes its most vivid contribution. Walking in step with the media pilgrims, Reijnders was able to catch a glimpse of how this dialectic between the fictitious and the real enables fans to stay culturally connected... This book serves well to bridge the gap that often opens up between theoretical treatises on culture and abstracted empirical researches. The author has produced an engaging ethnographic presentation that should inspire additional walks in places of the imagination.' International Social Science Review