The Extra Mile – The Extra Mile

Posted on 18/12/202419/12/2024 by The Extra Mile

Get The Extra Mile for Christmas

How to get The Extra Mile in time for Christmas

Well..the quickest and easiest way is to ask for it! In terms of ‘how do you physically get hold of a copy to give as a gift now we’re so close to Christmas’, here are a few ways for you to ensure you get a copy in time. We no longer advise you buy it direct from us for a pre-Christmas delivery, due to handling/ postage timeframes, but fear not: there are plenty of ways to get your copy on time from other in-person and online sellers.

Buy or order The Extra Mile into your local bookshop

Many bookshops already stock The Extra Mile: Delicious Alternatives to Motorway Services, plus our other two books: The Coastal Café Guide and The Farm Shop Guide. Pop in or give your local high street or independent book shop a call to see if they can reserve you their in-stock copy so you have it safely in hand in time for Christmas. If not, you can ask them to order your copies in and they’ll usually arrive very quickly, with bookshops’ mixed orders from their wholesalers and distributors landing daily, especially at Christmas. Do check on the likely arrival date before ordering.

Buy from venues in The Extra Mile Guide

Most of the venues in The Extra Mile (or The Coastal Café Guide, or The Farm Shop Guide) stock the book that they feature in. People love browsing the book and buying their own copy while visiting, and many of our fabulous owners restocked their café’s bookshelves well in advance, in readiness for planned – and impromptu if you’re anything like us! – Christmas gift buying. You can check The Extra Mile’s online map here to see if a venue near you features in the book, then give them a call to see if they have any of 2023’s blue, Edition 4 book (with the bridge on the front) so you can simply pick one up there, supporting them while you’re at it.

Buy The Extra Mile from online booksellers

It’s now too close to Christmas for us to be able to guarantee that orders direct from this website will reach their intended recipient on or before 24 December, but other online book sellers and resellers have different postal arrangements and will be able to get you your books in time. So, thank you for considering buying The Extra Mile direct from us at Printslinger (the small, indie publisher behind the book), and we’re truly only thinking of you when we say so late into the Christmas swing, that you’ll likely have more luck getting things in time if you buy from someone with a next-day/ express delivery option at this point. And don’t feel bad for buying elsewhere; we rise up the rankings when you buy online, which ultimately helps more people see our books and celebrate the nation’s independent and local food networks, so, positives will still come of it!

Happy Christmas and enjoy The Extra Mile Guide

The very best of luck to those of you tracking down copies of The Extra Mile in time to wrap for Christmas. You can always risk it by going direct and simply say ‘your gift is in the post’….I’m sure your foodie friends won’t mind if their gift is a little late! It will most definitely be better late than never in the case of our three top-selling titles.

Have a wonderful Christmas and if you did want to browse our books and great value book bundles, you’ll find them all here on Printslinger’s online bookshop: simply hit the button below to browse all of our current books.

Posted on 20/11/202420/11/2024 by The Extra Mile

BEST FOOD FESTIVALS FOR 2025

(c) eat:Festivals. People browsing local food stall at an eat:festival

THE BEST FOOD FESTIVALS FOR 2025

This blog brings together some of our favourite national and regional food festivals, so that you don’t miss a culinary trick in 2025 when looking for something to do with your foodie friends. Thank you to the organisers of the South West’s multi-award-winning food and drink festival series, eat:Festivals, for the use of their evocative, appetite-whetting imagery, above.

Our guidebooks (The Extra Mile: Delicious Alternatives to Motorway Services; The Farm Shop Guide; and The Coastal Café Guide) have one thing in common with these festivals. Our books encourage people to eat local, buy local, avoid boring big-brand food and the monotony of motorway eats, and instead to support smaller, independent producers. You’ll find many of these festivals featured in our newest book (already a #1 Amazon bestseller), The Farm Shop Guide.

Have we missed any festivals? Let us know, we’ll slip them in.

FOOD FESTIVALS IN/ FROM APRIL 2025

eat:Festivals…Year-round events in 2025 (from 5 April until 13 Dec)

eat:Festivals need a whole website of their own, there is so much going on. With local, regional events plus festive and themed markets (think vegan, Christmas, gate-to-plate), their impressive series of day-long markets begin with eat:Bideford on Sat 5 April 2025. They then continue (through Minehead, Weston-super-Mare, Castle Cary, Nailsea, Exmouth, Tavistock, Taunton, Bedminster, Burnham, Portishead, Axminster, Yeovil, Chipping Sodbury Shaftesbury, Honiton, Totnes, Wellington, Tiverton, and Clevedon) until Sat 13 December 2025, drawing a year of South West food festivals to a close with eat:Dawlish. Come along for everything from cider, organic veggies and smoked fish to chocolate, gelato and local spirits. Street performers and sustainability are high on the list of must-haves for every eat:Festival.

Book or attend your next eat:Festival here.

FOOD FESTIVALS IN MAY 2025

Porthleven Food Festival, Cornwall, 2-4 May 2025

Designed as a toast to Cornish food (while raising awareness of the key issues relating to food and the environment), this event takes over the whole town in a weekend of pasties, chef demos, Bloody Marys, ska bands, and comedy skits. It’s a riot.

Visit the Porthleven Food Festival in Cornwall.

Ludlow Food Festival, Shropshire, 9-11 May 2025

The spring chapter of this famed foodie event (set against the Marches’ iconic castle) has bands, beer, music, and motors. Although more beer-focused than the autumn edition, you’ll find a wealth of artisan food producers ready to show off the region’s best street food. A fab food festival in Shropshire.

Follow Ludlow’s Spring Food Festival, Shropshire

Follow Ludlow’s main Food Festival (12-14 Sep 2025)

North Leeds Food Festival, West Yorkshire, May 10-11 2025

A popular menu of tribute bands, street entertainers, artisan traders, indy bars, and delicious street food make this a popular addition to any self-respecting foodie’s calendar. Kids love the fun fair and inflatables, leaving grown-ups free to enjoy innovative chef demos and samples of local tipples.

Visit the North Leeds Food Festival site

Blenheim Palace Food Festival, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, 24-26 May 2025

In this rather dramatic setting, discover new flavours and be inspired by passionate chefs, food makers and bakers, and esteemed culinary guests. For street food, live music, curated food stalls, kitchen and homeware gifts, Blenheim is the place to be. If you happen to have an Annual or Palace and Play Pass, it’s also completely free (else find tickets online).

Head to the Blenheim Palace Food Festival in 2025.

FOOD FESTIVAL IN JUNE 2025

Taste of London, Regent’s Park, 12-16 June 2025

This five-day ‘food-fuelled garden party’, as the organisers call it, happens in the heart of the capital’s vast Regent’s Park. It features an impressive number of London’s hottest chefs and restaurants, and introduces movers and shakers new to the food scene. Cocktails, desserts, cook schools, and street food await.

Visit Taste of London for festival map, tickets, and info.

FOOD FESTIVALS IN JULY 2025

Great Yorkshire Show, North Yorkshire, July 8-11 2025

A 140,000-strong crowd descends on Harrogate each summer to celebrate British food, countryside, and farming at the Great Yorkshire Show. Staged since 1837, this is one of the UK’s oldest, largest agricultural shows. Marvel at the prize animals in the judging ring, sample fine Yorkshire produce, and enjoy the live music.

For FAQ and tickets, visit the Great Yorkshire Show online.

National Geographic Traveller Food Festival, Business Design Centre, London, 19-20 July 2025,

With a food hall, wine and spirits theatre, workshops, master food photography sessions and more, Nat Geo’s fabulous food fest gives you the chance to ‘taste the world’ in the heart of London. Head to the main stage to see decorated chefs, TV personalities, and cookbook writers, and be inspired by their words, wit, and culinary wisdom.

Global gourmets: get your 2025 tickets to the National Geographic Traveller Food Festival here.

Rock Oyster, Dinham House, North Cornwall, 24-27 July 2025

Alongside an artisanal food extravaganza, Rock Oyster has a stellar lineup of musical treats in 2025, from the Ministry of Sound Classical to Rag’n’Bone Man, UB40 and more. Sea, sand, surf, foodie workshops and sessions, salivating over delicious gourmet goods: Rock Oyster 2025 has it all.

Check out the Rock Oyster 2025 schedule and tickets here.

Feast On, Bristol, 24-27 July 2025

Hosted on Bristol’s iconic Durdham Downs parkland, Feast On offers signature dishes from the city’s top chefs as well as a produce market, open fire cooking demos, live music, and tasting opportunities. Bristol is also home to most of this publisher’s staff (it’s where Printslinger is based) so this Bristol Food Festival is of course a huge favourite. See you there!

Get stuck in to Feast On Bristol in 2025

FOOD FESTIVALS IN AUGUST 2025

PieFest, Melton Mowbray, 3-4 August 2025

Does this food festival speak for itself? To eat all the pies – or to see who makes some of the country’s very finest examples thereof – come to pie-central, Melton Mowbray, in early August. Check the suspension on your car before setting off, boot laden with golden-pastry’d goodness…

Visit PieFest in August 2025.

Glasgow Foodies Festival, 8-10 August 2025

Glasgow’s is one in a cracking series of 14 ‘Foodie’ festivals taking place right across the UK, each celebrating the food of its region. Expect fire-pit cooking, an artisan market, street food, award-winning chefs, and great music. If you’re looking for a food festival in Scotland, look no further.

Visit Glasgow Foodies Festival online for more.

The Big Feastival, the Cotswolds, Oxfordshire, 22-24 August 2025

Cross a music festival with a food fest and you have: the Feastival. Hosted at a farm in the Cotswolds, it’s a weekend extravaganza of music, dancing, top-class chefs, finger-licking street food, and family fun.

Get your tickets to Oxfordshire’s Big Feastival here.

FOOD FESTIVALS IN SEPTEMBER 2025

Narberth Food Festival, Pembrokeshire 2025 (date TBC)

West Wales has a burgeoning food scene, and the pretty market town of Narberth celebrates the best of it. Entry is free and the 50-plus stalls are full of creative flavours: perhaps local ferments, whisky, preserved fish, or vegan meals. There’s also a rich menu of music and activities for children. Check online before making any plans, we’re just waiting with everything crossed for the 2025 dates.

Visit Narberth Food Festival in 2025

Abergavenny Food Festival, 20-21 September 2025

The picturesque market town of Abergavenny is the perfect backdrop for one of Britain’s finest food festivals. From inspiring food education to parties in the Dome, meet-the-author events, and every street food and gourmet treat you can imagine, Abergavenny Food Festival really is a treat for all the senses. Full of food? Walk it off with a stroll around the nearby castle or canal.

Visit one of Wales’s best food festivals: Abergavenny 2025.

Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival, Suffolk, 27-28 September 2025

2025 is the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival’s 20th anniversary: what a year to experience this brilliant event for the first time. it features cooking classes for kids, tractor rides, and over 100 local food and drink producers from across Suffolk. As a not-for-profit outfit, its raison d’être is to reconnect people with the food provided by the nearby landscape, and to champion emerging and established producers. (Exactly what Printslinger guidebooks like to do, too.)

Get your tickets to Aldeburgh’s food festival 2025 here.

FOOD FESTIVALS IN OCTOBER 2025

East Midlands Food Festival, Melton Mowbray, 5-6 October 2025

Rural foodie capital, Melton Mowbray, celebrates its fêted pork pies alongside plentiful artisanal treats every autumn, at this covered food festival. Stalls spill over with farm-fresh produce, while the area’s multicultural flavours wait to be sampled: the Iranian offering is strong. For Pie Fest, you’ll need to be here in August.

Plan your trip to the East Midlands Food Festival 2025 here.

LOVE FOOD? DISCOVER OUR FOODIE TRAVEL GUIDES

If you love local food, and supporting smaller, independent and often family-run food and drinks businesses (and farmers and farm shops), have a look at our three guidebooks on the button below. They’d each make a great gift for your foodie friend, or treat yourself to the trio. Banish forgettable food, and eat better (while buying local) with The Extra Mile, The Coastal Café Guide, or The Farm Shop Guide.

Posted on 06/11/202412/11/2024 by The Extra Mile

BEST-SELLING FOODIE TRAVEL GUIDES

Best seller image, (c) ibreakstock Adobe Stock 139558768

Bestselling travel guides 2024

We are Printslinger (like mud slinger, only slinging print about the place instead of mud). Home of three best-selling travel guidebooks and counting, we’re not as well known as Lonely Planet and the like. Our foodie travel books have excelled themselves in 2024 however, often beating the ‘big-hitters’ to the top spot when it comes to online book sales. Not bad for a small, independent publisher without the marketing might of the mass publishers. Long live independents!

At Printslinger, we’re driven by a desire to help you avoid boring, big-brand food and motorway services chains. We exist to help you seek out, support, and celebrate British food and Britain’s local food growers and retailers, Britain’s farmers, and independent farm shops, cafés, restaurants, coffee shops, and more. Let’s have a look at what each of our books has been up to in 2024.

The Extra Mile: a 2024 travel guide bestseller

The Extra Mile: Delicious Alternatives to Motorway Services is our flagship title. It was produced annually in 2017, 2018, and 2019. It then had a three-year holiday (and a change of hands, into our hands), and returned with a bang in 2023.

The Extra Mile (ed. 4, 2023), has 275 off-motorway places to eat near motorway junctions. It was an Amazon #1 Bestseller across several food and travel guide categories in 2023 and 2024, and is frequently on the #1 Most Gifted charts. Its return to prominence in 2024 was aided by our publisher Kerry’s appearance on BBC Breakfast in August, discussing how our books help readers find and buy local food from independent cafés and farm shops near them and while on journeys around Britain.

“Is BBC Breakfast a radio show?” asked Kerry. “No, it’s primetime morning TV with an audience of 7m people,” we said. “I’ll wash my hair.”

The Coastal Café Guide: a #1 bestselling food guide in 2024

The Coastal Café Guide was released by Printslinger in July 2024. It is packed with 150 of Britain’s best coastal cafés and places to eat, like restaurants with sea views, top spots for coffee after a surf or a wild swim, and idyllic cafés to visit while walking the coast path. The Coastal Café Guide became an #1 Amazon Hot New Release and #1 Bestseller across several foodie travel guide categories. It is a great gift for people who love the sea, seafood, sea views, and culinary adventures on the coast. It was featured in The Scotsman with a long article, had a double-page feature in The Times Weekend, and was reviewed (favourably!) in The Sun, as well as getting coverage in many local and regional outlets.

Printslinger makes a donation of 1% of book sales to Surfers Against Sewage for every book we sell, managed through the Work for Good platform.

The Farm Shop Guide: a #1 bestselling food and travel guide in 2024

The Farm Shop Guide is the third title from Printslinger to date. It has 165 fantastic farm shops and farm shop cafés and restaurants, alongside info on farmers’ markets, food festivals, and the best PYO places for pick-your-own fruit, vegetables, flowers, pumpkins, and even Christmas trees across Britain. The Farm Shop Guide had a 2.5 page feature in The Times Weekend, a double-page spread in Waitrose Weekend, a review in The Telegraph’s ‘what’s new in food’, mentions in other outlets including Cotswold Life, and a good plug on TV’s BBC Breakfast.

Printslinger makes a donation of 1% of book sales to the Sustainable Food Trust for every book we sell, managed through the Work for Good platform.

Find out more about Printslinger and our best-selling food and travel guides

Printslinger is run by Kerry O’Neill and Laura Collacott. More titles are in the pipeline, with themes broadening out from pure food and travel guides into other realms. Rest assured, they will remain independent books, about memorable places and independent businesses, created by and for independent-minded people. To browse and buy our books, visit our online bookshop (link below). To discuss stocking our current books, marketing partnerships, press, work, your own book ideas, or anything else of interest, please use our contact form, linked to below. We look forward to hearing from you.

Finally, a big thank you from us all to everyone who’s bought and enjoyed our books, shared our books and given them as presents, featured our books in their print and online coverage, actually BEEN in our books, and worked with us. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you. Thank you!

Posted on 04/11/202404/11/2024 by The Extra Mile

THE COASTAL CAFÉ GUIDE: THE IDEAL GIFT FOR SWIMMERS, SURFERS, AND FOODIE BEACH LOVERS

Image of three copies of The Coastal Café Guide

The Coastal Café Guide gathers a huge cross-section of the best coastal cafés in Britain into one brilliant guide. For cafés by the sea, beachside eateries, and restaurants with a sea view, look no further. Upon release this summer, it quickly became an Amazon #1 hot New Release, and then a travel category #1 bestseller. Need a present for the swimmer, surfer, or seafood lover in your life? Voilà!

Who’s the guide for? Packed with surf-friendly and post-swim ready cafés, it’s for anyone looking for a small, local, independent café on the coast. It’s for those who love to stop for a coffee after going wild-swimming at the beach, it’s got cafés that make great stop-offs for coast-path walkers, and it has restaurants offering sustainable seaside dining across the land. Check out a few of our favourite coastal cafés below.

To buy The Coastal Café Guide – it makes a great gift for wild-swimmers, a wonderful Christmas present for surfers, or the perfect gift for someone planning a coast-path walk – visit our online bookshop today for single and great-value book bundle deals.

The Boathouse, Uphill, North Somerset

Gemma and Giulio have revolutionised this nautical and very dog-friendly coastal café near Uphill’s marina, lake, and touring park. A summer hot-spot, it is a short stroll from the southern end of Weston-super-Mare beach so is perfect for those seeking a café near the sea in Weston. The colourful outdoor area has a beach-striped coffee and gelato hut. Here, tropical sorbets, riotously rich gelatos (all homemade on site) and seasonal specials create dilemmas for ice cream aficionados.

The Boathouse is favoured by those with families, dogs, and bikes, as it gives onto the Brean Down Way walking and cycling route. Yachties and rowers from the local gig club also swing by for epic cakes, posh fish finger sandwiches, big breakfasts, and…did we mention the local gelato? Pick up doggie treats before hitting the beach, or climb Uphill Beacon for views across to Glastonbury Tor or the hills of Wales. An ideal café near the coast in Uphill, Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset.

The Boathouse on Facebook

The Sandy Salt Pig, Studland, Swanage, Dorset

Looking for a café on the coast right next to the sea in Dorset? Look no further. This café is a coast-path walker’s dream. “Not many stories begin with the words “I worked locally as a shepherd for 14 years…” but this one does. The Salt Pig coastal café and kiosk is well loved locally. Its founder, James, worked the coastal fields near Kimmeridge Bay and now brings the region’s distinctive flavours to the fore through The Salt Pig’s farm shops, cafés, and now The Sandy Salt Pig beach cabin: a refreshing sight for coast-path weary eyes. It’s the perfect post-swim café or food stop for beach goers.

At The Salt Pig’s farm, rare-breed pork is reared with landscape, nature, and sustainability in mind. James’s goal is for locals to connect to their landscape, to understand the benefits of farming, and to be proud of local produce. Kick your shoes off at a beachfront bench to devour a homemade sausage roll or a pulled-beef burrito before strolling along Studland’s famed beach with a Purbeck ice cream. If you’ve walked the South West Coast Path or plan to, or seek a gift for someone who’s about to, The Coastal Café Guide is ideal.

The Salt Pig on Facebook

The Beach Café, Littlehampton, West Sussex

Super popular when the sun shines, The Beach Café also has one of West Sussex’s coolest watersports hubs. Vast sea views are included, both from inside the club house and up on the rooftop. Of course we had to include it in our book of epic post-surf cafés and for wild-swimmers seeking a café on the coast.

Whether you’ve come to eat or to kitesurf, swim, paddleboard, windsurf, or wingfoil (ask about lessons and kit hire), this friendly place with its surfy vibe has it all. This coastal café was created as a place to share tales of near-misses and heroic surf saves, all fuelled by great food and drink. It is now the beach hang-out for a community that is keen to enjoy all that the ocean offers. Once off the water, head inside for surfer wraps, vegan breakfasts, stone- baked pizzas, and succulent burgers. Visit the West Beach Nature Reserve or stroll along the river Arun while in town.

The Beach Café on Facebook

The Norfolk Coffee Pedlar, Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk

This is a water’s-edge coffee stop-off with a difference. Sustainable coffee aficionados will love the Norfolk Coffee Pedlar. Many people pivoted in their careers in the wake of Covid…far fewer converted a trike into a mobile coffee shop. Enter Sandy and Dave. Conscious of the environment (and their stunning creek-side location), they serve coffee in beautiful hand-thrown ceramics made by local artists with no disposable cups.

If you want to relax by the shore, or walk the coast path to the beach, you can borrow (or buy) a cup. Taking the boat out to Scolt Head Island? Ferryman John will even drop the cup back for you. Here, locally roasted coffee is served alongside hunks of home-baked cake: the ginger and orange is a firm favourite. Keep your eyes on the skies as, with the Pedlar’s exposed spot, wind and rain can stop play.

The Norfolk Coffee Pedlar on Facebook

The Lookout on the Pier, Scarborough, North Yorkshire

For something a little different in a town you think you might know, head to this fantastic coastal café with its sea view and harbour view tables. Scarborough’s Lookout on the Pier is an integral part of the town’s lively, Grade II-listed working harbour. Evocative boaty sights, sounds, and authentically fishy scents accompany your stroll to this seafood restaurant’s industrial staircase. Head up and into this atmospheric first- floor space, with its striking views across working wharfs and up to the ruins of once-mighty Scarborough Castle. Chef Alex’s house special is the chowder. In fact, ‘all seafood’ is where he excels.

Secure a popular balcony table in fine weather to get involved with plates of criminally fresh oysters or moules marinières, while lobster dishes parade temptingly around on route to eager tables. The seafood platters are show-stopping. This really is an excellent seafood, seaside, sea-view dining experience. End your day with a trip to the Museum of Coastal Heritage and Geology.

The Lookout on the Pier on Facebook

The Beach House, Portobello, Edinburgh

Where to eat on the coast in Scotland? We’ve got a few great coastal cafés in Scotland in our guide, and this beachside eatery is a favourite. In its lifetime, Edinburgh’s Portobello area has made everything from glass and lead to paper and pottery. Today, its prom and award-winning beach attracts a different energy, with events from the Big Beach Busk to triathlon and volleyball meets. Near Portobello’s Sailing and Kayaking Club is The Beach House, a pretty little café with cakes and pastries arriving fresh each day from its own bakery in Leith.

The café prides itself on buying local and organic. Tables have fresh posies and the kitchen garden brims with herbs and fruits. Some end up in the best-selling Porty Smash: Portobello mushrooms, smashed avo, thyme and garlic aioli, balsamic glaze, and pine nuts (topped with an organic poached egg). Try a homemade gelato or summery sorbet, or boost your vitamin C with some local sea buckthorn.

The Beach House on Facebook

Visit our online bookshop now to discover more about The Coastal Café Guide and its 150 coastal cafés, restaurants by the sea, pubs with sea views, and dog- and family-friendly places to eat at the seaside around the coast of Britain. Bestselling foodie travel guide, The Coastal Café Guide, is available now from Printslinger. Also available as at 2024: The Farm Shop Guide, and The Extra Mile: Delicious Alternatives to Motorway Services. Buy the three-book bundle for serious savings on this tempting trio.