LAURENCE MACKINreviews The Good Retreat GuideBy Stafford Whiteaker, Hay House, £12.99

Retreats – the prospect sends some holidaymakers into a swoon of bliss, with the opportunity to find some peace and time away from, well everything; for others, it sounds like a dreary, happy-clappy day of sitting in a room, bored to tears without even the prospect of a good steak at the end of it all.

This guide, the sixth edition, is a fairly hefty list of more than 500 retreat centres in Europe, Asia and Africa. It opens with a good introduction to the concept of retreats, and goes some way to explaining the differences between the options: some have a strong religious or spiritual element whereas others are essentially spa health breaks. The glossary and explanatory notes are useful, especially if you don’t know your inner child from your ignatian retreat.

Each entry gets the usual listing details, a clear heading on the type of retreat and anywhere between a page and a paragraph on what you can expect. Some come highly recommended, and the book is organised by geographical location.

Stafford Whiteaker has plenty of form: he has written several books on spirituality and is a former monk. The breadth of locations listed means you should easily be able to find something to suit your temperament, be you an ecologically minded atheist or a cilice-carrying member of Opus Dei.

It is admirable that Whiteaker has squeezed more than 500 recommendations into one book, but perhaps it would be better to limit the geographical spread to one continent and add more detail. Also, the definition of what constitutes a retreat seems to be a broad church – one listing in Morocco is a surf school with some yoga classes. That said, there are some gems to be uncovered, such as the fact that you can follow in the footsteps of St Kevin and go on a self-catering hermitage in Glendalough.