Would you pay twenty quid for a holiday brochure? I’ve been sent a book by a company that thinks you might.
  It’s a hardback, the fashionable shape of a big bathroom tile, beautifully designed, with gorgeous colour pictures. It’s full of suggestions for “Big Short Breaks” — holidays that are supposedly short on time — none taking more than five days away from work — but long on experience. The 52 breaks range from bobsleighing in Norway to a walking safari in Zambia. At the end of every entry is a line saying “Take me there”, and a website address, thebigshortbreak.co.uk, which is a microsite of a tour operator, Original Travel. Book a trip, and you get the cost of the book back. But why buy the book when you can look at equally nice pictures on the website?