Category Archives: Travel Guides
Hunting the Gugu
Since the 1980s, Benedict Allen has traversed the globe in the enquiring spirit of the great Victorian explorers, pitting himself against nature and frequently hostile environments. On each of his expeditions, which generally involve daunting months alone with the world`s remotest “tribal” peoples, he has turned his experiences into a publication that has enriched the
The Overloaded Ark
Gerald Durrell, director and owner of Jersey Zoo, was internationally famous for his amusing books about collecting wild animals. The Overloaded Ark, his first, remains his funniest book. It describes an expedition to the remote territory of the Cameroons in West Africa, before independence.
Maps and Dreams
The Canadian sub-arctic is a world of Indian hunters and trappers – but also of white energy speculators, ranchers and sports hunters. Hugh Brody came to this dual world with the job of `mapping` the forest and prairie of northwest British Columbia, as well as recording the life of a group of Beaver Indians living
Extravagant Strangers
Aiming to show that the “mongrelization” of Britain and British literature began well before the second half of the 20th century, this selection incorporates 18th-century black writers with direct experience of the slave trade, such as Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano. It also looks at white writers whose accident of birth took place in a
Mosquito – The story of man`s deadliest foe.
The authors draw upon their own experience and their research into the findings of tropical medicine specialists and entomologists over the last century or so. This is a fascinating & accessible book presenting the natural history of the mosquito, its role in spreading disease, and mankind`s efforts to cope with its threat.
The Schoolmaster
“Earl Lovelace`s second novel is modest in intent and succeeds through a kind of iron self discipline and restraint in building up a highly compact and convincing diagram of the impingements of a modern life ยฟon a remote modern village in the interior of Trinidad which wants a school and a school master ยฟ lovelace
The Dust Diaries
Fascinated by the tales of his great, great uncle who left England in 1901 to set up a mission in Southern Rhodesia, Sheers follows in the footsteps of the maverick Anglican missionary and travels to contemporary Zimbabwe. What emerges is an intriguing mix of biography, memoir and travelogue.The scope of the book is vast, comprising
The Albigensian Crusade
In twelfth century Languedoc a subversive heresy of Eastern origin flourished to an extraordinary degree. The Albingenses believed that the world was created by an evil spirit, and that all worldly things – including the Church – were by nature sinful. Jonathan Sumption`s acclaimed history examines the roots of the heresy, the uniquely rich culture
Long Time No See
Long Time, No See introduces us to the unforgettable world of Mister Psyche. In the isolated coastal townland of Ballintra in the Northwest of Ireland Recent school-leaver, occasional worker, full-time companion and Malibu-provider to Uncle Joe-Joe and his friend, The Blackbird, Psyche is a boy on the cusp of adulthood, undone by a recent traumatic
Gilbert & Sullivan`s London
Andrew Goodman tells the story of the most astonishing partnership in the history of British musical entertainment, and unfolds it against the authentic background of the city and era in which they flourished. With much original research and many hitherto unpublished illustrations, Goodman makes an invaluable contribution to our knowledge, understanding and appreciation of Gilbert
My Beautiful Laundrette
Omar is a restless young Asian man, caring for his alcoholic father in the hustling London of the mid-1980s. His uncle, a keen Thatcherite, offers Omar an entrepreneurial opportunity to revamp a dingy laundrette, and ambitious Omar rolls up his sleeves, enlisting the assistance of his old school-friend Johnny, who has since fallen in with
My Century
A collection of one hundred inter-linked stories celebrating the twentieth century, by Germany`s most eminent contemporary writer. As the sequence of stories unfolds, a lively and rich picture emerges, an historical portrait of our century in all its grandeur and in all its horror.
Trieste & The Meaning of Nowhere
Winner of the 2018 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award`s Outstanding Contribution to Travel WritingJan Morris (then James) first visited Trieste as a soldier at the end of the Second World War. Since then, the city has come to represent her own life, with all its hopes, disillusionments, loves and memories. Here, her thoughts on a
Uncle Petros and Goldbach`s Conjecture
Uncle Petros is a family joke. An ageing recluse, he lives alone in a suburb of Athens, playing chess and tending to his garden. If you didn`t know better, you`d surely think he was one of life`s failures. But his young nephew suspects otherwise. For Uncle Petros, he discovers, was once a celebrated mathematician, brilliant
Conversation in the Cathedral
Conversation in the Cathedral takes place in 1950s Peru during the dictatorship of General Ordia. Suspicion, paranoia and blackmail have become part of life. The conversation flows between two individuals, Santiago and Ambrosia, who talk of their tormented lives and of the degradation and frustration that has taken over their town. In this groundbreaking novel,
Overview
For ten years Berkoff has travelled all over the world – from Fiji to Acapulco – acting, directing and writing. This book is his diary of these trips Berkoff is the author of East, West, Sink the Belgrano!, Decadence and I am Hamlet.
Out of Romania
Dan Antal, a distant relative of Vlad the Impaler (Count Dracula), grew up in the mountains of Transylvania, and in this book he presents his story of life before, during and after the Romanian revolution. It is an account the disappointed hopes that mark the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Eastern Europe, and of
Expeditions and Endeavours: Images of Nature
Expeditions and Endeavours is illustrated with over 100 paintings and drawings created on some of the most significant voyages of natural history discovery undertaken over the past 300 years. Andrea Hart and Paul Martyn Cooper explore how these successive expeditions and the intrepid explorers who went on them have enhanced our scientific understanding of the
