Category Archives: Travel Guides
Lady Franklin`s Revenge
Born into a wealthy London family in late-eighteenth-century England, Jane Griffin enjoyed nothing like the opportunities available to men of her class. And yet she became a world traveller, ranging far off the beaten path of Grand-Tour Europe to explore Russia, Greece, the Holy Land and northern Africa. She rode a donkey into Nazareth, sailed
Narrow Dog to Carcassonne
`We could bore ourselves to death, drink ourselves to death, or have a bit of an adventure…` When they retired, Terry and Monica Darlington decided to sail their canal narrow boat across the Channel and down to the Mediterranean, together with their whippet Jim. They took advice from experts, who said they would die, together
The Caliph`s House
Writer and film maker Tahir Shah moved his family away from draining British life to start again in Casablanca – a place of colour, history and romance. This long-abandoned house on the edge of the shanty town had once been the home of the city’s Caliph, or governor, but before Shah moved in it was
The Wrong Way Home
The Wrong Way Home is an account of travelling from London to Sydney the hard way. A severe case of hippie envy impelled Peter Moore to travel from London to Sydney without setting foot in an aeroplane. With woefully inadequate funds and little real hope of actually making it through such notorious hot spots of
C`est La Folie
One day in late summer, Michael Wright gave up his comfortable South London existence and, with only his long-suffering cat for company, set out to begin a new life. His destination was `La Folie`, a dilapidated 15th century farmhouse in need of love and renovation in the heart of rural France…Inspired by the success of
No Shitting in the Toilet
No Shitting In The Toilet is named after a sign Peter Moore saw on the door of the lavatory at Jack`s Cafe in Dali, Yunnan Province, in China. It`s a sign that encapsulated his travel philosophy: that things never quite turn out as you expect. You end up in situations that defy logic, rational thought
Whispers of the Dead: The heart-stoppingly scary David Hunter thriller
`Menacing, beautifully paced` Daily MailInspired by Beckett`s visit to the world-renowned Body Farm in Tennessee A serial killer is at work, and the death toll is rising . . . The victim has been bound and tortured, the body decomposed beyond recognition. Then a second body is found. A nightmare is about to begin. Once
The Great Wall
China`s Great Wall north of Beijing is one of the world`s most famous sights. Millions every year climb the line of stone snaking over mountains. We all feel we know the Wall. But we are wrong. It is too big, too varied, too complex to be captured by a few images or a day-trip. Myths
Narrow Dog To Indian River
Having survived their voyage to Carcassonne, you might expect pensioners Terry and Monica Darlington and their whippet, Jim, to retire to a comfortable corner of their favourite pub. But no, they looked to the New World for an extraordinary new adventure…No-one had ever sailed an English narrowboat in the US before, for reasons that became
In Arabian Nights
Shortly after the 2005 London bombings, Tahir Shah was thrown into a Pakistani prison on suspicion of spying for Al-Qaeda. What sustained him during his terrifying, weeks-long ordeal were the stories his father told him as a child in Morocco. Inspired by this, on his return to his adopted homeland he embarked on an adventure
Far Horizons
“Far Horizons” is Frank Gardner’s look back at all the travelling he has done in his varied life, much of which he undertook before becoming the BBC’s security correspondent.Lost on a remote Sumatran volcano…pursued through a Tokyo backstreet by a Japanese gangster…picnicking with the French Foreign Legion in the Horn of Africa: Frank Gardner`s idea
1000 Years of Annoying The French
This is a new updated edition. Was the Battle of Hastings a French victory? Non! William the Conqueror was Norman and hated the French. Were the Brits really responsible for the death of Joan of Arc? Non! The French sentenced her to death for wearing trousers. Did the French write “God Save the Queen”? Non!
Parliament: the Biography: Volume 1: Ancesteral Voices
The history of Parliament is the history of the United Kingdom itself. It has a cast of thousands. Some were ambitious, visionary and altruistic. Others were hot-headed, violent and self-serving. Few were unambiguously noble. Yet their rowdy confrontations, their campaigning zeal and their unstable alliances framed our nation. This first of two volumes takes us
The Cider House Rules
`The reason Homer Wells kept his name was that he came back to St Cloud`s so many times, after so many failed foster homes, that the orphanage was forced to acknowledge Homer`s intention to make St Cloud`s his home.`Homer Wells` odyssey begins among the apple orchards of rural Maine. As the oldest unadopted child at
A Prayer For Owen Meany
`If you care about something you have to protect it. If you`re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it`. Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend`s mother.
Like Water Like Chocolate
The number one bestseller in Mexico and America for almost two years, and subsequently a bestseller around the world, “Like Water For Chocolate” is a romantic, poignant tale, touched with moments of magic, graphic earthiness, bittersweet wit – and recipes. A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De
Chocolat
When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud denounces her as a serious moral danger to his flock – especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial. As passions flare and the conflict escalates,
Tales of the City
San Francisco, 1976. A naive young secretary, fresh out of Cleveland, tumbles headlong into a brave new world of laundromat Lotharios, pot-growing landladies, cut throat debutantes, and Jockey Shorts dance contests. The saga that ensues is manic, romantic, tawdry, touching, and outrageous – unmistakably the handwork of Armistead Maupin.
Almost Like A Whale
In his new book Almost like a Whale, Steve Jones takes on the challenge of going back to the book of the millennium, Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species. Before The Origin, biology was a set of unconnected facts. Darwin made it into a science, linked by the theory of evolution, the grammar of the
Four Quarters of Light
Brian Keenan`s fascination with Alaska began as a small boy, while reading Jack London`s wondrous, “Call of the Wild”. With a head full of questions about its inspiring landscape and a heart informed by his love of desolate and barren places, Brian Keenan sets out for Alaska to discover its four geographical quarters, from snowmelt
