Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry
When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that
The Summer of Dead Toys
“Evokes the master of Barcelona-set narrative, Carlos Ruiz Zafon”. (“Independent”). When the death of a young witness in a case of human trafficking and voodoo provokes the normally calm Inspector Salgado to beat someone up, he is swiftly removed from the project. Instead, he is sent to investigate a teenager`s fall to his death in
Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field
Winner of the 2015 Thwaites Wainwright PrizeWhat really goes on in the long grass? `Meadowland` gives an unique and intimate account of an English meadow`s life from January to December, together with its biography. In exquisite prose, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and
An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist
Born to parents who were enthusiastic naturalists, and linked through his wider family to a clutch of accomplished scientists, Richard Dawkins was bound to have biology in his genes. But what were the influences that shaped his life? And who inspired him to become the pioneering scientist and public thinker now famous (and infamous to
The Lassa Ward
In the summer of 2003, a perilous helicopter descent delivered Ross Donaldson, an American medical student in his twenties, into Sierra Leone. With abundant schooling but little practical experience, Ross wanted to save the world. Little did he know that by the end of his journey, it would be he who would need rescue. With
French Children Don`t Throw Food
The book everyone is talking about: how the French manage to raise well-behaved children, and have a life! Who hasn`t noticed how well-behaved French children are, compared to our own? How come French babies sleep through the night? Why do French children happily eat what is put in front of them? How can French mothers
Merde Actually
A year after arriving in France, Englishman Paul West is still struggling with some fundamental questions: What is the best way to scare a gendarme? Why are there no health warnings on French nudist beaches? And is it really polite to sleep with your boss` mistress? Paul opens his English tea room, and mutates (temporarily)
Talk to the Snail
Have you been taken to what you`ve been assured is the perfect house deep in the French countryside, only to find there`s no electricity or running water? Gone to the doctor with a nasty cough, and been diagnosed with a rather more personal complaint? Walked into an half-empty restaurant, only to be told that it`s
Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Nine year old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All he knows is that he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge)
Many of us were put off history by the dry and dreary way it was taught at school. Back then `The Origins of the Industrial Revolution` somehow seemed less compelling than the chance to test the bold claim on Timothy Johnson`s `Shatterproof` ruler. But here at last is a chance to have a good laugh
Between Summer`s Longing and Winter`s End
Stockholm. The dead of winter. The temperature is already well below freezing. A young American dies, falling from a tall building. It appears to be a casual, self-inflicted death. It should be an open-and-shut case. But when Superintendent Lars Martin Johansson begins to delve beneath the layers of corruption, incompetence and violence that threaten to
Blue River, Black Sea
The Danube is Europe`s Amazon. It flows through more countries than any other river on Earth – from the Black Forest in Germany to Europe`s farthest fringes, where it joins the Black Sea in Romania. Andrew Eames` journey along its length brings us face to face with the Continent`s bloodiest history and its most pressing
The Geography of Bliss
What makes a nation happy? Is one country`s sense of happiness the same as another`s?In the last two decades, psychologists and economists have learned a lot about who`s happy and who isn`t. The Dutch are, the Romanians aren`t, and Americans are somewhere in between…After years of going to the world`s least happy countries, Eric Weiner,
The House Of Special Purpose
Russia, 1915: Sixteen year old farmer`s son Georgy Jachmenev steps in front of an assassin`s bullet intended for a senior member of the Russian Imperial Family and is instantly proclaimed a hero. Rewarded with the position of bodyguard to Alexei Romanov, the only son of Tsar Nicholas II, the course of his life is changed
An Utterly Exasperated History Of Modern Britain
Following his hugely popular account of the previous 2000 years, John O`Farrell now comes bang up to date with a hilarious modern history asking `How the hell did we end up here?`. “An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain” informs, elucidates and laughs at all the bizarre events, ridiculous characters and stupid decisions that have
When will there be good news
In rural Devon, six-year-old Joanna Mason witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime is released from prison. In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie works as a nanny for a G.P. But Dr Hunter has gone missing and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried. Across town, Detective Chief
The Book Of Negroes
Abducted from her West African village at the age of eleven and sold as a slave in the American South, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom – and of finding her way home again. After escaping the plantation, torn from her husband and child, she passes through Manhattan in the chaos of the Revolutionary War,
Started Early, Took My Dog
A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a shocking impulse purchase. That one moment of madness is all it takes for Tracy`s humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn. Witnesses to Tracy`s outrageous exchange in the
the Spiders of Allah
The bloodshed perpetrated in the name of religion in the world today is nowhere more obvious than in the Middle East. Whether we are talking about hardcore Zionist settlers still fighting ancient Biblical battles in the hills of the West Bank or Shiite death squads roaming the lawless streets of Iraq in the aftermath of
