Category Archives: Travel Guides
Smile Please
A brilliant companion piece to Wide Sargasso Sea, this is Jean Rhys`s beautifully written, bitter-sweet autobiography, covering her chequered early years in Dominica, England and Paris.Jean Rhys wrote this autobiography in her old age, now the celebrated author of Wide Sargasso Sea but still haunted by memories of her troubled past: her precarious jobs on
Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814
`A compulsive page-turner … a triumph of brilliant storytelling … an instant classic that is an awesome, remarkable and exuberant achievement` Simon Sebag Montefiore Winner of the Wolfson History Prize and shortlisted for the Duff Cooper PrizeIn the summer of 1812 Napoleon, the master of Europe, marched into Russia with the largest army ever assembled,
The Collected Short Stories
Some of Jean Rhys`s most powerful writing is to be found in this rich, dark collection of her collected stories. Her fictional world is haunted by her own, painful memories: of cheap hotels and drab Parisian cafes; of devastating love affairs; of her childhood in Dominica; of drifting through European cities, always on the periphery
Big Capital: Who is London for?
The inside story of London`s housing crisis, by the award-winning author of Ground Control London is facing the worst housing crisis in modern times, with knock-on effects for the rest of the UK. Despite the desperate shortage of housing, tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of affordable homes are being pulled down, replaced by luxury apartments
The European Union: A Citizen`s Guide: A Pelican Introduction
The essential Pelican introduction to the European Union – its history, its politics, and its role today For most of us today, `Europe` refers to the European Union. At the centre of a seemingly never-ending crisis, the EU remains a black box, closed to public understanding. Is it a state? An empire? Is Europe ruled
Tudor Church Militant: Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation
Edward VI died a teenager in 1553, yet his brief reign would shape the future of the nation, unleashing a Protestant revolution that propelled England into the heart of the Reformation. This dramatic account takes a fresh look at one of the most significant and turbulent periods in English history.
Lost Kingdom: A History of Russian Nationalism from Ivan the Great to Vladimir Putin
In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine. While the world watched in outrage, this violation of national sovereignty was in fact only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can
Of Women: In the 21st Century
This book starts from the position that gender injustice is the greatest human rights abuse on the planet. It blights First and developing worlds; rich and poor women. Gender injustice impacts health, wealth, education, representation, opportunity and security everywhere.It is no exaggeration to describe the position of women as an apartheid, but it is not
Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany
The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler`s gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops` resilience – even partly explaining German victory in
Japan Story: In Search of a Nation, 1850 to the Present
This is a fresh and surprising account of Japan`s culture from the `opening up` of the country in the mid-nineteenth century to the present.”How much I admired it, what a lot I learned from it and, above all, how very much I enjoyed it… Masterly.” Neil MacGregorIt is told through the eyes of people who
Think Like an Anthropologist
How does anthropology help us understand who we are? What can it tell us about culture, from Melanesia to the City of London? Why does it matter? For well over one hundred years, social and cultural anthropologists have traversed the world from urban Zimbabwe to suburban England, Beijing to Barcelona, uncovering surprising facts, patterns, predilections
The Euro: And its Threat to the Future of Europe
Designed to bring Europe closer together, the euro has actually done the opposite: after nearly a decade without growth, unity has been replaced with dissent and enlargements with prospective exits. Joseph Stiglitz argues that Europe`s stagnation and bleak outlook are a direct result of the fundamental flaws inherent in the euro project – economic integration
Learning from the Germans: Confronting Race and the Memory of Evil
`An ambitious and engrossing investigation of the moral legacies which stubbornly refuse to pass` Brendan Simms As the western world struggles with its legacies of racism and colonialism, what can we learn from the past in order to move forward?Susan Neiman`s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can
The Unwomanly Face of War
“A must read” – Margaret Atwood”Extraordinary. . . it would be hard to find a book that feels more important or original” – Viv Groskop, ObserverThe long-awaited translation of the classic oral history of Soviet women`s experiences in the Second World War – from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature”Why, having stood up
The Day Before Happiness
`Happiness – was it right to name it without knowing it? It sounded shameless in my mouth, like when someone shows off about knowing a celebrity and just uses their first name, saying Marcello when they really mean Mastroianni …`A young orphan boy grows up in Naples, playing football, roaming the city`s streets and hidden
Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams
THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERTLS, OBSERVER, SUNDAY TIMES, FT, GUARDIAN, DAILY MAIL AND EVENING STANDARD BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017`Vital … a life-raft` Guardian`A top sleep scientist argues that sleep is more important for our health than diet or exercise` The Times`It had a powerful effect on me` Observer`I urge you all to read
Kings of the Yukon: An Alaskan River Journey
Winner of the 2019 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award`s Lonely Planet Adventure Travel Book of the Year`Weymouth combines acute political, personal and ecological understanding, with the most beautiful writing reminiscent of a young Robert Macfarlane. He is, I have no doubt, a significant voice for the future` Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times literary editor`Adam Weymouth takes
The Line: An Adventure into the Unknown
A deceptively simple adventure into the unknown using only paper, a pencil and a single line.Wreck This Journal had a simple premise: destroy the book in all the ways you can imagine.The Line is even simpler: find pencil, start a line.As you move through the pages of Keri Smith`s newest book, you`ll be asked to
The Descent of Man
Grayson Perry has been thinking about masculinity – what it is, how it operates, why little boys are thought to be made of slugs and snails – since he was a boy. Now, in this funny and necessary book, he turns round to look at men with a clear eye and ask, what sort of
The Wander Society
You are electing to join a secret underground movement. Membership will require you to conduct research on your immediate environment and complete a variety of assignments designed to creatively disrupt your everyday life. That is all you need to know for now. All else will be revealed in time. Society wants us to live a
