Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Imaginary World of
`What kind of world would you like to inhabit?` Here, Keri Smith begins with a list. Writing down everything the reader is drawn to, from things they love or collect to things that fascinate and excite, including objects, colours, sounds, textures, memories, places and people, the list serves as the building block for the creation
England and the Aeroplane
The story of the strange mixture of romanticism, militarism and technology that has made planes so important to England, from the brilliant author of Britain`s War Machine The history of England and the aeroplane is one tangled with myths – of `the Few` and the Blitz, of boffins, flying machines, amateur inventors and muddling through.
London`s Triumph: Merchant Adventurers and the Tudor City
`Consistently illuminating … Like all the best stories, it is about the timeless tides of power and influence … trade deals can sometimes be sexy, thrilling and epic` Sinclair McKay, SpectatorLife in Europe was fundamentally changed in the 16th century by the astonishing discoveries of the New World and of direct sea routes to Asia.
The Party
Richard McGregor`s “The Party” has been established as the book on China and its political leadership. It is indispensable to understanding what may soon become the most powerful country on earth, and here is it is newly updated to include material on the once-in-a-decade leadership changes taking place in November 2012. Newly updated version including
Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding
How many of us sometimes feel that we are scratching at the walls of this life, seeking to find our way into a wider space beyond? That our mild, polite existence sometimes seems to crush the breath out of us? `Feral` is the lyrical and gripping story of George Monbiot`s efforts to re-engage with nature
Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
Extraordinary stories of transformation in a quest to uncover the fundamentals of cooking – from writer and cooking star Michael Pollan. Michael Pollan`s `Cooked` takes us back to basics and first principles: cooking with fire, with water, with air and with earth. Meeting cooks from all over the world, who share their wisdom and stories,
Landscapes of Communism: A History Through Buildings
“In the craven world of architectural criticism Hatherley is that rarest of things: a brave, incisive, elegant and erudite writer, whose books dissect the contemporary built environment to reveal the political fantasies and social realities it embodies.” (Will Self). During the course of the twentieth century, communism took power in Eastern Europe and remade the
The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth-Century History
`Forget almost everything you thought you knew about Britain … You will not find a better informed history` David Goodhart, Evening Standard`A striking new perspective on our past` Piers Brendon, Literary ReviewFrom the acclaimed author of Britain`s War Machine and The Shock of the Old, a bold reassessment of Britain`s twentieth century.It is usual to
Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History
From Eduardo Galeano, one of Latin America`s greatest living writers, author of the Memory of Fire trilogy, comes Children of the Days, a new kind of history that shows us how to remember and how to live. This book is shaped like a calendar. Each day brings with it a story: a journey, feast or
The Body Economic: Eight Experiments in Economic Recovery, from Iceland to Greece
The Body Economic is the first, agenda-shaping, look at the human costs of financial crisis – the culmination of ten years` work by two pioneering researchers – Sanjay Basu and David Stuckler. The global financial crisis has had a seismic impact upon the wealth of nations. But we have little sense of how it affects
Wreck This Journal: To Create is to Destroy
This is a new edition of Keri Smith`s bestseller, with updated material Think of Wreck. This Journal as the anarchist`s Artist`s Way – the book for those who`ve always wanted to draw outside the lines but were afraid to do it. For anyone who`s ever wished to, but had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a
Brazil: A Biography
Since Europeans first reached Brazil in 1500 it has been an unfailing source of extraordinary fascination. More than any other part of the `New World` it displayed both the greatest beauty and grandeur and witnessed scenes of the most terrible European ferocity. Its native people both revolutionized Europe`s ideas of itself and were then subject
Blood and Land: The Story of Native North America
`A history of resilience …sweeping, comprehensive …it`s a story that has been waiting to be told` Guardian `An account sorely needed …a kaleidoscopic view of Native American history, refreshing and rollicking, and not unlike its fractured reality` Standpoint Blood and Land is a dazzling, panoramic account of the history and achievements of Native North Americans,
Beneath Another Sky: A Global Journey into History
Human history is a tale not just of constant change, but of perpetual restlessness. In Beneath Another Sky the esteemed historian Norman Davies embarks upon a journey round the world to show the layers of experience that underpin our present – and brilliantly complicate our view of the past.`If you are someone, or know someone,
Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life
As a Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics, Dolan conducts original research into the measurement of happiness and its causes and consequences, including the effects of our behaviour. Here he creates a new outlook on the pursuit of happiness – it`s not just how you feel, it`s how you act. Happiness
The Road To Oxiana
A real-life adventure that inspired countless travellers in fact and fiction, the “Penguin Classics” edition of Robert Byron`s “The Road to Oxiana” includes an introduction by Colin Thubron. In 1933 Robert Byron began a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad, and Teheran to Oxiana – the country of the Oxus, the ancient
Where Angels Fear to Tread
Where Angels Fear to Tread is E M Forster`s classic novel about the seductive power of Italy and the clash between Italian and Edwardian English values. It is amongst the greatest 20th-century literary explorations of vice, virtue and the nature of prejudice. When attractive, impulsive English widow Lilia takes a holiday in Italy, she causes
Lady Chatterley`s Lover: AND A Propos of “Lady Chatterley`s Lover”
Banned and vindicated, condemned and lauded, “Lady Chatterley`s Lover” is D.H. Lawrence`s seminal novel of illicit passion and forbidden desire. This “Penguin Classics” edition is edited with notes by Michael Squires and an introduction by Doris Lessing. Lady Constance Chatterley feels trapped in her sexless marriage to the Sir Clifford. Paralysed in the First World
DH Lawrence and Italy
In these impressions of the Italian countryside, DH Lawrence transforms ordinary incidents into passages of intense beauty. `Twilight in Italy` is a vibrant account of Lawrence`s stay among the people of Lake Garda, whose decaying lemon gardens bear witness to the twilight of a way of life centuries old. In `Sea and Sardinia`, Lawrence brings
Cold Comfort Farm
A witty portrait of rural England in the early twentieth century, the “Penguin Classics” edition of Stella Gibbons` “Cold Comfort Farm” is introduced by Lynne Truss, author of “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”. When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At
