Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Looking Glass War
When the Department – faded since the war and busy only with bureaucratic battles – hears rumour of a missile base near the West German border, it seems like the perfect opportunity to regain some political standing in the Intelligence market place. The Cold War is at its height and the Department is dying for
Iron Gustav: A Berlin Family Chronicle
This is a powerful story of the shattering effects of the First World War on both a family and a country – from Hans Fallada, bestselling author of `Alone in Berlin`. “You only want to tyrannise, you`re only happy when we`re all trembling before you. You`re just like your Kaiser. He who doesn`t obey is
Once a Jailbird
For Willi Kufult, prison life means staying out of trouble, keeping his cell clean, snagging a precious piece of tobacco – and dreaming of the day of his release. Then he gets out. As Willi tries to make a new life for himself in Hamburg, finding a job and even love, he still cannot escape
A Small Circus
Hans Fallada`s raw, darkly humorous account of a town rife with corruption, greed and brutality, first published in 1931, was written as Weimar Germany collapsed around him. It is an extraordinary novel about the failure of governments and the failings of people.It is summer, 1929, and in a small German town a storm is brewing.
The Golden Apples
First published in 1949, “The Golden Apples” is an acutely observed, richly atmospheric portrayal of small town life in Morgana, Mississippi. There`s Snowdie, who has to bring up her twin boys alone after her husband, King Maclain, disappears one day, discarding his hat on the banks of the Big Black. There`s Loch Morrison, convalescing with
Tristes Tropiques
“Tristes Tropiques” begins with the line `I hate travelling and explorers`, yet during his life Claude Levi-Strauss travelled from wartime France to the Amazon basin and the dense upland jungles of Brazil, where he found `human society reduced to its most basic expression`. His account of the people he encountered changed the field of anthropology,
Shosha
It is Warsaw in the 1930s. Aaron Greidinger is an aspiring young writer and the son of a rabbi, who struggles to be true to his art when he is faced with the chance of riches and a passport to America. But as the Nazis threaten to invade Poland, Aaron rediscovers Shosha, his childhood sweetheart
Last Exit to Brooklyn
Few novels have caused as much controversy as Hubert Selby Jr.`s notorious masterpiece. Described by various reviewers as hellish and obscene, it tells the stories of New Yorkers who at every turn confront the worst excesses in human nature. Yet there are moments of exquisite tenderness in these troubled lives. Georgette, the transvestite who falls
The Time Regulation Institute
One of the greatest and most overlooked novels of the twentieth century, by an author championed by Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, The Time Regulation Institute appears here in English for the first time-more than fifty years after its original publication in Turkish. This is the story of the misadventures of Hayri Irdals, an unforgettable
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings
Part of “Penguin`s” beautiful hardback “Clothbound Classics” series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. After reading “Christmas Carol”, the notoriously reculsive Thomas Carlyle was “seized with a perfect convulsion of hospitality” and threw not one but two
The Best Of Everything
When The Best of Everything was first published in 1958, Rona Jaffe`s debut novel electrified readers who saw themselves reflected in its story of five young employees of a New York publishing company. And with the recent Mad Men craze it seems the perfect time to re-discover that era, this time from a much more
Scent of a Woman
Although this has been the inspiration for two popular films, “Scent of a Woman” is a great read in it`s original form, a comfortably far cry from the “hoo-ha” of Pacino and the Hollywood tale it came to be.Two soldiers travel across Italy at the height of summer, passing through Genoa, Rome and Naples. One
Proud to be a Mammal
Proud to be a Mammal (1942-97) is Czeslaw Milosz`s moving and diverse collection of essays. Among them, he covers his passion for poetry, his love of the Polish language that was so nearly wiped out by the violence of the twentieth century, and his happy childhood. Milosz also includes a letter to his friend in
My Happy Days in Hell
“My Happy Days in Hell (1962)” is Gyorgy Faludy`s grimly beautiful autobiography of his battle to survive tyranny and oppression. Fleeing Hungary in 1938 as the German army approaches, acclaimed poet Faludy journeys to Paris, where he finds a lover but merely a cursory asylum. When the French capitulate to the Nazis, Faludy travels to
Into The War
Set in Italy in the summer of 1940, this trio of stories explores the relationships between the different generations caught up in the war as well as Calvino`s own experiences as a teenager. In the title story, “Into the War”, we are given an insight into what life was really like for those too young
Girl, 20
Douglas Yandell, a young-ish music critic, is enlisted by Kitty Vandervane to keep an eye on her roving husband – the eminent conductor and would-be radical Sir Roy – as he embarks on yet another affair. Roy, meanwhile, wants Douglas as an alibi for his growing involvement with Sylvia, an unsuitably young woman who loves
The King`s English
An indispensable companion for readers, writers, and even casual users of the language, the “Penguin Modern Classics” edition of Kingsley Amis` “The King`s English” features a new introduction by Martin Amis. “The King`s English” is Kingsley Amis` authoritative and witty guide to the use and abuse of the English language. A scourge of illiteracy and
The Last Picture Show
Sam the Lion runs the pool-hall, the picture house and the all-night cafe. Coach Popper whips his boys with towels and once took a shot at one when he disturbed his hunting. Billy wouldn`t know better than to sweep his broom all the way to the town limits if no one stopped him. And teenage
The Perfect Murder – The First Inspector Ghote Murder
In the house of Lala Varde, a vast man of even greater influence, an attack has taken place. Varde`s secretary, Mr Perfect, has been struck on his invaluable business head. And try as Inspector Ghote might to remain conscientious and methodical, his investigation is beset on all sides by cunning, disdain and corruption. And then
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Beautiful 50th Anniversary special edition featuring archival material and with a special cover design Alec Leamas is tired. It`s the 1960s, he`s been out in the cold for years, spying in Berlin for his British masters, and has seen too many good agents murdered for their troubles. Now Control wants to bring him in at
