Category Archives: Travel Guides
On Fishing At Sea
In “On Fishing at Sea” you see how through twenty-two casts, Britain`s best-known freshwater fisherman quits land in favour of the sea. There, he discovers the many pleasures of the coast: wild shores, unpredictable waves, the violent collision of the elements, and, of course, fish that glisten and dart beneath a never-still surface.From childhood remembrances
Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil
“Crude World” offers a passionate look at some of the most awful places in the world: the violent, repressive and polluted countries that are also where oil is extracted. Peter Maass follows the journey of oil and shows how the substance sullies so much of what it touches, poisoning land and rivers, promoting political bloodshed
A Year In The Woods – The Diary of a Forest Ranger
A Year in the Woods is a fantastic journey deep into the heart of the English countryside as we take a look inside a job that most people won`t have a first hand experience with. Colin Elford spends his days alone – alone but for the deer, the squirrels, the rabbits, the birds, and the
Somme: Into the Breach
`The best new narrative of the battle thus far, reflecting his gifts for fluent prose and moving quotations.` Max Hastings, Sunday TimesNo conflict better encapsulates all that went wrong on the Western Front during World War I than the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The tragic loss of life and stoic endurance by troops
The Cretan Runner
The Creatan Runner is a blistering account of George Psychoundakis` activities across mountainous terrain, come blazing summer or freezing winter.Psychoundakis was a young shepherd boy who knew the island of Crete intimately when the Nazis invaded by air in 1941. He immediately joined the resistance and took on the crucial job of war-time runner. It
The Pursuit of Italy
The “Pursuit of Italy” traces the whole history of the Italian peninsula in a wonderfully readable style, full of well-chosen stories and observations from personal experience, and peopled by many of the great figures of the Italian past, from Cicero and Virgil to Dante and the Medici, from Cavour and Verdi to the controversial political
The Education of A British-Protected Child
The pieces here span reflections on personal and collective identity, on home and family, on literature, language and politics, and on Achebe`s lifelong attempt to reclaim the definition of `Africa` for its own authorship. For the first thirty years of his life, before Nigeria`s independence in 1960, Achebe was officially defined as a `British Protected
The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I
The acclaimed and enthralling story of the dark side of Elizabethan rule, from Stephen Alford Elizabeth I`s reign is known as a golden age, yet to much of Europe she was a `Jezebel` and heretic who had to be destroyed. The Watchers is a thrilling portrayal of the secret state that sought to protect the
Love and Summer
It is summer and a stranger has come to quiet Rathmoye. He is noticed by Ellie, the young convent girl, who is married to Dillahan, a farmer still mourning his first wife. Over the long and warm days, Ellie and the stranger form an illicit attachment. And those in the town can only watch, holding
Toby`s Room
Pat Barker returns to the First World War in “Toby`s Room”, a dark, compelling novel of human desire, wartime horror and the power of friendship. When Toby is reported `Missing, Believed Killed`, another secret casts a lengthening shadow over Elinor`s world: how exactly did Toby die – and why? Elinor determines to uncover the truth.
All Points North
“All Points North” is part-memoir and part-excursion. Charting the rugged and uneven terrain of a writer`s formative years – from tax problems to probation to American tours, football to family to running away to Iceland – Simon Armitage explores growing up and being Northern. It`s about humour, language, writing, film, houses, homes, time wasters, one
My Father`s Tears and Other Stories
John Updike was a master storyteller, and this collection, from his final years, reveals that up to the end he remained the finest short-story writer of his generation. `Magnificent, exhilarating, crisply evocative, rippling with irony. Updike`s genius can be seen on peak form. With this book, a talent that burnt brightly goes out in a
A World on Fire
`No two nations have ever existed on the face of the earth which could do each other so much good or so much harm` – President Buchanan, State of the Nation Address, 1859. “A World on Fire” tells, with extraordinary sweep, one of the least known great stories of British and American history. As America
The Making Of The British Landscape
Packed with over 250 maps and photographs, compellingly written and argued, in The Making of the British Landscape, Francis Pryor will permanently change the way you see your surroundings.From our suburban streets which still trace the boundaries of long vanished farms to the Norfolk Broads, formed when medieval peat pits flooded – evidence of man`s
Secret Son
Casablanca’s stinking alleys are the only home that nineteen-year-old Youssef El-Mekki has ever known. Raised by his mother in a one-room home, the film stars flickering on the local cinema’s screen offer the only glimmer of hope to his frustrated dreams of escape. Until, that is, the father he thought dead turns out to be
Dinner With Mugabe
Heidi Holland’s penetrating, timely portrait of Robert Mugabe is the psychobiography of a man whose once brilliant career has ruined Zimbabwe and cast shame on the African continent. Holland`s tireless investigation begins with her having dinner with Mugabe, the freedom fighter, and ends in a searching interview with Zimbabwe`s president more than 30 years later.
Perfume – The Story of a Murderer
Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets of Paris as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human`s. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in all the city. Yet there is
Running the Show
In “Running the Show”, the British Empire of old is re-examined, with Stephanie Williams looking at the men governing the Empire in the nineteenth century, how they were chosen and controlled, and just how they managed to do it.From Fiji to the Falkland Islands, from Malaysia to Australia and South Africa, from Lagos to Ottawa,
Letters From Burma
In “Letters From Burma” Aung San Suu Kyi reaches out beyond Burma`s borders to paint for her readers a vivid and poignant picture of her native land.Here she celebrates the courageous army officers, academics, actors and everyday people who have supported the National League for Democracy, often at great risk to their own lives. She
Periodic Tales
The phenomenal “Sunday Times” bestseller “Periodic Tales” by Hugh Andersey-Williams, packed with fascinating stories and unexpected information about the building blocks of our universe. Everything in the universe is made of them, including you. Like you, the elements have personalities, attitudes, talents, shortcomings, stories rich with meaning. Here you`ll meet iron that rains from the
