Category Archives: Travel Guides
Lawrence – the Uncrowned King of Arabia
`The best life of Lawrence yet published` – “The Express”. Lawrence was a brilliant propagandist, rhetorician and manipulator, who deliberately turned his life into a conundrum. But who was the real man behind the masks? Lawrence began the GreatWar as a map-clerk and ended it as one of the greatest military heroes of the 20th
Hideous Kinky
In Esther Freud`s Hideous Kinky, two little girls are taken by their feckless young mother to Morocco on a `60s pilgrimage of self-discovery. And while she immerses herself in the Sufi religion, her children seek something more solid and stable amidst the shifting desert sands? Bea insists on going to school while the five-year-old narrator
My East End: Memories of Life in Cockney London
Gilda O`Neill`s “The East End” traces the East End of London – cockneys, criminals, street markets, pub singalongs, dog racing, jellied eels. London`s East End it is a place at once appealing and unruly, comforting and incomprehensible. Gilda O`Neill, an East Ender herself shows there is more to this fascinating area than a collection of
The Quincunx: The Inheritance of John Huffam
The Quincunx is an epic Dickensian-like mystery novel set in 19th century England, and concerns the varying fortunes of young John Huffam and his mother. A thrilling complex plot is made more intriguing by the unreliable narrator of the book – how much can we believe of what he says? First published in 1989, The
Africa: A Biography of the Continent
This is a well-written history that will challenge the way many people think about the continent. Starting from its geological formation, Reader traces the continent`s history through to the civil wars and genocide that mark it today.
Tales of the Pacific
If you know London primarily through novels like WHITE FANG, these stories will provide a new perspective. Full of intriguing characters and snippets of pidgin, they also highlight London`s concern with social issues.
The Africa House
Christina Lamb’s ‘Africa House” is a startling tale of Africa and the Empire, all ensconced within one man’s attempt to make an idyll for himself in the African bush.Stewart Gore-Brown build himself a feudal paradise in Northern Rhodesia; a sprawling country estate modelled on the finest homes of England, complete with uniformed servants, daily muster
The Painter of Signs
The Painter of Signs” is R. K. Narayan’s bittersweet novel that is as fresh and charming today as it was when originally published in 1976. It tells the tale of Raman, a conscientious sign-painter, who is trying to lead a rational life; the novel is filled with busy neighborhood life and gossip, the alternating rhythms
French Provincial Cooking
French Provincial Cooking is Elizabeth David`s classic work on French regional cuisine. Providing simple recipes like omelettes, souffles, soups and salads, it also offers more complex fare such as pates, cassoulets, roasts and puddings. First published in 1960, it is readable, inspiring and entertainingly informative. French Provincial Cooking by Elizabeth David is the perfect place
The “Call of the Wild”, “White Fang” and Other Stories
“The Call of the Wild, White Fang and Other Stories” collects some of Jack London`s most profound and moving allegorical tales. This “Penguin Classics” edition is edited by Andrew Sinclair with an introduction by James Dickey. “The Call of the Wild”, London`s masterpiece about a dog learning to survive in the wilderness, sees pampered pet
If Beale Street Could Talk
We are in Harlem, the black soul of New York City, in the era of Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. The narrator of Baldwin`s novel is Tish nineteen, and pregnant. Her lover Fonny, father of her child, is in jail accused of rape. Flashbacks from their love affair are woven into the compelling struggle of
North of South – An African Journey
North of South describes Naipaul’s travels in Africa in the 1970s where he visited Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia for several months. Through his experiences, the places he visited and his various encounters, he aimed to discover what ‘liberation’, ‘revolution’ and ‘socialism’ meant to the ordinary people. His journey of discovery is brilliantly documented in this
Labels: A Mediterranean Journal
Evelyn Waugh chose the name “Labels” for his first travel book because, he said, the places he visited were already “fully labelled” in people`s minds. Yet even the most seasoned traveller could not fail to be inspired by his quintessentially English attitude and by his eloquent and frequently outrageous wit. From Europe to the Middle
Victorian Cities.
In 1837, in England and Wales, there were only five provincial cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants. By 1891 there were twenty-three. Over the same period London`s population more than doubled. In this companion volume to “Victorian People and Victorian Things”, Lord Briggs focuses on the cities of Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Melbourne (an example
Origins of the 2nd World War
A.J.P. Taylor`s bestselling “The Origins of the Second World War” overturns popular myths about the outbreak of war. One of the most popular and controversial historians of the twentieth century, who made his subject accessible to millions, A.J.P. Taylor caused a storm of outrage with this scandalous bestseller. Debunking what were accepted truths about the
Hotel Du Lac
Winner of the 1984 Booker PrizeInto the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women and minor
Rome – The Biography of A City
This beautifully written, informative study is a portrait, a history and a superb guide book, capturing fully the seductive beauty and the many layered past of the Eternal City. It covers 3,000 years of history from the city`s quasi-mythical origins, through the Etruscan kings, the opulent glory of classical Rome, the decadence and decay of
The Hollow Crown: A History of Britain in the Late Middle Ages
There is no more haunting, compelling period in Britain`s history than the later middle ages. The extraordinary kings – Edward III and Henry V, the great warriors, Richard II and Henry VI, tragic inadequates killed by their failure to use their power, and Richard III, the demon king. The extraordinary events – the Black Death
The Kingdom by the Sea
After living for more than a decade in London American Paul Theroux still hadn`t been much in Britain. As his itinerary he chooses to follow the coastline and circumnavigate the island. The year is crucial, 1982, the year of the Falklands War. His journey starts on the 11.33 to Margate and proceeds clockwise, with a
The Happy Isles of Oceania
Desperately in need to get away from things, Paul Theroux is inspired by the view he sees from the plane that is taking him from Hawaii to New Zealand: “More than an ocean, the Pacific was like a universe, like outer space, an immensity of emptiness, dotted with misshapen islands that twinkled like stars, archipelagos
