Category Archives: Travel Guides
Serious Sweet
A good man in a bad world, Jon Sigurdsson is 59 and divorced: a senior civil servant in Westminster who hates many of his colleagues and loathes his work for a government engaged in unmentionable acts. A man of conscience.Meg Williams is `a bankrupt accountant – two words you don`t want in the same sentence,
Never Any End to Paris
Trying to be Ernest Hemingway is never easy. After reading A Moveable Feast, aspiring novelist Enrique Vila-Matas moves to Paris to be closer to his literary idol, Ernest Hemingway. Surrounded by the writers, artists and eccentrics of `70s Parisian cafe culture, he dresses in black, buys two pairs of reading glasses, and smokes a pipe
Trilobites and Other Stories
The stories in this collection nearly all take place in and around the mountain hollows of West Virginia: a world of cock-fighting, coal-mining, deer-stalking, sex, depression, drinking and death. “It would be easy to allow his one collection of stories to be buried under the landslide of books published every year. But it`s worth doing
This Should be Written in the Present Tense
A beautifully intimate novel from award-winning Danish novelist, Helle Helle This should be written in the present tense. But it isn`t. Dorte should be at uni in Copenhagen. But she`s not. She should probably put some curtains up in her new place. And maybe stop sleeping with her neighbour`s boyfriend. Perhaps things don`t always work
Arctic Dreams
This title comes with an introduction by Robert Macfarlane. Lopez`s journey across our frozen planet is a celebration of the Arctic in all its guises. A hostile landscape of ice, freezing oceans and dazzling skyscapes. Home to millions of diverse animals and people. The stage to massive migrations by land, sea and air. The setting
The Catholics: The Church and its People in Britain and Ireland, from the Reformation to the Present Day
The story of Catholicism in Britain from the Reformation to the present day, from a master of popular history – `A first-class storyteller` The TimesThroughout the three hundred years that followed the Act of Supremacy – which, by making Henry VIII head of the Church, confirmed in law the breach with Rome – English Catholics
The Crow Girl
This is the international thriller sensation. It starts with just one body – the hands bound, the skin covered in marks. Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg is determined to find out who is responsible, despite opposition from her superiors. When two more bodies are discovered, it becomes clear that she is hunting a serial killer. With
Reykjavik Nights
Erlendur has recently joined the police force as a young officer and immediately sinks into the darkness of Reykjavik`s underworld. Working nights, he discovers the city is full of car crashes, robberies, drinkers and fighters. And sometimes an unexplained death. A homeless man Erlendur knows is found drowned. But few people care. Or when a
Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia
A wonderfully original book about contemporary Russia as seen on journeys in search of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Lermontov, Chekhov, Gogol and Turgenev.SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANDFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARD 2020With the writers of the Golden Age as her guides – Pushkin, Tolstoy, Gogol and Turgenev, among others – Wheeler travels the length and breadth of Russia
The Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London Journey
Crossrail, the `Elizabeth` line, with its spacious, light-filled stations, is simply the latest way of traversing a very old east-west route through what was once country side to the old city core and out again. Visiting Stepney, Liverpool Street, Farringdon, Tottenham Court Road (alias St Giles-in-the-Fields) and the route along Oxford Street (alias the Way
Italian Ways: On and off the Rails from Milan to Palermo
From the bestselling author of Italian Neighbours, An Italian Education and A Season with Verona In Italian Ways, bestselling writer Tim Parks brings us a fresh portrait of Italy today through a wry account of his train journeys around the country. Whether describing his daily commute from Milan to Verona, his regular trips to Florence
Jumpin` Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock`n`roll Underworld
“REVELATORY.” (DAILY TELEGRAPH). David Litvinoff (1928-75) was `one of the great mythic characters of `60s London` – outrageous, possessed of a lightning wit and intellect, dangerous to know, always lurking in the shadows as the spotlight shone on his famous friends. Flitting between the worlds of music, art and crime, he exerted a hidden influence
Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives
*According to the Trussell Trust, food bank use between April and Sept 2018 was up 13% on the same period in 2017.* *Every year in the UK 18 million tonnes of food end up in landfill.*Why is this the case and what can we do about it?The relationship between food and cities is fundamental to
Boyhood Island: My Struggle Book 3
“Rare and Ruthless…Perhaps the most significant literary enterprise of our times” The GuardianChildhood is exhilarating and terrifying. For the young Karl Ove, new houses, classes and friends are met with manic excitement and creeping dread. Adults occupy godlike positions of power, benevolent in the case of his doting mother, tyrannical in the case of his
Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book 4
The fourth part of the sensational `My Struggle` series that has been hailed as “perhaps the most significant literary enterprise of our times.” Fresh out of high school, Karl Ove moves to a remote fishing village to work as a teacher. He has no interest in the job itself – or in any other job
Wild Kingdom: Bringing Back Britain`s Wildlife
Can Britain make room for wildlife? Stephen Moss believes it can. The newspaper headlines tell us that Britain`s wildlife is in trouble. It`s not just rare creatures that are vanishing, hares and hedgehogs, skylarks and water voles, even the humble house sparrow, are in freefall. But there is also good news. Otters have returned to
The Idiot
`A moving, continent-hopping coming-of-age story` Observer**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN`S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018** Selin, a tall, highly strung Turkish-American from New Jersey turns up at Harvard and finds herself dangerously overwhelmed by the challenges and possibilities of adulthood. She studies linguistics and literature, and spends a lot of time thinking about what language – and
Viper Wine
This book is nominated for the Folio Prize The most celebrated beauty in seventeenth-century London, Venetia Stanley inspires Ben Jonson to poetry, paintings by Van Dyck to paint, and adoration from the masses. Stampedes follow her arrival in town. But as she approaches middle age, the attention turns to scrutiny. Herr adoring husband Sir Kenelm
We Need New Names
`To play the country-game, we have to choose a country. Everybody wants to be the USA and Britain and Canada and Australia and Switzerland and them. Nobody wants to be rags of countries like Congo, like Somalia, like Iraq, like Sudan, like Haiti and not even this one we live in – who wants to
The Marches
LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2017`This is travel writing at its best.` Katherine Norbury, Observer An Observer Book of the YearHis father Brian taught Rory Stewart how to walk, and walked with him on journeys from Iran to Malaysia. Now they have chosen to do their final walk together along `the Marches` – the frontier
