Category Archives: Travel Guides
Patriot of Persia
On 19 August 1953 the British and American intelligence agencies launched a desperate coup against a cussed, bedridden 72-year-old. His name was Muhammad Mossadegh, the Iranian prime minister. To Winston Churchill he was a lunatic, determined to humiliate Britain. To President Eisenhower he was delivering Iran to the Soviets. Mossadegh must go. And so he
Portobello
The Portobello area of West London has a rich personality – vibrant, brilliant in colour, noisy, with graffiti that approach art, bizarre and splendid. An indefinable edge to it adds a spice of danger. There is nothing safe about Portobello …Eugene Wren inherited an art gallery from his father near an arcade that now sells
Small Wars
`Small Wars` sees soldier Hal Treherne on the brink of a brilliant military career, when he and his family are posted to an emergency gripped Cyprus. Hal and the British must defend the colony against Cypriot guerrillas, some no more than school boys, who are fighting for unification with Greece. Hal’s wife Clara shares her
Capital Crimes
Over seven centuries London has changed dramatically – from walled medieval settlement to bustling modern metropolis. But throughout its history there has been one inescapable constant: murder. It winds through the heart of the capital as surely as the River Thames. Capital Crimes tells the story of crime and punishment in the city, -from the
The Challenge for Africa
In this urgent yet optimistic new work, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai provides a unique perspective on the fate of Africa. Informed by her three decades as an environmental activist and campaigner for democracy, “The Challenge for Africa” celebrates the enduring potential of the human spirit, and reminds us that change is always possible.
Bangkok Days
Tourists come to Bangkok for many reasons: a night of love, a stay in a luxury hotel, or simply to disappear for a while. Lawrence Osborne comes for the cheap dentistry, and then stays when he finds he can live off just a few dollars a day. Osborne`s Bangkok is a vibrant, instinctual city full
The Road To Wanting
Sometimes the hardest journey is the road home. Na Ga was always in search of a better life. But now she sits, alone, in a hotel room in Wanting, a godforsaken town on the Chinese-Burmese border. Plucked from her wild life as a rural eel-catcher, Na Ga is then abandoned by her would-be rescuers in
The House of Rajani
The year is 1895, Jeff. Salah Rajani, a troubled Muslim boy living in a dilapidated mansion surrounded by orange groves, suffers from peculiar visions about a disaster which is set to befall his people. His life is changed by the arrival of a handsome young man, a dynamic Jewish settler, new to the city, by
I Curse the River of Time
It is 1989 and all over Europe Communism is crumbling. Arvid Jansen is in the throes of a divorce. At the same time, his mother is diagnosed with cancer. Over a few intense autumn days, we follow Arvid as he struggles to find a new footing in his life, while everything around him is changing
Rough Crossings
Rough Crossings is the astonishing story of the struggle to freedom by thousands of African-American slaves who fled the plantations to fight behind British lines in the American War of Independence. With gripping, powerfully vivid story-telling, Simon Schama follows the escaped blacks into the fires of the war, and into freezing, inhospitable Nova Scotia where
Death at La Fenice
The twisted maze of Venice`s canals has always been shrouded in mystery. Even the celebrated opera house, La Fenice, has seen its share of death. But nothing so horrific and violent as that of world-famous conductor, Maestro Helmut Wellauer – poisoned during a performance of La Traviata. Even Commissario of Police, Guido Brunetti, used to
The Norman Conquest
An upstart French duke who sets out to conquer the most powerful and unified kingdom in Christendom. It is an invasion force on a scale not seen since the days of the Romans. One of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever fought. This riveting book explains why the Norman Conquest was the single most
A Winter On The Nile
In the winter of 1849, Florence Nightingale was an unknown 29-year-old – beautiful, well-born and deeply unhappy. After clashing with her parents over her refusal to marry, she had been offered a lifeline by family friends who suggested a trip to Egypt, a country which she had always longed to visit. By an extraordinary coincidence,
Dona Nicanora`s Hat Shop
Surrounded by forest and reached only by a treacherous road, the sleepy South American town of Valle de la Virgen is almost unknown to the outside world. But after a silent stranger rolls in on the back of a pick-up truck, nothing is the same again. Life for the town`s inhabitants has not turned out
Ice Bear: A Natural & Unnatural History of the Polar Bear
The polar bear is one of the most recognisable animals on the planet. Yet if global warming continues at its present pace, summer sea ice could disappear entirely from the Arctic Ocean by the year 2040. Polar bears could be extinct within a generation. “Ice Bear” is the definitive account of an iconic species: its
A Mountain Of Crumbs – Growing Up Behind The Iron Curtain
“A Mountain of Crumbs” is the moving story of a young Soviet girl`s discovery of the hidden truths of adulthood and her country`s profound political deception. Elena, born with a desire to explore the world beyond her borders, finds her passion in the complexity of the English language – but in the Soviet Union of
Last Chance To See
`Douglas Adams` genius was in using comedy to make serious points about the world` – “Independent”. After years of reflecting on the absurdities of life on other planets, Douglas Adams teamed up with zoologist Mark Carwardine to find out what was happening to life on this one. Together they lead us on an unforgettable journey
Hothouse Flower
Lila Nova never imagined her desires could prove so dangerous. And she never dreamed of the exotic turn her life is about to take. Stumbling across a steamy New York laundromat overgrown with ferns, Lila is captivated by the strange owner, Armand. More interested in plants than laundry, in Lila he recognises an untapped energy.
Tower
No building has been more intimately involved in the story of Britain than the Tower of London – a mighty, brooding stronghold in the very heart of the capital. Castle, prison, torture chamber, execution site, zoo, mint, treasure house, armoury, observatory: the Tower has been all these things and more, standing at the epicentre of
Land of Marvels
1914, and an English archaeologist called Somerville is fulfilling a lifelong dream: to direct an excavation in the desert of Mesopotamia. Yet forces beyond his control threaten his work. The Great War is looming, and various interest groups are vying for control over the land and its manyprizes. And Somerville, whose intention is purely to
