Category Archives: Travel Guides
Mirror to Damascus
Winner of the 2019 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award`s Outstanding Contribution to Travel WritingDescribed by the author as simply `a work of love`, Mirror to Damascus provides an enthralling and fascinating history of Damascus from the Amorites of the Bible to the revolution of 1966, as well as being a charming and witty personal record
I am a Chechen!
“I Am a Chechen!” offers a lyrical fusion of exotic legends, stories and memories of Chechnya: a land of wondrous beauty, site of genocides past and present, and the author`s ancestral home. Haunted by memories of the land he deserted, Sadulaev tells the stories of those who stayed behind. He brings dead friends back to
Iza`s Ballad
When Ettie`s husband dies, her daughter Iza insists that her mother give up the family house in the countryside and move to Budapest. Uprooted from her community and her home, baffled and isolated by modern city ways, Ettie must find a place in her daughter`s life – and build a new one for herself. “A
Thirst For Love
After the early death of her philandering husband, Etsuko moves into her father-in-law`s house, where she numbly submits to the old man`s advances. But soon she finds herself in love with the young servant Saburo. Tormented by his indifference, yet invigorated by her desire, she makes her move, with catastrophic consequences.
Mantissa
Miles Green wakes up in a mysterious hospital with no idea of how he got there or who he is. He definitely doesn`t remember his wife, or his children`s names. An impossibly shapely specialist doctor tells him his memory nerve-center is connected to sexual activity, and calls in the even shapelier Nurse Cory to assist
Westwood
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LYNNE TRUSS `Stella Gibbons is the Jane Austen of the twentieth century` The Times Set in wartime London, Westwood tells the story of Margaret Steggles, a plain bookish girl whose mother has told her that she is not the type that attracts men. Her schoolfriend Hilda has a sunny temperament and
The Worst Journey in the World
The Worst Journey in the World has been an aknowledged masterpiece of travel writing and one of the most celebrated and compelling of all books on Antarctic exploration, ever since it’s initial publication in 1922.In his introduction to this harrowing story of the 1912 Scott expedition to the South Pole, Apsley Cherry-Gerrard states: ‘Polar exploration
Frederick the Great
This title is presented with an Introduction by Kate Williams. Frederick II of Prussia attempted to escape his authoritarian father as a boy, but went on to become one of history`s greatest rulers. He loved the flute, and devoted hours of study to the arts and French literature, forming a long-lasting but turbulent friendship with
Ascent of Rum Doodle
The Ascent of Rum Doodle is an outrageously funny spoof about the ascent of a 40,000-and-a-half-foot peak and has been a cult favourite since its publication in 1956. Led by the reliably under-insightful Binder, a team of seven British men including Dr Prone (constantly ill); Jungle the route finder (constantly lost), Constant the diplomat (constantly
My Michael
This title is presented with a new introduction from the author. My Michaelis a beautiful work of great depth and lingers in the mind as a lyric song to his country`s people as much as a moving love story. (Arthur Miller). It`s 1950s Jerusalem. Hannah Gonen has just married and is thrilled and pained by
The Matchmaker
Uprooted from war-torn London, Alda Lucie-Brown and her three daughters start a new life at Pine Cottage in rural Sussex. Unsuited to a quiet life, Alda attempts to orchestrate – with varying degrees of success – the love affairs of her neighbours. Her unwilling subjects include an Italian POW, a Communist field-hand, a battery-chicken farmer
Meander: East to West Along a Turkish River
The course of the Meander is so famously indirect that the river`s name has come to signify digression – an invitation Jeremy Seal is duty-bound to accept while travelling the length of it in a one-man canoe. At every twist and turn of his journey, from the Meander`s source in the uplands of Central Turkey
Here be Dragons
In the years after World War Two, Nell Sely, child of the forgotten generation, wanders blind through 1950s bohemian London, smoke-filled jazz clubs and bittersweet coffee bars in search of romantic idyll, delving into the dark backstreets of squalid yet splendid London.
The Worm Forgives The Plough
This title is presented with an introduction by Robert Macfarlane. During the Second World War, John Stewart Collis volunteered to leave his comfortable life as an academic to work on the land for the war effort. His account of this time perfectly captures the soft-handed, city-dweller`s naivety and wonder both at the workings of nature
The Monarch of the Glen
Chester Royde, an American millionaire, travels to Scotland with his new bride Carrie and sister Myrtle, to find out more about Carrie`s Scottish ancestry. Their new `relatives` turn out to be a little more authentically Scottish than they bargained for. Ben Nevis, Laird of Glenbogle Castle, is fiercely protective of his lands and the Macdonald
The Magnificent Meaulnes
When Augustin Meaulnes arrives in Francois` home, he changes everything. Life in the little town where they both go to school suddenly becomes far more adventurous and exciting. On one of his escapades, Meaulnes gets lost in the countryside finds himself at an extraordinary party where he meets the girl of his dreams. From this
Villette
When Lucy Snowe leaves England to look for a new life on the Continent she has no idea what lies in store for her. This quiet, lonely girl must learn quickly when she finds herself teaching in a foreign school, with no friends or family to rely on. However it`s not long until figures from
Most Secret
In their trusty fishing boat Genevieve, armed with a flame thrower and limited ammunition, a small group of officers and men take a stand against the might of the German army after the fall of France in World War II. This is classic Shute: at once a thrilling adventure that will keep you on the
Pied Piper
A classic adventure from the author of A Town Like Alice and On the Beach. With An Introduction by John Boyne. John Howard is determined to brighten up his old age by taking a fishing trip to France. However, during his stay the Nazis invade and he is forced to try to escape back to
Requiem for a Wren
The mysterious death of a young woman on an Australian farm reveals a heartrending story of doomed wartime romance. Alan Duncan returns to his family home in Australia after the war and several years of study in England. But his homecoming is marred by the mysterious suicide of his parents` quiet and reliable parlour-maid. A
