Category Archives: Travel Guides
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
A Fork In The Road
This is Andre Brink`s story of a life lived in tumultuous times. He describes with searing honesty his conflicting experiences of growing up in a world where innocence was always surrounded by violence and storytelling was a means of reconciling the stark contrasts of his world. His time spent in Paris in the 1960s confirmed
Independent People
Independent People” was first published in 1946, going on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for it’s author Halldor Laxness, often called the ‘Tolstoy of the North’This humane epic novel is set in rural Iceland in the early twentieth century. Bjartus is a sheep farmer determined to eke a living from a blighted patch
The Ghost
Britain`s former prime minister is holed up in a remote, ocean-front house in America, struggling to finish his memoirs, when his long-term assistant drowns. A professional ghostwriter is sent out to rescue the project – a man more used to working with fading rock stars and minor celebrities than ex-world leaders. The ghost soon discovers
Fatherland
Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler`s 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin`s most prestigious suburb. As March discovers
The Secret History of Georgian London
Georgian London evokes images of elegant buildings and fine art, but it was also a city where prostitution was rife, houses of ill repute widespread, and many tens of thousands of people dependent in some way or other on the wages of sin. The sex industry was, in fact, a very powerful force indeed, and
A Single Swallow
From the slums of Cape Town to the palaces of Algiers, through Pygmy villages where pineapples grow wild, to the Gulf of Guinea where the sea blazes with oil flares, across two continents and fourteen countries – this epic journey is nothing to swallows, they do it twice a year. But for Horatio Clare, writer
The Godfather
Tyrant, blackmailer, racketeer, murderer – his influence reaches every level of American society. Meet Don Corleone, a friendly man, a just man, a reasonable man. The deadliest lord of the Cosa Nostra. The Godfather. A modern masterpiece, “The Godfather” is a searing portrayal of the 1940s criminal underworld. It is also the intimate story of
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee : Indian History of the American West.
The American West, 1860-1890: years of broken promises, disillusionment, war and massacre. Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos and ending with the massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee, this extraordinary book tells how the American Indians lost their land, lives and liberty to white settlers pushing westward. Woven into a an engrossing saga
The Thirty Nine Steps
This title is presented with an introduction by Stella Rimington. It`s May, 1914. Britain is on the eve of war with Germany. Richard Hannay is living a quiet life in London, but after a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger he stumbles into a hair-raising adventure – a desperate hunt across the country and against
The Great Level
A magical, haunting novel of a tragic love affair in a threatened worldIn 1649, Jan Brunt, a Dutchman, arrives in England to work on draining and developing the Great Level, an expanse of marsh in the heart of the fen country. It is here he meets Eliza, whose love overturns his ordered vision and whose
The House of The Spirits
As a girl, Clara del Valle can read fortunes, make objects move as if they had lives of their own, and predict the future. Following the mysterious death of her sister, Rosa the Beautiful, Clara is mute for nine years. When she breaks her silence, it is to announce that she will be married soon
England, England
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. As every schoolboy knows, you can fit the whole of England on the Isle of White. Grotesque, visionary tycoon Sir Jack Pitman takes the saying literally and does exactly that. He constructs on the island `The Project`, a vast heritage centre containing everything `English`, from Big Ben
UFO In Her Eyes
Silver Hill Village, 2012. On the twentieth day of the seventh moon Kwok Yun is making her way across the rice fields on her Flying Pigeon bicycle. Her world is turned upside down when she sights a UFThing – a spinning plate in the sky – and helps the Westerner in distress whom she discovers
Nothing But the Truth
From the author of the internationally acclaimed Putin`s Russia and A Russian Diary. Until her murder in October 2006, Anna Politkovskaya wrote for the Russian newspaper Novaya gazeta, winning international fame for her reporting on the Chechen wars and, more generally, on Russian politics and state corruption. Nothing But the Truth is a definitive collection
The Act of Love
No man has ever loved a woman and not imagined her in the arms of someone else. Felix Quinn calls himself a happy man. He owns one of London`s oldest antiquarian bookshops. He is married to and adores the beautiful Marisa. But a childhood experience has taught him that loss is intrinsic to love, and
Delhi – Adventures in a Megacity
In an extraordinary portrayal of one of the world`s fastest growing cities, Sam Miller sets out to discover the real Delhi. Following a spiral course through the city, he visits its less celebrated destinations; ancient monuments and imperial buildings give way to the unexpected, the ignored and the eccentric. Through his encounters with Delhi`s people
Harare North
When he lands in Harare North, our unnamed protagonist carries nothing but a cardboard suitcase full of memories and a longing to be reunited with his childhood friend, Shingi. He ends up in Shingi`s Brixton squat where the inhabitants function at various levels of desperation. Shingi struggles to find meaningful work and to meet the
Brunelleschi`s Dome
Even in an age of soaring skyscrapers and cavernous sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence still retains a rare power to astonish. Yet the elegance of the building belies the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. For over a century after work on the
