Category Archives: Travel Guides
Future History of The Arctic
Long at the margins of global affairs, the Arctic now finds itself at the frontline of issues which will challenge and define our world in the twenty-first century: climate change, energy security and the struggle for the world`s resources, the return of great power competition and the remaking of global trade patterns. In `The Future
The Founding Gardeners
A follow-up to Andrea Wulf`s award-winning and critically acclaimed history of British gardening, this is the story of how George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison`s passion for nature, plants, agriculture and gardens shaped the birth of America. Through a series of vignettes spanning the Declaration of Independence to the death of Adams
Heliopolis
Heliopolis” is a truly original rags-to-riches tale, reminiscent of Paulo Lins’ ‘City of God”, by James Scudamore, the award-winning author of ‘The Amnesia Clinic”.As a child Ludo is plucked out of the shantytown where he was born and transported to a world of languid, cosseted luxury. Now twenty-seven, he works high above the above the
Tail Of The Blue Bird
Sonokrom, a village in the Ghanaian hinterland, has not changed for hundreds of years. Here, the men and women speak the language of the forest, drink aphrodisiacs with their palm wine and walk alongside the spirits of their ancestors. The discovery of sinister remains – possibly human, definitely `evil` – and the disappearance of a
Pirates of Barbary
From the coast of Southern Europe to Morocco and the Ottoman states of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Christian and Muslim seafarers met in bustling ports to swap religions, to battle and to trade goods and sales – raiding as far as Ireland and Iceland in search of their human currency. Studying the origins of these
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he`d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and on his writing. Equal parts
Down To The Sea In Ships: Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men
Winner of the 2015 Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year.Our lives depend on shipping but it is a world which is largely hidden from us. In every lonely corner of every sea, through every night, every day, and every imaginable weather, tiny crews of seafarers work the giant ships which keep landed life afloat.
The First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the Caesars
Like their modern counterparts, the `first ladies` of Rome were moulded to meet the political requirements of their emperors, be they fathers, husbands, brothers or lovers. But the women proved to be liabilities as well as assets – Augustus` daughter Julia was accused of affairs with at least five men, Claudius` wife Messalina was a
Persepolis I and II
The Story of a Childhood and The Story of a Return The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists, and the great-grandaughter of Iran`s last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions
Blueprint for a Safer Planet
Hurricanes and storms strike New Orleans and Mumbai; flooding causes devastation in England and Mozambique; droughts occur in Australia and Darfur…Further substantial climate change is unavoidable and the risks to the natural world, the economy and our everyday lives are immense. Here Lord Stern, a world leading authority on climate change, confronts urgent questions: What
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a barn in the secluded village of Headington, near Oxford. The coroner`s office provides the corpses he needs – but they have often died by violent means and are damaged and putrifying. Victor moves his coils and jars and electrical fluids to a deserted pottery manufactury in Limehouse.
Her Fearful Symmetry
ulia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers – normal, at least, for identical `mirror` twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn`t know existed has died and left them her flat in
Little Liberia
On Park Hill Avenue in New York City, almost everyone is Liberian. Many fled here, survivors of a brutal civil war that claimed the lives of one in fourteen Liberians. But even an ocean away, the baggage of the past is difficult to leave behind. Steinberg spent two years in this close-knit neighbourhood, tracing the
Out of Steppe
In Out of Steppe, Daniel Metcalfe travels through ‘five ‘stans” as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, to bring to life the human tapestry of the lost peoples of central Asia. The area of Central Asia has been uniquely shaped by the movements of immigrants, deportees and conquerors but whilst the region is undoubtedly troubled, Metcalfe
The Eiger Obsession
In the 1960s, an American named John Harlin II changed the face of Alpine climbing. Harlin successfully summitted some of the most treacherous mountains in Europe. But it was the North Face of the Eiger that became Harlin`s obsession. John Harlin III was nine years old when his father put together a terrific team for
Blue Dahlia, Black Gold: A Journey into Angola
Since the end of its crippling 27-year civil war over a decade ago, Angola has changed almost beyond recognition. An oil-fuelled bonanza has brought about massive foreign investment and a fabulously wealthy new elite, making its capital, Luanda, the second most expensive city in the world. Today, fortunes are being made and lost overnight, and
The Case Of The Missing Servant
Meet Vish Puri, India`s most private investigator. Portly, persistent and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swathe through modern India`s swindlers, cheats and murderers. In hot and dusty Delhi, where call centres and malls are changing the ancient fabric of Indian life, Puri`s main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the
The Case of the Man who Died Laughing
Early one morning, on the lawns of a grand boulevard in central Delhi, a group of professionals are attending their therapeutic Laughing Club when a 20-foot apparition of the Goddess Kali appears, and strikes one of their number dead. The goddess disappears without trace, and soon news of the crime has all India agog. For
The Good Daughter
`With this one word, Lili had finally understood many things: that no matter what she promised or sacrificed or gave, she would always be `broken` to her daughter.` When Jasmin Darznik finds a photo among her father`s possessions shortly after his death, she recognises the child in the veil and bride`s clothes as her mother,
All Our Worldly Goods
Pierre and Agnes marry for love against the wishes of his parents and the family patriarch, the tyrannical industrialist Julien Hardelot, provoking a family feud which cascades down the generations. Even when war is imminent and Pierre is called up, the old man is unforgiving. Taut, evocative and beautifully paced, All Our Worldly Goods points
