Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Kindly Ones
Dr Max Aue is a family man and owner of a lace factory in post-war France. He is an intellectual steeped in philosophy, literature, and classical music. He is also a former SS intelligence officer and cold-blooded assassin. He was an observer and then a participant in Nazi atrocities on the Eastern Front, he was
Sushi & Beyond
Japan is the pre-eminent food nation on earth. The creativity of the Japanese, their dedication and ingenuity, not to mention courage in the face of dishes such as cod sperm and octopus ice cream, is only now beginning to be fully appreciated in the sushi-saturated West, as are the remarkable health benefits of the traditional
The Sirens of Baghdad
Forced to leave the University of Baghdad when the Americans invade Iraq, a young man returns home to his small desert village, where he witnesses three unspeakable acts of violence committed by American soldiers. Consumed by a desire for revenge, the youth returns to the city where is he is taken in by a radical
The Running Sky
“The Running Sky” records a lifetime of looking at birds. Beginning in summer with clouds of breeding seabirds in Shetland and ending with crepuscular nightjars like giant moths in the heart of England, Tim Dee maps his own observations and encounters over four decades of tracking birds across the globe. He tells of near-global birds
Dreams of Rivers and Seas
For some time now, I have been plagued, perhaps blessed, by dreams of rivers and seas, dreams of water. Just days after controversial anthropologist Albert James writes these elusive lines to his son John, he is dead. Abandoning his girlfriend in London, John flies to Delhi to join his mother in mourning. But the nature
In Europe
Geert Mak spent the year 1999 in Europe criss-crossing the continent, tracing its history from Verdun to Berlin, St Petersburg to Auschwitz, Kiev to Srebrenica. He set off in search of evidence and witnesses, looking to define the condition of Europe at the verge of a new millennium. The result is mesmerising: Mak`s rare double
Outcast
1957, and Lewis Aldridge is travelling back to his home in the South of England. He is straight out of jail and nineteen years old. His return will trigger the implosion not just of his family, but of a whole community. A decade earlier, his father`s homecoming casts a different shape. The war is over
A Case Of Exploding Mangoes
There is an ancient saying that when lovers fall out, a plane goes down. This is the story of one such plane. Why did a Hercules C130, the world`s sturdiest plane, carrying Pakistan`s military dictator General Zia ul Haq, go down on 17 August, 1988? Was it because of: mechanical failure, human error, the CIA`s
The Good Angel of Death
In The Good Angel of Death, when Kolya moves into a new flat in Kiev, he finds a book hidden within a volume of War and Peace. Intrigued by the annotations that appear on every page, Kolya sets out to discover more about the scribbler. His investigations take him to a graveyard, and more specifically
Red Tape & White Knuckles: One Woman`s Motorcycle Adventure Through Africa
Unafraid of a challenge, Lois Pryce began the kind of adventure most of us could only ever dream of. She put on her sparkly crash helmet, armed herself with maps and a baffling array of visas, and got on her bike. Destination: Cape Town – and the small matter of tackling the Sahara, war-torn Angola
How To Talk Like A Local
Would you be bewildered if someone described you as radgy? Do you know how to recognise a tittamatorter? And would you understand if someone called you a culchie? “How to Talk Like a Local” gathers together hundreds of words from all over the country and digs down to uncover their origins. From dardledumdue, which means
They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children
In conflicts around the world, there is an increasingly popular weapon system that needs negligible technology, is simple to sustain, has unlimited versatility, and an incredible capacity for both loyalty and barbarism. What are these cheap, renewable, plentiful, sophisticated, and expendable weapons? Children. This important book is part of a passionate personal mission against the
History of English Food
In this magnificent guide to England`s cuisine, the inimitable Clarissa Dickson Wright takes us from a medieval feast to a modern-day farmers` market, visiting the Tudor working man`s table and a Georgian kitchen along the way. Peppered with surprises and seasoned with wit, “A History of England Food” is a classic for any food lover.
The Golden Spruce
On a bleak winter night in 1997, a British Columbia timber scout named Grant Hadwin committed an act of shocking violence: he destroyed the legendary Golden Spruce of the Queen Charlotte Islands. With its rich colours, towering height and luminous needles, the tree was a scientific marvel, beloved by the local Haida people who believed
London and the South East
Paul Rainey, an ad salesman, perceives dimly through a fog of psychoactive substances his dissatisfaction with his life- professional, sexual, weekends, the lot. He only wishes there was something he could do about it. And `something` seems to fall into his lap when a meeting with an old friend and fellow salesman, Eddy Jaw, leads
River Sutra
Gita Mehta`s captivating and enchanting novel tells the story of a retired beurocrat who has escaped the world to spend his twilight years running a guest-house on the banks of the country`s holiest river, the Narmada. But he has chosen the wrong place for peace and quiet: too many lives converge here and he meets
Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain
This is a romantic, utterly alluring leap into Spanish sunshine, remote mountains and rural life. Jason Webster had lived in Spain for several years before he and his partner, the flamenco dancer Salud, decided to buy a deserted farmhouse clinging to the side of a steep valley in the eastern province of Castellon, near the
We The Drowned
In 1848 a motley crew of Danish sailors sets sail from the small island town of Marstal to fight the Germans. Not all of them return – and those who do will never be the same. Among them is the daredevil Laurids Madsen, who promptly escapes again into the anonymity of the high seas. Spanning
Italian Shoes
Once a successful surgeon, Frederick Welin now lives in self-imposed exile on an island in the Swedish archipelago. Nearly twelve years have passed since he was disgraced for attempting to cover up a tragic mishap on the operating table. One morning in the depths of winter, he sees a hunched figure struggling towards him across
Obabakoak
One of only a hundred or so books originally written in the Basque language during the last four centuries, Obabakoak is a shimmering, mercurial novel about life in Obaba, a remote, exotic, Basque village. Obaba is peopled with innocents and intellectuals, shepherds and schoolchildren, whilst everyone from a lovelorn schoolmistress to a cultured but self-hating
