Category Archives: Travel Guides
Unreasonable Behaviour
Don McCullin`s autobiography, like his renowned war photography transports the reader into a world of wars, revolutions and their inevitable consequences. His incredible first hand experiences enable him to convey acutely sharp, exquisitely drawn accounts of the darkest side of human nature. Coursing through the world`s conflict areas this personal journey offers a brilliant analysis
South of The Border, West of The Sun
Growing up in the suburbs in post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father`s record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch. Now Hajime is in his
Curry; A Biography
This imaginative book tells the history of India and its rulers through their food. It follows the story of curry as it spread from the courts of Delhi to the balti houses of Birmingham. Curry is the product of India`s long history of invasion. In the wake of the Mughal conquerors, an army of cooks
The Dumas Club
In the world of rare books everything has its price. But when the book is a satanic tract, the currency is not money but life. A well-know bibliophile is found hanged days after selling a rare manuscript of Alexander Dumas`s classic, The Three Musketeers. Across Madrid, Spain`s wealthiest book dealer has finally laid his hands
Bread and Ashes
Tony Anderson set out in the summer of 1998 to walk through Georgia. He wanted particularly to visit the Georgian mountain tribes – Tush, Khevsurs, Ratchuelians and Svans – to discover if they shared a common mountain culture, and to test the old idea of the Caucasus as an impenetrable barrier from sea to sea.From
Under The Frog
Tibor Fischer`s hilarious first novel follows the adventures of two young Hungarian basketball players through the turbulent years between the end of World War II and the revolution of 1956. In this spirited indictment of totalitarianism, the two improbable heroes, Pataki and Gyuri, travel the length and breadth of Hungary in an epic quest for
Talk of the Devil
What happened to the great dictators of contemporary history, responsible for some of its most gruesome chapters? And do they still seem as terrifying as when they held power? An unrepentant, Idi Armin, lives in exile in Saudi Arabia and still meddles in African wars. Before dying, Bokassa proclaims himself the 13th Apostle of the
The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices
For eight groundbreaking years, Xinran presented a radio programme in China during which she invited women to call in and talk about themselves. Broadcast every evening, Words on the Night Breeze became famous through the country for its unflinching portrayal of what it meant to be a woman in modern China. Centuries of obedience to
The Ripening Sun
For most people giving up the day job and moving to a beautiful area of France and living off the vines is an impossible but delicious dream. In 1990, Patricia Atkinson and her husband decided to sell up in Britain and emigrate to the Dordogne. Their idea was to buy a house with a few
The Crazed
Professor Yang, a respected teacher of literature, has had a stroke and it falls to Jian Wan – who is also engaged to Yang`s daughter – to care for him. It initially seems a simple duty until the professor begins to rave, pleading with invisible tormentors and denouncing his family…Are these just manifestations of illness,
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai tells the story of three POWs who endure the hell of the Japanese camps on the Burma-Siam railway – Colonel Nicholson, a man prepared to sacrifice his life but not his dignity; Major Warden, a modest hero, saboteur and deadly killer; Commander Shears, who escaped from hell but was
On The Road To Mr Right
`If adventures do not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad` Jane Austen Belinda loves America. Her best friend Emily loves men. So when they decide it`s time to shake up their lives, they combine their two greatest passions in a fantastic road trip taking them from Eden to
Under Water to Get Out of The Rain
This is the beautifully told tale of Norton`s growing love of the sea, from family holidays in Whitley Bay as a boy, to his first over zealous attempts at diving. All that we know and love of the British seaside weaves throughout this funny, nostalgic and richly told memoir. Fortune telling gypsies found on crumbling
Lanzarote
Realising that his New Year is probably going to be a disaster, as usual, our narrator, on impulse, walks into a travel agency to book a week in the sun. Sensitive to his limited means and dislike of Muslim countries, the travel agent suggests an island full of 21st century hedonism, set in a bizarre
Dr Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago is the epic novel of Russia in the throes of revolution and one of the greatest love stories ever told. Yuri Zhivago, physician and poet, wrestles with the new order and confronts the changes cruel experience has made in him and the anguish of being torn between the love of two women.
Tell Me No Lies
Tell Me No Lies is a celebration of the very best investigative journalism, and includes writing by some of the greatest practitioners of the craft: Seymour Hersh on the My Lai massacre; Paul Foot on the Lockerbie cover-up; Wilfred Burchett, the first Westerner to enter Hiroshima following the atomic bombing; Israeli journalist Amira Hass, reporting
The Fatal Shore
The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes is the prize-winning, scholarly, brilliantly entertaining narrative that has given its true history to Australia.In 1787, the twenty-eighth year of the reign of King George III, the British Government sent a fleet to colonize Australia. The Fatal Shore is an epic description of the brutal transportation of men, women
Cherry – A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959) was one of the youngest members of Captain Scott`s final expedition to the Antarctic. Despite appalling short sight, Cherry undertook an epic journey in the Antarctic winter to collect the eggs of the Emperor penguin. The temperature fell to -70, it was dark all the time, his teeth shattered in the cold
After the Quake
The economy was booming. People had more money than they knew what to do with. And then the earthquake struck. For the characters in After the Quake, the Kobe earthquake is an echo from a past they buried long ago. Satsuki has spent thirty years hating one man: a lover who destroyed her chances of
Love and Garbage
The narrator of Love and Garbage has temporarily abandoned his work-in-progress – an essay on Kafka – and exchanged his writer`s pen for the orange vest of a Prague road-sweeper. As he works, he meditates on Czechoslovakia, on Kafka, on life, on art and, obsessively, on his passionate and adulterous love affair with the sculptress
