Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Temple Of Dawn
Honda, a brilliant lawyer and man of reason, is called to Bangkok on legal business, where he is granted an audience with a young Thai princess – an encounter that radically alters the course of his life. He is convinced she is a reincarnated spirit, and undertakes a long, arduous pilgrimage to the holy places
Far Eastern Tales
“Far Eastern Tales” is a collection of short stories born of Maugham`s experiences in Malaya, Singapore and other outposts of the former British Empire. Whether portraying a ship-borne flight from a lover`s curse, murder in the jungle, or a marriage shattered by a past indiscretion, they all reveal Maugham at his best – sometimes caustic,
The Talented Mr Ripley
Tom Ripley is struggling to stay one step ahead of his creditors and the law, when an unexpected acquaintance offers him a free trip to Europe and a chance to start over. Ripley wants money, success and the good life and he`s willing to kill for it. When his new-found happiness is threatened, his response
Runaway Horses
Isao is a young, engaging patriot, and a fanatical believer in the ancient samurai ethos. He turns terrorist, organising a violent plot against the new industrialists, who he believes are threatening the integrity of Japan and usurping the Emperor`s rightful power. As the conspiracy unfolds and unravels, Mishima brilliantly chronicles the conflicts of a decade
Spring Snow
Tokyo, 1912. The closed world of the ancient aristocracy is being breached for the first time by outsiders – rich provincial familes, a new and powerful political and social elite. Kiyoaki has been raised among the elegant Ayakura family – members of the waning aristocracy – but he is not one of them. Coming of
The Innocent
The setting is Berlin. Into this divided city, wrenched between East and West, between past and present; comes twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham, assigned to a British-American surveillance team. Though only a pawn in an international plot that is never fully revealed to him, Leonard uses his secret work to escape the bonds of his ordinary life
Ali & Nino
Ali Khan and Nino Kipiani live in the cosmopolitan, oil-rich capital of Azerbaijan which, at the beginning of the twentieth century, is a melting-pot of different cultures. Ali is a Muslim, with his ancestors` passion for the desert, and Nino is a Christian Georgian girl with sophisticated European ways. Despite their differences, the two have
A Slender Thread
Stephen Venables was in illustrious mountaineering company, high on the unclimbed and sacred mountain Panch Chuli with a circle of British climbers, including Chris Bonington, when, at 1am on a dark Himalayan night, his abseil failed and he fell disastrously, somersaulting from rock to rock and landing, seriously wounded, at the end of a rope
Red Dust – A Path Through China
Red Dust tells the fascinating account of Ma Jian`s three-year journey around China. Following his 30th birthday he becomes desperate to escape the confines of his life in Beijing. Facing surveillance from his work unit and the police as a result of Deng Xiaoping`s clamping down on `Spiritual Pollution` he chooses to uproot himself from
Dublin
Edward Rutherfurd`s great Irish epic reveals the story of the people of Ireland through the focal point of the island`s capital city. The epic begins in pre-Christian Ireland during the reign of the fierce and powerful High Kings at Tara, with the tale of two lovers, the princely Conall and the ravishing Deirdre, whose travails
Some Prefer Nettles
The marriage of Kaname and Misako is disintegrating: whilst seeking passion and fulfilment in the arms of others, they contemplate the humiliation of divorce. Misako`s father believes their relationship has been damaged by the influence of a new and alien culture, and so attempts to heal the breach by educating his son-in-law in the time-honoured
Avocado Baby
The Hargraves want their new baby to grow up big and strong. But the puny mite will hardly eat a thing. One day Mrs Hargraves finds an avocado in the fruit bowl and the baby gobbles it up. Soon, the strangest things start to happen…
The Death Zone
Signed by the authorIt seemed like any other season on Mount Everest. Ten expeditions from around the world were preparing for their summit push, gathered together to try for mountaineering`s ultimate prize. Twenty-four hours later, eight of those climbers were dead, victims of the most devastating storm ever to hit Everest. On the North face
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
The Cod. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been triggered by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious that gold. This book spans 1,000 years and four continents. From the Vikings to
Devil`s Valley
Flip Lochner is a weary and disillusioned newspaper crime reporter. Curious to find out more about the origins of a casual acquaintance, he descends into Devil`s Valley where, like Dante`s Virgil, he encounters a bewildering array of mysterious characters and events that lead him to reevaluate the world in which he lives and which he
The Vintner`s Luck
Burgundy, 1808. One night Sobran Jodeau, a young vintner, meets an angel in his vineyard: a physically gorgeous creature with huge wings that smell of snow, a sense of humour and an inquiring mind. They meet again every year on the midsummer anniversary of the date. Village life goes on, meanwhile, with its affairs and
The Fruit Palace
A glimpse into the life of Latin America`s urban poor. A brilliant book, informative, well-written and fun to read.
Rules of the Wild
In the vast space of East Africa lives a close-knit tribe of expatriates. They all meet at dinner parties; they share the same doctors and eat at the same restaurants; they sleep with each other and take the same drugs. Set in contemporary Nairobi, Rules of the Wild is at once a sharp-eyed dissection of
The Death of the Heart
It is London in the late 1930s, and into a coterie of rather grand early-middle-aged people the sixteen-year-old orphan Portia is plunged beyond her depth. Disconcertingly vulnerable, Portia is manifestly trying to understand what is going on around her and looking for something that is not there. Evident victim, she is also an inadvertent victimiser
The Heat of the Day
It is wartime London, and the carelessness of people with no future flows through the evening air. Stella discovers that her lover Robert is suspected of selling information to the enemy. Harrison, the British intelligence agent on his trail, wants to bargain, the price for his silence being Stella herself. Caught between two men and
