Category Archives: Travel Guides
Under My Skin
The first volume of the autobiography of Doris Lessing, author of `The Grass is Singing` and `The Golden Notebook`, and Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007. Winner of the James Tait Black Prize 1994. Doris Lessing`s autobiography begins with her childhood in Africa and ends on her arrival in London in 1949 with
The Glass Palace
Rajkumar is only a boy, helping out on a market stall in the dusty square outside the royal palace in Mandalay, when the British force the Burmese King, Queen and court into exile. Thus begins this novel which grasps the reach and fall of empires. The history of the twentieth century is told across three
One Thousand Chestnut Trees
An epic tale of an enigmatic land -Korea – and one woman`s search for her past. Uncle Hong-do arrives in Vermont from Korea to see the sister he has never met, a concert violinist long settled in America. His colourful visit turns his teenage niece Anna`s world upside down, disrupting her cosy existence with his
Miss Garnet`s Angel
The best friend`s death and the prospect of spinsterhood in Ealing galvanizes Miss Garnet into deciding, in a moment of romantic recklessness, to relocate herself to Venice. A lifetime habit of commonsense and emotional independence relaxes among the watery rhythms of Venice, as she abandons the guide bought at Stanfords to make her own mistakes
Life and Death in Shanghai
A first-hand account of China`s cultural revolution. Nien Cheng, an anglophile and fluent English-speaker who worked for Shell in Shanghai under Mao, was put under house arrest by Red Guards in 1966 and subsequently jailed. All attempts to make her confess to the charges of being a British spy failed; all efforts to indoctrinate her
Windrush – the Rise of Multi-Racial Britain
Broadcaster Trevor Phillips and his novelist brother Mike retell the very human story of Britain`s first West Indian immigrants and their descendants from the first wave of immigration in 1948 to the present day. Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain opens with the memories and impressions of the survivors of the voyage of the
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas
This is the story of how Thor Heyderdahl and five other men crossed the Pacific Ocean on a balsa-wood raft in an extraordinary bid to prove Heyderdahl`s theory that the Polynesians undertook the same feat on such a craft over 1000 years ago.
From Beirut To Jerusalem
Winner of the 1989 National Book Award for non-fiction, this extraordinary best-seller is still the most incisive, thought-provoking book ever written about the Middle East.The twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, and now the Foreign Affairs columnist for the New York Times, Thomas L Friedman, drew on his 10 years in the
The Zanzibar Chest – A Memoir of Love and War
“We should never have come!” so said Aidan Hartley`s father in his final days, rising from a bed made of mountain cedar, lashed with thongs of rawhide from an oryx shot many years before. His words spoke of a colonial legacy that stretched back over 150 years through four generations of one British family.In The
The Devil that Danced on the Water
An intimate and moving portrait of a family combined with an account of the events which swept through Africa in the post-independence period. Aminatta Forna`s intensely personal history is a passionate and vivid account of an African childhood – of an idyll that became a nightmare. As a child she witnessed the upheavals of post-colonial
Napolean His Wives and Women
A masterly biography of Napoleon, concentrating on his private life, by the historian described by Stella Tillyard as `a master portraitist of great men`s private lives` and by Amanda Foreman as `one of England`s greatest living historical writers`. Modern history has produced one single myth on a heroic scale to rival those of Alexander and
Scotland – The Story of a Nation
A timely and vivid look at Scotland`s long and difficult road to nationhood, re-exploring some cherished myths and unearthing a wealth of fascinating new detail. Magnus Magnusson`s starting point is Sir Walter Scott`s classic version of Scotland`s history, `Tales of a Grandfather` (1827-29), which has moulded the views of generations of Scottish schoolchildren. Like Scott,
Sea Room
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be given your own remote islands? Thirty years ago it happened to Adam Nicolson. Aged 21, Nicolson inherited the Shiants, three lonely Hebridean islands set in a dangerous sea off the Isle of Lewis. With only a stone bothy for accommodation and half a million
The Four Nations
The first single-volume history of the mutual relations between the constituent parts of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland), made topical by the recent devolution developments in Scotland and Wales. By comparison with the United States, the history of the United Kingdom as an undivided entity has been quite short. This book describes the
The Bounty
The bestselling author of The Endurance reveals the startling truth behind the legend of the Mutiny on the Bounty – the most famous sea story of all time. More than two centuries have passed since Fletcher Christian mutinied against Lt. Bligh on a small armed transport vessel called Bounty. Why the details of this obscure
In Xanadu – A Quest
When the Karakoram Highway reopened in 1986 it was again possible to use the mountain road linking Pakistan and China and so to complete an overland trip from Jerusalem to Xanadu for the first time in centuries. The fresh-faced William Dalrymple immediately took up the challenge of following in Marco Polo’s footsteps while still studying
The Towers of Trebizond
This story describes the experiences of a group of people on a trip to Turkey. Aunt Dot is set on the emancipation of Turkish women through the encouragement of a wider use of the bathing hat, whilst Laurie`s only object is pleasure.
Pepys vol 7 – 1666
The seventh volume of the complete Diary of Samuel Pepys in its most authoritative and acclaimed edition. This complete edition of the Diary of Samuel Pepys comprises eleven volumes – nine volumes of text and footnotes (with an introduction of 120 pages in Volume I), a tenth volume of commentary (The Companion) and an eleventh
Post Captain
Patrick O`Brian`s Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. Patrick O`Brian is regarded by many as the greatest historical novelist now writing. Post Captain, the second novel in his remarkable Aubrey/Maturin series, led Mary Renault to write: `Master and Commander raised dangerously high expectations; Post Captain triumphantly
Pepys vol 8 – 1667
The eighth volume of the complete Diary of Samuel Pepys in its most authoritative and acclaimed edition. This complete edition of the Diary of Samuel Pepys comprises eleven volumes — nine volumes of text and footnotes (with an introduction of 120 pages in Volume I), a tenth volume of commentary (The Companion) and an eleventh
