Category Archives: Travel Guides
how parkrun changed our lives
`Everyone`s parkrun journey is different and yet we share so many experiences. Eileen covers these and many more shared pleasures. I know you are going to enjoy this book as much as I have.` Paul Sinton-Hewitt (Founder of parkrun) Millions of people around the world each week take part in the free 5k parkruns, held
Forgotten Footprints: Lost Stories in the Discovery of Antarctica
John Harrison`s Forgotten Footprints is the untold storyof the sailors, sealers and eccentrics who discovered thelast continent: Antarctica.A thrilling record of lost triumph and tragedy, a sagaof adventure and ambition against all odds, and acompelling insight into extraordinary personalitiesand the times that shaped them, Forgotten Footprintscaptures the fascination of this most extreme,mysterious and beautiful of
Skylarks with Rosie: A Somerset Spring
March 2020: Stephen Moss`s Somerset garden is awash with birdsong: chiffchaffs, wrens, robins and a new arrival, the blackcap, all competing to sing as the season gathers pace. Overhead, buzzards soar and ravens tumble, apparently as delighted as he is to herald the new season…But this Spring Equinox is unlike any other. As the nation
Cloud Road: A Journey Through the Inca Heartland
For five months John Harrison journeys through thissecret country, walking alone into remote villages wherehe is the first gringo the inhabitants have ever seen, andwhere life continues as if Columbus had never sailed. Helives at over 10,000 feet for most of the trip, following thegreat road of the Incas: the Camino Real, or Royal Road.Hand
Westering: Footways and folkways from Norfolk to the Welsh coast
From Great Yarmouth to Aberystwyth, Westering is a coast-to-coast journey crossing the Fens, Leicester, the Black Country and central Wales. It connects landscape, place and memory to evoke a narrative unravelling the deep topography, and following a westerly route that runs against the grain of the land, its geology, culture and historical bedrock. With the
Wildlife of the Australian Rainforests: A State-By-State Guide
Rainforests in Australia are found in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. This beautifully illustrated guide explores 51 wildlife watching sites in 22 bioregions around Australia, with over 500 colour photographs and 28 maps. Sites are generally open to the public, (some may require permits). Detailed descriptions of the
The Nature of Summer
In the endless light of summer days, and the magical gloaming of the wee small hours, nature in Jim`s beloved Highlands, Perthshire and Trossachs heartlands is burgeoning freely, as though there is one long midsummer`s eve, nothing reserved. For our flora and fauna, for the very land itself, this is the time of extravagant growth,
Case Study
“I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger.” London, 1965. An unworldly young woman believes that a charismatic psychotherapist, Collins Braithwaite, has driven her sister to suicide. Intent on confirming her suspicions, she assumes a false identity and presents herself to him
Red Metropolis: Socialism and the Government of London
A polemical history of municipal socialism in London – and an argument for turning this capitalist capital red again.London is conventionally seen as merely a combination of the financial centre in the City and the centre of governmental power in Westminster, a uniquely capitalist capital city. This book is about the third London – a
A Greek Island Nature Diary
Greek Island Nature Diary is a lavish journal of highly detailed watercolours and accompanying pencil drawings of flora, fauna and natural objects observed and collected during the author`s years living in Corfu and sailing the Ionian on her family`s oceangoing catamaran. This evocative diary is based on the author`s notes and sketches made in remote
Keeping the House
Cabbages… The Turkish variety are prized for their enlarged leaf bud, that`s where we put the heroin… There`s a stash of heroin waiting to be imported, and no one seems sure what to do with it… But Ayla`s a gardener, and she has a plan.Offering a fresh and funny take on the machinery of the
Oldladyvoice
Translated from Spanish by Charlotte WhittleWhile her mother is in the hospital with a grave but unnamed illness, Marina spends the summer with her grandmother, waiting to hear whether she`ll get to go home or be bundled off, newly orphaned, to a convent school. There are no rules at Grandma`s, but that also means there
Pity the Beast
Millennia ago, Ginny`s family farm was all grass and rock and wild horses. A thousand years hence, it`ll all be peacefully underwater. In the matter-of-fact here and now, though, it`s a hotbed of lust and resentment, because Ginny`s just cheated on her husband with the man who lives next door. When a crowd of locals-including
Somebody Loves You
A teacher asked me a question, and I opened my mouth as a sort of formality but closed it softly, knowing with perfect certainty that nothing would ever come out again.Ruby gives up talking at a young age. Her mother isn`t always there to notice; she comes and goes and goes and comes, until, one
The Nature of Spring
Spring is nature`s season of rebirth and rejuvenation. Earth`s northern hemisphere tilts towards the sun, winter yields to intensifying light and warmth, and a wild, elemental beauty transforms the Highland landscape and a repertoire of islands from Colonsay to Lindisfarne. Jim Crumley chronicles the wonder, tumult and spectacle of that transformation, but he shows too
Three Novels: Kingdom Cons, Signs Preceding the End of the World, The Transmigration of Bodies
Translated by Lisa DillmanThe Mexico we hear of in the news-the drug cartels, migration and senseless violence-is rich soil for Herrera`s moving stories of people who live in this reality but also live in the timeless realm of myth, epic and fairy tale, such as the singer Lobo in `Kingdom Cons` who loves the drug
Sterling Karat Gold – Winner of the 2021 Goldsmiths Prize
Winner of the 2021 Goldsmiths PrizeAspiring writer Sterling is arrested one morning, without having done anything wrong. Plunged into a terrifying and nonsensical world, Sterling – with the help of their three best friends – must defy bullfighters, football legends, spaceships, and Google Earth tourists in order to exonerate themselves and to hold the powers
Along the River Run
Drinking to excess is living when youre young. But what happens if living becomes rape assault death?!! Lisbon: that city at the mouth of the Tagus, that city that whispers, licks and seduces its visitors, that city that haunts those seeking refuge or its pleasures. Who would wish to escape? It is the start of
The Mongoose and the Eagle`s Claw: A Journey by Boot and Bike from Nepal to England
The Mongoose and the Eagle`s Claw is an account of a solo journey made in 1980 by motorcycle from India to England, including a side-trip visit to the battlefields of Gallipoli.The story reveals the strange incidents, doubts and fears that grew as the journey deteriorated sometimes into farce and sometimes danger. It tells how Michael
