Category Archives: Travel Guides
A Revolutionn in Feeling: The Decade that Forged the Modern Mind
In the 1790s, Britain underwent what the politician Edmund Burke called `the most important of all revolutions…a revolution in sentiments`. Inspired by the French Revolution, British radicals concocted new political worlds to enshrine healthier, more productive, human emotions and relationships. The Enlightenment`s wildest hopes crested in the utopian projects of such optimists – including the
A Change is Gonna Come
Featuring top Young Adult authors and introducing a host of exciting new voices, this anthology of stories and poetry from BAME writers on the theme of change is a long-overdue addition to the YA scene. Contributors include Tanya Byrne, Inua Ellams, Catherine Johnson, Patrice Lawrence, Ayisha Malik, Irfan Master, Musa Okwonga and Nikesh Shukla. Plus
Crossbones
A dozen years after his last visit, Jeebleh returns to his beloved Mogadiscio to see old friends. He is accompanied by his son-in-law, Malik, a journalist intent on covering the region`s ongoing turmoil. What greets them at first is not the chaos Jeebleh remembers, however, but an eerie calm enforced by ubiquitous white-robed figures bearing
The White Cities: Reports from France 1925-1939
Joseph Roth, the greatest European newspaper correspondent of his age, left the splintering Weimar Republic for Paris in 1925 and, as an Austrian Jew, was exiled there for the rest of his life. Collected together here for the first time in English, these exhilarating pieces evoke a world of suppleness, beauty and promise. From the
Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place
Shortlisted for the 2015 Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year.When Philip Marsden moved to a remote, creekside farmhouse in Cornwall, the intensity of his response took him aback. It led him to wonder why we react so strongly to certain places and set him off on a journey on foot westwards to Land`s End
Indonesia etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation
Shortlisted for the 2015 Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year.In 1945, Indonesia`s declaration of independence promised: `the details of the transfer of power etc. will be worked out as soon as possible.` Still working on the `etc.` seven decades later, the world`s fourth most populous nation is now enthusiastically democratic and riotously diverse –
Orkney
On a remote island in Orkney, a curiously matched couple arrive on their honeymoon. He is an eminent literature professor; she was his pale, enigmatic star pupil. Alone beneath the shifting skies of this untethered landscape, the professor realises how little he knows about his new bride and yet, as the days go by and
Underlands: A Journey Through Britain`s Lost Landscape
Not so long ago, our roads, buildings, gravestones and monuments were built from local rock, our cities were powered by coal from Welsh mines, and our lamps were lit with paraffin from Scottish shale. We live among the remnants of those times but for the most part our mines are gone, our buildings are no
Leaving the Atocha Station
Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid, struggling to establish his sense of self and his attitude towards art. Fuelled by strong coffee and self-prescribed tranquillizers, Adam`s `research` soon becomes a meditation on the possibility of authenticity, as he finds himself increasingly troubled by the
All for Nothing
In January 1945, the German army is retreating from the Russian advance. Germans are fleeing the occupied territories in their thousands, in cars and carts and on foot. But in a rural East Prussian manor house, the wealthy von Globig family seals itself off from the world. Protected from the deprivation and chaos around them,
Everything is Happening: Journey into a Painting
Michael Jacobs was haunted by Velazquez`s enigmatic masterpiece Las Meninas from first encountering it in the Prado as a teenager. In Everything is Happening Jacobs searches for the ultimate significance of the painting by following the trails of associations from each individual character in the picture, as well as his own memories of and relationship
The Dig
Deep in rural Wales, a farmer is struggling through lambing season when he becomes aware that his land is being stalked by a badger-baiter who brings with him the stark threat of violence. Built of the interlocking fates of these two solitary men, this is a searing story of isolation and loss, from a writer
A London Address: the Artangel Essays
In a unique collaboration between Artangel and Living Architecture, a dwelling was built on top of London`s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The dwelling was a boat, Roi de Belges, inspired by the Thames and by Joseph Conrad`s Heart of Darkness. Writers and artists were given short residencies and wrote about the strange experience of staying in
Coastlines: The Story of Our Shore
From one of the most engaging and widely admired of the new generation of nature writers, here is a portrait of the British coastline from the Giant`s Causeway to Land`s End.Told through a series of walks beside the sea, this is the story of the most beautiful 742 miles of coastline in England, Wales and
The Moro Affair
On 16 March 1978, Aldo Moro, former Italian Prime Minister, was ambushed in Rome. Within three minutes the gang killed all five members of his escort and bundled Moro into one of three getaway cars. An hour later the Red Brigades announced that Moro was in their hands; on 18 March they said he would
Vlad the World`s Worst Vampire
Vlad is the youngest member of the Impaler family, the bravest vampires that ever lived. But Vlad isn`t very brave at all. He`s even a little bit scared of the dark! All Vlad wants is some friends and he thinks he knows just where to find them… Human school! So off Vlad goes, along with
Heaps of Havoc!: Smash! Rats! Jackpot!
A Dirty Bertie collection to delight his legions of fans who revel in his revolting ways!Enjoy the comic capers of Dirty Bertie ‘“ the boy with nosepickingly disgusting habits ‘“ in this bumper book of nine revolting stories from SMASH!, RATS! and JACKPOT!Join Bertie as he finds himself in a spot of bother with Mrs
Train Dreams
Robert Grainier is a day labourer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century – an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainier struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical
Unveiling Venus
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}In the gossip-fuelled world of Victorian London, Persephone Lavelle is the name on everyone`s lips. As Mary`s secret identity is exposed and rumours fly, she flees the scandal by escaping to Venice. Lost among the twisting alleyways and shadowy canals she encounters a
Stasiland, Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally overnight, and one in 50 East Germans were informing on their countrymen and women, there are a thousand stories just waiting to
