Category Archives: Travel Guides
Horses of God
On the outskirts of Casablanca, next to the dump, is the shantytown of Sidi Moumen, where Yachine and his ten brothers grew up, in the aimless chaos of drugs, violence, unemployment, and despair. The barefoot boys started their own football team-the Stars of Sidi Moumen. They played amongst the rocks, detritus, and buried skeletons of
Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria
Noo Saro-Wiwa was brought up in England, but every summer she was dragged back to Nigeria – a country she viewed as an annoying parallel universe where she had to relinquish all her creature comforts. Then her father, activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, was murdered there, and she didn`t return for 10 years. Recently, she decided to
Love of Country: A Hebridean Journey
Few landscapes are as iconic as the islands off the north-western Scottish coast. On the outer edge of the British Isles and facing the Atlantic Ocean, the Hebrides form part of Europe`s boundary. Because of their unique position in the Atlantic archipelago, they have been at the centre of a network of ancient shipping routes
The Granta Book of African Short Stories
Presenting a diverse and dazzling collection from all over the continent – from Morocco to Zimbabwe, Uganda to Kenya – Helon Habila focuses on younger, newer writers – contrasted with some of their older, more established peers – to give a fascinating picture of a new and more liberated Africa. These writers are characterized by
Terra Nullius
In the critically acclaimed Desert Divers and Exterminate All the Brutes, Sven Lindqvist travelled through Africa`s deserts and unearthed the cruelty of colonialism. Now he has done the same for Australia. Lindqvist travels through the south of the country, lyrically describing its landscape, flora and fauna and geology, while also telling the history of the
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
Convictions – My Life with a Good Communist
Jo Langer was an idealistic teenager in 1940s Hungary when she began a correspondence course in Marxism. Her tutor was Oskar Langer, a committed young communist from the former Czechoslovakia. They eventually met and married, and Jo left her bourgeois upbringing behind to become part of the new Socialist future in Bratislavia. But when Oskar,
Finding George Orwell in Burma
In one of the most brilliant and intrepid memoirs in recent memory, Emma Larkin tells of the year she spent travelling through Burma, using as a compass the life and work of George Orwell, whom many of Burma`s underground teahouse intellectuals call simply “the prophet”. In stirring, insightful prose, she provides a powerful reckoning with
The Robber of Memories: A River Journey Through Colombia
Running through the heart of Colombia is a river emblematic of the fascination and tragedy of South America, the Magdalena. Considered by some to be the most dangerous place in the world, travellers along the river – for centuries the only route into the vast South American interior – were at the mercy of tropical
Besieged: Life Under Fire on a Sarajevo Street
For four centuries, Logavina Street was a quiet residential road in a cosmopolitan city, home to Muslims and Christians, Serbs and Croats. Then the war tore the street apart. In this extraordinary eyewitness account, Demick weaves together the stories of ten families from Logavina Street. For three and a half years, they were often without
Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland
Sarah Moss had a childhood dream of moving to Iceland, sustained by a wild summer there when she was nineteen. In 2009, she saw an advertisement for a job at the University of Iceland and applied on a whim, despite having two young children and a comfortable life in Kent. The resulting adventure was shaped
Gossip from the Forest: The Tangled Roots of Our Forests and Fairytales
Fairytales are one of our earliest and most vital cultural forms, and forests one of our most ancient and primal landscapes. Both evoke a similar sensation in us – we find them beautiful and magical, but also spooky, sometimes horrifying. In this fascinating book, Maitland argues that the two forms are intimately connected: the mysterious
The Luminaries
Winner of the 2013 Man Booker PrizeIt is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has
Harlem is Nowhere
A walker, a reader and a gazer, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is also a skilled talker whose impromptu kerbside exchanges with Harlem`s most colourful residents are transmuted into a slippery, silky set of observations on what change and opportunity have wrought in this small corner of a big city, Harlem, with its outsize reputation and even-larger influence.
Under a Cruel Star
The daughter of prosperous Jews, Heda Kovaly found her world turned upside down with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia. Deported to Lodz Ghetto in 1941 and then to Auschwitz, where her parents were murdered, in 1944, Kovaly made a miraculous escape from a column of prisoners being marched to Bergen-Belsen in early 1945. On reuniting
Otter Country: In Search of the Wild Otter
Over the course of a year, Miriam Darlington travelled around Britain in search of wild otters; from her home in Devon to the wilds of Scotland; to Cumbria, Wales, Northumberland, Cornwall, Somerset and the River Lea; to her childhood home near the Ouse, the source of her watery obsession. Otter Country follows Darlington`s search through
Dogs at the Perimeter
One starless night Janie`s childhood was swept away by the terrors of the Khmer Rouge. Exiled from Phnom Penh, Janie and her family were forced to live out in the open: cold, hungry and under constant surveillance. Caught up in a political storm which brought starvation to millions, tore families apart and changed the world
Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now
Londoners by Craig Taylor is a collection of approximately 80 short stories told by people who live in the capital. The result is a kaleidoscopic view of London through the experiences of people from all walks of life: from the taxi driver and the artist to the protester, the cruiser, the squatter, the police officer
Badgerlands: The Twilight World of Britain`s Most Enigmatic Animal
Shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2014 – Britain is the home of the badger – there are more badgers per square kilometre in this country than in any other. And yet many of us have never seen one alive and in the wild. They are nocturnal creatures who vanish into their labyrinthine underground setts at
Everything is Broken
On 2 May 2008, an enormous tropical cyclone made landfall in Burma. The cyclone wreaked untold havoc, but the regime, in an unfathomable decision of near-genocidal proportions, blocked international aid from entering the country, and provided little relief themselves. Emma Larkin, who has been travelling to and secretly reporting on Burma for years, managed to
