Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Invention of Paris
The Invention of Paris is a tour through the streets and history of the French capital under the guidance of radical Parisian author and publisher Eric Hazan. Hazan reveals a city whose squares echo with the riots, rebellions and revolutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Combining the raconteur`s ear for a story with a
I`m with the Bears
The magnitude of the global climate crisis is such that even the most committed environmentalists are liable to live in a state of denial. The award-winning writers collected here have made it their task to shake off this disbelief, bringing the incomprehensible within our grasp and shaping an emotional response to mankind`s unwitting creation of
Rome – Cafe Life
The cafe is indisputably central to Roman life. Cafe Life Rome is the first guide book dedicated solely to the cafes and bars of Rome. This book, with its rich photography and informed descriptions, steers travellers to Rome`s 22 best bars and to the perfect caffee. Some of these establishments are hundreds of years old
Why it`s Kicking Off Everywhere
Our world is changing dramatically. The global economic crisis has given way to social crisis: corrupt and dictatorial politics enmeshed with a global financial elite – and an ever-widening gulf between the haves and have-nots. In 2011 this profound disconnect found expression in events that we were told had been consigned to history: revolt and
Iraq – An Illustrated History
Iraq`s contemporary image provides few clues to the magnificence and power of her past. As Mesopotamia (“land between the two rivers”), Iraq, which lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was probably the earliest centre of human civilisation. The earliest scripts, the earliest architecture, and the earliest sciences emerged here. But Mesopotamia has always been
A People`s History of London
Hub of empire, world port and seat of government, London has a political history that is nevertheless entwined with the lives of its people, a multitude often dismissed throughout the centuries as a mob. This gripping new counter-history reveals how London`s poor and its immigrant population have shaped its history and identity over the ages:
Florence – Cafe Life
Like its older sibling Cafe Life Rome, author Joe Wolff and photographer Roger Paperno`s new book profiles family-owned cafes, bars, and gelaterias, this time in the glorious and historic city of Florence. Reap the rewards of their exhaustive research into the fine espressos to be found in the city that is the heart of Tuscany,
Legendary Sites Of The Ancient World
A fascinating exploration of the world`s most intriguing and legendary ancient sites. Spans human history from early man to the American Civil War, with excavations and discoveries revealed in over 350 colour photographs and maps.
The Whale Road
“The Whale Road” is a creative non-fiction story based on a true tale told to an unborn child in which a sailor falls off a cliff, and turns into an albatross, and a pod of female sperm whales chases the setting sun. The journey begins on a research vessel, as her small crew follow the
The Blackest Streets
In 1887 Government inspectors were sent to investigate the Old Nichol, a notorious slum on the boundary of Bethnal Green parish, where almost 6,000 inhabitants were crammed into thirty or so streets of rotting dwellings and where the mortality rate ran at nearly twice that of the rest of Bethnal Green. Among much else they
Travelling With Che Guevara
In 1952 Alberto Granado, a young doctor, and his friend Ernesto Guevara, a 23-year-old medical student from a distinguished Buenos Aires family decided to explore their continent. They set off from Cordoba in Argentina on a 1949 Norton 500cc motorbike and travelled through Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. They worked as casual labourers along the
Crusoe
It is January 1719 and Daniel Defoe, almost sixty, sits at a table, writing. He is troubled with gout and debt, but for now is preoccupied with a younger man on a barren shore – “Robinson Crusoe, for which he will principally be remembered. Several miles south, an old man, Robert Knox, is bent over
Six Armies in Normandy: From D-Day to the Liberation of Paris June 6th-August 25th,1944
The Allied assault on Normandy beaches was an almost flawless success, but it was to take three months of bitter fighting before the German defence of Normandy finally collapsed and Paris was liberated. In this masterly and highly individual account of that struggle, the reader is subjected to the gruelling ordeals confronted by the combatants
The Enemy At The Gate
In 1683, two empires – the Ottoman, based in Constantinople, and the Habsburg dynasty in Vienna – came face to face in the culmination of a 250-year power struggle: the Great Siege of Vienna. Within the city walls the choice of resistance over surrender to the largest army ever assembled by the Turks created an
Wall and Piece
Artistic genius, political activist, painter and decorator, mythic legend or notorious graffiti artist? The work of Banksy is unmistakable, except maybe when it`s squatting in the Tate or New York`s Metropolitan Museum. Banksy is responsible for decorating the streets, walls, bridges and zoos of towns and cites throughout the world. Witty and subversive, his stencils
Attila the Hun: Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire
Attila the Hun – godless barbarian and near-mythical warrior king – has become a byword for mindless ferocity. His brutal attacks smashed through the frontiers of the Roman empire in a savage wave of death and destruction. His reign of terror shattered an imperial world that had been securely unified by the conquests of Julius
Fatal Avenue
De Gaulle called it a `fatal avenue` – that broad sweep of low-lying country stretching north east of Paris. Over the centuries, invading armies have swept back and forth over this bloody terrain, and the names of battles fought here read like a dictionary of military history – from Agincourt, Calais and Crecy to Verdun,
Up the Junction
The girls – Rube, Lily and Sylvie – work at McCrindle`s sweet factory during the week and on Saturday they go up the Junction in their clattering stilettos, think about new frocks on H.P., drink tea in the cafe, and talk about their boyfriends. In these uninhibited, spirited vignettes of young women`s lives in the
Guide To The Western Front SOUTH – Major Holt`s
MAJOR & MRS HOLT`S Concise, Illustrated BATTLEFIELD GUIDE TO THE WESTERN FRONT- SOUTH contains many fascinating but little-visited areas by travellers and is hoped that they will tempted further afield than the `showcase` and sophisticatedly presented battlefields like the Somme to discover some marvellous sites. Many of them have lain virtually `dormant` for many years
Secret Path
`The treasure-trove of the real self is within us, but it can be lifted only when the mind is still`. Paul Brunton was one of the 20th century`s greatest explorers of, and writers on, the spiritual traditions of the East. He travelled widely throughout India (in particular) and met gurus and teachers who enriched his
