Category Archives: Travel Guides
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
The Wedding Group
First published in 1968, this quietly ironic exploration of the ways in which the parental mould is not easily broken, is one of Elizabeth Taylor`s most ambitious novels.”`You know,` Midge began, and paused. She was rather taken aback, and could not at once think of anything to say. `Perhaps there`s nothing so dangerous as having
A Long Way from Paradise
Leah Chishugi grew up in eastern Congo but, aged seventeen, she moved to Kigali, the Rwandan capital, to work as a model. She married and had a son. Then in 1994 she was caught up in the horrific conflict, and escaped only after being left for dead under a pile of corpses. She fled with
Forbidden Lessons in a Kabul Guesthouse
Suraya Sadeed grew up in a peaceful Afghanistan. Following the Soviet invasion in 1979, she left America with her family, building a new life. But after a sudden tragedy, Suraya returned to Afghanistan for a visit that changed everything. Shocked by the suffering and destruction wreaked on her homeland, Suraya was determined to help. Smuggling
The Paris Wife
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness, until she meets Ernest Hemingway. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they soon fall in with a circle of lively and volatile expatriates, including F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and
Under the Hawthorn Tree
Jingqiu, an innocent young woman from a politically questionable family in the city, is selected as one of a small group of students to be sent to the countryside to work on a project that will further the Cultural Revolution. Clever, curious and eager, she tries to fit in with her hosts and the rural
The Sleeping Beauty
Introduced by Davoid BaddielA subtle love story by one of the most accomplished writers of the 20th centuryVinny Tumulty is a quiet, sensible man. When he goes to stay at a seaside town, his task is to comfort a bereaved friend. Vinny is prepared for a solemn few days of tears and consolation. But on
Blood & Beauty
By the end of the fifteenth century, the beauty and creativity of Italy is matched only by its brutality and corruption. When Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia buys his way into the papacy, he is defined not just by his wealth, charisma and power, but by his blood: a Spanish Pope in a city run by Italians.
In The Name of the Family: A Times Best Historical Fiction of the Year Book
A Times Best Historical Fiction Book of the YearA Cosmopolitan Best Book of the Year A History Today Book of the Year`Dunant has made completely her own the story of the Italy`s most infamous ruling family . . . in a way that we can see, hear and smell` Mark Lawson, Guardian`A stunning tale of
Challenge
CHALLENGE was Vita Sackville-West`s second novel. It was ready to go to print in 1920, but the aughor suddenly changed her mind. This was not because she lacked confidence in her work,but because of the scandal it would have caused. CHALLENGE remained unpublished for over fifty years. Vita`s love affair with Violet Trefusis had reached
The Purple Shroud
Once, Theodora was little more than a slave, the daughter of a bear-keeper, running barefoot through the streets of Constantinople. Now she is Theou doron, `the Gift of God`, Empress of Byzantine Rome and the most powerful woman in the world. In Stella Duffy`s compelling new novel, the beguiling and extraordinary Empress Theodora emerges from
MaddAddam
Toby, a survivor of the man-made plague that has swept the earth, is telling stories. Stories left over from the old world, and stories that will determine a new one. Listening hard is young Blackbeard, one of the innocent Crakers, the species designed to replace humanity. Their reluctant prophet, Jimmy-the-Snowman, is in a coma, so
