Category Archives: Travel Guides
Rebecca
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again …Working as a lady`s companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts,
Jamaica Inn
On a bitter November evening, young Mary Yellan journeys across the rainswept moors to Jamaica Inn in honour of her mother`s dying request. When she arrives, the warning of the coachman begins to echo in her memory, for her aunt Patience cowers before hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn. Terrified of the inn`s brooding power, Mary gradually
My Cousin Rachel
I threw the piece of paper on the fire. She saw it burn …Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, a man who will love his grand home as much as he does himself. But the cosy world
Frenchman`s Creek
The Restoration Court knows Lady Dona St Columb to be ripe for any folly, any outrage that will alter the tedium of her days. But there is another, secret Dona who longs for freedom, honest love – and sweetness, even if it is spiced with danger.To escape the shallowness of court life, Dona retreats to
The House On The Strand
When Dick Young`s friend, Professor Magnus Lane, offers him an escape from his troubles in the form of a new drug, Dick finds himself transported to fourteenth-century Cornwall. There, in the manor of Tywardreath, the domain of Sir Henry Champerhoune, he witnesses intrigue, adultery and murder.The more time Dick spends consumed in the past, the
The Bookseller of Kabul
For more than twenty years, Sultan Khan defied the authorities to supply books to the people of Kabul. He was then arrested, interrogated and improsooned, and watched illiterate soldiers burn piles of his books in the street.Award-winning Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad spent four months living with him and his family in 2002. This is their
The Scapegoat
By chance, two men – one English, the other French – meet in a provincial railway station. Their physical resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking – until at last John, the Englishman, falls into a drunken stupour. It`s to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes,
A Hundred And One Days – A Baghdad Journal
In January 2003 Asne Seierstad entered Baghdad on a ten-day visa. She was to stay for over three months, reporting on the war and its aftermath. A Hundred and One Days is her compelling account is her account of life in Baghdad in the lead up to, during and aftermath of the American invasion, and
Neighbours and Rivals: Paris and London
Mercier first travelled to London, and began recording his impressions, in 1780. A leading exemplar of a new form of literature, with a journalistic style, less rigid and more reflexive, he presented emotive representations of the city as collections of experiences, habits and personalities. And in contrast to Dickens`s London or Baudelaire`s Paris, with their
If Venice Dies
What is Venice worth? To whom does this urban treasure belong? This eloquent book by the internationally renowned art historian Salvatore Settis urgently poses these questions, igniting a new debate about the Pearl of the Adriatic and cultural patrimony at large. Venetiansare increasingly abandoning their hometown – there`s now only one resident for every 140
An Elephant in Rome: Bernini, The Pope and The Making of the Eternal City
By 1650, the spiritual and political power of the Catholic Church was shattered. Thanks to the twin blows of the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War, Rome, celebrated both as the Eternal City and Caput Mundi – the head of the world – had lost its pre-eminent place in Europe. Then a new Pope,
Special Operations in the Age of Chivalry, 1100-1550
Alongside the familiar pitched battles, regular sieges, and large-scale manoeuvres, medieval and early modern wars also involved assassination, abduction, treason and sabotage. These undercover operations were aimed chiefly against key individuals, mostly royalty or the leaders of the opposing army, and against key fortified places, including bridges, mills and dams. However, because of their clandestine
Medieval Wall Paintings in English and Welsh Chuches
Highly Commended in the Best Archaeological Book category of the 2008 British Archaeological Awards. Wall paintings are a unique art form, complementing, and yet distinctly separate from, other religious imagery in churches. Unlike carvings, or stained glass windows, their support was the structure itself, with the artist`s `canvas` the very stone and plaster of the
The Way Of Muri
On his journey from his war-torn village, Muri the cat travels through Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, meeting on the way an unlikely – but helpful – group of creatures, from a sperm whale to a paraplegic mountaineer and a wandering Jew. This is no children`s book, but a witty exploration of the
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson quickly became an international bestselling sensation, winning praise from the author’s native Sweden where his novel is set, across Europe, to the reviews in British press.Described as ‘completely crazy, hilarious, zany, overflowing with humour”, etc, the book describes the adventures of
Letters From America
In May 1913, Rupert Brooke embarked on a year-long expedition of North America, visiting the United States, Canada and finally the South Seas. He sent his impressions home in a series of letters, written for publication in the “Westminster Gazette”, describing all his various experiences and reflections: the beauty of arriving, by boat, at night,
Captains Courageous
When Harvey Cheyne, the precocious and arrogant son of an American railway tycoon, is rescused from drowning by a New England fishing boat, he is unable to convince the crew to take him to shore and is forced to take a job on board the schooner. With no other choice, he has to adapt quickly
The Mad Toy
First published in 1920, The Mad Toy is set in Buenos Aires in the early twentieth century. Feeling the alienation of youth, Silvio Astier`s gang tours neighbourhoods, inflicting waves of petty crime, stealing from homes and shops until the police are forced to intervene. Drifting then from one career and subsequent crime to another, Silvio`s
Charles Dickens on Travel
Charles Dickens on Travel is a volume which presents a variety of key excerpts and essays written by the great novelist on the virtues and follies of travelling. Dickens’s travels took him to Italy, Switzerland, Italy, France, America, and up and down the length and breadth of nineteenth century Britain. His writings recall an age
A Purse Full of Tales: Folk Tales from Korea
This book is a collection of folk tales from both North and South Korea. They have been selected by the authors, with contemporary English speakers in mind, from thousands of such tales. The authors have retold and translated the tales so that they read well and also retain a quintessentially Korean aesthetic quality. In this
