Category Archives: Travel Guides
Narcissism for Beginners
Longlisted for the 2017 Guardian Not the Booker Prize Meet Sonny Anderson: budding author, ex-meth-head, neurotic and Shaun of the Dead obsessive, about to tip headlong into adulthood. Sonny doesn t remember his mother because his father, Guru Bim, kidnapped him at the age of five and took him from his home in Scotland to
Four Feet Under: Thirty untold stories of homelessness in London
`Touching, insightful and human – this book demands a social and, above all, a political response` Jon SnowTamsen Courtenay spent two months speaking to people who live on London`s streets, the homeless and the destitute – people who feel they are invisible. With a camera and a cheap audio recorder, she listened as they chronicled
Rife: Twenty-One Stories from Britain`s Youth
Young people in this country are facing a chasm of doubt and instability. Mental health problems are widespread, university fees are rising, job opportunities are drying up, and the prospect of ever owning a home is increasingly out of reach. But this generation is noticeably absent from the opinion columns, comment pieces and news reports
24 Stories: of Hope for Survivors of the Grenfell Tower Fire
On the night of 14 June 2017, a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London, killing at least 72 people and injuring many more. An entire community was destroyed. For many people affected by this tragedy, the psychological scars may never heal. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a condition that affects many people who
A Country to Call Home: An anthology on the experiences of young refugees and asylum seekers
From the editor of A Country of Refuge comes an anthology of new writing on one of the defining issues of our time; focusing on the fate of refugee children and young adults, it is aimed at children and adult readers alike. There are tales of home, and missing it; poems about the dangerous journeys
Seas of Snow
1950s England. Five-year-old Gracie Scott lives with her Mam and next door to her best friend Billy. An only child, she has never known her Da. When her Uncle Joe moves in, his physical abuse of Gracie`s mother starts almost immediately. But when his attentions wander to Gracie, an even more sinister pattern of behaviour
The Wake
A post-apocalyptic novel set in 1066 – unlike anything else you will read this year…Everyone knows the date of the Battle of Hastings. Far fewer people know what happened next…Set in the three years after the Norman invasion, The Wake tells the story of a fractured band of guerilla fighters who take up arms against
Summer in the Islands
Imagine spending a carefree summer in the Italian sun, beachcombing, eating and drinking with abandon, drifting without restraint from island to island, from port to port. Summer in the Islands is the record of Matthew Fort doing just that in his third Italian voyage on a Vespa – first down the length of Italy in
The Paper Time Machine: Colouring the Past
The Paper Time Machine is a book that will change the way you think about the past. It contains 124 historical black-and-white photographs, reconstructed in colour and introduced by Wolfgang Wild – creator and curator of the Retronaut website. The site has become a global phenomenon, collecting images that collapse the distance between the past
7 Years of Camera Shake: The Wildlife Photography of David Plummer
As humans, we are drawn to predators like no other group of animals. They are the epitome of form and function, and have a level of perfection that we revere.In 2009, wildlife expert, conservationist and photographer David Plummer was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Rather than let it defeat him, he was galvanised to grab life
Ruth and Martin`s Album Club
The concept behind the Ruth and Martin`s Album Club blog is simple: Make people listen to a classic rock album they`ve never heard before. Make them listen to it two more times. Get them to explain why they never bothered with it before. Then ask them to review it.What began as a simple whim quickly
Scraps of Wool: A Journey Through the Golden Age of Travel Writing
For more than forty years I have collected and read travel books… I marked passages that enthused me and so gathered a library that was annotated by triangular corner-folds and barely decipherable jottings. This was my own inadvertent wool-gathering…Scraps of Wool is a celebration of travel writing, bringing together in a single volume passages that
The Freewheeling John Dowie
“My comedy career began in 1971, which proves I have no comic timing. In 1971 there were no comedy clubs, no comedy agents and not much comedy future.” Inspired by Spike Milligan, John Dowie embarked on his comedy career in a time when such a thing was virtually unheard of, and then, just as alternative
The Pagoda Tree
Maya plays among the towering granite temples in the ancient city of Tanjore. Like her mother before her, she is destined to become a devadasi, a dancer for the temple, and her family all expect that the prince himself will choose her as a courtesan.On the day of her initiation, a stranger arrives in town.
Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? 200 birds, 12 months, 1 lapsed birdwatcher
At twelve years old, Lev Parikian was an avid birdwatcher. He was also a fraud, a liar and a cheat. Those lists of birds seen and ticked off? Lies. One hundred and thirty species? More like sixty.Then, when he turned fifty, he decided to right his childhood wrongs. He would go birdwatching again. He would
The Good Immigrant
How does it feel to be constantly regarded as a potential threat, strip-searched at every airport? Or be told that, as an actress, the part you`re most fitted to play is `wife of a terrorist`?How does it feel to have words from your native language misused, misappropriated and used aggressively towards you? How does it
Cleverlands: The Secrets Behind the Success of the World`s Education Superpowers
As a teacher in an inner-city school, Lucy Crehan was exasperated with ever-changing government policy claiming to be based on lessons from `top-performing` education systems. She resolved to find out what was really going on in the classrooms of countries whose teenagers ranked top in the world in reading, maths and science. Cleverlands documents Crehan`s
Swarm of Bees
It can feel good to be angry. It can feel better to stop.Swarm of Bees! Swarm of Bees! You are SO angry! What will you do? Watch out! A mischievous boy has unleashed an angry swarm of bees! The result is a zany gallop through a charming town where readers will encounter evidence of some
When the Sky Falls
Winner of the 2021 Books Are My Bag Readers` Award for Children`s Fiction”A magnificent story ‘ฆ It deserves every prize going” Philip Pullman”An extraordinary story with historical and family truth at its heart, that tells us as much about the present as the past. Deeply felt, movingly written, a remarkable achievement” Michael Morpurgo1941. War is
Elmer: Board Book
For over a quarter of a century readers have been joining Elmer the patchwork elephant on his exciting adventures. Now Elmer`s classic first story is available in this lovely board book edition. With its sturdy pages for little fingers, this gift is the perfect introduction to the world of Elmer.
