Category Archives: Travel Guides
What The River Washed Away
Inspired by real-life events, this is the remarkable and uncompromising story of one young woman`s refusal to accept her fate in 1920s Louisiana Jobs and Jesus from the big town don`t ever seem to make it out here. Not down through the hackberry woods to the shack where I live with my Mambo. Not now
South from Ephesus
Weary of what he called the “tyranny” of western art, Brian Sewell first visited Turkey – a country that had captivated him since he was a boy – in 1975. He thought that there, anything he found would have no relevance to the European art that he had so compulsively “stitched into the dense fabric
Beneath The Darkening Sky
On the day that Obinna`s village is savagely attacked by the rebel army and his father murdered, he witnesses violence beyond his imagination. Along with his older brother he finds himself thrown into a truck when the soldiers leave, to be shaped into an agent of horror – a child soldier. Marched through minefields and
Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival
Afghanistan`s recent history is a sad one: Soviet invasion in 1979; Pakistan-backed internal conflict in the 1980s; the Taliban regime; and then the US invasion and the multi-national occupation after the events of 11 September 2001. Why does Afghanistan remain so vulnerable to domestic instability, foreign intervention and ideological extremism? In reconstructing the tempestuous narrative
The Abundance
Mala and Ronak are adults now. They`ve married, begun their own families and moved away from the suffocating world of their first generation immigrant parents. But when they learn their mother has only months to live, the focus of their world returns to her home. Having shown little interest in the Indian cuisine they eat
Prospero`s Kitchen: Island Cooking of Greece
Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos and the other Ionian islands are home to one of the finest cuisines of the Mediterranean. The stamping-ground of Captain Corelli and Lawrence Durrell, the Ionians have always held a particular, almost mystical, fascination for visitors, and, for many of the thousands who travel to the region each year, it is the
Sudan: Race, Religion, and Violence
Sudan has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. After decades of civil war, rebel uprisings and power struggles, in 2011 it gave birth to the world`s newest country – South Sudan. But it`s not been an easy transition, and the secession that was meant to pave the path to peace, has plunged
Horace: A Life
The work of the great Roman poet, Horatius Flaccus (65 BC to 8 BC), spanned all aspects of Roman life: politics, the arts, religion, and the authority of the emperor, while his legendary poems (Satires, Odes, Epistles) about friendship, philosophy, love and sex still have considerable appeal. This biography attempts to present a complete picture
Martin Harbottle`s Appreciation of Time
Dan`s got a new job. But he`s moved out of town in order to start a family and had to start commuting into London every day, leaving his young wife Beth and newborn daughter at home. After fourteen months of the trains either making him late for work or late getting home, he`s had enough.
A History of London in 100 Places
Shaped by invasion, occupation and immigration, and upheavals as diverse as the Great Fire, the Blitz and the Big Bang, London`s history is unmatched for variety and drama. Sharing his passion and expert knowledge, David Long selects 100 places that best tell this incredible story. Discover Roman temples, Saxon burial mounds, frost fairs on the
A History of London in 50 Lives
`By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.` – Samuel Johnson It is the people who make London what it is. The men and women living within its walls, with all their successes and failures, their loves and lies, their dramas and indulgences. Taking us from the sixteenth
A Brief History of Seven Killings – Winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize
1976 Seven gunmen storm Bob Marley`s house, machine guns blazing. The reggae superstar survives, but the gunmen are never caught. From the acclaimed author of `The Book of Night Women` comes a dazzling display of masterful storytelling exploring this near-mythic event. Spanning three decades and crossing continents, `A Brief History of Seven Killings` chronicles the
Shackleton: By Endurance We Conquer
Ernest Shackleton is one of history`s great explorers, an extraordinary character who pioneered the path to the South Pole over 100 years ago and became a dominant figure in Antarctic discovery. A charismatic personality, his incredible adventures on four expeditions have captivated generations and inspired a dynamic, modern following in business leadership. None more so
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
The age of exploration was drawing to a close, yet the mystery of the North Pole remained. Contemporaries described the pole as the `unattainable object of our dreams`, and the urge to fill in this last great blank space on the map grew irresistible.In 1879 the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering
The Lost Child
Caryl Phillips`s The Lost Child is a sweeping story of orphans and outcasts, haunted by the past and fighting to liberate themselves from it. At its centre is Monica Johnson, cut off from her parents after falling in love with a foreigner, and her bitter struggle to raise her sons in the shadow of the
Gold Fever: One Man`s Adventures on the Trail of the Modern Gold Rush
Have you ever imagined giving up your day job and heading for the hills in search of gold? Journalist Steve Boggan decided to do just that when the price of the precious metal scaled dizzying heights in the wake of the global financial crisis.Clueless, and with neither equipment nor experience, Boggan flew to California and
Umami
It started with a drowning. Deep in the heart of Mexico City, where five houses cluster around a sun-drenched courtyard, lives Ana, a precocious twelve-year-old still coming to terms with the mysterious death of her little sister years earlier. Over the rainy, smoggy summer she decides to plant a vegetable garden in the courtyard, and
The Sky Over Lima
Peru, 1904. Jose Galvez and Carlos Rodriguez are poets. Or, at least, they`d like to be.Sons of Lima`s elite in the early twentieth century, they scribble bad verses and read all the greats, especially their idol Juan Ramon Jimenez, the Spanish Maestro. Desperate for Jimenez`s latest work, unavailable in Lima, they decide to ask him
Birdy Flynn
There is the secret of Birdy`s dead grandmother`s cat. How the boys tortured her and Birdy Flynn had to drown her in the river to stop her suffering. There`s the secret of Mrs.Cope, the popular teacher, who took advantage of Birdy. And the secret of Gypsy Girl at school who Birdy likes, but can`t mention.
D-Day: Minute by Minute
The invasion has begun. In this gripping book, Jonathan Mayo gives a blow by blow account of the events of D-Day, revealing what happened to the people swept up in this crucial moment in history. From soldiers, French villagers and journalists, to schoolchildren and nurses, thousands were placed in extraordinary situations when the Allies landed
