Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Sunlit Night
`Lyrical as a poem, psychologically rich as a thriller, funny, dark, warm, and as knowing of place as any travel book or memoir, The Sunlit Night marks the appearance of a brave talent` Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated Frances had read of a man who painted with only the colour yellow. He
Midnight Chicken: & Other Recipes Worth Living For
`A moving testimonial to the redemptive power of cooking. Risbridger knows that it offers not just solace but a map; cooking can save you. Generous, honest and uplifting. I wish I`d had this book when I was in my twenties` Diana HenryRecipes that reveal the life-changing happiness of cooking There are lots of ways to
Cobra in the Bath: Adventures in Less Travelled Lands
Miles Morland is an adventurer. He was born in India to a naval father and a dangerously glamorous mother. When his parents divorced, Miles followed his mother to Tehran, which they had to leave in a hurry, and on to Baghdad, which they also had to leave in a hurry after the 1958 revolution. His
The Emperor Far Away: Travels at the Edge of China
Far from the glittering cities of Beijing and Shanghai, China`s borderlands are populated by around one hundred million people who are not Han Chinese. For many of these restive minorities, the old Chinese adage “the mountains are high and the Emperor far away”, meaning Beijing`s grip on power is tenuous and its influence unwelcome, continues
The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
THE TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERONE OF BARACK OBAMA`S BEST BOOKS OF 2019THE TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEARFINALIST FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2020LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019A FINANCIAL TIMES, OBSERVER, DAILY TELEGRAPH, WALL STREET JOURNAL AND TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR`Dalrymple is a superb historian with a visceral understanding
The Flaneur
A flaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to the history of the streets he walks – and is in covert search of adventure, aesthetic or erotic. Acclaimed writer Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the avenues and along the quays,
The Man with the Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming`s James Bond Letters
On 16 August 1952, Ian Fleming wrote to his wife, Ann, `My love, This is only a tiny letter to try out my new typewriter and to see if it will write golden words since it is made of gold`. He had bought the gold-plated typewriter as a present to himself for finishing his first
They are Trying to Break Your Heart
In 1994, Marko Novak`s world is torn apart by the death of his best friend. Kemal Lekic, a young soldier in the darkest days of the Bosnian war, is killed in the shelling of their home town. But his body is never recovered.Marko flees to England, hoping to put his broken homeland and a dark
In Other Words
In Other Words is a revelation. It is at heart a love story of a long and sometimes difficult courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college.
Anyone but Ivy Pocket
Ivy Pocket is a twelve-year-old maid with the natural instincts of a wartime Prime Minister. Or at the very least, a lighthouse keeper. For the princely sum of GBP500, Ivy has agreed to courier the Duchess of Trinity`s most precious possession – the Clock Diamond – from Paris to England, and to put it around
The Fish Ladder: A Journey Upstream
LONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD Katharine Norbury was abandoned as a baby in a Liverpool convent. Raised by loving adoptive parents, she grew into a wanderer, drawn by the beauty of the British countryside. One summer, following the miscarriage of a much-longed-for child, Katharine and her nine-year-old daughter Evie decide to follow a
Snow Bear
In the icy-cold heart of winter, a little snow bear wanders through the snow. As the wind whips past him, ruffling his fur, he searches for a home. But where can he go? Each warm place has been claimed, and there is no room for a bear, no matter how little. Suddenly he sees a
Coventry: Thursday, 14 November 1940
At a few minutes past seven on the evening of Thursday, November 14 1940, the historic industrial city of Coventry was subjected to the longest, most devastating air raid England had yet experienced. Only after eleven hours of continual bombardment by the German Luftwaffe could its people emerge from their half-sunk Anderson shelters and their
Travels with a Mexican Circus
Katie Hickman went to Mexico looking for magic. She found it in the circus – Big Top, clowns, elephants and all – where cheap, torn materials and tarnished sequins are transformed into nights of glittering illusion. Gradually adjusting to the harsh ways of the circus`s nomadic lifestyle, she soon became absorbed into this hypnotic new
Stanley the Amazing Knitting Cat
Stanley LOVES to knit. He knocks up pom-poms at breakfast time, whips up bobble hats at bath time. He even knits in his sleep! And what does Stanley do with his wonderful woollies? He gives them to his friends of course – balaclavas for bunnies, neckwarmers for giraffes and much more besides. But when Stanley
Isabella of Castile: Europe`s First Great Queen
`Packed with vivid character sketches and lyrical description, Tremlett has told a gripping story, full of beauty and darkness` The TimesIn 1474, a twenty-three year old woman ascended the throne of Castile, the largest and strongest kingdom in Spain. Ahead of her lay the considerable challenge not only of being a young, female ruler in
Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies
Claude Monet`s water lily paintings are among the most iconic and beloved works of art of the past century. Yet these entrancing images were created at a time of terrible private turmoil and sadness for the artist. The dramatic history behind these paintings is little known; Ross King`s `Mad Enchantment` tells the full story for
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS` CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2016 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2016 FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2016 An International Bestseller – A Guardian Summer Read – An Amazon Best Book of the Month – A Goodreads Best Book of the Month – A Buzzfeed Summer Read –
The Lost Language of Cranes
Owen and Rose are facing serious challenges to their married life of routine and monotony as New York City grows and changes around them. They spend most Sundays apart; while Rose buries herself in crosswords and newspapers, Owen visits gay porn theaters. But when they discover they may lose their apartment and their son, prompted
Story of a Death Foretold: Pinochet, the CIA and the Coup Against Salvador Allende, 11 September 1973
On 11 September 1973, President Salvador Allende of Chile, Latin America`s first democratically elected Marxist president, was deposed in a violent coup d` tat. Early that morning the phone lines to Allende`s office were cut, army officers loyal to the republic were arrested and shortly afterwards bombs from four British-made Hawker Hunter jets began slamming
