Category Archives: Travel Guides
Ordinary Thunderstorms
One May evening in London, as a result of a chance encounter and a split-second decision, the young climatologist Adam Kindred loses everything – home, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, money – never to get them back. With the police and a hit man in merciless pursuit, Adam has no choice but to go underground,
The Wavewatcher’s Companion
One bright February afternoon on a beach in Cornwall, Gavin Pretor-Pinney took a break from cloudspotting and started watching the waves rolling into shore. Mesmerised, he wondered where they had come from, and decided to find out. He soon realised that waves don`t just appear on the ocean, they are everywhere around us, and our
What on Earth Evolved
Why have creatures evolved as they are? Which species have been the most successful? How do life forms adapt to a world dominated by nearly seven billion humans? Christopher Lloyd leads us on an exhilarating journey from the birth of life to the present day, as he attempts to answer these fundamental questions. Along the
What if Latin America Ruled the World?
For most Westerners, Latin America is the junior partner of the New World, an underdeveloped sibling to the US and Canada. The vibrancy of its culture is unquestionable, but the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries of Central and South America are easily typecast and overlooked as exotic, dangerous, and decidedly not part of the First World.
The Lost Executioner
Between 1975 and 1979 the seemingly peaceful nation of Cambodia succumbed to one of the most bloodthirsty revolutions in modern history. Nearly two million people were killed. As head of the Khmer Rouge`s secret police, Comrade Duch was responsible for the murder of more than 20,000 of them. Twenty years later, not one member of
The Mistress of Abha
The year is 1930 and the British are in Arabia. Ivor Willoughby, a young Orientalist, embarks on an ambitious quest to find his father, an officer abroad with the British Army. In all of Ivor`s life, Robert has returned to England only once, bedraggled and wild-eyed with tales of As`ir, a land of Sheikhs and
Bite of the Mango
As a child in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family and friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry. But when 12-year-old Mariatu set out for a neighboring village, she never arrived. Heavily armed rebel soldiers, many no older than children themselves, attacked
In the Company of Angels
How much of a survivor, in fact, survives? How much must remain of a survivor for him also to be called a man? You tell me to remember. All over again. To remember. Perhaps there is nothing left there, doctor. Perhaps it is all gone. Bernardo Greene is attempting to rebuild his life. Imprisoned and
Mr Chicken Goes To Paris
Mr Chicken goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs is a children’s book that follows a huge yellow chicken’s visit to Paris to meet its friend Yvette. The colourful illustrations depict Mr Chicken touring the French capital and admiring the most famous sights: Arc de Triomphe, Musรฉe du Louvre, Tour Eiffel etc. Let Mr Chicken introduce
Operation Eiffel Tower
Lauren, Jack, Ruby and Billy live by the seaside with their mum and dad. But their parents are always arguing, and then their dad moves out. Lauren and Jack decide they have to get them together again. And so begins Operation Eiffel Tower …in which the four children try to raise money to give their
Women of Sand & Myrrh
In an unnamed Middle Eastern city, four women from different social and cultural backgrounds tell their story. There is Suha, an educated Lebanese woman brought to the desert by her husband; Tamr, who must fight against male rule to educate herself; Suzanne, captivated by the men and the mystery of the Arabian desert; and Nur,
Fruit (River Cottage Handbook No.9)
Growing fruit at home is a delicious and altogether more enjoyable alternative to buying it in the shops. Mark Diacono offers a practical and accessible guide to making the most of your garden and what it has to offer. The first part of the book is an A-Z of the different varieties of fruit, with
The Complete Nose to Tail: A Kind of British Cooking
“It would be disingenuous to the animal not to make the most of the whole beast; there is a set of delights, textural and flavoursome, which lie beyond the fillet.” Thus Fergus Henderson set out his stall when in 1994 he opened St. John, now one of the world`s most admired restaurants. With a combination
Mornings in Jenin
Mornings in Jenin is a multi-generational story about a Palestinian family. Forcibly removed from the olive-farming village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejos are displaced to live in canvas tents in the Jenin refugee camp. We follow the Abulhejo family as they live through a half century
1492 – The Year Our World Began
The world would end in 1492 – so the prophets, soothsayers and stargazers said. They were right. Their world did end. But ours began. In search of the origins of the modern world, 1492 takes readers on a journey around the globe of the time, in the company of real-life travellers, drawing together the threads
Chef
Kirpal Singh is travelling on the slow train to Kashmir. As India passes by the window in a stream of tiny lights, glistening fields and huddled, noisy towns, he reflects on his destination, which is also his past: a military camp to which he has not returned for fourteen years…Kirpal, Kip to his friends, is
All Kinds of Magic – One Man`s Search for Meaning Across the Modern World
This is the story of a man who embarked on a quest that many of us have dreamed about. Disillusioned by a world hooked on material wealth and scientific fact, he decided to travel across the globe in search of something more meaningful: the magical, the mystical. His journey takes him from snow-blanketed villages in
Beirut 39 – New Writing from the Arab World
`Beirut39` is a Hay Festival project which aims to select and celebrate 39 of the best young Arab writers as a centrepiece of the Beirut World Capital festivities in April 2010. Following the successful launch of `Bogota 39`, which identified many of the most interesting upcoming Latin American talents, including Wendy Guerra, Junot Diaz (Pulitzer
The Memory of Love
Freetown, Sierra Leone: a devastating civil war has left an entire populace with terrible secrets to keep. In the capital`s hospital Kai, a gifted young surgeon is plagued by demons that are beginning to threaten his livelihood. Elsewhere in the hospital lies Elias Cole, a university professor who recalls the love that obsessed him and
The Balfour Declaration
In the middle of the First World War, the British War Cabinet approved and issued a statement in the form of a letter that encouraged the settlement of the Jewish people in Palestine. Signed by the Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, the Balfour Declaration remains one of the most important documents of the last hundred years.
