Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Truth Commissioner
Henry Stanfield, the newly arrived Truth Commissioner, is troubled by his estrangement from his daughter, and struggling with the consequences of his infidelities. Francis Gilroy, veteran Republican and recently appointed government minister, risks losing what feels tantalisingly close to his grasp. In America, Danny and his partner plan for the arrival of their first child,
Eating India
In Eating India, the award-winning writer Chitrita Banerji takes us on a thrilling journey through a national food formed by generations of arrivals, assimilations and conquests. In mouth-watering prose, she explores how each wave of newcomers brought innovative new ways to combine the subcontinent`s rich native spices, poppy seeds, saffron and mustard with the vegetables,
The Aviary Gate
Elizabeth Stavely sits in the Bodleian Library, her hands trembling as she holds a fragment of parchment, the key to a story untold for four hundred years Constantinople 1599: the English merchant Paul Pindar must deliver an extraordinary gift to the Sultan. Grieving for his lost love, drowned in a shipwreck, he hears rumours of
Imperial Life in the Emerald City – Inside Baghdad`s Green Zone
From inside a surreal bubble of pure Americana known as the Green Zone, the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority attempted to rule Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein`s regime. Drawing on interviews and internal documents, Rajiv Chandrasekaran tells the memorable story of this ill-prepared attempt to build American democracy in a war-torn Middle Eastern country,
Suspicions of Mr Whicher
It is a summer`s night in 1860. In an elegant detached Georgian house in the village of Road, Wiltshire, all is quiet. Behind shuttered windows the Kent family lies sound asleep. At some point after midnight a dog barks. The family wakes the next morning to a horrific discovery: an unimaginably gruesome murder has taken
Japrocksampler
Julian Cope, eccentric and visionary rock musician, follows the runaway underground success of his book “Krautrocksampler” with “Japrocksampler”, a cult deconstruction of Japanese rock music, and reveals what really happened when East met West after World War Two. It explores the clash between traditional, conservative Japanese values and the wild rock `n` roll renegades of
The Informers
When Gabriel Santoro publishes his first book, a biography of a Jewish family friend who fled Germany for Colombia shortly before World War Two, it never occurs to him that his father will write a devastating review in a national newspaper. Why does he attack him so viciously? Do the pages of his book unwittingly
The Lay of the Land
It is fall, 2000 and Frank Bascombe has arrived at a state of optimistic pragmatism that he calls the Permanent Period of life. Epic mistakes have already been made, dreams downsized, and Frank reflects that now at least there are fewer opportunities left in life to get things wrong. But the tranquillity he anticipated is
The Backpacker`s Father
Anya has been backpacking in the Spice Islands, but her last postcard home arrived months ago. Now her anxious father, Francesco, has gone in search of her. Almost within sight of land, the ferry he`s travelling on sinks and Francesco and two other Europeans are washed ashore on the island Anya was heading for. They
City of Oranges – Arabs and Jews in Jaffa
Jaffa – famed for its orange groves – was for centuries a city of traders, merchants, teachers and administrators, home to Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. That is, until the founding of the state of Israel, which was simultaneously a moment of jubilation for the Jews and a disaster – the Naqba – for the
Broken Glass
“We hadn`t always lived on an island …why would anyone dream of such a thing if they had a house with its own path and a gate at the end of it?” When Suresh and Sandeep run away from home to escape their abusive and bullying father, they do so with the hope that they
Restless
It is 1939. Eva Delectorskaya is a beautiful 28-year-old Russian emigree living in Paris. As war breaks out she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a mysterious Englishman, and under his tutelage she learns to become the perfect spy, to mask her emotions and trust no one, including those she loves
The Happy Campers
This wonderfully inspiring book has clearly been put together with great love. Two friends, Tess Carr and Kat Heyes, have created this guide to make for the perfect camping experience, whoever you are and wherever and whenever you’re going. Beautiful, timeless photography illustrates every page and the book is written in the most easily accessible,
Castles from the Air
The castles of Britain are icons of history. They were built to mark the domains of the powerful and stood as symbols of authority. They were built using the most advanced structural technology of the day and were designed to withstand the strongest of attacks. And their locations illustrate the understanding of how the lie
Villages of Britain
Whilst conventional historiography tends to focus on the role of cities in the formation of Britain, Clive Aslet’s ‘Villages of Britain” takes a fresh approach, examining the role of the five hundred villages that have shaped the British countryside. Discover the Bedfordshire village that is home to the zeppelin, and the North Yorkshire village of
Beyond Nose to Tail: A Kind of British Cooking: Part II
`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.` In this new collection of recipes, Fergus Henderson, award-winning author of Nose to Tail Eating, inspires with more carnivorous classics such as deep-fried rabbit, pigeon
Around The World In 90 Minutes
Whilst only relatively few football fans managed to get a match ticket for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, billions of people watched it on TV screens all around the globe. Acclaimed football writer David Winner decided it was time to get off his sofa and join them. His quest: to circle the globe in
Setting the Desert on Fire
It is 1916. The Allies are struggling in the Great War. The Ottoman Sultan calls for a pan-Islamic jihad against all non-Muslims except Germans. But Sharif Husein, ruler of the holy city of Mecca, is smarting under Turkish rule, fomenting Arab nationalism and lobbying the British to support him. It seems to the British a
A Hedonist in the Cellar
Jay McInerney, internationally celebrated author of Bright Lights, Big City, turns his hand here to his lifelong love affair with wine. Peals of wisdom are offered on the subjects of the best wine for romantics, the parallels between Californian wines and floundering Hollywood stars, the choice of wine for the author`s own debauched forty-eighth birthday
The Longest Crawl
The British love their booze. Ian Marchant – bon viveur, pub singer and writer – sets off to map the British landscape in drink. This mission takes Ian and his friend Perry on a gruelling month-long pub crawl, from the Turk`s Head on the Scilly Isles to the Baa Bar in the Shetlands, taking in
