Category Archives: World Music
Giraffe
In 1975, on the eve of May Day, secret police sealed off a zoo in a small Czechoslovakian town and ordered the destruction of the largest captive herd of giraffes in the world. Ledgard tells the story of the giraffes from the moment of their capture in Africa to their deaths behind the Iron Curtain.
Interventions: A Life in War and Peace
Over forty years of service to the United Nations – the last ten as Secretary-General – Kofi Annan has been at the centre of the major geopolitical events of our time. As much a memoir as a guide to world order, Interventions provides a unique, behind-the-scenes view of global diplomacy during one of the most
The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words (1000 BCE – 1492)
It is a story like no other: an epic of endurance against destruction, of creativity in oppression, joy amidst grief, the affirmation of life against the odds. It spans the millennia and the continents – from India to Andalusia and from the bazaars of Cairo to the streets of Oxford. It is a story of
Winter`s Tales
If one theme unifies the 11 tales collected here, it is that of longing. Written after her return from Kenya and during the dark days of the Nazi occupation, they derive their themes and locales from Isak Dinesen`s childhood in Denmark. Isak Dinesen was the pen-name of Karen Blixen, who was born in Rungsted, Denmark
Ivory, Apes & Peacocks: Animals, Adventure and Discovery in the Wild Places of Africa
Alan Root is one of Africa`s most bitten. In the course of his adventures he has been mauled by a leopard, a silverback gorilla and a hippo, and almost lost his life to a deadly puff adder, which claimed one of his fingers. Root`s unmatched experience of East African wildlife and his appetite for risk
The Sheltering Sky
`โ€The Sheltering Skyโ€ is a book about people on the edge of an alien space; somewhere where, curiously, they are never alone` – Michael Hoffman. Port and Kit Moresbury, a sophisticated American couple, are finding it more than a little difficult to live with each other. Endeavoring to escape this predicament, they set off for
Middle School Treasure Hunters; Danger Down The Nile
Four kids on a quest to find the legendary Mines of King Solomon…and their parents. Bick, Beck, Storm and Tommy are navigating their way down the Nile, from hot and dusty Cairo to deep dark jungles, past some seriously bad guys along the way. They`ll need all their survival instincts just to make it out
A Good African Story: How a Small Company Built a Global Coffee Brand
Since it was founded in 2003, Good African Coffee has helped thousands of farmers earn a decent living, send their children to school and escape a spiral of debt and dependence. Africa has received over $1 trillion in aid over the last fifty years and yet despite these huge inflows, the continent remains mired in
In the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir
During the early fifties, Kenya was a country in turmoil. While Ngugi enjoys scouting trips, chess tournaments and reading about Biggles at the prestigious Alliance School near Nairobi, things are changing at home. He arrives back for his first visit since starting school to find his house razed to the ground and the entire village
Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made
This book is the winner of Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2015. We live in epoch-making times. Literally. The changes we humans have made in recent decades have altered our world beyond anything it has experienced in its 4.5 billion-year history – we have become a force on a par with earth-shattering asteroids
The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood
When Elspeth Huxley`s pioneer father buys a remote plot of land in Kenya, the family sets off to discover their new home: five hundred acres of Kenyan scrubland, infested with ticks and white ants, and quavering with heat. What they lack in know-how they make up for in determination: building a grass house, employing local
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
`Many years ago – when our grandfathers were little children – there was a doctor and his name was Dolittle.` Dr Dolittle lives in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh with his friends Dab-Dab the duck, Jip the dog, Gub-Gub the baby pig, Too-Too the owl, the parrot Polynesia, as well as rabbits in the pantry, white mice in the
My Traitor`s Heart: Blood and Bad Dreams a South African Explores the Madness in His Country,His Tribe and Himself
This title comes with a new introduction by the author. In 70s South Africa, Rian Malan – descendant of the architects of apartheid, middle-class white boy, friend to blacks – went to work as a crime reporter for a local Johannesburg rag. There he encountered first-hand the horrors wrought by apartheid: the poverty, injustice and
Republic or Death!: Travels in National Anthems
There are a couple of hundred songs that are sung by millions across the world each day, that school children know by heart and sports fans belt out perfectly even after eight beers. And they aren`t pop songs – they are national anthems. These are songs which inspire the fiercest of feelings: for some they
Shadows on the Grass
Isak Dinesen takes up the absorbing story of her life in Kenya begun in the unforgettable โ€Out of Africaโ€, which she published under the name of Karen Blixen. With warmth and humanity these four stories illuminate her love both for the African people, their dignity and traditions, and for the beauty and wildness of the
Notes on Grief
A devastating essay on loss and the people we love from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. `Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief
Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now
Continuing her journey from a deeply religious Islamic upbringing to a post at Harvard, the brilliant, charismatic and controversial New York Times and Globe and Mail #1 bestselling author of Infidel and Nomad makes a powerful plea for a Muslim Reformation as the only way to end the horrors of terrorism, sectarian warfare and the
Elizabeth Costello
Elizabeth Costello is an Australian writer of international renown. Famous principally for an early novel that established her reputation, she has reached the stage where her remaining function is to be venerated and applauded. Her life has become a series of engagements in sterile conference rooms throughout the world – a private consciousness obliged to
Tales of Persuasion
Ten daring stories from `a writer who seems capable of anything` (Guardian), the Booker Prize-shortlisted Philip Hensher Backdrops vary in this collection of stories from the author of The Northern Clemency – from turmoil in Sudan following the death of a politician in a plane crash, to southern India where a Soho hedonist starts to
