Never Feel A Stranger Peter Biddlecombe (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Abacus
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Pub Date:
05 Jul 2001
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 448pp h197mm x w126mm x s29mm 340g ISBN13: 9780349114484 ISBN13: 978-0-349-11448-4 ISBN10: 034911448X EAN: 9780349114484 x Description: Dogs tucked into handbags, verbally polluted airline companions, electronic hotel door keys and ridiculous money pouches worn by xenophobic English tourists - these are just a few of Peter Biddlecombe's least favourite things. He has dragged his beleaguered expense account around no fewer than 170 countries of variable merit, and the 20 destinations in this volume include Peshawar, Ulan Bator, Kiev, Palermo, Belize, Mecca - and London. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I Came, I Saw, I Lost My Luggage Peter Biddlecombe (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Abacus
Publisher:
Pub Date:
02 Jan 1997 (04 Jul 2002) Publishing Status:
Little, Brown Book Group Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback (Text (eye-readable)) 432pp h198mm x w126mm x s26mm 511g ISBN13: 9780349108124 ISBN13: 978-0-349-10812-4 ISBN10: 0349108129 EAN: 9780349108124 x Description: In the time it takes to get through Atlanta airport's luggage system, Peter Biddlecombe negotiates the perils of business life in twenty cities from Beirut to Budapest, all courtesy of another awe-inspiring expense account. This volume finds the first-class hero at his hilarious and thoughtful best; ostensibly developing contacts, striking deals and attending foreign delegations, he is an astute, informed commentator everywhere he goes, bringing a businessman's eye to bear on the economic and political challenges faced by both post-cold war Europe and the developing nations of Asia and Africa - while simultaneously over-testing the theory that a nation's culture is contained within its bars and restaurants. Whether power-shopping in Miami, attending a Finnish masterclass in the art of vodka-drinking, or simply lamenting the disappearance of the Trabant, Peter Biddlecombe is the perfect bon viveur in a hugely entertaining series of trips across the world. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Sewing Circles of Herat: My Afghan Years Christina Lamb (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Flamingo
Publisher:
HarperCollins Publishers
Pub Date:
07 Jul 2003
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Unsewn / adhesive bound 368pp h198mm x w129mm x s24mm 270g ISBN13: 9780007142521 ISBN13: 978-0-00-714252-1 ISBN10: 0007142528 EAN: 9780007142521 x Description: Ten years ago, Christina Lamb reported on the war the Afghan people were fighting against the Soviet Union. Now, back in Afghanistan, she has written an extraordinary memoir of her love affair with the country and its people.
Long haunted by her experiences in Afghanistan, Lamb returned there after last year's attack on the World Trade Centre to find out what had become of the people and places that had marked her life as a young graduate.This time seeing the land through the eyes of a mother and experienced foreign correspondent, Lamb's journey brings her in touch with the people no one else is writing about: the abandoned victims of almost a quarter century of war.
`Of all books about Afghanistan, Christina Lamb's is the most revealing and rewarding...a personal, perceptive and moving account of bravery in the face of staggering difficulties.' Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times
`As an account of how Afghanistan got into its present state, and of the making of the grotesque regime of the Taliban, this book could not possibly be bettered. Brilliant.' Matthew Leeming, Spectator
`Lamb's book combines a love of Afghanistan with a fearless search for the human stories behind the past twenty-three years of war...Her book is not only a necessary education for the Western reader in the political warring that generated the torture, murder and poverty, but also a stirring lament for the country of ruins that was once better known for its poetry and mosques.' James Hopkin, The Times _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A Passage To Africa George Alagiah (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Abacus
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Pub Date:
06 Dec 2007
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback (Text (eye-readable)) 336pp h196mm x w130mm x s23mm 244g Section: 16, b/w ISBN13: 9780349120782 ISBN13: 978-0-349-12078-2 ISBN10: 0349120781 EAN: 9780349120782 x Description: As a five-year-old, George Alagiah emigrated with his family to Ghana - the first African country to attain independence from the British Empire. A PASSAGE TO AFRICA is Alagiah's shattering catalogue of atrocities crafted into a portrait of Africa that is infused with hope, insight and outrage. In vivid and evocative prose and with a fine eye for detail Alagiah's viewpoint is spiked with the freshness of the young George on his arrival in Ghana, the wonder with which he recounts his first impressions of Africa and the affection with which he dresses his stories of his early family life. A sense of possibility lingers, even though the book is full of uncomfortable truths. It is a book neatly balanced on his integrity and sense of obligation in his role as a writer and reporter. The shock of recognition is always there, but it is the personal element that gives A PASSAGE TO AFRICA its originality. Africa becomes not only a group of nations or a vast continent, but an epic of individual pride and suffering. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Leaves from the Fig Tree Diana Duff (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Summersdale Publishers
Publisher:
Summersdale Publishers
Pub Date:
29 Jul 2003
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 320pp h198mm x w129mm x s0mm 0g ISBN13: 9781840243635 ISBN13: 978-1-84024-363-5 ISBN10: 1840243635 x Description: Raised by eccentric grandparents at Annesgrove, an Irish stately home, Diana Duff grew up surrounded by family ghosts, banshees and buried treasure. At 18, Diana entered the glamorous world of 1950s Kenya, becoming a stand-in for Grace Kelly before embarking on a career as a nurse. After marrying a young officer in the Colonial Service, Diana spent her nights shivering and alone, gun in hand, as the Mau Mau rebellion threatened to engulf her. Moving to Tanganyika, Diana went on to found the first inter-racial nursery school in East Africa before a transfer saw the family shifting to South Africa in the 1960s at the height of apartheid. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
100 Great Journeys Keith Lye (Edited by) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Ilex
Publisher:
Octopus Publishing Group
Pub Date:
01 Sep 2008
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Hardback 192pp 300g 600 colour illustrations ISBN13: 9781905814312 ISBN13: 978-1-905814-31-2 ISBN10: 1905814313 EAN: 9781905814312 x Description: We all like to travel, but not all of us can afford the time or the expense. "100 Great Journeys" describes 100 ways in which we can all explore our World. From Patagonia to Tibet, following Kit Carson through the Cumberland Gap or along Hadrians Wall, or finding the source of the Nile with Speke and Burton, this book takes you on voyages around our planet by land, sea and air. So whether you want to travel in the footsteps of Alexander the Great, Mark Twain, or Jane Austen, this book allows you to experience and plan journeys to every corner of the globe, from the comfort of your armchair or by going on-line to book the most exciting adventure of your lifetime. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Around The World In 500 Festivals Steve Davey (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Kuperard
Publisher:
Kuperard
Pub Date:
31 Oct 2013
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 272pp h245mm x w190mm x s19mm 845g ISBN13: 9781857336856 ISBN13: 978-1-85733-685-6 ISBN10: 1857336852 EAN: 9781857336856 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Around the World in 80 Novels: A Global Journey Inspired by Writers from Every Continent Henry Russell (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
CICO Books
Publisher:
Ryland, Peters & Small Ltd
Pub Date:
01 Jun 2019
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Hardback Paper over boards 160pp h210mm x w170mm 590g 75 col photographs ISBN13: 9781782496632 ISBN13: 978-1-78249-663-2 ISBN10: 1782496637 EAN: 9781782496632 x Description: Whether you're a regular globe-trotter or an armchair traveller, these 80 works conjure up the spirit of place for locations on every continent.
Sometimes the setting of a novel is as important as the story - where would Dickens be without London, or Edith Wharton without New York? Who can read Jamaica Inn and not want to visit Bodmin Moor, or enjoy Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and not wonder whether perhaps Botswana should be on your bucket list? Covering every corner of the world, from the most visited cities of Europe to the rural outposts of Australia, there are classics by famous authors, alongside works by new writers. Sometimes a native of the country is best able to convey its true nature, but then an outside observer can recreate the attraction of the unknown. Whether you have already decided on a destination and want to get a feel for the place, or you are just looking for ideas for your next getaway, Around the World in 80 Novels is full of inspirational reads that will fire your imagination and have you reaching for your suitcase.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
By the Seat of My Pants: And Other Funny Travel Stories Don George (Edited by) Series:
Lonely Planet Travel Literature
Edition:
Imprint:
Lonely Planet Publications
Publisher:
Lonely Planet Publications Ltd
Pub Date:
01 Aug 2005
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: Australia Paperback / softback 248pp h197mm x w128mm x s16mm 244g ISBN13: 9781741046069 ISBN13: 978-1-74104-606-9 ISBN10: 1741046068 x Description: This book contains hilarious travel stories on a variety of themes including food, people, transport, accommodation, etc. These stories are written by well-known comedians and travel writers plus previously unpublished authors. It includes some contributions from the competition by Lonely Planet, following previous successful anthology publishing - "The Kindness of Strangers" and "A House Somewhere". Lonely Planet knows that some of life's funniest experiences happen on the road. Whether they take the form of unexpected detours, unintended adventures, unidentifiable dinners or unforgettable encounters, these experiences can give birth to our most profound travel lessons and illuminations, and our most memorable - and hilarious travel stories Lonely Planet assembles and celebrates here 25 such stories in its new literary travel anthology the stories include globe-girdling tales that run the gamut from flat-tyre safaris to loss-of-face follies, eccentric expats to mind-boggling repasts, wrong trains taken, to agreements mistaken, romance gone awry to planes that shouldn't fly. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Flying Circus: Tales of a Tormented Traveler Henry Mintzberg (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Cyan Books
Publisher:
Cyan Books
Pub Date:
01 Feb 2006
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 160pp h178mm x w110mm ISBN13: 9781904879480 ISBN13: 978-1-904879-48-0 ISBN10: 1904879489 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Road to McCarthy Pete McCarthy (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Sceptre
Publisher:
Hodder & Stoughton
Pub Date:
03 Mar 2003
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback (Text (eye-readable)) 480pp h197mm x w136mm x s31mm 393g 2 integrated halftones; 6 line maps ISBN13: 9780340766071 ISBN13: 978-0-340-76607-1 ISBN10: 0340766077 EAN: 9780340766071 x Description: Setting off from Ireland, Pete McCarthy takes us on a wonderful journey around the weird and wonderful Irish communities of the world.
In his own inimitable style, Pete recounts his adventures and escapades as, in Morocco he meets the head of Clan McCarthy, and then goes on to visit the renowned Irish peoples of New York. He journeys to the southern hemisphere and then back again to the United States before ending up in a small town called McCarthy in Alaska.
Will he encounter enough McCarthy's Bars, as he continues to obey the eighth rule of travel: 'never pass a pub with your name on it'? This is a funny, affectionate look at the Irish communties of the world. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Traveller's Tales from Heaven and Hell Dan Hiscocks (Edited by) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
TravellersEye Ltd
Publisher:
Eye Books
Pub Date:
01 Oct 1997
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 230pp h194mm x w136mm 265g Illustrations ISBN13: 9780953057511 ISBN13: 978-0-9530575-1-1 ISBN10: 0953057518 x Description: People travel for many reasons, with some looking to escape and some looking for adventure. This compilation of travel stories captures the essence of travelling, namely to experience the unknownbe it heavenly or hellishand return to tell the tale. With contributors ranging in age from 10 years old and to 90, these tales demonstrate that just about everyone has travelled in some capacity and that every experience is unique." _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Very Funny - Now Change Me Back Again Peter Biddlecombe (Author) Series:
The Hungry Student
Edition:
Imprint:
Abacus
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Pub Date:
08 Jan 1998
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 408pp h197mm x w126mm x s26mm 330g ISBN13: 9780349109695 ISBN13: 978-0-349-10969-5 ISBN10: 0349109699 EAN: 9780349109695 x Description: Living out of a briefcase has become a way of life for Peter Biddlecombe - and his regular dispatches from the front line of international expense account culture have offered desk-bound readers everywhere a unique insight into the strange, bizarre and often hilarious places where business and pleasure meet all over the world. Yet despite all his efforts in this, the age of the virtual boardroom, the lot of the English businessman abroad is still not a happy one. VERY FUNNY is the fifth in the series of dispatches from all over the world in which Peter Biddlecombe recounts his battles to survive the black magic voodoo of 5-star international travel; in which former European footballers of the year open their own high street bank, alcohol free lager is invented to give the good people of Oslo an excuse to enjoy themselves, and the formation dancing team of the Ukranian mafia can register 6.7 on the Richter scale. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Bad Times In Buenos Aires Miranda France (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publisher:
Orion Publishing Co
Pub Date:
07 Jan 1999
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback (Text (eye-readable)) 224pp h196mm x w133mm x s15mm 222g ISBN13: 9780753805510 ISBN13: 978-0-7538-0551-0 ISBN10: 0753805510 EAN: 9780753805510 x Description: A funny and poignant account of life in Buenos Aires, by a young prize-winning writer. In 1993 Miranda France moved to South America, drawn to Buenos Aires as the intellectual hub of the continent, with its wealth of writers and its
romantic, passionate and tragic history. She found that is was all these things, but it was also a terrible place to live. The inhabitants of Buenos Aires are famously unhappy. All over South America they are known for their arrogance, their fixation of Europe and their moodiness. Very soon, Miranda France encounters' bronca' - the simmering and barely controllable rage that is a staple feature of life in the Argentinian capital. She finds that 'bronca' has deep roots: the violence and racism of the first European settlers; the dictatorships, especially in the 1970s when so many 'disappeared'; even Evita Peron, for there was no rage to rival Evita's. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Indian Summer Will Randall (Author) Series:
Edition:
Digital original
Imprint:
Abacus
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Pub Date:
09 Feb 2004
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback (Text (eye-readable)) 256pp h163mm x w190mm x s198mm 184g ISBN13: 9780349116785 ISBN13: 978-0-349-11678-5 ISBN10: 0349116784 EAN: 9780349116785 x Description: While attempting to teach at an inner London comprehensive Will Randall is taken up by an elderly German woman who asks him to accompany her to India. Nothing ventured, he agrees and so begins a wonderful life-changing adventure. Set down in Puna (3 hours from Bombay) he begins work teaching English at a slum school. Most of the children are orphans or parentless (one lost his parents four years previously when his mother had let go of his hand at a railway station and he 'd boarded the wrong train ). When zamidars -slum barons - arrive and threaten to pull down the school Randall has to put on a fund-raising performance of the Indian epic The Ramayana in order to help the slum dwellers buy their own land. Meanwhile he's also been spotted by a Bollywood Director who persuades him to take the role of leading man in his new film. Will Randall is 'the teacher who travels' and, as in SOLOMON TIME, this is a funny and heart-warming account of how one man's enthusiasm and oldfashioned desire to do good have helped to preserve a community. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Down Under: Travels in a Sunburned Country Bill Bryson (Author) Series:
Bryson
Edition:
Imprint:
Black Swan
Publisher:
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Pub Date:
05 Nov 2015 (26 Nov 2015)
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 432pp h198mm x w127mm x s27mm 294g ISBN13: 9781784161835 ISBN13: 978-1-78416-183-5 ISBN10: 1784161837 EAN: 9781784161835 x Description: It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life - a large portion of it quite deadly. In fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else. Ignoring such dangers - and yet curiously obsessed by them - Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging: their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water; the food is excellent; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. Life doesn't get much better than this... _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In the Land of Oz Howard Jacobson (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Pub Date:
05 Sep 2011
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 528pp h198mm x w129mm x s32mm 358g ISBN13: 9781408825020 ISBN13: 978-1-4088-2502-0 ISBN10: 1408825023 EAN: 9781408825020 x Description: On what he calls 'the adventure of his life', Howard Jacobson travels around Australia, never entirely sure where he is heading next or whether he has the courage to tackle the wild life of the bush, the wild men of the outback, or the even wilder women of the seaboard cities.
In pursuit of the best of Australian good times, he joins revelers at Uluru, argues with racists in the Kimberleys, parties with wine-growers in the Barossa and falls for ballet dancers in Perth. And even as vexed questions of national identity and Aboriginal land rights present themselves, his love for Australia and Australians never falters. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Terra Nullius: A Journey Through No One's Land Sven Lindqvist (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Granta Books
Publisher:
Granta Books
Pub Date:
02 Apr 2007
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 256pp h218mm x w138mm ISBN13: 9781862078956 ISBN13: 978-1-86207-895-6 ISBN10: 1862078955 EAN: 9781862078956 x Description: In critically acclaimed "Desert Divers" and "Exterminate all the Brutes", Sven Lindqvist travelled through Africa's deserts, and unearthed the cruelty of colonialism. Now he has done the same for Australia. Lindqvist travels through the south of country, lyrically describing its landscape, flora and fauna and geology, while also telling the history of the country, and revealing the shocking treatment of its Aboriginal peoples. He catalogues some truly shocking abuses, such as the rounding up of Aborigine women for transportation to the chillingly named "Isle of the Dead" for inappropriate and often fatal syphilis treatment; and the extensive forced separation of 'halfblood' children from their families to squalid, prison-like camps. Stretching from the formation of the Australian continent 600 million years ago to the 2002 hunger strikes in the Woomera detention camp, Terra Nullius leaves us with a strong sense of Australia as a piece of earth, steeped in geological and tragic human history. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Wild Europe: The Balkans in the Gaze of Western Travellers Bozidar Jezernik (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Saqi Books
Publisher:
Saqi Books
Pub Date:
06 Jul 2003
Publishing Status:
Active
Translated From: Slovenian Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 320pp h230mm x w160mm 445g 62 ill. ISBN13: 9780863565748 ISBN13: 978-0-86356-574-8 ISBN10: 0863565743
x Description: Combining witty comment with meticulous research abounding in historical and cultural detail, Jezernik reveals how from the mid 16th to the late 20th century "The Balkans" have been perceived by west European travellers and experts, many of whom have seen it as part of Asia and sought accordingly to inform their contemporaries of its "exotic", "outlandish" and "primitive" ways. The rich source material includes citations from naturalists, geographers, historians and social scientists: from Joseph de Tournefort and Henry Blount via Karl Baedeker, William Gladstone and Paulina Irby, to Edith Durham, Rebecca West and Julia Kristeva. Exploring over 1000 first-hand reports and comparing narratives spanning almost five centuries, the author demonstrates how the project of observing other people in their environment mirrors the observers' own culture and environment. Thus the impressions passed down through the ages about the Balkans say more about Western Europe in most respects than about the lands and people in question. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Around The World By Mouse Harry Pearson (Author) Series:
The Hungry Student
Edition:
Imprint:
Little, Brown & Company
Publisher:
Little, Brown & Company
Pub Date:
11 Aug 2005
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United States Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 256pp h214mm x w134mm x s18mm 280g ISBN13: 9780316857338 ISBN13: 978-0-316-85733-8 ISBN10: 0316857335 EAN: 9780316857338 x Description: Inspired by the efforts of 1950s comic writer Alex Atkinson who wrote a travelogue about the USA without bothering to visit it, Harry Pearson embarks on an epic trip around the globe without leaving his office except for the obvious necessities (biscuits, lavatory breaks and removing an electrocuted mouse from inside the toaster). Using the Internet, he traverses an incredible virtual world where natural wonders are rendered all the more remarkable by the florid language of computer translation programmes ("Glorious opinions of the provincial topography can be had from our highup windows". By train, car, motorbike and yacht, homepage, live cam and blog, the author traverses the planet; fights off wave after wave of Spamhucksters ("Want to make love like you were a teenager again?" What, you mean, on my own?) ; barters with locals using the recognised currency of the cyberspace, trivia; tries very hard not to be distracted from the appalling situation in Tajikstan by the news that a group of men in Michigan regularly recreate the great Medieval battles using thousands of Playmobile figures; and along the way learns about truth, beauty and why his septic tank is a ticking time bomb. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Beauty Tips From Moose Jaw Will Ferguson (Author) Series:
Edition:
Main
Imprint:
Canongate Books Ltd
Publisher:
Canongate Books Ltd
Pub Date:
27 Apr 2006
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 352pp h198mm x w129mm x s21mm 236g Print PDF ISBN13: 9781841956909 ISBN13: 978-1-84195-690-9 ISBN10: 1841956902 EAN: 9781841956909 x Description: Will Ferguson has spent the past three years criss-crossing Canada: in a helicopter above the barren-lands of the sub-arctic; in a canoe with his four-year old son; on seaplanes; and on the Underground Railroad. Ferguson's travels have taken him from Cape Spear on the coast of Newfoundland to the sun-dappled streets of Olde Victoria. Delving into Canada's history and landscape along the way, Ferguson's discoveries are fascinating and provocative. Funny, poignant and insightful, Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw is a personal tribute to a quirky and enthralling country. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Canada - Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture Diane Lemieux (Author) Series:
Culture Smart!
Edition:
2nd Second Edition, Second ed.
Imprint:
Kuperard
Publisher:
Kuperard
Pub Date:
07 Jan 2016
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 168pp ISBN13: 9781857338324 ISBN13: 978-1-85733-832-4 ISBN10: 1857338324 This Product Replaces: 9781857334548 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Always Feel A Friend Peter Biddlecombe (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Abacus
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Pub Date:
07 Oct 2004
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 368pp h198mm x w126mm x s23mm 250g ISBN13: 9780349116969 ISBN13: 978-0-349-11696-9 ISBN10: 0349116962 EAN: 9780349116969 x Description: Having already dragged his beleaguered expense account around no fewer than 170 countries of variable merit, Peter Biddlecombe is literally miles ahead of every other travel writer. Wittily and informatively he brings a unique businessman's perspective to his destinations. Unlike many other travel writers who can look in from the outside and paint a leisurely portrait of the sights and sounds of exotic places, Biddlecombe has to land running in order to survive. In ALWAYS FEEL A FRIEND, the destinations include Cape Verde, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi, Mauritius, Samoa and Fiji. There is also a bizarre interlude in Paraguay, a country with some very unusual citizens. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
An Embarrassment Of Mangoes Ann Vanderhoof (Author) Series:
Edition:
New edition
Imprint:
Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group)
Publisher:
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Pub Date:
03 Jan 2005
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 368pp h198mm x w128mm x s24mm 256g ISBN13: 9780553815559 ISBN13: 978-0-553-81555-9 ISBN10: 0553815555 EAN: 9780553815559 x Description: Who hasn't fantasized about leaving their job, saying goodbye to the rat race and escaping to some exotic destination in search of sun, sand, and a different way of life? Ann Vanderhoof and her husband did just that. In the mid 1990s, the author and her husband were driven, fortysomething professionals who were desperate for a break from their harried, deadline-dominated lives. So they left their jobs, rented out their house, moved onto a 42-foot yacht called Receta ('recipe' in Spanish) and set sail from their home in Canada for the Caribbean. AN EMBARRASSMENT OF MANGOES is Ann Vanderhoof's intimate account of this two-year midlife interlude during which she and her husband travelled more than 7,000 nautical miles, dropped anchor in 16 countries (and 47 individual islands), and adapted to a new life on 'island time'. Exchanging suits for bare feet, they leave the stresses of their old life behind and become caught up in a world that is simultaneously simpler and more exuberant. They sip rum with their neighbours and dance through the streets during Carnival, explore secluded beaches, learn to pull their dinner from the sea and create delectable dishes in their tiny galley kitchen. Interspersed with irresistible recipes, from cracked conch in the Bahamas, curried lobster in
Grenada, spicy island gingerbread to West Indian rum punch, AN EMBARRASSMENT OF MANGOES is the enticing story of discovering not just vibrant new cultures and cuisines, but what really matters. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Slogging the Slavs: A Paranormal Cricket Tour from the Baltic to the Bosphorus Angus Bell (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Fat Controller Media
Publisher:
Fat Controller Media
Pub Date:
29 Nov 2006
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback 320pp h196mm x w125mm 65 photographs, 1 map ISBN13: 9780955433207 ISBN13: 978-0-9554332-0-7 ISBN10: 0955433207 This Product is Replaced By: 9781847672902 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cocaine Train: Tracing My Bloodline Through Colombia Stephen Smith (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Abacus
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Pub Date:
03 Aug 2000
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback (Text (eye-readable)) 256pp h197mm x w125mm x s15mm 180g ISBN13: 9780349111148 ISBN13: 978-0-349-11114-8 ISBN10: 0349111146 EAN: 9780349111148 x Description: One of the most violent countries on earth, where the cause of death is regularly 'massacre', drink drivers play chicken and kidnap stories pass for dinner party conversation; nine times more dangerous than the United States, Columbia is no place for the nervous traveller. So it is much against his better judgement that, in the summer of 1998, coinciding with a World Cup and a general election, journalist Stephen Smith finds himself boarding the Cocaine Train out of Cali, home of Columbia's infamous drugs cartel. Its passengers prey to theives, extortionists and a dozen different varieties of paramilitary, the Cocaine Train is one of the last remnants of a once great railway system, and Smith is riding in it in search of a grandfather he barely knew: Fred Leslie Frost, pioneering railwayman, upright citizen and diplomat, with a Columbian mistress and an illegitimate son. As remote from his suburban British origins as it is possible to imagine. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for La Bomba: The Cuban Misadventures of a Musical Oaf Richard Neill (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher:
Penguin Books Ltd
Pub Date:
03 Feb 2005
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 320pp h196mm x w128mm x s24mm 240g ISBN13: 9780141009209 ISBN13: 978-0-14-100920-9 ISBN10: 0141009209 x Description: Dissatisfied with a comfortable, but uninspiring life in London, Richard Neill decided he'd like to play double bass on stage with a top Cuban Son band. But he couldn't play bass, he had no discernable musical talent and didn't know any Cuban Son bands. Not put off by mere details, he headed for Cuba. This is the story of a year spent on that unique island - a country still dominated by the figure of Castro. And the place where our hero casts aside his English inhibitions and his own musical inadequacy in search of La Bomba (his rhythm ...) Funny, self-deprecating and lifeaffirming, Looking for La Bomba is a magical mix of McCarthy's Bar and the Buena Vista Social club - a book for anyone who's ever dreamed an
impossible dream. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How to be Danish: From Lego to Lund, a Short Introduction to the State of Denmark Patrick Kingsley (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Short Books Ltd
Publisher:
Short Books Ltd
Pub Date:
04 Jul 2013
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 112pp h198mm x w129mm 190g ISBN13: 9781780721880 ISBN13: 978-1-78072-188-0 ISBN10: 1780721889 EAN: 9781780721880 This Product Replaces: 9781780721330 x Description: Denmark is the country of the moment. Recently named the happiest nation in the world, it's the motherland of The Bridge, Borgen, and The Killing, and home to Noma, the world's best restaurant. But though we wear their jumpers and watch their thrillers, how much do we really know about the Danes themselves? Part reportage, part travelogue, How to be Danish is an attempt to fill in some of the gaps - an introduction to contemporary Danish culture that spans television, food, design, architecture, politics, and race. From the set of The Killing to the chefs of Noma, via the woman who knitted *that* jumper, Patrick Kingsley takes us on a journey to the mysterious heart of Denmark. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Beyond The Pyramids: Travels in Egypt Douglas Kennedy (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Abacus
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Pub Date:
05 Jan 1995 (05 Dec 1999)
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 240pp h198mm x w126mm ISBN13: 9780349106076 ISBN13: 978-0-349-10607-6 ISBN10: 034910607X EAN: 9780349106076 x Description: BEYOND THE PYRAMIDS is a delightfully wry chronicle of travels through a country of incongruity - an Egypt encompassing a diversity of cultural influences which often belies its image of 'archaeological theme park'. With an acute eye for the unusual, the interesting or the plain absurd, Douglas Kennedy takes us on a continually surprising tour beyond the pyramids, to a place where Bedouin watch American television in an oasis; where monks in the desert are computer-literate; and where an entire community of Cairo's poor have set up home in a cemetary. 'BEYOND THE PYRAMIDS seems to me to have the satisfying insights of a Paul Theroux' Maeve Binchy _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mustn't Grumble Joe Bennett (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Scribner
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster Ltd
Pub Date:
03 Jul 2006
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 288pp h234mm x w153mm 382g maps ISBN13: 9780743276276 ISBN13: 978-0-7432-7627-6 ISBN10: 0743276272 x Description: Fifteen years ago, Joe Bennett left England for a holiday. Now it's time to come back. But how is the England of his memory different from the England of the motorway? Identikit High Streets, imported cheeriness ('Welcome to Sunny Grimsby!'), chicken tikka poker machine pubs -
things aren't what they used to be. But the longer Joe travels, the more he wonders whether things were ever what they used to be in England. Even a century ago, H. V. Morton, the nation's most celebrated eulogiser, was "In Search of England". Criss-crossing the country by varying means of transport and with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Joe Bennett delivers a dazzlingly funny and poignant portrait of his homeland - part love letter, part eulogy and part diatribe, it is a wonderful follow-up to the acclaimed "Land of Two Halves" and establishes him as one of our most engaging travel writers. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A Passage to England Chaudhuri C. Nirad (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Orient Paperbacks
Publisher:
Orient Paperbacks
Pub Date:
15 May 2005
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: India Paperback 176pp ISBN13: 9788122201123 ISBN13: 978-81-222-0112-3 ISBN10: 8122201121 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
River Thames: In the Footsteps of the Famous Paul Goldsack (Author) Series:
Bradt Travel Guides
Edition:
Imprint:
Bradt Travel Guides
Publisher:
Bradt Travel Guides
Pub Date:
26 Sep 2002
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 240pp h216mm x w135mm 295g 30 maps ISBN13: 9781841620442 ISBN13: 978-1-84162-044-2 ISBN10: 1841620440 x Description: Inspired by the authors and historical figures who have been influenced by the river, Paul Goldsack, who lives on the Thames, takes the reader on a series of walks in the footsteps of such diverse characters as Oliver Twist, Inspector Morse and Ratty. Both circular and linear walks lead ramblers, cyclists, river-boaters, day-trippers and the motorist-walker from the Thames Barrier to the river's source deep in the heart of the Cotswolds. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England Stuart Maconie (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Ebury Press
Publisher:
Ebury Publishing
Pub Date:
04 Mar 2010
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 352pp h198mm x w126mm x s22mm 239g ISBN13: 9780091926519 ISBN13: 978-0-09-192651-9 ISBN10: 0091926513 EAN: 9780091926519 x Description: Everyone talks about 'Middle England'. Sometimes they mean something bad, like a lynch mob of Daily Mail readers, and sometimes they mean something good, like a pint of ale in a sleepy Cotswold village in summer twilight. But just where and what is Middle England? Stuart Maconie didn't know either, so he packed his Thermos and sandwiches and set off to find out... Is Middle England about tradition and decency or closed minds and bigotry? Is it maypoles and evensong, or flooded market towns and binge drinkers in the park? And is Slough really as bad as Ricky Gervais and John Betjeman make out? From Shakespeare to JK Rowling, Vaughan Williams to Craig David, William Morris to B&Q, Stuart Maconie leads the expedition, with plenty of stop-offs for tea and scones, to discover the truth. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Touche: A French Woman's Take on the English Agnes Catherine Poirier (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publisher:
Orion Publishing Co
Pub Date:
27 Jul 2006
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 192pp h194mm x w157mm x s18mm 220g ISBN13: 9780297852346 ISBN13: 978-0-297-85234-6 ISBN10: 0297852345 EAN: 9780297852346 x Description: A brilliant and vigorous observer of both French and British societies, which she knows intimately, 32-year-old Agnes Catherine Poirier has spent the last ten years explaining the peculiarities of France to the British and of Britain to the French. Not an easy job. Having studied both in Paris and London, writing in both languages for the French and British press, Agnes Catherine Poirier plays with national stereotypes, which are both stupid and dangerous, with dexterity and savoir faire. She goes beneath the surface to explain why France and Britain keep arguing and competing endlessly, why they are so different and why they do things in almost opposite ways. Covering the worlds of art, politics, action, food, institutions, sex, history, media, society and philosophy, she tells us as much about us as why France is a nation apart. Revenge for tabloid attacks on France or for British expats' invasions of Brittany and the Dordogne? You decide. But this will entertain and educate all readers about their own country and whether its 'entente' with La Belle France is 'cordiale' or not. You may disagree with her but you may never see yourself in the same way again. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Breakfast In Brighton Nigel Richardson (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Orion mass market paperback
Publisher:
Orion Publishing Co
Pub Date:
20 May 1999
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 221pp h197mm x w129mm x s16mm 220g ISBN13: 9780575402010 ISBN13: 978-0-575-40201-0 ISBN10: 0575402016 EAN: 9780575402010 x Description: Inspired by Brighton as a state of mind as much as a place, Nigel Richardson returns after a gap of 20 years to capture its spirit. The narrative is woven from strands of memoir, travelogue, reportage, and fiction, and touches on actors and fantasists, drunkards, writers, chancers, and maniacs who haunt its sloping streets. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Mention the War!: A Shameful European Adventure Stewart Ferris (Author) Paul Bassett (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Summersdale Publishers
Publisher:
Summersdale Publishers
Pub Date:
15 May 1998
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 192pp h198mm x w127mm 200g b&w photographs ISBN13: 9781840240368 ISBN13: 978-1-84024-036-8 ISBN10: 1840240369 x Description: An amusing look at three young men traveling around Europe with a total lack of appreciation for the cultural aspects of the continent. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Lean Out of the Window!: The Inter-rail Experience Stewart Ferris (Author) Paul Bassett (Author) Series:
Edition:
New edition
Imprint:
Summersdale Publishers
Publisher:
Summersdale Publishers
Pub Date:
15 Aug 1999
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 192pp h199mm x w130mm 243g b&w photographs ISBN13: 9781840240900 ISBN13: 978-1-84024-090-0 ISBN10: 1840240903 x Description: This amusing travelogue describes the adventures of three intrepid inter-railers who endure water cannons, arrests, undesirables and each other during a hot, sticky month that left most of the continent dazed, confused and smelling of inter-rail feet. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New Europe Michael Palin (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publisher:
Orion Publishing Co
Pub Date:
01 Jan 2007
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Hardback 288pp h274mm x w198mm 1226g ISBN13: 9780297844495 ISBN13: 978-0-297-84449-5 ISBN10: 0297844490 EAN: 9780297844495 x Description: Until the early 1990s, when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, travelling behind the iron curtain was never easy. In undertaking his new journey through Eastern Europe, breathing in its rich history, filming its exquisite sights and talking to its diverse peoples, Michael fills what has been a void in his own experience and that of very many of his own generation. As in all his series, Palin's New Europe takes the form of a journey through countries which have rich and complex cultures. Few have survived intact, as the ebb and flow of warring armies has continually changed the map of Europe. Starting in the mountains of Slovenia he travels down through Croatia and the former Yugoslavia to Albania before turning northwards to embrace Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, The Ukraine, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, the former East Germany, Poland, the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad (as Konigsberg originally home to the Teutonic Knights), Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, opening up a new and undiscovered world to millions of viewers and readers. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
To Noto: Or London to Sicily in a Ford Duncan Fallowell (Author) Series:
Edition:
New edition
Imprint:
Vintage
Publisher:
Vintage Publishing
Pub Date:
17 Aug 1995
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 306pp h198mm x w128mm 227g map ISBN13: 9780099499312 ISBN13: 978-0-09-949931-2 ISBN10: 0099499312 x Description: Through means of a car journey across the continent, Fallowell presents his account of contemporary Europe. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Rainbird Jan Brokken (Author) Sam Garrett (Translated by) Series:
Lonely Planet Journeys
Edition:
Imprint:
Lonely Planet Publications
Publisher:
Lonely Planet Publications Ltd
Pub Date:
01 Apr 1997
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: Australia Paperback / softback B-format paperback 296pp h195mm x w127mm x s19mm 309g maps, 1port ISBN13: 9780864424693 ISBN13: 978-0-86442-469-3 ISBN10: 0864424698 x Description: Jan Brokken's compelling account of his journey to one of the world's most mysterious and remote countries -- Gabon in Central Africa -following in the footsteps of such famous Europeans as Stanley and Schweitzer. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Getting Stoned With Savages J. Maarten Troost (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Broadway Books (A Publisher: Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc)
Random House USA Inc
Pub Date:
13 Jun 2006
Active
Publishing Status:
Published in: United States Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 256pp h201mm x w133mm x s17mm 239g ISBN13: 9780767921992 ISBN13: 978-0-7679-2199-2 ISBN10: 0767921992 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Detour de France: An Englishman in Search of a Continental Education Michael Simkins (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Ebury Press
Publisher:
Ebury Publishing
Pub Date:
01 Apr 2010
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 320pp h198mm x w126mm x s20mm 218g ISBN13: 9780091927530 ISBN13: 978-0-09-192753-0 ISBN10: 0091927536 EAN: 9780091927530 x Description: Though happy enough with his lot, Michael Simkins has never truly shaken the nagging doubt - helpfully upheld by his partner Julia - that he somehow lacks worldly sophistication. While she spent her teenage years as a nanny on a boat moored at Cannes, his utter lack of travel experience (Weymouth, Cleethorpes and a day trip to Dieppe) still has the power to shock people into leaving dinner parties early. So as he hits middle-age, Michael takes up the challenge of broadening his horizons. He decides to improve himself in the same way English gentlemen lacking refined edges have for centuries: by learning from our more cultured French neighbours. Michael, an English provincial ingenue, sets off to discover just what the Gallic nation can teach him and the rest of us Anglo-Saxons about living the good life. Armed only with 50 Useful Phrases in French, he waits to see if his odyssey from La Manche to the Riviera will finally turn him from the scotch-egg eating spawn of Anne Widdecombe and John McCririck into the champagne-sipping love child of Serge Gainsbourg and Catherine Deneuve. Julia is saying a prayer for him at Lourdes. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
An Englishman Amoureux: Love in Deepest France Michael Sadler (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Simon & Schuster
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date:
07 Jan 2008
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United States Paperback / softback EU Toy Safety Directive - 208pp h198mm x w129mm x s1mm 150g ISBN13: 9781416522430 ISBN13: 978-1-4165-2243-0 ISBN10: 1416522433 EAN: 9781416522430 x Description: Love in deepest France . . . After the romantic encounter in the Loire Valley bathroom at the end of AN ENGLISHMAN A LA CAMPAGNE Sadler dumps the University of Swindon and returns to France intent on winning the heart of Lou Charpin, his belle francaise. Easier said than done. Unsure of his credentials he decides to woo her family at the same time . . . playing Scrabble with the fiesty, Craven A-smoking grandmother; lending his farmhouse to his future chaud lapin (hot rabbit?) of a brother-in-law; explaining King Lear to an adolescent more intent on sowing birdseed in his window boxes; surviving a Greek Tragedy-style family Christmas, at which he foolishly translates jokes from crackers, and - le comble de l'arrogance - weening Lou Charpin away from her French copain, a plutocratic optician who is less than appreciative of rivalry from the barbaric north . . . How do you love a la francaise? Are they better at it than us? That is the question. Sadler watches the late-night movie - an erotic encounter between a luscious cleaning lady and a Parisian dermatologist - and takes copious notes. After the Latin lover is it now the moment for the 'rosbif' Romeo? In AN ENGLISHMAN AMOUREUX, all is revealed. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
An Englishman Amoureux: Love in Deepest France Michael Sadler (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Simon & Schuster Ltd
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster Ltd
Pub Date:
22 Jan 2007
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Other book format Cloth over boards 192pp h198mm x w129mm 284g ISBN13: 9780743294881 ISBN13: 978-0-7432-9488-1 ISBN10: 0743294882 x Description: Love in deepest France ...After the romantic encounter in the Loire Valley bathroom at the end of AN ENGLISHMAN A LA CAMPAGNE Sadler dumps the University of Swindon and returns to France intent on winning the heart of Lou Charpin, his belle francaise. Easier said than done. Unsure of his credentials he decides to woo her family at the same time ...playing Scrabble with the fiesty, Craven A-smoking grandmother; lending his farmhouse to his future chaud lapin (hot rabbit?) of a brother-in-law; explaining King Lear to an adolescent more intent on sowing birdseed in his window boxes; surviving a Greek Tragedy-style family Christmas, at which he foolishly translates jokes from crackers, and - le comble de l'arrogance weening Lou Charpin away from her French copain, a plutocratic optician who is less than appreciative of rivalry from the barbaric north ...How do you love a la francaise? Are they better at it than us? That is the question. Sadler watches the late-night movie - an erotic encounter between a luscious cleaning lady and a Parisian dermatologist - and takes copious notes. After the Latin lover is it now the moment for the 'rosbif' Romeo? In AN ENGLISHMAN AMOUREUX, all is revealed. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
An Englishman In Paris: L'education Continentale Michael Sadler (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Simon & Schuster
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date:
03 Mar 2003
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United States Paperback / softback B-format paperback EU Toy Safety Directive - No warning No warning 208pp s1mm 159g ISBN13: 9780743440462 ISBN13: 978-0-7434-4046-2 ISBN10: 0743440463 EAN: 9780743440462 x Description: Peter Mayle, author of A YEAR IN PROVENCE, writes in his Preface to this charming travel memoir: 'Michael Sadler was born in Lewes, a small town in the south of England. This was a geographical accident. He should have emerged from the womb in Paris, looking anxiously about him for a suitable place to have lunch.' He may not have been born there, but Michael Sadler eventually found his spiritual home. AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS is his delightful account of his first year in the French capital, describing with alternate affection and bemusement such continental confusions as the etiquette of flower-buying, the role of cricket in French foreplay, and the dangers 'black butter' presents not just to one's cholesterol levels but also to dry-cleaning bills. Beautifully observed and very funny, AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS will delight armchair travellers and Francophiles alike. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
French Leave: Over 100 Irresistible Recipes John Burton-Race (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Ebury Press
Publisher:
Ebury Publishing
Pub Date:
01 Jul 2004
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 224pp h198mm x w127mm x s15mm 175g ISBN13: 9780091898304 ISBN13: 978-0-09-189830-4 ISBN10: 0091898307 EAN: 9780091898304 x Description: French Leave, tie-in to the major TV series directed by Pat Llewellyn, who discovered Jamie Oliver and the Two Fat Ladies, follows twostar Michelin chef John Burton Race, his wife, six children and Labrador dog as they escape everyday life in London and head off to rural France to set up home for a year. This warm and witty book seasonally chronicles John Burton Race's return to his culinary roots and his adventures along the way. There are specially commissioned authentic French country recipes including Asparagus Hollandaise; Pommes Boulangeres; Roast Duck with Prunes and Wild Strawberry Shortcake. For those whose imagination was captured by the TV series or those who simply want to read about a wonderful year of escape in France and enjoy sensational food writing, French Leave will be without doubt, the perfect book. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Instructions for Visitors: Life and Love in a French Town Helen Stevenson (Author) Series:
Edition:
New edition
Imprint:
Black Swan
Publisher:
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Pub Date:
01 Jan 2002
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 256pp h201mm x w133mm x s17mm 212g ISBN13: 9780552999281 ISBN13: 978-0-552-99928-1 ISBN10: 0552999288 x Description: The beguiling, funny and frank story of a young Englishwoma; If you are lucky enough to find your place, you should never actually live in it, never make it your home. And never live with the man you think you cannot live without. Le Village is a small town at the southwestern-most tip of France. Here a young Englishwoman fell in love with France, the French and one Frenchman in particular. In her seductive, lyrical and witty memoir Helen Stevenson writes about life in Le Village, not as an expat, but as someone adopted by her neighbours as one of their own. By Stefan, the Maoist tennis fanatic, who lives off his lover in solidarity with the unemployed; by Gigi, the chic Parisian who dresses her ex-lovers' girlfriends from the stock of
her exquisite boutique; and by Luc, the crumpled cowboy painter and part-time dentist, who, overcoming an aversion to blondes, takes the Englishwoman up to his remote mas, shows her his paintings and teaches her to ride. Describing the colour and light of the landscape with lyrical intensity, and savouring the languid and sexy flavour of the Mediterranean lifestyle, Helen Stevenson lays bare a romantic but potentially disastrous love affair with the man 'who seems like the only man alive to me, the one with the halo round his head in a crowd, if I should ever see him in a crowd'. Instructions For Visitors may start as an objective guide for tenants arriving at her village house, but it ends as a very personal revelation of how difficult it can be to transplant oneself into someone else's country, someone else's culture, someone else's heart. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sun After Dark Pico Iyer (Author) Series:
Edition:
New edition
Imprint:
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Pub Date:
03 Jan 2005
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 240pp h198mm x w129mm ISBN13: 9780747576709 ISBN13: 978-0-7475-7670-9 ISBN10: 074757670X x Description: Pico Iyer - one of our most compelling and profoundly provocative travel writers - invites us to accompany him on an array of exotic explorations, from L.A. and Yemen to Haiti and Ethiopia, from a Bolivian prison to a hidden monastery in Tibet. He goes to Cambodia, where the main tourist attraction is a collection of skulls from the Khmer Rouge killing fields, and travels through southern Arabia in the weeks before September 11, 2001. He practices meditation with Leonard Cohen and discusses geopolitics with the Dalai Lama, travels to Easter Island and through the imaginative terrains of W. G. Sebald and Kazuo Ishiguro, weaving physical and psychological challenges together into a seamless narrative. Throughout his travels, the familiar thrill of adventure is haunted by the unsettling questions that arise for Iyer everywhere he goes: How do we reconcile suffering with the sunlight often found around it? How does the foreign instruct the traveler, precisely by discomfiting him? And how does travel take us more deeply into reality, both within us and without? Intensely affecting, Iyer's explorations are a road map of thinking in new ways about our changing world. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Culture Shock! Germany: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette Richard Lord (Author) Series:
Culture Shock!
Edition:
Revised edition
Imprint:
Kuperard
Publisher:
Kuperard
Pub Date:
25 Jan 2000
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 240pp h200mm ISBN13: 9781857330977 ISBN13: 978-1-85733-097-7 ISBN10: 1857330978 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Germania: A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern Simon Winder (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Picador
Publisher:
Pan Macmillan
Pub Date:
19 Mar 2010
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 480pp h215mm x w135mm x s35mm 512g ISBN13: 9780330522816 ISBN13: 978-0-330-52281-6 ISBN10: 0330522817 EAN: 9780330522816 x Description: `It made me laugh so hard that I woke up my wife and had to give up reading the book in bed. If Bill Bryson had collaborated with W. G. Sebald to write a book about Germany, they might have wound up with something like this' Sunday Times
Germania is a very personal guide to the Germany that Simon Winder loves. Equally passionate about the region's history, folklore, cuisine, architecture, and landscape, Winder describes Germany's past afresh - and in doing so sees a country much like our own: Protestant, aggressive and committed to eating some very strange food. This accessible, enthusiastic and startlingly vivid account is a brilliant introduction to the hidden wonders of Germany. `His rich and broadly chronological history of Germany and its peoples is minutely researched . . . A splendid offering' Financial Times `Entertaining and informative . . . Delightful' Philip Hensher, Independent `Beautifully written and insightful . . . a witty, thought-provoking account of Germany's various histories, cultures and oddities' Irish Times _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Germania: A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern Simon Winder (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Picador
Publisher:
Pan Macmillan
Pub Date:
04 Feb 2011
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 480pp h197mm x w130mm x s29mm 330g ISBN13: 9780330451406 ISBN13: 978-0-330-45140-6 ISBN10: 0330451405 EAN: 9780330451406 x Description: `It made me laugh so hard that I woke up my wife and had to give up reading the book in bed. If Bill Bryson had collaborated with W. G. Sebald to write a book about Germany, they might have wound up with something like this' Sunday Times Germania is a very personal guide to the Germany that Simon Winder loves. Equally passionate about the region's history, folklore, cuisine, architecture and landscape, Winder describes Germany's past afresh - and in doing so sees a country much like our own: Protestant, aggressive and committed to eating some very strange food. This accessible, enthusiastic and startlingly vivid account is a brilliant introduction to the hidden wonders of Germany. `A splendid offering' Financial Times `His excitement is beguiling and infectious . . . There are many pleasures to be savoured in Germania, gems that make Winder's clever, rambunctious work a book to treasure' Literary Review `Beautifully written and insightful' Irish Times _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Springtime For Germany: or How I Learned to Love Lederhosen Ben Donald (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Little, Brown & Company
Publisher:
Little, Brown & Company
Pub Date:
14 Jun 2007
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United States Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) (Text (eye-readable)) 320pp h232mm x w153mm x s24mm 422g Integrated: 1, b/w int. ISBN13: 9780316732475 ISBN13: 978-0-316-73247-5 ISBN10: 0316732478 EAN: 9780316732475 x Description: With no apparent sense of humour and their excessive speed when securing sunloungers, the German people and their country have had a terrible reputation among the British since time immemorial (or 1914). So, going where very few travel-writers and holidaymakers have gone before, Ben Donald has visited Germany in order to overturn stereotypes and, at the same time, fall back in love with travel. From the massed ranks on the nudist beaches of Germany's north coast (they have a reputation for liking uniform, but they'd much rather be
naked), via intimate encounters in the steam-rooms of Baden-Baden and the brothels of Hamburg (where he makes his excuses and leaves), to the rite of passage that is wearing Lederhosen to the Oktoberfest (which takes place in September), the author has put his body and his dignity on the line to get beneath the skin of this most maligned of countries. He even goes to see a German stand-up comedian. In - where else? - England. And what emerges is a Germany that will surprise many who thought they knew the country and its people; an eye-opener in other words especially those nudist beaches. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A Year in the Scheisse: Getting to Know the Germans Roger Boyes (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Summersdale Publishers
Publisher:
Summersdale Publishers
Pub Date:
07 Apr 2008
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 240pp h198mm x w130mm x s17mm 230g ISBN13: 9781840246483 ISBN13: 978-1-84024-648-3 ISBN10: 1840246480 EAN: 9781840246483 x Description: `It was time, the editor told me, for a more modern approach to Germany... The three of us were the backbone of the British press corps. No cliche about Germany left the country without us having given it our seal of approval.'
Laugh-out-loud funny, this is the memorable story of an English journalist's adventures - including his encounters with women - as he tries to get to grip with the Germans. Facing bankruptcy, Roger is advised by his accountant to make use of a legal loophole: in Germany married couples have their tax bill halved. So the search is on for a German bride. Meanwhile his father, a former bomber pilot and war hero, is also in financial trouble and is threatening to move to Germany and sponge off his son.
The combination of financial, romantic and parental crises sets in train a hilarious romp during which we discover more than we really wanted to about speed-dating and nudist beaches, the British media obsession with Adolf Hitler and how to cheat at the Berlin marathon, curry wurst and stuffed cabbage. Writing incisively and almost without prejudice, Roger Boyes describes the peculiarities of everyday life in Germany. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12 Days of Ghana DOT HENDERSON (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
AuthorHouse
Publisher:
AuthorHouse
Pub Date:
12 Oct 2004
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United States Paperback / softback Trade paperback (US) 96pp h229mm x w152mm x s5mm 153g ISBN13: 9781418413811 ISBN13: 978-1-4184-1381-1 ISBN10: 141841381X x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ghana - Culture Smart! Ian Utley (Author) Series:
Edition:
New edition
Imprint:
Kuperard
Publisher:
Kuperard
Pub Date:
09 Nov 2008
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 168pp h112mm x w170mm x s12mm 180g ISBN13: 9781857334746 ISBN13: 978-1-85733-474-6 ISBN10: 1857334744 EAN: 9781857334746
x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Around The World On Expenses Peter Biddlecombe (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Abacus
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Pub Date:
04 Jan 1996
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 378pp h197mm x w125mm x s24mm 300g ISBN13: 9780349106847 ISBN13: 978-0-349-10684-7 ISBN10: 0349106843 EAN: 9780349106847 x Description: Still convinced that the only true modern traveller is the business traveller, Peter Biddlecombe takes us on another irreverent global tour. He snubs his nose at the 'gimmick tourists', eschews crossing the Sahara naked on a skateboard and carries on doing what he does best - business, all over the world, with a wonderfully diverse range of characters. Power-players in Milan, storm-trooping language police in Toronto, and just general chaos in Kinshasa: a mere selection of the obstacles the international businessman must face as he struggles to get to grips with the local way of doing things. But it's all in the name of commerce, and whether he's trapped in a luxury hotel duirng the riots in Bombay or working his way through a Good Food Guide to Ouagadougou in one of the poorest countries in the world, Peter Biddlecombe usually comes up trumps ...not necessarily with the deal he was after, but always with a hilarious tale to tell. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Empire of the Mind Iqbal Ahmed (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Constable
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Pub Date:
26 Apr 2007
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 256pp h197mm x w130mm x s12mm 159g ISBN13: 9781845295165 ISBN13: 978-1-84529-516-5 ISBN10: 1845295161 x Description: 'Fascinating, humorous and poignant' - "The Times". As a child in Kashmir, Iqbal Ahmed imagined Great Britain as the mother country of the Empire, a place full of wonders and delight. Living in London, he goes in search of the nation he once dreamt of, visiting the many different cities and towns of his imagination to find them as something altogether different. On his journey he encounters immigrants who struggle with English life, and the question of belonging. This book is the story of the journey from imagination to reality where the real nature of Britain reveals itself. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
92 Acharnon Street John Lucas (Author) Series:
Edition:
2nd ed.
Imprint:
Eland Publishing Ltd
Publisher:
Eland Publishing Ltd
Pub Date:
21 Sep 2007
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Hardback 224pp ISBN13: 9780955010538 ISBN13: 978-0-9550105-3-8 ISBN10: 0955010535 x Description: Greece has always had its admirers, though none seems to have cherished the Athenian tavernas, the murderous traffic and the jaded prostitutes, the petty bureaucratic tyrannies, the street noise and the heroic individualists with the irony and detachment of John Lucas. Lucas' love for the realities of Greece finally banishes the banality of a half-century of tourism. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Athens - The Truth: Searching for Manos, Just Before the Bubble Burst David Cade (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Tales of Orpheus
Publisher:
Tales of Orpheus
Pub Date:
01 Sep 2013
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 406pp h203mm x w127mm x s23mm ISBN13: 9780955209031 ISBN13: 978-0-9552090-3-1 ISBN10: 095520903X x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dinner With Persephone Patricia Storace (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Granta Books
Publisher:
Granta Books
Pub Date:
13 Jul 1998
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 416pp h198mm x w130mm x s23mm 299g ISBN13: 9781862070523 ISBN13: 978-1-86207-052-3 ISBN10: 1862070520 EAN: 9781862070523 x Description: This volume explores the complicated relationship between the idea of classical Greece and the messy, Mediterranean reality of a country unsure of its place in the world. Modern Greece is the strangest nation in Europe, insisting on its privileged place as the "cradle of democracy", while offering a less-than-perfect form of democracy to its own minorities and its female population. This is the country that turned itself upside down over the adoption of the name of "Macedonia" by a former Yugoslav republic, as though Alexander the Great's nationality were a matter of extreme contemporary urgency. Patricia Storace begins by telling of her first day in Greece. She brings to bear on modern Greece a deep knowledge of the classics, of the Greek myths and of Greek Christianity. She is the author o f "Heredity", a book of poems. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Greece, A Love Story: Women Write about the Greek Experience Camille Cusumano (Author) Camille Cusumano (Edited by) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Seal Press
Publisher:
Seal Press
Pub Date:
17 Mar 2007
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United States Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) (Text (eye-readable)) 225pp h191mm x w140mm ISBN13: 9781580051972 ISBN13: 978-1-58005-197-2 ISBN10: 1580051979 EAN: 9781580051972 x Description: Greece, it has been said, is where art became inseparable from life. The country evokes a richly embroidered tapestry of images, from old monuments rife with history to idyllic isles of glass-blue sea and blinding white stucco dwellings. Greece enchants its visitors with its beauty, tradition, and spirit.In this eloquent collection, women share firsthand experiences of the people, history, and landscape of Greece. Their essays go beyond ordinary travelogue to capture the ways in which Greece has shaped lives or influenced decisions. In expressing their love for the country, these women share stories as visceral as they are poignant, as entertaining as they are endearing. Whether they are seasoned travellers or armchair adventurers, Greece aficionados or those just beginning to learn about the country, readers of this compelling collection will gain a better understanding of Greece and how experiences abroad can impact their lives. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It's All Greek to Me: A Tale of a Mad Dog and an Englishman, Ruins, Retsina - and Real Greeks John Mole (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Publisher:
John Murray Press
Pub Date:
18 May 2006
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 352pp h197mm x w129mm ISBN13: 9781857883756 ISBN13: 978-1-85788-375-6 ISBN10: 1857883756 EAN: 9781857883756 This Product Replaces: 9781857883435 x Description: In a charming saga of sun, sea, sand - and cement - John Mole tells of the back-breaking but joyous labours of fixing up his own Arcadia and introduces a warm, generous and garrulous cast of characters who helped (and occasionally hindered) his progress. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Olive Grove Katherine Kizilos (Author) Series:
Lonely Planet Journeys
Edition:
Imprint:
Lonely Planet Publications
Publisher:
Lonely Planet Publications Ltd
Pub Date:
01 Sep 1997
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: Australia Paperback / softback B-format paperback 256pp h195mm x w128mm x s19mm 274g maps ISBN13: 9780864424594 ISBN13: 978-0-86442-459-4 ISBN10: 0864424590 x Description: Katherine Kizilos travels to fabled islands, troubled border zones and her family's village deep in the mountains, vividly evoking breathtaking landscapes, generous people and passionate politics. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Papas and the Englishman: From Corfu to Zagoria Roy Hounsell (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Yiannis Books
Publisher:
Yiannis Books
Pub Date:
01 Jan 2007
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 224pp h189mm x w123mm 1 map ISBN13: 9780954788735 ISBN13: 978-0-9547887-3-5 ISBN10: 0954788737 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Falling for Icarus: A Journey Among the Cretans Rory MacLean (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher:
Penguin Books Ltd
Pub Date:
28 Apr 2005
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 368pp h199mm x w130mm x s24mm 244g Illustrations , maps, ports. ISBN13: 9780141015941 ISBN13: 978-0-14-101594-1 ISBN10: 0141015942 x Description: On a windy afternoon in early spring Rory MacLean fell to earth in Anissari, a village surrounded by white mountains in an ancient corner of Crete. MacLean's mother had died only a few months earlier and he had been engulfed by grief. But an old desire had also taken hold to build and fly an aeroplane. And so he set off to the land where Daedalus and Icarus had made their maiden flight and settled in to days of eating lamb and drinking wine with his Cretan neighbours and, with their help, attempting to build a Woodhopper from scratch and make it fly. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Only in Holland, Only the Dutch: An In-depth Look into the Culture of Holland and Its People Marc Resch (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Rozenberg Publishers
Publisher:
Rozenberg Publishers
Pub Date:
16 May 2005
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: Netherlands Paperback / softback 340pp h230mm x w155mm Illustrations, map ISBN13: 9789051708004 ISBN13: 978-90-5170-800-4 ISBN10: 9051708009 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Maximum City Suketu Mehta (Author) Series:
The Hungry Student
Edition:
Imprint:
Headline Review
Publisher:
Headline Publishing Group
Pub Date:
04 Oct 2004
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 512pp h235mm x w151mm x s40mm 750g None ISBN13: 9780755301508 ISBN13: 978-0-7553-0150-8 ISBN10: 0755301501 EAN: 9780755301508 x Description: Bombay's story, told through the lives, often desperately near the edge, of some of the people who live there. The complex texture of these extraordinary tales is threaded together by Suketu Mehta's own history of growing up in Bombay and returning to live there after a 21-year absence. Hitmen, dancing girls, cops, movie stars, poets, beggars and politicians - Suketu loooked at the city through their eyes, and in looking found the city within himself. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Maximum City Suketu Mehta (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Headline Review
Publisher:
Headline Publishing Group
Pub Date:
05 Sep 2005
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback (Text (eye-readable)) 608pp h198mm x w134mm x s38mm 412g ISBN13: 9780747259695 ISBN13: 978-0-7472-5969-5 ISBN10: 0747259690 EAN: 9780747259695 x Description: An international bestseller upon publication, MAXIMUM CITY was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and remains a classic study of the metropolis of Bombay. 'If there's been a more striking snapshot of the changing face of Asia, I've never read it' Sunday Times Bombay's story is told through the lives, often desperately near the edge, of some of the people who live there. Hitmen, dancing girls, cops, movie stars, poets, beggars and politicians - Suketu looked at the city through their eyes. The complex texture of these extraordinary tales is threaded together by Suketu Mehta's own history of growing up in Bombay and returning to live there after a 21-year absence, and in looking through the eyes of his found the city within himself. Part memoir, part journalism, part travelogue, and written with the relentless observation and patience of a novelist, Maximum City is a brilliantly illuminating portrait of Bombay and its people - a book as vast, diverse, and rich in experience, incident, and sensation as the city itself. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lost Cosmonaut Daniel Kalder (Author) Series:
Edition:
Main
Imprint:
Faber & Faber
Publisher:
Faber & Faber
Pub Date:
01 Feb 2007
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 352pp h198mm x w127mm x s21mm 280g ISBN13: 9780571227815 ISBN13: 978-0-571-22781-5 ISBN10: 0571227813 EAN: 9780571227815 This Product Replaces: 9780571227808 x Description: 'As the world has become smaller so its wonders have diminished. There is nothing amazing about the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China or the Pyramids of Egypt. They are as banal and familiar as the face of a Cornflakes packet. The true unknown frontiers lie elsewhere. The duty of the traveller, of the voyager, is to open up new zones of experience. In our over explored world these must of necessity be wastelands, black holes, and grim urban blackspots: all the places which, ordinarily, people choose to avoid. THE ONLY TRUE VOYAGERS, THEREFORE, ARE ANTITOURISTS.' Lost Cosmonaut documents Daniel Kalder's travels in the bizarre and mysterious worlds of Russia's ethnic republics. Obsessed with a quest he never fully understands, Kalder boldly goes where no man has gone before: in the deserts of Kalmykia, he stumbles upon a city dedicated to chess and a forgotten tribe of Mongols; in Mari El, home to Europe's last pagan nation, he meets the Chief Druid and participates in an ancient rite; while in the bleak industrial badlands of Udmurtia, Kalder looks for Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK47, and accidentally becomes a TV star. Profane yet wise, utterly honest and yet full of lies, Lost Cosmonaut is an eye-opening, blackly comic tour of the most alien plant in our cosmos: Earth. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey Alison Wearing (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Pan Books
Publisher:
Pan Macmillan
Pub Date:
08 Jun 2001
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 336pp h197mm x w130mm x s21mm 220g ISBN13: 9780330393065 ISBN13: 978-0-330-39306-5 ISBN10: 0330393065 EAN: 9780330393065 x Description: Alison Wearing went on a trip beyond the legacy of revolution, religious fundamentalism and veiled women to find the real people of Iran. Posing as a honeymooner, but accidentally on purpose setting out on her own at every opportunity, Alison Wearing reveals an irresistible curiosity at every turn. With a novelist's love of language and an eye for dramatic detail, she takes the reader into the homes and hearts of the people who welcome her, feed her, and send her off on one adventure after the other. Alison goes to hidden places of interest that recall the romance of Persia, on interminable trips into the desert, and to fading palaces by the sea - wherever she finds herself, she offers startling insights into daily life in Iran, an enigmatic country. HONEYMOON IN PURDAH is beautifully written, fresh and fascinating at every turn, and is a glorious account of a hardcore holiday. 'We are presented with the view from behind a pair of hungry, sensitive and wholly human eyes - a vivid and endearing picture of Iran's people' - Independent on Sunday _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Persian Pilgrimages: Journeys Across Iran Afshin Molavi (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
WW Norton & Co
Publisher:
WW Norton & Co
Pub Date:
03 Dec 2002
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United States Hardback 320pp h237mm x w180mm 656g Illustrations, maps ISBN13: 9780393051193 ISBN13: 978-0-393-05119-3 ISBN10: 0393051196 x Description: Afshin Molavi, a rising young journalist born in Iran and fluent in Farsi, travelled his homeland for one year. Along the way he met a wide variety of people from a wide variety of backgrounds - students, bazaar merchants, Islamic clerics, homeless children, pro-democracy writers, Islamic hardliners, feminists, and kids hooked on anything western. They all discusses matters which were important to them: unemployment, freedom, religion, poetry, history, love, and green cards. This journey documents the real feeling of a nation, not the ones seen on camera. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country David Aaronovitch (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Fourth Estate Ltd
Publisher:
HarperCollins Publishers
Pub Date:
21 Sep 2000
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Hardback 320pp h240mm x w159mm 623g ISBN13: 9781841151014 ISBN13: 978-1-84115-101-4 ISBN10: 1841151017 x Description: David Aaronovitch, the award-winning columnist and broadcaster canoes round the waterways and canals of England on the eve of the new Millennium. In the last months of the second millennium, a rather large middle-aged man set out on an epic journey to discover England and himself. By canoe. Paddling to Jerusalem is the story of where he went, who he met and what he thought. It is a tale of moderate danger, of slow adventure, of big exercise, wet water and bad food. Above all it is a saga about us -- all of us. Beginning at Camden Lock in London, the journey winds through old countryside and new towns, past cathedrals and disused wharves, down ancient waterways lined with crumbling factories and newly restored warehouses. This is the wet high road of Our Mutual Friend and Three Men in a Boat, at a key moment in England's history -- as the country prepares for devolution, David Aaronovitch's journey will be comical, poignant, personal and philosophical -- and very timely.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The City of Falling Angels John Berendt (Author) Series:
Edition:
New edition
Imprint:
Sceptre
Publisher:
Hodder & Stoughton
Pub Date:
05 Jun 2006
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback A-format paperback 384pp h22mm x w111mm x s176mm 200g 1 map ISBN13: 9780340897775 ISBN13: 978-0-340-89777-5 ISBN10: 0340897775 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Italy - Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture Barry Tomalin (Author) Series:
Culture Smart!
Edition:
2nd Second Edition, Second ed.
Imprint:
Kuperard
Publisher:
Kuperard
Pub Date:
07 Jan 2016
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 168pp ISBN13: 9781857338300 ISBN13: 978-1-85733-830-0 ISBN10: 1857338308 This Product Replaces: 9781857333169 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Dark Heart of Italy Tobias Jones (Author) Series:
Edition:
Open Market - Airside ed
Imprint:
Faber & Faber
Publisher:
Faber & Faber
Pub Date:
15 Feb 2007
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback A-format paperback 320pp h178mm x w111mm x s20mm 201g ISBN13: 9780571235926 ISBN13: 978-0-571-23592-6 ISBN10: 0571235921 EAN: 9780571235926 x Description: In 1999 Tobias Jones emigrated to Italy, expecting to discover the pastoral bliss described by centuries of foreign visitors. Instead, he discovered a very different country, besieged by unfathomable terrorism and deep-seated paranoia, where crime is scarcely ever met with punishment. The Dark Heart of Italy is Jones' account of his three-year voyage across the Italian peninsula. Jones is preoccupied not by Italy's art, climate, or cuisine, but by the livelier and stranger sides of the Bel Paese: language, football, Catholicism, cinema, television and terrorism. Why, he wonders, is there a parliamentary commission investigating Italy's terrorist 'slaughters', and why do bombs still explode every time politics start getting serious? Why does everyone urge him to go home as soon as possible, saying that Italy is a 'brothel'? And why do people warn him that 'Clean Hands' only disguise 'Dirty Feet'? Slowly, though, one clear truth emerges: the entire country is in the hands of one man. He owns banks, estate agencies, mobile phone companies - not to mention half the television channels, one of the best football teams, and great swathes of Milan. His personal wealth is estimated at $14 billion. And now, thanks to his coalition with 'Post-Fascists', he - Silvio Berlusconi - has become President of the Ministerial Council. Could this be why everyone in Italy is so paranoid? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
HUMOURIST'S GUIDE TO ITALY Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Robson Books Ltd
Publisher:
Pavilion Books
Pub Date:
28 May 2003
Publishing Status:
Out of stock indefinitely
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 208pp h198mm x w129mm illustrations ISBN13: 9781861055910 ISBN13: 978-1-86105-591-0 ISBN10: 1861055919 x Description: Every aspect of Italy and Italian life, past and present, is seen through a filter of irony, incongruity, satire, parody and nonsense, making When in Rome not only the companion for your travels but the perfect book to read in those moments spent at airports and stations, on planes and trains and on the beach. Packed with stories, memoirs, character sketches, anecdotes, light verse, drawings and a generous sprinkling of cartoons, it contains the travel writing of many of our generous humorists. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A Season With Verona Tim Parks (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Vintage
Publisher:
Vintage Publishing
Pub Date:
06 Mar 2003 (06 May 2010)
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 464pp h198mm x w129mm x s29mm 319g 30 ISBN13: 9780099422679 ISBN13: 978-0-09-942267-9 ISBN10: 0099422670 EAN: 9780099422679 x Description: Is Italy a united country, or a loose affiliation of warring states? Is Italian football a sport, or an ill-disguised protraction of ancient enmities? Tim Parks goes on the road to follow the fortunes of Hellas Verona football club, to pay a different kind of visit to some of the world's most beautiful cities. This is a highly personal account of one man's relationship with a country, its people and its national sport. A book that combines the pleasures of travel writing with a profound analysis of one country's mad, mad way of keeping itself entertained. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A Year In The World Frances Mayes (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group)
Publisher:
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Pub Date:
02 Apr 2007
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 464pp h198mm x w128mm x s30mm 310g ISBN13: 9780553814439 ISBN13: 978-0-553-81443-9 ISBN10: 0553814435 x Description: The author who unforgettably captured the experience of starting a new life in Tuscany returns to immerse herself - and her readers - in the sights, aromas and treasures of twelve new special places. A YEAR IN THE WORLD is vintage Frances Mayes - a celebration of the allure of travel, of serendipitous pleasures found in unlikely places, of memory woven into the present, and of a joyous sense of quest. An ideal travel companion, Frances Mayes brings to the page the curiosity of an intrepid explorer, remarkable insights into the wonder of the everyday, and a compelling narrative style that entertains as it informs. With her beloved Tuscany as a home base, Mayes travels to Spain and Portugal, France, the British Isles, and the Mediterranean world of Turkey, Greece, the south of Italy, and North Africa. In Andalucia, she relishes the intersection of cultures. She cooks in Portugal, gathers ideas in the gardens of England and Scotland, takes a literary pilgrimage to Burgundy and explores the Moroccan city
of Fez. Weaving together personal perceptions and informed commentary on art, architecture, history, landscape, and the social and culinary traditions of each area, Mayes brings the immediacy of life in her temporary homes to the reader. An illuminating and passionate book that will be savoured by all who loved UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, A YEAR IN THE WORLD is travel writing at its absolute best. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking Michael Booth (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Vintage
Publisher:
Vintage Publishing
Pub Date:
06 May 2010
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 336pp h198mm x w129mm x s21mm 234g ISBN13: 9780099516446 ISBN13: 978-0-09-951644-6 ISBN10: 0099516446 EAN: 9780099516446 x Description: 'His account of their "foodie family road trip" establishes Booth as the next Bill Bryson.' New York Times Japan is the pre-eminent food nation on earth. The creativity of the Japanese, their dedication and ingenuity, not to mention courage in the face of dishes such as cod sperm and octopus ice cream, is only now beginning to be fully appreciated in the sushi-saturated West, as are the remarkable health benefits of the traditional Japanese diet. Food and travel writer Michael Booth sets of to take the culinary pulse of contemporary Japan and he and his young family travel the length of the country - from bear-infested, beer-loving Hokkaido to snake-infested, seaweed-loving Okinawa. What do the Japanese know about food? Perhaps more than anyone else on earth, judging by this fascinating and funny journey through an extraordinary food-obsessed country. Winner of the Guild of Food Writers Kate Whiteman Award for the best book on food and travel. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Wrong About Japan Peter Carey (Author) Series:
Edition:
Main
Imprint:
Faber & Faber
Publisher:
Faber & Faber
Pub Date:
01 Sep 2005
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 176pp h190mm x w130mm x s14mm 165g ISBN13: 9780571228706 ISBN13: 978-0-571-22870-6 ISBN10: 0571228704 EAN: 9780571228706 x Description: In a stunning memoir-cum-travelogue Peter Carey charts this journey, inspired by Charley's passion for Japanese Manga and anime, and explores his own resulting re-evaluation of Japan. Although graphically violent and disturbing, the two mediums are both inherently concerned with Japan's rich history and heritage, and hold a huge popular appeal that crosses the generations. Led by their adolescent guide Takashi, an uncanny mix of generosity and derision, father and son look for the hidden puzzles and meanings, searching, often with comic results, for a greater understanding of these art forms, and for what they come to refer to as their own 'real Japan'. From Manhattan to Tokyo, Commodore Perry to Godzilla, kabuki theatre to the post-war robot craze, Wrong about Japan is a fascinatingly personal, witty and moving exploration of two very different cultures. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kingdom of the Film Stars Annie Caulfield (Author) Series:
Lonely Planet Journeys
Edition:
Imprint:
Lonely Planet Publications
Publisher:
Lonely Planet Publications Ltd
Pub Date:
01 Feb 1997
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: Australia Paperback / softback B-format paperback 264pp h197mm x w127mm x s19mm 282g maps ISBN13: 9780864424617 ISBN13: 978-0-86442-461-7 ISBN10: 0864424612 x Description: This volume is both a travel book and a love story. Anne Caulfield writes of travelling in Jordan and falling in love with a Bedouin. Her narrative offers insights into the country - from the traditional tent life of nomadic tribes to the first woman MPs battle with fundamentalist colleagues. Many Western myths about the Arab world are unpicked by the author, but this is not an impersonal analysis as the cultural and political issues presented are all set within the framework of a love story. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Holidays in Hell (Birthday Edition) P. J. O'Rourke (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Picador
Publisher:
Pan Macmillan
Pub Date:
06 Sep 2002
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback A-format paperback 288pp h178mm x w111mm x s22mm 179g ISBN13: 9780330491921 ISBN13: 978-0-330-49192-1 ISBN10: 033049192X EAN: 9780330491921 This Product is Replaced By: 9780330306836 x Description: In Holidays in Hell America's funniest writer takes on the role of tour guide with hilarious results.In this darkly satirical take on the travel writing genre, O'Rourke reports from trouble spots around the world; 'A Ramble through Lebanon' and 'Christmas in El Salvador' may sound unpromising, but when subjected to O'Rourke's blackly comic treatment they become gloriously entertaining inversions of the standard travelogue. The perfect antidote to political correctness, Holidays in Hell is also a clear-eyed look at humanity, or man's lack of it, around the world. 'The first few pages of this book made me laugh so much I dropped it on my month-old baby . . . Holidays in Hell is a splendid read' EVENING STANDARD _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Seek: Reports from the Edges of America and Beyond Denis Johnson (Author) Series:
Edition:
New edition
Imprint:
Methuen Publishing Ltd
Publisher:
Methuen Publishing Ltd
Pub Date:
27 Feb 2004
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 256pp h198mm x w129mm 180g ISBN13: 9780413772756 ISBN13: 978-0-413-77275-6 ISBN10: 0413772756 x Description: Part political inquiry, part travel journal, part-self exploration, "Seek" is a collection of essays by an award-winning novelist out to explore himself and his life in the company of those who live on the edges of society. Denis Johnson travels between the extremes of human behaviour, from a hippy convention in the Achoco Natinal Forest, to war-ravaged Liberia, where he is witness to horrifying acts of torture. Along the way he joins a "Bikers for Jesus" rally in Texas, hangs out with a gun-crazed militia group, finds himself stranded in Somalia, and swaps stories with the Taliban in Afghanistan. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Walk the Lines: The London Underground, Overground Mark Mason (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Arrow Books Ltd
Publisher:
Cornerstone
Pub Date:
03 Apr 2013
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 400pp h198mm x w129mm x s25mm 277g ISBN13: 9780099557937 ISBN13: 978-0-09-955793-7 ISBN10: 0099557932 EAN: 9780099557937 x Description: The only way to truly discover a city, they say, is on foot. Taking this to extremes, Mark Mason sets out to walk the entire length of the London Underground - overground - passing every station on the way. In a story packed with historical trivia, personal musings and eavesdropped conversations, Mark learns how to get the best gossip in the City, where to find a pint at 7am, and why the Bank of England won't let you join the M11 northbound at Junction 5. He has an East End cup of tea with the Krays' official biographer, discovers what cabbies mean by 'on the cotton', and meets the Archers star who was the voice of 'Mind the Gap'. Over the course of several hundred miles, Mark contemplates London's contradictions as well as its charms. He gains insights into our fascination with maps and sees how walking changes our view of the world. Above all, in this love letter to a complicated friend, he celebrates the sights, sounds and soul of the greatest city on earth. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Snowball Oranges: One Mallorcan Winter Peter Kerr (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Summersdale Publishers
Publisher:
Summersdale Publishers
Pub Date:
12 Jun 2000
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 320pp h198mm x w127mm x s0mm 0g colour photographs ISBN13: 9781840241129 ISBN13: 978-1-84024-112-9 ISBN10: 1840241128 x Description: It's the stuff of dreams. A Scottish family give up relative sanity and security to go and grow oranges for a living in a secluded valley in the mountains of Mallorca. But dreams, as everyone knows, have a nasty habit of not turning out quite as intended. Being greeted by a freak snowstorm is only the first of many surprises and "experiences", and it isn't long before they realise that they have been sold a bit of a lemon of an orange farm by the wily previous owners. However, laughter is the best medicine and a colourful set of Mallorcan neighbours (including an eccentric old goat-herd who eats worm-ridden oranges to improve his sex life) restore the family's faith in human nature and help them adapt to a new and unexpectedly testing life in this deceptively simple idyll of rural Spain. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Viva Mallorca!: One Mallorcan Autumn Peter Kerr (Author) Series:
Peter Kerr
Edition:
Imprint:
Summersdale Publishers
Publisher:
Summersdale Publishers
Pub Date:
01 May 2004
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 320pp h199mm x w129mm x s25mm 310g ISBN13: 9781840243802 ISBN13: 978-1-84024-380-2 ISBN10: 1840243805 x Description: Autumn has arrived for the Kerrs on their fruit farm on the island of Mallorca...
The year's third season, `winter spring', finds Peter, under the sharp eye of his long-suffering wife Ellie, struggling to shake off the relaxed Spanish tranquiloness that he has now mastered all too well. Old friendships have been established, and new ones are found as the Kerrs are introduced to Mallorca's champagne-swilling Filthy-Rich-Set and their eyes are opened by just how the other half lives...
Mosquito-repellent vinegar baths, delicious Mallorcan food, and with background support from dogs, donkeys, geckos, parrots and canaries, this is an autumn such as they've never known - Y Viva Mallorca!
Viva Mallorca is the third book in the award-winning series by Peter Kerr, following Snowball Oranges and Manana, Manana.
Follow Peter on Twitter - @AuthorPeterKerr _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad Don George (Edited by) Anthony Sattin (Edited by) Series:
Lonely Planet Journeys
Edition:
Imprint:
Lonely Planet Publications
Publisher:
Lonely Planet Publications Ltd
Pub Date:
25 Oct 2002
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: Australia Paperback / softback 320pp h197mm x w127mm x s25mm 348g ISBN13: 9781740594196 ISBN13: 978-1-74059-419-6 ISBN10: 1740594193 x Description: Whether it's yearning to run away and join a Mexican circus or simply to settle in a quiet rural village somewhere in a Mediterranean land, the dream of a pied a terre in an exotic locale is almost universal. Don George has been a pioneer travel writer and journalist in the travel field for more than two decades. He has won numerous writing awards including one for Best Travel Web Site and has edited two travel anthologies. Anthony Sattin is a travel writer, critic and broadcaster. He is the author of many books including the novel Shooting the Breeze. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Chasing Mammon: Travels in the Pursuit of Money Douglas Kennedy (Author) Series:
Edition:
New edition
Imprint:
Abacus
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Pub Date:
02 Dec 1999
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 224pp h198mm x w126mm 178g ISBN13: 9780349112169 ISBN13: 978-0-349-11216-9 ISBN10: 0349112169 This Product is Replaced By: 9780349120959 x Description: Money as a weapon. Money as revenge. Money as a substitute for sex and love. Money as status. This travel book explores the uses of money and the attitudes of the wheelers and dealers in the international marketplace. Douglas Kennedy spent a year loitering with intent in six very disparate financial realms, including the Casablanca bourse (where stocks and bonds are listed on a blackboard), the squeaky-clean Singapore money markets, the Sydney futures market and the first Hungarian stock exchange to open since 1948. From the "New Age" City folk in London, unsure whether greed really is good for you, to the tireless toilers of Wall Street, Kennedy's encounters with money-makers around the globe offer a quirky journey through the modern cash nexus. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Among Muslims: Meetings at the frontiers of Pakistan Kathleen Jamie (Author) Series:
Edition:
Main
Imprint:
Sort of Books
Publisher:
Sort of Books
Pub Date:
01 May 2002
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 240pp h198mm x w129mm x s19mm 254g B Format Paperback ISBN13: 9780953522774 ISBN13: 978-0-9535227-7-4 ISBN10: 0953522776 EAN: 9780953522774 x Description: When ten Pakistani men walk into Kathleen Jamie's small Scottish town on a peace march, in November 2001, she is thrown back to her own travels in Northern Pakistan and a book she wrote a decade earlier. Among Muslims is the account of Jamie's time travelling alone and living among the Shia and Ismaili Muslims in the Northern Areas - the mountainous regions wedged between Afghanistan, India and China and one of the most volatile borderlands in the world. A bold, sympathetic and superbly written book, Among Muslims delves into Jamie's own Scottish upbringing to find links with the purdah-observing lifestyle of her Shia Muslim hosts. It is a privileged account from an acclaimed poet, who during her travels was often literally the only woman on the bus. Among Muslims was originally published as The Golden Peak. For this edition, Kathleen Jamie returned to Pakistan to write an Afterword and Preface. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I Was a Potato Oligarch: Travels and Travails in the New Russia John Mole (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Publisher:
John Murray Press
Pub Date:
01 May 2008
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 352pp h216mm x w135mm ISBN13: 9781857885095 ISBN13: 978-1-85788-509-5 ISBN10: 1857885090 EAN: 9781857885095 x Description: In a charming saga of sun, sea, sand - and cement - John Mole tells of the back-breaking but joyous labours of fixing up his own Arcadia and introduces a warm, generous and garrulous cast of characters who helped (and occasionally hindered) his progress. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Metro Stop Dostoevsky: Travels in Russian Time Ingrid Bengis (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
North Point Press
Publisher:
North Point Press
Pub Date:
14 May 2003
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United States Hardback 337pp h229mm x w140mm x s25mm 522g ISBN13: 9780865476721 ISBN13: 978-0-86547-672-1 ISBN10: 0865476721 x Description: The author describes her experiences living in St. Petersburg, Russia, between 1991 and 1995, as she experiences life after the collaspe of the Soviet Union.
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The Moor of St Petersburg: In the Footsteps of a Black Russian Frances Mary Somers Cocks (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Goldhawk Press
Publisher:
Goldhawk Press
Pub Date:
15 May 2005
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback 368pp h197mm x w128mm 26ill.2M. ISBN13: 9780954403423 ISBN13: 978-0-9544034-2-3 ISBN10: 0954403428 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia Michael Booth (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Vintage
Publisher:
Vintage Publishing
Pub Date:
12 Feb 2015
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 416pp h198mm x w129mm x s26mm 287g ISBN13: 9780099546078 ISBN13: 978-0-09-954607-8 ISBN10: 0099546078 EAN: 9780099546078 x Description: The Danes are the happiest people in the world, and pay the highest taxes. 'Neutral' Sweden is one of the biggest arms manufacturers in the world. Finns have the largest per capita gun ownership after the US and Yemen. 54 per cent of Icelanders believe in elves. Norway is the richest country on earth. 5 per cent of Danish men have had sex with an animal. Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians, on and off, for over ten years, perplexed by their many strange paradoxes and character traits and equally bemused by the unquestioning enthusiasm for all things Nordic and hygge that has engulfed the rest of the world. He leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success and, most intriguing of all, what they think of each other. Along the way a more nuanced, often darker picture emerges of a region plagued by taboos, characterised by suffocating parochialism and populated by extremists of various shades. 'The next Bill Bryson.' New York Times Winner of the Best Narrative Travel Book Award from the British Guild of Travel Writers _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In Patagonia Bruce Chatwin (Author) Nicholas Shakespeare (Introduction by) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Vintage Classics
Publisher:
Vintage Publishing
Pub Date:
03 Dec 1998 (07 Feb 2008)
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 288pp h198mm x w129mm x s19mm 214g ISBN13: 9780099769514 ISBN13: 978-0-09-976951-4 ISBN10: 0099769514 EAN: 9780099769514 x Description: 'The book that redefined travel writing' Guardian Bruce Chatwin sets off on a journey through South America in this wistful classic travel book With its unique, roving structure and beautiful descriptions, In Patagonia offers an original take on the age-old adventure tale. Bruce Chatwin's journey to a remote country in search of a strange beast brings along with it a cast of fascinating characters. Their stories delay him on the road, but will have you tearing through to the book's end. 'It is hard to pin down what makes In Patagonia so unique, but, in the end, it is Chatwi n's brilliant personality that makes it what it is... His form of travel was not about getting from A to B. It was about internal landscapes' Sunday Times _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Barcelona Robert Hughes (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
The Harvill Press
Publisher:
Vintage Publishing
Pub Date:
25 Jan 2001
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 688pp h198mm x w129mm x s42mm 469g ISBN13: 9781860468247 ISBN13: 978-1-86046-824-7 ISBN10: 1860468241 EAN: 9781860468247 x Description: Focusing on the architectural foundations of this extraordinary city, Robert Hughes' account of Barcelona's growth in relation to the region of Catalunya also features political, economic and military drama. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Songs to an African Sunset Sekai Nzenza-Shand (Author) Series:
Lonely Planet Journeys
Edition:
Imprint:
Lonely Planet Publications
Publisher:
Lonely Planet Publications Ltd
Pub Date:
01 Apr 1997
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: Australia Paperback / softback B-format paperback 248pp h198mm x w128mm x s19mm 264g maps ISBN13: 9780864424723 ISBN13: 978-0-86442-472-3 ISBN10: 0864424728 x Description: An unforgettable picture of contemporary Zimbabwe from the perspective of an African woman returning to her country after years of living in the west.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hotel Heaven: Confessions of a Luxury Hotel Addict Matthew Brace (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Old Street Publishing
Publisher:
Old Street Publishing
Pub Date:
01 Jun 2008
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 317pp ISBN13: 9781905847402 ISBN13: 978-1-905847-40-2 ISBN10: 1905847408 x _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dubai Dreams: Inside the Kingdom of Bling Raymond Barrett (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Publisher:
John Murray Press
Pub Date:
05 Jan 2010
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) (Text (eye-readable)) 240pp h234mm x w156mm ISBN13: 9781857885279 ISBN13: 978-1-85788-527-9 ISBN10: 1857885279 EAN: 9781857885279 x Description: Dubai has become the watchword for all things new, glittering and very bling - a billionaire's dream world and a haven for international expatriates promising a fantasy land of tax-free fun, sun and sin. In less than a generation, this small city-state on the Arabian Gulf has been transformed from a sleepy smuggler's cove to a global financial and entertainment hub home to a number of world records, including the world's tallest building, the largest man-made island and the biggest shopping mall. But what is life really like for the people who live and work in the city of Dubai, beyond the towering skyscrapers, luxury resorts and opulent mansions? Rather than just desert Sheikhs and designer-clad Emiratis, Raymond Barrett also encounters a dizzy melange of expatriates - Iranians, Ethiopians, Indians, Afghans, British and Chinese - all living their own version of The Dubai Dream. Behind the hyperbole and marketing spin, what are the real stories the city has to tell? From seven-star hotels to immigrant labour camps, from Sunni mosques to Hindu temples and from the courthouse to a back-alley speakeasy, Barrett draws a fascinating picture of the brave new world emerging from these desert sands. He reveals the hidden side of this playboy paradise and considers whether Dubai is a doomed Plastic Arabia or an authentic 21st century success story. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The English: A Field Guide Matt Rudd (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
William Collins
Publisher:
HarperCollins Publishers
Pub Date:
09 May 2013
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Unsewn / adhesive bound 320pp h216mm x w135mm x s23mm 340g ISBN13: 9780007490455 ISBN13: 978-0-00-749045-5 ISBN10: 0007490453 EAN: 9780007490455 x Description: A hilarious field guide to the world's most remarkable and unusual creatures: the English.
Who are the English? What is this puzzling species? Where does it live? What are its habits? What does it eat? Why does it eat that? And why has it developed such unexotic mating rituals?
Join us on a journey deep into the natural habitat of the English, a journey to rival anything David Attenborough did with gorillas, a journey that begins on a sofa (and continues, unflinchingly, into the kitchen, out into the garden, off to work, down to the pub and then on to the beach... and the bedroom).
Matt Rudd's fearless anthropological approach leaves no cliche unturned in his attempt to portray the real English. Are we really a nation of binge-drinking, horse-meat-eating, grumbling, tailgating slobs or is there something altogether more beautiful to be found lurking behind the cypress leylandii?
This unprecedented adventure will take you to a DFS store, to Blackpool's third best B&B, to the coffee kiosk on platform one at 5.35 in the morning. You will step into a ready-meal curry factory, a naturist's back garden and an office of the future where they do somersaults into beanbags. You will endure a night out in Wakefield, a night out in a queue and a night in Thetford Forest trying, unsuccessfully, to prove that dogging is an urban myth. You will watch Reading play football.
And all from the comfort of your own sofa. How English. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fruit Flies Like a Banana: England by Canal and Classic Car Steve Haywood (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Summersdale Publishers
Publisher:
Summersdale Publishers
Pub Date:
31 Mar 2004
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 320pp h198mm x w129mm ISBN13: 9781840243512 ISBN13: 978-1-84024-351-2 ISBN10: 1840243511 x Description: When Steve Haywood hits 50 he is galvanised into action. Exploring the English canals on his trusty narrowboat "Justice" and the countryside in his classic Triumph Herald, he attempts to delve into what it is that makes the English so, well, English. Happily mixing with the eccentric array of characters he meets along the way, Steve experiences more than his fair share of mayhem, mishaps and, of course, torrential rain. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Great British Bus Journeys: Travels Through Unfamous Places David McKie (Author) Series:
Edition:
Main
Imprint:
Atlantic Books
Publisher:
Atlantic Books
Pub Date:
08 Mar 2007
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 368pp h198mm x w129mm x s27mm 307g ISBN13: 9781843543411 ISBN13: 978-1-84354-341-1 ISBN10: 1843543419 EAN: 9781843543411 x Description: Great British Bus Journeys travels to Britain's most unfashionable towns (using the least reliable method of transport) and uncovers the nation's secret history. Through the eyes of David McKie, quiet, unassuming streetscapes are transformed into beguiling and eccentric places of interest: from the Forest of Bowland to Bradwell-on-Sea, McKie's tour offers a unique survey of our land, rich with history, legend and personality. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hope and Glory: A People's History of Modern Britain Stuart Maconie (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Ebury Press
Publisher:
Ebury Publishing
Pub Date:
10 May 2012
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 352pp h198mm x w126mm x s22mm 239g ISBN13: 9780091926496 ISBN13: 978-0-09-192649-6 ISBN10: 0091926491 EAN: 9780091926496 x Description: In Hope and Glory Stuart Maconie goes in search of the days that shaped the Britain we live in today. Taking one event from each decade of the 20th century, he visits the places where history happened and still echoes down the years. Stuart goes to Orgreave and Windsor, Wembley and Wootton Bassett, assembling a unique cast of Britons from Sir Edmund Hillary to Sid Vicious along the way. It's quite a trip, full of sex and violence and the occasional scone and jigsaw. From pop stars to politicians, Suffragettes to punks, this is a journey around Britain in search of who we are. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lessons from the Land of Pork Scratchings: A Miserable Yank Finds Happiness in the UK Greg Gutfeld (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Simon & Schuster Ltd
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster Ltd
Pub Date:
02 Feb 2009
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 256pp h198mm x w129mm 178g ISBN13: 9781847390752 ISBN13: 978-1-84739-075-2 ISBN10: 1847390757 x Description: Greg Gutfeld was a high-achieving New Yorker in therapy when he was posted to the UK to take up the position of editor of Maxim magazine. Once settled in London he had something of a cultural epiphany. Service and transport were poor and slow, food was soggy and came in tiny portions and the beer was warm. The British, he decided, viewed the world through a prism of dreariness but, despite this, they seemed to be more cheerful than his fellow countrymen, who expected to be happy on demand. After two years in the UK, Gutfeld was12 kilos heavier but a lot more content. The key to his new-found contentment lay in adopting the British attitude to life: having diminished expectations reaps its own rewards. His hilarious observations on British culture, rituals and peculiarities at all levels of society are an illuminating insight into the land of pubs and curry, where everyone is called 'mate' and people with pimples and greasy hair can get on primetime TV. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Notes From A Small Island: Journey Through Britain Bill Bryson (Author) Series:
Bryson
Edition:
Imprint:
Black Swan
Publisher:
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Pub Date:
30 Jul 2015
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 384pp h198mm x w127mm x s24mm 262g ISBN13: 9781784161194 ISBN13: 978-1-78416-119-4 ISBN10: 1784161195 EAN: 9781784161194 x Description: In 1995, before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire to move back to the States for a few years with his family, Bill Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of the nation's public face and private parts (as it were), and to analyse what precisely it was he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite; a military hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow named Hardy; place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey and Shellow Bowells; people who said 'Mustn't grumble', and `Ooh lovely' at the sight of a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits; and Gardeners' Question Time. Notes
from a Small Island was a huge number-one bestseller when it was first published, and has become the nation's most loved book about Britain, going on to sell over two million copies. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The People's Songs: The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Records Stuart Maconie (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Ebury Press
Publisher:
Ebury Publishing
Pub Date:
06 Sep 2012
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 432pp h234mm x w153mm x s32mm 624g ISBN13: 9780091946845 ISBN13: 978-0-09-194684-5 ISBN10: 0091946840 EAN: 9780091946845 x Description: 'When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the city shake' Plato 'Extraordinary how potent cheap music is' Noel Coward In The People's Songs, Stuart Maconie argues that what we call pop music has a defiant, unsanctioned concept at its heart: the ability to speak to people, to affect people, to transform their lives. This book tells the story of modern Britain via the records that soundtracked this dramatic and kaleidoscopic period. The story is told chronologically over 50 linked chapters. At the heart of each is one emblematic song that is discussed fully. These are not the greatest songs ever recorded. But the records that tell us something about how we feel and have felt about work, war, class, leisure, race, family, sport, drugs, sex, spirituality, politics, patriotism and more. These are the songs that people listened to, laughed to, loved to and laboured to, as well as downed tools and danced to - from Telstar to Y Viva Espana, Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs Of Dover to Ghost Town, Wham Rap to A Whiter Shade of Pale, Two Tribes to My Girl Lollipop, God Save the Queen to Blue Monday, Do They Know Its Xmas to Candle In The Wind. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pies and Prejudice: In search of the North Stuart Maconie (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Ebury Press
Publisher:
Ebury Publishing
Pub Date:
01 Feb 2007
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 352pp h214mm x w134mm x s26mm 375g Trade paperback (UK) ISBN13: 9780091910228 ISBN13: 978-0-09-191022-8 ISBN10: 0091910226 x Description: 'My name is Stuart Maconie, and I am from the North Of England. Some time ago, I was standing in my kitchen, rustling up a Sunday brunch for some very hungover, very Northern mates who were 'down' for the weekend. One of them was helping me out and, recipe book in hand, asked "where are the sun-dried tomatoes?" "They're behind the cappuccino maker," I replied. Silence fell. We slowly met each other's gaze. We did not say anything. We did not need to. Each read the other's unspoken thought: we had become those kinds of people, the kind of people who had sundried tomatoes and cappuccino makers, the kind of people who did Sunday brunch. In other words: southerners.' A northerner in exile, stateless and confused, hearing rumours of Harvey Nichols in Leeds and Maseratis in Wilmslow, Stuart goes in search of The North. Delving into his own past, it is a riotously funny journey in search of where the cliches end and the truth begins. He travels from Wigan Pier to Blackpool Tower, the Bigg Market in Newcastle to the daffodil-laden Lake District in search of his own Northern Soul, encountering along the way an exotic cast of Scousers, Scallies, pie-eating Woolly-backs, topless Geordies, mad-for-it Mancs, Yorkshire nationalists and brothers in southern exile. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson (Author) Series:
Bryson
Edition:
Imprint:
Black Swan
Publisher:
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Pub Date:
07 Apr 2016
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback A-format paperback 480pp h178mm x w110mm x s29mm 253g ISBN13: 9780552779845 ISBN13: 978-0-552-77984-5 ISBN10: 0552779849 EAN: 9780552779845 x Description: Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green and kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Island, was taken to the nation's heart and became the bestselling travel book ever, and was also voted in a BBC poll the book that best represents Britain.Now, to mark the twentieth anniversary of that modern classic, Bryson makes a brand-new journey round Britain to see what has changed. Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, by way of places that many people never get to at all, Bryson sets out to rediscover the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly unique country that he thought he knew but doesn't altogether recognize any more. Yet, despite Britain's occasional failings and more or less eternal bewilderments, Bill Bryson is still pleased to call our rainy island home. And not just because of the cream teas, a noble history, and an extra day off at Christmas. Once again, with his matchless homing instinct for the funniest and quirkiest, his unerring eye for the idiotic, the endearing, the ridiculous and the scandalous, Bryson gives us an acute and perceptive insight into all that is best and worst about Britain today. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tickling the English Dara O' Briain (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher:
Penguin Books Ltd
Pub Date:
01 Apr 2010
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 320pp h198mm x w129mm x s19mm 223g Integrated b&w maps, endpage collages ISBN13: 9780141046662 ISBN13: 978-0-14-104666-2 ISBN10: 014104666X EAN: 9780141046662 x Description: Nostalgia, identity, eccentricity, gin drinking and occasional violence... these are just some of the themes that stand-up comedian Dara O Briain explores in Tickling the English. O Briain moved to England many years ago, but when he takes his show on tour around the country - from deserted seaside towns and remote offshore islands, to sprawling industrial cities and sleepy suburbs - it's clear to him that his adopted home is still a bit of an enigma. Why do the English pretend to be unhappy all the time? Why can't they accept they rank about 5th, in everything? And what's with all the fudge? But this Irishman loves a challenge; he's certainly got the gregarious personality and the sure-fire wit to bring down the barriers of that famous English reserve, and have a good old rummage inside. Swapping anecdotes with his audiences and spending time wandering in their hometowns, this nosy neighbour holds England up to the light while exploring some of the attitudes he brought over here with him too. As Dara goes door-to-door in search of England in this part tour diary, part travelogue, the result is an affectionate, hilarious and often eye-opening journey through the Sceptred Isle. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UK on a G-String: The Adventures of the World's First & Worst Door-to-Door Busker Justin Brown (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Summersdale Publishers
Publisher:
Summersdale Publishers
Pub Date:
30 Jun 2004
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback 320pp h198mm x w129mm ISBN13: 9781840243796 ISBN13: 978-1-84024-379-6 ISBN10: 1840243791 x Description: Overcome with patriotic fervour, New Zealander Justin Brown bets an Australian mate that the All Blacks will thrash the Wallabies in an up-coming match. They don't. Forced to pay his debt, Justin has to busk his way around England until he earns enough money for his airfare home. Armed with a black duffel coat and a guitar he travels the country in mid-winter, knocking on doors and singing for his supper. Along the way he meets gypsies, drinks with Britains most famous busker, harasses carol singers, plucks turkeys, speaks to J.K.Rowling and gets told to sod off 357 times. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A Year Behind Bars: The Publicans Tale George East (Author) Robin Evans (Illustrated by) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
La Puce Publications
Publisher:
La Puce Publications
Pub Date:
01 Jan 2001
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback 184pp h195mm x w130mm x s11mm 206g 14ill. ISBN13: 9780952363552 ISBN13: 978-0-9523635-5-2 ISBN10: 0952363550 x Description: "My wife has bought me a pub for Christmas. Or rather, she has allowed me to buy one for myself. Soon, I will be able to drink at cost price and entertain customers and friends in my front room. What's more, I will actually be paid for enjoying myself instead of shelling out to visit other people's pubs - " So begins A Year Behind Bars, the diary of one man's attempt to create the perfect pub. The story of a memorable year of neardisaster, occasional triumph and continual farce is destined to become, like the traditional corner local, a much-cherished classic. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Made In America: An Informal History of American English Bill Bryson (Author) Series:
Bryson
Edition:
Imprint:
Black Swan
Publisher:
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Pub Date:
08 Sep 2016
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 592pp h198mm x w127mm x s30mm 421g ISBN13: 9781784161866 ISBN13: 978-1-78416-186-6 ISBN10: 1784161861 EAN: 9781784161866 x Description: `Funny, wise, learned and compulsive' - GQ Bill Bryson turns away from travelling the highways and byways of middle America, so hilariously depicted in his bestselling The Lost Continent, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and Notes from a Big Country, for a fast, exhilarating ride along the Route 66 of American language and popular culture. In Made in America, Bryson tells the story of how American arose out of the English language, and along the way, de-mythologizes his native land explaining how a dusty desert hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West wasn't won, why Americans say `lootenant' and `Toosday', how they were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up - as well as exposing the true origins of the words G-string, blockbuster, poker and snafu.
`A tremendously sassy work, full of zip, pizzazz and all those other great American qualities' Will Self, Independent on Sunday _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Notes From A Big Country: Journey into the American Dream Bill Bryson (Author) Series:
Bryson
Edition:
Imprint:
Black Swan
Publisher:
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Pub Date:
24 Mar 2016
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback 384pp h198mm x w127mm x s24mm 262g ISBN13: 9781784161842 ISBN13: 978-1-78416-184-2 ISBN10: 1784161845 EAN: 9781784161842 x Description: Bill Bryson has the rare knack of being out of his depth wherever he goes - even (perhaps especially) in the land of his birth. This became all too apparent when, after nearly two decades in England, the world's best-loved travel writer upped sticks with Mrs Bryson, little Jimmy et al. and returned to live in the country he had left as a youth. Of course there were things Bryson missed about Blighty but any sense of loss was countered by the joy of rediscovering some of the forgotten treasures of his childhood: the glories of a New England autumn; the pleasingly comical sight of oneself in shorts; and motel rooms where you can generally count on being awakened in the night by a piercing shriek and the sound of a female voice pleading, 'Put the gun down, Vinnie, I'll do anything you say.' Whether discussing the strange appeal of breakfast pizza or the jaw-slackening direness of American TV, Bill Bryson brings his inimitable brand of bemused wit to bear on that strangest of phenomena - the American way of life. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Meeting the Invisible Man: Travels And Magic In West Africa Toby Green (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publisher:
Orion Publishing Co
Pub Date:
10 May 2001
Publishing Status:
Out of print
Published in: United Kingdom Hardback 320pp h240mm x w167mm x s30mm 650g ISBN13: 9780297646150 ISBN13: 978-0-297-64615-0 ISBN10: 029764615X EAN: 9780297646150 x Description: Exploring the extraordinarily vibrant spiritual world which underlies the surface of West Africa, this book examines the conflict between the traditional and the modern in a region whose culture is a melting pot of local, Islamic and European influences. Building on local narrative, we hear first hand the mysterious stories of invulnerability and invisibility retold from the author's own experiences . After accepting a potion from the local GrysGrys, he curiously becomes invulnerable to the stabbings of a knife on his wrist, as the photographic evidence will testify. Or the equally bizarre journey in a taxi following a meeting with another local spiritualist who performed an invisibility charm on the author - it soon became obvious that the taxi driver didn't seem to think he was there at all and addressed only his companion, an unsettling experience reinforced shortly afterwards by the mad and erratic behaviour of his companion's dog towards the author's 'spiritual' presence. Startling, strange and often extremely surreal, Toby Green challenges the 'safe', colonial assumptions of the West about this so-called 'exotic' region and highlights the disparity between iconic, mercantile Europe and a culture imbued with spiritualism at every level of life and an equally potent belief in the mysterious powers of the mind. Engaging the reader with themes as diverse as the histories of the slave trade and the kingdoms of West Africa, the invisible men of HG Wells and Ralph Ellison, Plato's simile of the cave and Marco Polo's observations about Zanzibar, the book is by turns mysterious, hilarious, beautiful and troubling. Confronting the dogmas of magic and modernity, Meeting the Invisible Man confirms Toby green as an exciting and imaginative travel writer, taking the reader in search of the unbelievable only to find that, after all, it is really quite believable. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yemen Tim Mackintosh-Smith (Author) Series:
Edition:
Imprint:
John Murray Publishers Ltd
Publisher:
John Murray Press
Pub Date:
13 Dec 2007
Publishing Status:
Active
Published in: United Kingdom Paperback / softback B-format paperback (Text (eye-readable)) 304pp h198mm x w130mm x s19mm 230g ISBN13: 9780719597404 ISBN13: 978-0-7195-9740-4 ISBN10: 0719597404 EAN: 9780719597404 x Description: Our ideas of the Arabian Peninusula have been hijacked: by images of the desert, by oil, by the Gulf War. But there is another Arabia. For the classical geographers Yemen was a fabulous land where flying serpents guarded sacred incense groves. Medieval Arab visitors told of disappearing islands and menstruating mountains. Vita Sackville-West found Aden 'precisely the most repulsive corner of the world'. Arguably the most fascinating but least known country in the Arab world, Yemen has a way of attracting comment that ranges from the superficial to the wildly fictitious. In Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, Tim Mackintosh-Smith writes with an intimacy and depth of knowledge gained through over twenty years among the Yemenis. He is a travelling companion of the best sort - erudite, witty and eccentric. Crossing mountain, desert, ocean and three millennia of history, he portrays hyrax hunters and dhow skippers, a noseless regicide, and a sword-wielding tyrant with a passion for Heinz Russian salad. Yet even the ordinary Yemenis are extraordinary: their family tree goes back to Noah and is rooted in a land which, in the words of a contemporary poet, has become the dictionary of its people. Every page of this book is dashed - like the land it describes - with the marvellous. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________