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Books > Sport & Leisure > Travel & holiday > Travel writing > Classic travel writing
Isobel Wylie Hutchison was many things: a botanist, traveller, poet
and artist. She travelled solo throughout the arctic collecting
plant samples, wrote and published extensive volumes of essays and
poetry, and was - in short - one of the most remarkable Scottish
figures of her time. However, since her death in 1982 her legacy
has been forgotten compared with her male counterparts. Now Isobel
can speak for herself again. While better known for her solo
journeys across the Arctic, these essays detail Isobel's journeys
across Scotland, including visits to Skye, John O' Groats and the
various literary shrines across the country. Written with
characteristic wit and a keen interest in both science and myth and
folklore, the essays serve as important cultural markers not just
of Scotland as it was and has developed, but of a woman's
experience of travelling alone and a testament to the importance of
cultural connection, exploration and communication.
**NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING ROBERT PATTINSON, CHARLIE HUNNAM AND
SIENNA MILLER** 'A riveting, exciting and thoroughly compelling
tale of adventure'JOHN GRISHAM The story of Colonel Percy Harrison
Fawcett, the inspiration behind Conan Doyle's The Lost World
Fawcett was among the last of a legendary breed of British
explorers. For years he explored the Amazon and came to believe
that its jungle concealed a large, complex civilization, like El
Dorado. Obsessed with its discovery, he christened it the City of
Z. In 1925, Fawcett headed into the wilderness with his son Jack,
vowing to make history. They vanished without a trace. For the next
eighty years, hordes of explorers plunged into the jungle, trying
to find evidence of Fawcett's party or Z. Some died from disease
and starvation; others simply disappeared. In this spellbinding
true tale of lethal obsession, David Grann retraces the footsteps
of Fawcett and his followers as he unravels one of the greatest
mysteries of exploration. 'A wonderful story of a lost age of
heroic exploration' Sunday Times 'Marvellous ... An engrossing book
whose protagonist could out-think Indiana Jones' Daily Telegraph
'The best story in the world, told perfectly' Evening Standard 'A
fascinating and brilliant book' Malcolm Gladwell
Explore the landscapes and places that inspired great art: find
peace in Monet's lily-filled garden oasis, climb Mount Fuji on a
printmaker's pilgrimage, sail with Gauguin to the South Pacific to
stretch your imagination, or contemplate light and the changing
seasons on Chelsea Embankment. Artistic Places is a stunningly
hand-illustrated, visionary guide for seekers of beauty, rare tales
and cultural riches. Find yourself instantly transported to the
places where great artists have sought refuge, found their
inspiration and changed the course of art history forever. Susie
Hodge, bestselling author and art historian, presents 25 famous and
forgotten artistic destinations around the world, and connects
these to the artists they inspired. In keeping with the Inspired
Traveller's Guide series design, each entry is accompanied by
specially commissioned illustrations from Amy Grimes which
perfectly evoke the wonders that first attracted the masters, while
Hodge delves into each location's curious history with insightful
stories both in and beyond the canon. So take a leaf out of your
favourite artist's sketchbook and discover the places they loved
best. Artists and locations include: J.A.M Whistler in London,
England John Constable in Suffolk, England Barbara Hepworth in St
Ives, England Paula Rego in Cascais and Estoril, Portugal Pablo
Picasso and Guernica, Spain Salvador Dali in Catalonia, Spain
Claude Monet in Giverny, France Vincent van Gogh in Arles, France
Rene Magritte in Brussels, Belgium Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland
Michelangelo in Florence, Italy Canaletto in Venice, Italy Johannes
Vermeer in Delft, Netherlands Anni Albers in Dessau, Germany Caspar
David Friedrich in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, Germany Gustav
Klimt and Lake Attersee, Austria Edvard Munch in Oslo, Norway Hilma
af Klint and Lake Malaren, Sweden Henri Matisse in Tangier, Morocco
Hokusai on Mount Fuji, Japan Paul Gauguin in Papeete and Papeari,
Tahiti Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York, USA Grant Wood in Iowa,
USA Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico, USA Frida Kahlo in Coyoacan,
Mexico Each book in the Inspired Traveller's Guides series offers
readers a fascinating, informative and charmingly illustrated guide
to must-visit destinations round the globe. Also from this series,
explore intriguing: Spiritual Places, Literary Places, Hidden
Places and Mystical Places.
One morning Carolina wakes up, determined to change something in
her life. She has had enough of living her monotonous daily routine
and craves something else, something unusual. How about a trip
around the world? Her adventure takes her to the Middle East,
Africa and Oceania. During her travels she encounters endangered
mountain gorillas, walks with wild lions, and flirts with
adrenaline boosting activities like bungee jumping. But what does
this experience bring her spiritually?
In June of 1922, Marguerite Harrison, and American journalist and
spy embarked from North America on what was to be an epic journey
to Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia and Siberia. It was in Siberia
that she was arrested by the Bolsheviks, sent 4,000 kilometres to
Moscow and imprisoned there, first in the notorious Lubyanka and
later in Butrykra Prison. She was threatened with a charge of
espionage which could carry the death sentence or at a minimum, ten
years' exile in Siberia. Ultimately, the US Government interceded
and she was released. Red Bear or Yellow Dragon is one of the
finest sources on Japanese society and culture in the 1920s and
also offers a rare glimpse into life in the Asian steppes. Harrison
undertook a highly dangerous 1,400 km trip from Beijing to
Mongolia's capital, Ulan Bator, through the Great Khingan Mountains
and over the Gobi Desert to Chita in Siberia. She wrote: 'Most of
the roads I followed were bloodstained road - some grim reminders
of the World War and Revolution, others with fresh traces of blood
shed since the peace.' Marguerite undertook this arduous journey to
chronicle the peoples and politics of what she sensed as a stirring
of new movements in Asia - the eternal sphinx - that were to
severely challenge the West in the coming decades and which
continue to do up to the present age.
A facsimile edition of Bradshaw's fascinating guide to Europe's
rail network. Bradshaw's descriptive railway handbook of Europe was
originally published in 1913 and was the inspiration behind Michael
Portillo's BBC television series 'Great Continental Railway
Journeys'. It is divided into three sections: timetables for
services covering the continent; short guides to the best places to
see and to stay in each city; and a wealth of advertisements and
ephemeral materials concerning hotels, restaurants and services
that might be required by the early twentieth century rail
traveller. This beautifully illustrated facsimile edition offers a
fascinating glimpse of Europe and of a transport network that was
shortly devastated by the greatest war the world had ever seen.
The novelist E. M. Forster opens the door on life in a remote
Maharajah's court in the early twentieth century, a "record of a
vanished civilization." Through letters from his time visiting and
working there, he introduces us to a 14th century political system
in "the oddest corner of the world outside Alice in Wonderland"
where the young Maharajah of Devas, "certainly a genius and
possibly a saint," led a state centered on spiritual aspirations.
The Hill of Devi chronicles Forster's infatuation and exasperation,
fascination, and amusement at this idiosyncratic court, leading us
with him to its heart and the eight-day festival of Gokul Ashtami,
marking the birth of Krishna, where we see His Highness Maharajah
Sir Tukoji Rao III dancing before the altar "like David before the
Ark."
- How I Found My Nepalese Family In Kathmandu, a retired English
schoolteacher visits an orphanage where he meets a young man
desperate to train as a doctor. After a year's agonizing
indecision, the Englishman takes up the challenge and promises to
sponsor him. What follows is a life-changing experience in which he
himself comes to be adopted into a Nepalese family as brother,
uncle, friend and godfather. This book offers a unique and
warm-hearted look into the dilemmas of low-caste family life living
on the brink in Nepal. Meet the penniless tailor, Kiran, who was
saved from suicide; experience the comic informality of
house-hunting in Kathmandu; discover a colourful array of
characters, cheerful and courageous in spite of the extreme poverty
that they face. When Nick Morrice took early retirement, following
twelve years as Head of English at Downsend Prep School in
Leatherhead, he turned his attention to charity work. He founded
the West Surrey Local Support Group for WaterAid. But it was the
opportunity to sponsor a Nepalese boy through a local charity,
CHANCE for Nepal , which led Nick to venture into the country's
capital city, Kathmandu, for the first time in October 2009. Thus
began what has become a rewarding, ongoing project to support five
Nepalese orphans in fulfilling their hopes and ambitions.
In 1934, at the peak of the Great Depression, A. G. Macdonell
embarked on a journey across America. This travelogue is the
deliciously scathing product of that adventure: a vivid and
unflinchingly honest record of life in the cities and the slums, on
the roads, railways, and the vast open plains. "The hot breath of
the Apocalyptic Horsemen is on my neck, and I still wake up on
occasions in peaceful England, cold with terror from the dream that
I am once again upon the road." By the time he departed for
America, Macdonell was an international celebrity, and as such, he
was afforded a privileged glimpse into both the glamour and the
gritty reality of 1930s America. With brutal humour he glides
effortlessly between lavish dinners and dances at the Plaza Hotel,
passionate football games comparable to the 'less pleasing
features' of the First World War, and the humbling 'Spirit of the
Pioneers' buried deep within the poverty-stricken cattle ranges of
Montana. While his descriptions can be savage and mocking,
Macdonell is also affectionate, compassionate, and startlingly
insightful.In A Visit to America, he gamely captures all that is
beautiful and repulsive about a country gripped in economic
turmoil; fascinating and timeless, it is an indulgence not to be
missed.
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Edinburgh
- Picturesque Notes
(Hardcover)
Robert Louis Stevenson; Introduction by Alexander McCall Smith; Illustrated by Iain McIntosh; Cover design or artwork by Iain McIntosh
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R487
R439
Discovery Miles 4 390
Save R48 (10%)
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Over twenty years ago, Sven Lindqvist, one of the great pioneers of
a new kind of experiential history writing, set out across Central
Africa. Obsessed with a single line from Conrad's The Heart of
Darkness - Kurtz's injunction to 'Exterminate All the Brutes' - he
braided an account of his experiences with a profound historical
investigation, revealing to the reader with immediacy and
cauterizing force precisely what Europe's imperial powers had
exacted on Africa's peoples over the course of the preceding two
centuries. Shocking, humane, crackling with imaginative energies
and moral purpose, Exterminate All the Brutes stands as an
impassioned, timeless classic. It is essential reading for anybody
ready to come to terms with the brutal, racist history on which
Europe built its wealth.
This summer holiday vintage classic exploring the mystery of a
buried Cornish hotel invites us to solve the puzzle as detectives:
perfect for Agatha Christie fans, with a dash of Richard Osman ...
'I am loving it!' Nigella Lawson 'Hilarious and perceptive ...
Perfect.' Daily Mail 'Entertaining, beautifully written, and
profound.' Tracy Chevalier 'Tense, touching, human, dire, and funny
... A feast indeed.' Elizabeth Bowen 'Kennedy is not only a
romantic but an anarchist.' Anita Brookner 'Oh boy, what a treat;
wonderfully sharp and funny ... Page-turningly good!' Lissa Evans
'So full of pleasure that you could be forgiven for not seeing how
clever it is.' Cathy Rentzenbrink (foreword) Cornwall, Midsummer
1947. Pendizack Manor Hotel is buried in the rubble of a collapsed
cliff. Seven guests have perished, but is it murder, and what
brought this strange assembly together for a moonlit feast before
this Act of God - or Man? Over the week before the landslide, we
meet the hotel guests in all their eccentric glory: and as
friendships form and romances blossom, sins are revealed, and the
cliff cracks widen .. Reader Reviews: 'One of the best books I have
ever read ... Viva Ms. Kennedy, you were truly marvellous!' *****
'The best book I've ever read. Yes, I know that's a big statement!
Kennedy is quickly becoming my all-time favorite author ... A
first-rate literary genius.' ***** 'This is bar none, one of the
best books I have ever read.' ***** 'Offers us the chance to solve
a very unusual kind of mystery ... An unexpectedly engaging
literary game.' **** 'A magnificent rediscovery ... Kennedy's
masterpiece is a searing and unflinching look at postwar England
... Elegantly and tartly written, this smart and haunting novel
offers one of the most unforgettable endings ... A brilliant and
moving literary feast to be enjoyed without any moderation! *****
'I'm longing to read this again! Clever Kennedy! Is it a thriller?
Is it a morality play or an exploration of divine justice? Or is it
a family/village saga and maybe even a romance? ... Terrifically
readable with a marvellous cast.' ***** 'Such a good idea, and
brilliantly executed ... I was unable to stop reading, absorbed
completely in the company of the motley group. It's almost like
you're eavesdropping on them. After finishing it, I find myself
still thinking about it ... A fabulous read.' ***** 'One of my
favorite kinds of books: a forgotten treasure..' *****
The eighteenth century witnessed the publication of an
unprecedented number of voyages and travels, genuine and fictional.
Within a genre distinguished by its diversity, curiosity, and
experimental impulses, Katrina O'Loughlin investigates not just how
women in the eighteenth century experienced travel, but also how
travel writing facilitated their participation in literary and
political culture. She canvases a range of accounts by intrepid
women, including Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Turkish Embassy
Letters, Lady Craven's Journey through the Crimea to
Constantinople, Eliza Justice's A Voyage to Russia, and Anna Maria
Falconbridge's Narrative of Two Voyages to the River Sierra Leone.
Moving from Ottoman courts to theatres of war, O'Loughlin shows how
gender frames access to people and spaces outside Enlightenment and
Romantic Britain, and how travel provides women with a powerful
cultural form for re-imagining their place in the world.
In 1878 a young man named William Pryer was sent to North Borneo
(now Sabah) to 'establish' the British North Borneo Company there.
In 1894 his wife Ada published her account of his early years as an
administrator along with some sketches of their life together. The
memoir has unique value both as a travel narrative in its own right
and for understanding the international politics of the British
takeover of North Borneo. The new edition will reproduce the text
of the original 1894 edition, including an introductory essay as
well as annotations to explain and contextualize references of
historical and biographical significance.
Sailing six thousand miles in eighty days, Allcard makes the
classic southern route trade-wind crossing westward, and not
without incident-severe gales, thief-catching in Spain, avoiding a
seductive blonde in Gibraltar, encountering sharks and shoals of
flying fish, and narrowly escaping falling overboard to his death
when knocked out by gear falling from aloft. Allcard's plan to
dodge the worst of the hurricane season on his return voyage is not
accommodated by the elements. Through gales and headwinds, and one
terrible storm, he takes seventy-four days to reach the Azores from
New York, arriving minus his mizzen mast, desperately exhausted,
injured, and hungry. The next leg, to Casablanca, is enlivened by a
female stowaway, before he makes a safe return to England. Whether
describing the pleasures or the trials, the phosphorescent nights
or the storms, the operation of his ship or his own introspections,
Edward Allcard eloquently conveys his deep appreciation of the sea,
and the escape from modern civilisation it offers him.
"Calatafimi" is about the colourful life and the kaleidoscopic
history of an idiosyncratic Sicilian town not far from Palermo, in
the mountainous west of the island. It traces events and uncovers
layer upon layer of the lives of the people there, describing their
ambitions, intrigues and preoccupations, from the time of the
Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Normans and the
Spanish to 2000. The first major battle fought by Garibaldi during
the liberation of Italy took place in 1860 at Calatafimi, which
mobilized and supported him. What is more, the famous classical
Greek temple of Segesta, together with its ancient theatre, which
is still being excavated, lies immediately over the hill from the
town. Segesta successfully plotted the destruction of its rival
nearby, the city of Selinous.Angus Campbell, who has lived in
Calatafimi for many years, and whose love of the region shines
through - and whose wife comes from a long-established Calatafimi
family - has delved into the extensive local archives, examined the
history of local architecture, farming and husbandry, geology and
religious festivals, and probed into the customs, traditions and
predilections of people in the area, with their proud spirit of
independence. Foreign visitors over more than two centuries, many
of them from England, wrote accounts of their experiences, and
these are liberally quoted, not least those of Samuel Butler, the
author of Erewhon, some of whose photographs from the 1890s are
among the illustrations, including ones of Garibaldi veterans from
Calatafimi.Calatafimi's rich amalgam of observations about the past
and the present, about dynastic enlightenment, ruthlessness and
neglect, about social life, eccentricity and respectability,
generosity and greed, success and failure, will be indelibly
imprinted on many readers' minds.
Recollections of Tartar Steppes, first published in 1863, is a lost
classic of women's travel writing that remains one of the earliest
and best examples of the genre. In February 1848 the erstwhile
English governess Lucy Atkinson set off from Moscow with her new
husband Thomas Witlam Atkinson on a journey that would eventually
last almost six years and cover more than 40,000 miles through the
unknown wastes of Siberia and Central Asia. To add to the
challenge, Lucy found soon after setting off out that she was
pregnant. Having barely ever ridden in her life, she spent her
entire pregnancy on horseback, before giving birth to a son in a
yurt in a remote corner of Central Asia. Remarkably, her child
survived and for the next five years accompanied his parents
wherever they travelled - through the Djungar Alatau Mountains on
the borders with China, the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia and
then thousands of miles east to Irkutsk, Lake Baikal and the Sayan
Mountains. Lucy Atkinson was not simply a passive witness on this
remarkable journey, but an active participant, handling horses and
camels, organizing Cossack and local guides and learning to shoot
for the pot. On several occasions she levelled a rifle to protect
her husband when he was threatened by brigands. Throughout this
book, based on diaries she kept, she brings to life her remarkable
experiences, whether sharing a meal with a Kazakh chieftain,
negotiating the hire of reindeer to carry her baby son, or setting
off for two weeks in an open rowing boat onto the unpredictable
waters of Lake Baikal. During the bitter winters, when the
Atkinsons hunkered down in one of the scattered towns of Siberia to
avoid the worst of the sub-zero temperatures, she was a sensation
at the soirees and parties that punctuated the long, dark evenings.
Through her connections to her former employer in St Petersburg she
also met with many of the exiled Decembrists and their wives,
including Princess Maria Volkonsky and Princess Katherine
Troubetskoy. Out of print for many years, this new edition includes
a detailed introduction by Nick Fielding and Marianne Simpson - a
direct descendant of Lucy Atkinson's brother Matthew - which
explains the background to Lucy's travels and the fascinating
events that followed her return to London and her husband's death
in 1861.
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