A quest is never what you expect it to be.

Elizabeth Madeline Martin spends her days in a retirement home in Cape Town, watching the pigeons and squirrels on the branch of a tree outside her window. Bedridden, her memory fading, she can recall her early childhood spent in a small wood-and-iron house in Blackridge on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg. Though she remembers the place in detail – dogs, a mango tree, a stream – she has no idea of where exactly it is. ‘My memory is full of blotches,’ she tells her daughter Julia, ‘like ink left about and knocked over.’

Julia resolves to find the Blackridge house: with her mother lonely and confused, would this, perhaps, bring some measure of closure? A journey begins that traverses family history, forgotten documents, old photographs, and the maps that stake out a country’s troubled past – maps whose boundaries nature remains determined to resist. Kind strangers, willing to assist in the search, lead to unexpected discoveries of ancestors and wars and lullabies. Folded into this quest are the tender conversations between a daughter and a mother who does not have long to live.

Taken as one, The Blackridge House is a meditation on belonging, of the stories we tell of home and family, of the precarious footprint of life.

Addressing the complex interrelationships between city making and the resources needed for its production, Predatory Urbanism explores the link between urbanization and resources in the global South. It particularly focuses on urban megaprojects, highlighting these planned developments and re-developments carried out by the state or state-linked agencies. Engaging with positivist rhetoric on climate change, this timely book investigates the dramatic transformation of rural and urban land in Asia, discussing the main ecological deficits affecting Asian cities. Chapters analyse some of the most paradigmatic megaprojects in the global South and their socio-environmental predatory characteristics. Through exposing the limitations of today's predatory urbanism in the global South, the book argues for the importance of rethinking the resource-urbanization nexus towards socially and environmentally just urbanism. An invigorating read for urban studies and planning scholars, this will particularly benefit those researching globalization in the global South. It will also aid urban planners reflecting on their practice and looking to improve developments in city making.

The extraordinary story of how the Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship, was found in the most hostile sea on Earth in 2022 On 21 November 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance, finally succumbed to the crushing ice. Its crew watched in silence as the stern rose twenty feet in the air and then, it was gone. The miraculous escape and survival of all 28 men on board have entered legend. And yet, the iconic ship that bore them to the brink of the Antarctic was considered forever lost. A century later, an audacious plan to locate the ship was hatched. The Ship Beneath the Ice gives a blow-by-blow account of the two epic expeditions to find the Endurance. As with Shackleton's own story, the voyages were filled with intense drama and teamwork under pressure. In March 2022, the Endurance was finally found to headlines all over the world. Written by Mensun Bound, the Director of Exploration on both expeditions, this captivating narrative includes countless fascinating stories of Shackleton and his legendary ship. Complete with a selection of Frank Hurley's photos from Shackleton's original voyage in 1914-17, as well as from the expeditions in 2019 and 2022, The Ship Beneath the Ice is the perfect tribute to this monumental discovery.

In this timely Handbook, people emerge at the centre of city and regional development debates from the perspective of leadership. It explores individuals and communities, not only as units that underpin aggregate measures or elements within systems, but as deliberative actors with ambitions, desires, strategies and objectives Deepening the scholarly debate on leadership in cities and regions, the Handbook combines theoretical discussion and empirical evidence within methodological development to present a state-of-the-art view of a rapidly emerging field of study, highlighting paths for future research. Chapters explore power, politics, policy-making, social corporate responsibility and international city diplomacy through the lens of leadership, covering leadership in different countries from a broad range of theoretical perspectives. This Handbook is a valuable resource for academics and students of regional studies, human and economic geography, and policy studies. The conceptual discussion and case studies from different parts of the world will provide valuable examples for scholars, policy-makers and practitioners seeking a better understanding of what it takes to mobilise and co-ordinate complex multi-actor constellations for improvement of their respective places.