_______________ THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER: the remarkable true story of the exploration ship featured in The Terror In the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, HMS Erebus undertook two of the most ambitious naval expeditions of all time. On the first, she ventured further south than any human had ever been. On the second, she vanished with her 129-strong crew in the wastes of the Canadian Arctic, along with the HMS Terror. Her fate remained a mystery for over 160 years. Then, in 2014, she was found. This is her story. _______________ Now available: Michael Palin's North Korea Journals _______________ A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Beyond terrific . . . I didn't want it to end.' Bill Bryson 'Illuminated by flashes of gentle wit . . . It's a fascinating story that [Palin] brings full-bloodedly to life.' Guardian 'This is an incredible book . . . The Erebus story is the Arctic epic we've all been waiting for.' Nicholas Crane 'Thoroughly absorbs the reader. . . Carefully researched and well-crafted, it brings the story of a ship vividly to life.' Sunday Times 'A great story . . . Told in a very relaxed and sometimes - as you might expect - very funny Palin style.' David Baddiel, Daily Mail 'Magisterial . . . Brings energy, wit and humanity to a story that has never ceased to tantalise people since the 1840s.' The Times

Beautifully produced, with a Foreword by Dame Ellen MacArthur, specially commissioned maps and atmospheric line drawings, this is a classic edition of one of the greatest sea adventures of all time. Joshua Slocum's epic solo voyage around the world in 1895 aboard the 37 foot sloop Spray remains one of the major feats of singlehanded voyaging, and has since been the inspiration for the many who have gone to sea in small boats. Starting from Boston in 1895, by the time he dropped anchor in Newport, Rhode Island over three years after his journey began, he had cruised some 46,000 miles entirely by sail and entirely alone. With none of the advantages of modern technology, Slocum faced fog, gales, gear failure, coral reefs and attacks by pirates. He also devised his own system of lashing the wheel into an early version of the modern day autopilot, which enabled him to sail 2,000 miles across the Pacific without once touching the helm. Slocum published his account of the voyage in 1900, and the book was an immediate success. Sailing Alone Around the World is a classic of sailing literature, acclaimed as an unequalled masterpiece of vital yet disciplined prose. It will be welcomed by all admirers of his legendary achievement.

Despite personal tragedy, occupation and civil war, Powell s affair of the heart continued. She returned time and again through the `40s and `50s, and with each visit there was a reconciliation with her idyllic memories, despite the changing reality of Greece. Both with Hunfry and without, she explored remote mountains in the company of shepherds, isolated stretches of coast and island with local fishermen and olive-dotted hillsides with their subsistence farmers.

For every woman searching for her voice, Anna Kloots shares her story of starting over by trusting the magic that was always within...

Despite what appeared to be a glamorous existence full of globetrotting adventures, behind the scenes, Anna felt invisible in her own life. Consumed by a marriage that left no space for her own desires and creativity, she chose to reframe the failure of her marriage as an opportunity to begin again.

It was Anna's innate sense of adventure and love for the unknown that led her to move abroad; travel around the world, visiting 80 countries; start her own business; and marry a magician—all before her mid-twenties. From the outside, her jet-setting lifestyle alongside her husband looked perfect. But though she appeared to have all the freedom in the world, in reality she was trapped in a slow-motion disappearing act.

When her marriage collapsed, she decided to use her unhappy ending as a chance for a new beginning—a reappearance into her own life and sense of exploration and discovery, letting each destination challenge, change, and shape her.

Following Anna's extensive travels from the bustling streets of Jaipur to the canals of Venice to the desert of Dubai, My Own Magic is a powerful memoir—a true, coming-of-age story about a woman rediscovering the magic that she always had.

Anna's memoir is proof that travel can transform you, inspire you, and even save you. Perfect for fans of Eat Pray Love.

What makes a nation happy? Is one country's sense of happiness the same as another's? In the last two decades, psychologists and economists have learned a lot about who's happy and who isn't. The Dutch are, the Romanians aren't, and Americans are somewhere in between... After years of going to the world's least happy countries, Eric Weiner, a veteran foreign correspondent, decided to travel and evaluate each country's different sense of happiness and discover the nation that seemed happiest of all. *He discovers the relationship between money and happiness in tiny and extremely wealthy Qatar (and it's not a good one) *He goes to Thailand, and finds that not thinking is a contented way of life. *He goes to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and discovers they have an official policy of Gross National Happiness! *He asks himself why the British don't do happiness? In Weiner's quest to find the world's happiest places, he eats rotten Icelandic shark, meditates in Bangalore, visits strip clubs in Bangkok and drinks himself into a stupor in Reykjavik. Full of inspired moments, The Geography of Bliss accomplishes a feat few travel books dare and even fewer achieve: to make you happier.

Series Information:
Caucasus World

Five decades ago, award-winning author Herbert Gold traveled to Haiti on a Caribbean version of the Fulbright Scholarship. The journey proved to be a turning point in his life. Fifty years later, his attachment to the tiny Caribbean nation-his second home-remains as passionate and powerful as ever. Now, in Best Nightmare on Earth, he explores the secret life of this vibrant, volatile, violent land. "Beautiful...bizarre...dangerous...exotic, a Garden of Eden fallen into despair, a tiny nation of unimaginable misery and unpredictable grace, an island where life is a kind of literature, a world of "unlimited impossibility." This is Herbert Gold's Haiti, a country of extraordinary paradox and remarkable extremes-of gingerbread dream houses and wretched slums, of brutal repression and explosive creative energy. Where else, he asks, can you run into evil spirits on the back roads, or find the goddess of fertility and orgasm represented by a photo of a tap-dancing Shirley Temple? Where else is there such generosity amid such corruption, such humor in the midst of such desperation?

In his many Haitian travels, Gold has dined with Graham Greene and chatted with the hated Duvalier oppressors. He has traded stories with CIA saboteurs, former Nazis, rum-soaked diplomats, and voodoo priests. He has taken in the cockfights and hunted for pirate treasure. He has nearly died of malaria; he has faced machete-wielding gangs of Ton-Ton Macoutes. He followed the traffic in Haitian blood to American hospitals and watched the AIDS epidemic take its toll. He listened to the steady beat of drums rolling down mist-shrouded mountains, and shared in the flirting, drinking, and laughter of the streets. He has captured the essence of this land where tragedy is the music the people dance to. Herbert Gold reflects on the country's history and politics, culture and folklore, but sees much more. He sees Haiti through the eyes of a lover: impassioned, jealous, probing, ever alert, and alive. This book will be of interest to travelers to, and people interested in the problems of, Haiti and the Caribbean; and collectors of Haitian art.

Few Westerners have succeeded in identifying themselves so completely with Arabian life as the author of this volume, which was first published in 1928. He went to Arabia for no political, humanitarian, or reasonable purpose but purely for the joy of it.

Tessa Keswick first travelled to China in 1982 and immediately fell in love with its history, culture and landscape.

Over the next thirty years, she travelled extensively in China, visiting its temples and landmarks, the sites of its most famous battles, and the birthplaces of its best-known poets and philosophers. She also witnessed China's transformation, as hundreds of millions were lifted out of poverty and the country emerged as an economic superpower in waiting.

Keswick's observations of life in China are perceptive and full of insight. Her narrative is rich in microhistories of people encountered and places visited. By presenting a colourfully woven tapestry of contrasting experiences and localities, she allows the reader to glimpse the sheer diversity of China and its vast population.

A multi-textured and revealing survey of the world's largest country, as seen through one woman's eyes, The Colour of the Sky After Rain offers a compelling portrait of China in an age of radical change, and charts the key staging posts in its recent, remarkable history.

A travel book by a reflective and observant resident of Oman at the end of World War II giving a very interesting account of the topography, races, customs and industries of the then Persian Gulf, inevitably throwing much light on the British influences and interest in the region.

This guide to collecting books on Japan, in English, is organized alphabetically and includes listings of major writers, together with historical and cultural notes. The work provides in an easy-to-use format, a list of obtainable books (both in print and out of print) which form the core of a serious collection. Additionally, the bibliographic listing, the biographic sketches of the more prominent authors, and cultural and historical commentaries should be useful to the researcher.

This guide to collecting books on Japan, in English, is organized alphabetically and includes listings of major writers, together with historical and cultural notes. The work provides in an easy-to-use format, a list of obtainable books (both in print and out of print) which form the core of a serious collection. Additionally, the bibliographic listing, the biographic sketches of the more prominent authors, and cultural and historical commentaries should be useful to the researcher.

Sheds new light on the importance of the diaries of Xu Xiake (1587-1641), a compulsive traveller who spent a lifetime visiting and writing about China's 'beauty spots'.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss embarks on a rollicking intellectual journey, following in the footsteps of history's greatest thinkers and showing us how each-from Epicurus to Gandhi, Thoreau to Beauvoir-offers practical and spiritual lessons for today's unsettled times. We turn to philosophy for the same reasons we travel: to see the world from a dif ferent perspective, to unearth hidden beauty, and to find new ways of being. We want to learn how to embrace wonder. Face regrets. Sustain hope. Eric Weiner combines his twin passions for philosophy and travel in a globe-trotting pil grimage that uncovers surprising life lessons from great thinkers around the world, from Rousseau to Nietzsche, Confucius to Simone Weil. Traveling by train (the most thoughtful mode of transport), he journeys thousands of miles, making stops in Athens, Delhi, Wyoming, Coney Island, Frankfurt, and points in between to recon nect with philosophy's original purpose: teaching us how to lead wiser, more meaningful lives. From Socrates and ancient Athens to Beauvoir and 20th-century Paris, Weiner's chosen philosophers and places provide important practical and spiritual lessons as we navigate today's chaotic times. In a "delightful" odyssey that "will take you places intellectually and humorously" (San Francisco Book Review), Weiner invites us to voyage alongside him on his life-changing pursuit of wisdom and discovery as he attempts to find answers to our most vital questions. The Socrates Express is "full of valuable lessons...a fun, sharp book that draws readers in with its apparent simplicity and bubble-gum philosophy approach and gradually pulls them in deeper and deeper" (NPR).

Through the performance ritual, the audience vicariously experiences the freedom, cultural risks, and utopian possibilities that society has denied them. Audience members are encouraged to touch us, smell us, feed us, defy us. In this strange millenial ceremony, the pandora box opens and the post-colonial demons are unleashed. - Guillermo Gomez-Pena's Performance Diaries
Guillermo Gomez-Pena has been variously described as among the most significant of late-twentieth-century performance artists - The Village Voice; a peacemaker in the worlds culture clash - Vanity Fair; and a wizard of language - The Chicago Tribune. He is without doubt, a unique outsider-artist who crosses the border and talks back.
In Dangerous Bordercrossers, Gomez-Pena continues his epic, artistic journey through globalisation, the commodification of identity, and the continuing culture wars. His writings, like his performances, point towards a borderless future and a poetics of hybridity.
This latest anthology of his performance chronicles, diary entries, poems, essays, and texts, sheds an extraordinary light on the life and work of this migrant provocateur. He documents and illuminates his brilliantly inventive collaborations with Roberto Sifuentes and Sara Shelton-Mann, among others, and reveals, for the first time, what it's like to be a Chicano on the road.
Dangerous Bordercrossers is at once sexy, scary and inspiring. Be prepared to be provoked.

Through the performance ritual, the audience vicariously experiences the freedom, cultural risks, and utopian possibilities that society has denied them. Audience members are encouraged to touch us, smell us, feed us, defy us. In this strange millenial ceremony, the pandora box opens and the post-colonial demons are unleashed. - Guillermo Gomez-Pena's Performance Diaries
Guillermo Gomez-Pena has been variously described as among the most significant of late-twentieth-century performance artists - The Village Voice; a peacemaker in the worlds culture clash - Vanity Fair; and a wizard of language - The Chicago Tribune. He is without doubt, a unique outsider-artist who crosses the border and talks back.
In Dangerous Bordercrossers, Gomez-Pena continues his epic, artistic journey through globalisation, the commodification of identity, and the continuing culture wars. His writings, like his performances, point towards a borderless future and a poetics of hybridity.
This latest anthology of his performance chronicles, diary entries, poems, essays, and texts, sheds an extraordinary light on the life and work of this migrant provocateur. He documents and illuminates his brilliantly inventive collaborations with Roberto Sifuentes and Sara Shelton-Mann, among others, and reveals, for the first time, what it's like to be a Chicano on the road.
Dangerous Bordercrossers is at once sexy, scary and inspiring. Be prepared to be provoked.

A SUNDAY TIMES BEST PAPERBACK OF 2021 * Shortlisted for the 2021 Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year prize * A critically-acclaimed Sunday Times, Spectator and Independent Book of 2020 * Now with colour photography by Michael Turek 'Richly absorbing... An impressive exploration of Siberia's terrifying past.' Guardian 'Evocative and wonderfully original.' Colin Thubron __________ Siberia's expansive history is traditionally one of exiles, bitter cold and suffering. Yet there is another tale to tell. Dotted throughout this remote and beautiful landscape are pianos created during the boom years of the nineteenth century. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. How these pianos made the journey into this snow-bound wilderness in the first place is remarkable. That they might be capable of making music in such a hostile landscape feels like a miracle. The Lost Pianos of Siberia is an absorbing story about a piano hunt - a quixotic quest through two centuries of Russian history and eight time zones stretching across an eleventh of the world's land surface. It reveals not only an unexpected musical legacy, but profound and brave humanity in the last place on earth you might expect to find it. __________ What readers are saying about The Lost Pianos of Siberia: ***** 'You know a book's good when, on finishing it, you just want to start again.' ***** 'Beautifully written, full of compelling anecdotes celebrating Siberia's extraordinary history.' ***** 'The most unusual and intelligent way to tell a travel story.'

Geoffrey Chaucer might be considered the quintessential English writer, but he drew much of his inspiration and material from Italy. Without the tremendous influences of Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio, the author of The Canterbury Tales might never have assumed his place as the 'father' of English literature. Nevertheless, Richard Owen's Chaucer's Italy begins in London, where the poet dealt with Italian merchants in his roles as court diplomat and customs official, before his involvement in arranging the marriage of King Edward III's son Lionel in Milan and diplomatic missions to Genoa and Florence. Scrutinising his encounters with Petrarch, Boccaccio, and the mercenary knight John Hawkwood, Owen reveals the deep influence of Italy's people and towns on Chaucer's poems and stories. Much writing on Chaucer depicts a misleadingly parochial figure, but, as Owen's enlightening short study of Chaucer's Italian years makes clear, the poet's life was internationally eventful. The consequences have made the English canon what it is today.

By the time Benacerraf received a Nobel prize in 1980 for his discovery of immune response genes, he had travelled a long way - literally on the road to success. He was born in Venezuela in 1920 to Sephardic Jewish parents from Algeria and Morocco. Benacerraf's childhood was spent primarily in Paris, until fear of war with Nazi Germany compelled his family to flee to Venezuela in 1939. Persuading his parents to send him to New York that same year, Benacerraf attended Columbia University, beginning a peripatetic existence that lasted until he landed in Boston in 1969, where he has held prominent positions at Harvard Medical School and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. In the meantime, his passion for medical research gained him numerous prestigious appointments and awards. In addition to chronicling developments in his personal life, Benacerraf offers up rather dry accounts of his most important research projects - as well as his prediction for advances in cancer treatment and his somewhat crotchety opinions on the state of science education today and the research grant business. Despite colourful early years and his impressive accomplishments, Benacerraf paints his life in a two-dimensional fashion and presents insights without enough imagination to sustain the average reader's interest for long.

Join physician and landscape photographer Mohan Bhasker on a round-the-world journey to some of Earth's most exquisite sites. Vicariously traverse a Laos jungle, kayak among Antarctica's icebergs, trek through Nepal's Himalayan mountain range and Brazil's scorching sand dunes, and come upon impossibly blue lagoons tucked into the rugged Argentine terrain. Interspersed with the images are adventure travel stories about close calls with nature, opportunities missed, serendipitous timing, and the payoff of persistence. The camera lens lingers on everything from pristine panoramas to quiet coves and closeups of penguin chicks. In a fifteen-year collection of more than 220 photographs, the author pays tribute to the beauty, history, and significance of some of the most remote places on Earth.

A little over ten years ago, Janine Marsh and her husband Mark gave up their city jobs in London to chase the good life in the countryside of northern France. Having overcome the obstacles of starting to renovate her dream home - an ancient, dilapidated barn - and fitting in with the peculiarities of her new neighbours, Janine is now the go-to expat in the area for those seeking to get to grips with a very different way of life. In the Seven Valleys, each season brings new challenges as well as new delights. Freezing weather in February threaten the lives of some of the four-legged locals; snow in March results in a broken arm, which in turn leads to an etiquette lesson at the local hospital; and a dramatic hailstorm in July destroys cars and houses, ultimately bringing the villagers closer together. With warmth and humour, Janine showcases a uniquely French outlook as two eternally ambitious expats drag a neglected farmhouse to life and stumble across the hidden gems of this very special part of the world ________________ Praise for Janine Marsh's My Good Life in France: 'Warm, uplifting, and effervescent ... Janine's voice and humor bubble right off the page, making you want to pack your bags and visit her fixer-upper home in rural France' - Samantha Verant, author of Seven Letters from Paris 'If you've ever dreamed of discovering "the real France", you won't want to miss this delightful book' - Keith Van Sickle, author of One Sip at a Time: Learning to Live in Provence

Thirty hand-picked tattoo shops and the work of over one hundred artists are included in this book showcasing the blossoming body art communities in New Mexico and Arizona. Displayed are over 600 color photos of tattoo artistry. Trendsetting artists create a wide range of tattoo art in motifs as diverse as the men and women who receive and appreciate them. The artwork ranges from the small to the large. Classic black and white artistry and modern full color work are featured. Themes captured include natural scenes, animals and birds, flowers, nautical scenes and symbols, Oriental motifs from dragons to geishas, portraits of loved ones, religious art, Day of the Dead motifs, occult symbology, and much more. The artists and their shops are also featured. For anyone with an appreciation of tattoo artistry, this book is for you.

The sunlight and calm of the French Riviera have been a magnet for writers since the fourteenth century. The Cote d'Azur has provided the inspiration and setting for some of the greatest literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers is a reader's journey along this fabled coast, from Hyeres and Saint-Tropez in the west to the Italian border in the east, introducing the lives and work of writers who passed this way, from distinguished Nobel laureates to new authors who found their voices there. Ted Jones's encyclopaedic work covers them all: writers such as Graham Greene and W. Somerset Maugham, who spent much of their lives there; F. Scott Fitzgerald and Guy de Maupassant, whose work it dominates; and the countless writers who simply lingered there, including Louisa M. Alcott, Hans Christian Anderson, J.G. Ballard, Samuel Beckett, Arnold Bennett, William Boyd, Bertholt Brecht, Anthony Burgess, Albert Camus, Bruce Chatwin, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Ian Fleming, Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence, A.A.Milne, Vladimir Nabokov, Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, Jean-Paul Sartre, George Bernard Shaw, Robert Louis Stevenson, Anton Tchekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Evelyn Waugh, H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, P.G. Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf and W.B. Yeats - and many others.