THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER - AS RECOMMENDED BY DEBBIE MACOMBER! 'Sea, sunshine, romance and fabulous characters; Maddie's light touch and sense of fun will lift your spirits!' Bestselling author Judy Leigh Sophia Gregory has lost her sparkle... Recently single and about to turn sixty, Sophia doesn't recognise the old woman staring back at her in the mirror. How has life passed her by? A quiet holiday in beautiful Rhodes is the perfect chance for her to find herself. Until she meets the Old Ducks! Juliette, Kim and Anita are three friends who are determined not to grow old gracefully! Bold and brash, they are Sophia's worst nightmare, until they make her an honorary member of The Old Ducks' Club! Now dancing and drinking till dawn Sophia starts to shake off her stuffy old life and start living again! And when she meets her gorgeous Greek neighbour, Theo, she thinks that maybe, if she's just a little braver, she can learn to love again too... It's never too late to teach an Old Duck new tricks! A laugh out loud and uplifting story about the importance of friendship and always, always having fun! Perfect for fans of Judy Leigh and Dee Macdonald What readers are saying about The Old Ducks' Club... 'Sea, sunshine, romance and fabulous characters; Maddie's light touch and sense of fun will lift your spirits!' Bestselling author Judy Leigh 'A new lease of life under the Greek sun. As fresh and delicious as chilled retsina!' Sunday Times Bestselling author Phillipa Ashley. 'For a book that's as cheering and restorative as a long lunch with your very best friend, Maddie Please is the author you need to know!' Bestselling author Chris Manby 'Genuine and life-affirming...a wonderful, lighthearted novel about how it is never too late to find happiness.' Bestselling author Kitty Wilson 'A heart-warming story filled with friendship and fun. It's official - I want to be an Old Duck!' Bestselling author Maisie Thomas

'We have no idea how much resilience there is inside us until we have to draw on it. We learn that we grow through adversity only as we go through it. That we crave happiness like plants leaning toward the light'

When Susan quit her job in London and set sail off the south coast of England on her beloved sailboat, Isean, she was unaware this spontaneous departure would lead to a three-year journey spanning several countries across the continent.

With only the very basics on board, resourcefulness becomes an unexpected source of joy and contentment. The highs and lows of living in such an extreme way awakens a newfound appreciation for the beauty of her surroundings, for being safe - for just being alive.

For all the physical and navigational challenges of her journey, the other side of her story reveals a more important change - an inner journey - that took place along the way.

This wasn't merely a challenge, a mid-life adventure or gap-year career break; it was much gentler than that, but much greater too.

She was seeking nothing less than an entirely different life, having left the land far behind to call the wild, unbiddable sea home.

Growing is a portrait of a young man sent straight out from university to help govern Ceylon. It is doubtful that any Empire at any time has been served by such an intelligent, dutiful, hardworking and incorruptible civil servant as the young Leonard Woolf. He was determined to do what was good but discovered for himself that colonial rule, be it ever so high-minded, is fated to do wrong. Growing is also a deeply affectionate account of the mystery, magic and savage beauty of Ceylon at the turn of the century, an island whose diverse beliefs and cultures Woolf had the time and wit to explore in detail.

An outcast gay Mormon travels from his Washington, DC, home to Antarctica-by bus. A devout young boy in rural Ohio, Andrew Evans had his life mapped for him: baptism, mission, Brigham Young University, temple marriage, and children of his own. But as an awkward gay kid, bullied and bored, he escaped into the glossy pages of National Geographic and the wide promise of the world atlas. The Black Penguin is Evans's memoir, travel tale, and love story of his eventual journey to the farthest reaches of the map, a wild yet touching adventure across some of the most astonishing landscapes on Earth. Ejected from church and shunned by his family as a young man, Evans embarks on an ambitious overland journey halfway across the world. Riding public transportation, he crosses swamps, deserts, mountains, and jungles, slowly approaching his lifelong dream and ultimate goal: Antarctica. With each new mile comes laughter, pain, unexpected friendship, true weirdness, unsettling realities, and some hair-raising moments that eventually lead to a singular discovery on a remote beach at the bottom of the world. Evans's 12,000-mile voyage becomes a soulful quest to balance faith, family, and self, reminding us that, in the end, our lives are defined by the roads we take, the places we touch, and those we hold nearest.

It's called "White Blaze Fever" and although you will not find the fever mentioned in any medical journal, have no doubt in your mind - it does exist and no one is immune. Only the most casual, most minute contact with the Appalachian Trail is needed to catch the fever. I now welcome you to be my vicarious hiking partner as we pursue the two-inch by six-inch white blazes from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine. Through my daily journal entries - revised only a little - you will share encounters with bear, moose, snakes and other wildlife. You will feel the thrill of viewing the most magnificent vistas east of the Mississippi and come to know a unique collection of individuals guaranteed to bring a smile to your face and warmth to your heart.

Published to coincide with the Golden Globe Race's 50th Anniversary It lay like a gauntlet thrown down; to sail around the world alone and non-stop. No one had ever done it, no one knew if it could be done. In 1968, nine men - six Englishmen, two Frenchmen and an Italian - set out to try, a race born of coincidence of their timing. One didn't even know how to sail. They had more in common with Captain Cook or Ferdinand Magellan than with the high-tech, extreme sailors of today, a mere forty years later. It was not the sea or the weather that determined the nature of their voyages but the men they were, and they were as different from one another as Scott from Amundsen. Only one of the nine crossed the finishing line after ten months at sea. The rest encountered despair, sublimity, madness and even death.

."a sophisticated and very well researched study that] makes a significant contribution to the growing corpus of studies of fascist culture and of the often subtle and varied ways in which the regime's goals and messages were transmitted to the general public. It is well organized and well written and is intelligently structured." - Christopher Duggan, University of Reading During the twenty years of Mussolini's rule a huge number of travel texts were written of journeys made during the interwar period to the sacred sites of Fascist Italy, Mussolini's newly conquered African empire, Spain during the Civil War, Nazi Germany, Communist Russia and the America of the New Deal. Examining these observations by writers and journalists, the author throws new light on the evolving ideology of Fascism, how it was experienced and propagated by prominent figures of the time; how the regime created a utopian vision of the Roman past and the imperial future; and how it interpreted the attractions and dangers of other totalitarian cultures. The book helps gain a better understanding of the evolving concepts of imperialism, which were at the heart of Italian Fascism, and thus shows that travel writing can offer an important contribution to historical analysis. Charles Burdett, Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies, specializes on Italian culture under Fascism. He is the author of Vincenzo Cardarelli and his Contemporaries (Oxford University Press, 1999). He is the editor with Claire Gorrara and Helmut Peitsch of European Memories of the Second World War (Berghahn Books, 1999) and with Derek Duncan, of Cultural Encounters: European Travel Writing of the 1930s (Berghahn Books, 2002). Other Berghahn Titles by Charles Burdett: European Memories of the Second World War Cultural Encounters

When the artist Louis Jansen van Vuuren first visited Paris he could never have imagined that he would end up owning a château in rural France. Almost French is the highly entertaining account of his induction over the past 21 years into all things French: snooty waiters, high-brow countesses, numerous faux pas with the French language and of course, several encounters with the infamous French bureaucracy.

Turning the dilapidated château into a boutique hotel with his life partner, Hardy Olivier, required patience and perseverance. Many lessons were learnt the hard way. Four heaters are not enough to heat an entire château and they will blow your power supply.

And practising your French is a must. On a visit to the butcher, Louis asked for “sheep socks” when he was after leg of lamb. Talk about butchering the lamb!

Louis interweaves the stories about his life in France with fascinating snippets of history, culture and tradition. A must for all Francophiles.

Originally published in 1921. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Cycles of a Traveler - A celebration of humanity in all its wondrous glory and the world in all its devastating beauty. From the streets of The Bronx, Joe Diomede accomplishes his dream and heads out across America on his motorcycle for a once in a lifetime trip with his college buddy. For Joe it doesn't stop there - it turns into his yearly ritual. When a small mishap on one of those journeys puts him on a collision course with his life's path, the bitter reality of the poverty and injustice he confronts leads him to look at his life in a different light. A bicycle soon replaces his trusty motorcycle and we are lead down the backstreets of Japan, maneuver on the muddy roads in the rainforests of Borneo, freewheel throughout the European countryside, and up to a chance meeting with fate high in the Himalayas. While mingling with the people who share our planet we are drawn into a search for meaning at a time before the internet offered instant answers, and mobile phones kept us in constant contact. Explore the world from the saddles of Joe's cycles; adventure becomes accessible to us all, coincidence takes on new meaning and synchronous moments become the norm. We become conscious that, although cultural, linguistic, religious, and social differences seem to separate us all, we're truly on this ride together. Put on your leather jacket, slip on your bike shorts and enjoy these true tales of voyage, discovery and synchronicity.

It's called "White Blaze Fever" and although you will not find the fever mentioned in any medical journal, have no doubt in your mind - it does exist and no one is immune. Only the most casual, most minute contact with the Appalachian Trail is needed to catch the fever. I now welcome you to be my vicarious hiking partner as we pursue the two-inch by six-inch white blazes from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine. Through my daily journal entries - revised only a little - you will share encounters with bear, moose, snakes and other wildlife. You will feel the thrill of viewing the most magnificent vistas east of the Mississippi and come to know a unique collection of individuals guaranteed to bring a smile to your face and warmth to your heart.

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - When one of the leading publicists in America, Dr. Albert Shaw of the Review of Reviews, after reading the manuscript of Part I of this volume, characterized the author as "The Robinson Crusoe of the Twentieth Century," he touched the feature of the narrative which is at once most attractive and most dangerous; for the succession of trying and thrilling experiences recorded seems in places too highly colored to be real or, sometimes, even possible in this day and generation. I desire, therefore, to assure the reader at the outset that Dr. Ossendowski is a man of long and diverse experience as a scientist and writer with a training for careful observation which should put the stamp of accuracy and reliability on his chronicle. Only the extraordinary events of these extraordinary times could have thrown one with so many talents back into the surroundings of the "Cave Man" and thus given to us this unusual account of personal adventure, of great human mysteries and of the political and religious motives which are energizing the "Heart of Asia."

"It is time to pack your virtual bags and prepare yourself for an intimate and fun-filled adventure. As you read and follow this amazing written and photo journal, you will feel like you are at each and every site; someone who is lucky to be on this global journey with a person who cares enough about you, the land that is being visited and the culture described in past and present form."

Dan Pappas, Humanities Chair Executive Director, Michigan Institute for Educational Management Hall of Fame Award Recipient, Michigan Association of School Administrators

... A delightful book, full of engaging descriptions of some of the World's most fascinating places, while providing the historical and cultural perspectives that bring a deeper understanding of the peoples and cultures who lived and live there now.

Dr. Frank Novakowski Coordinator, Study Abroad Program Associate Dean, Davenport University

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

'Both moving and hilarious' Spectator, Books of the Year 'A tale of gloriously eccentric British pensioners. Aitken rivals Alan Bennett in the ear he has for an eavesdropped remark ... boy, can he write.' Daily Mail, Book of the Week FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE TIMES BESTSELLING A CHIP SHOP IN POZNAN. One millennial, six coach trips, one big generation gap. When Ben Aitken learnt that his gran had enjoyed a four-night holiday including four three-course dinners, four cooked breakfasts, four games of bingo, a pair of excursions, sixteen pints of lager and luxury return coach travel, all for a hundred pounds, he thought, that's the life, and signed himself up. Six times over. Good value aside, what Ben was really after was the company of his elders - those with more chapters under their belt, with the wisdom granted by experience, the candour gifted by time, and the hard-earned ability to live each day like it's nearly their last. A series of coach holidays ensued - from Scarborough to St Ives, Killarney to Lake Como - during which Ben attempts to shake off his thirty-something blues by getting old as soon as possible.

Does the way in which buildings are looked at, and made sense of, change over the course of time? How can we find out about this? By looking at a selection of travel writings spanning four centuries, Anne Hultzsch suggests that it is language, the description of architecture, which offers answers to such questions. The words authors use to transcribe what they see for the reader to re-imagine offer glimpses at modes of perception specific to one moment, place and person. Hultzsch constructs an intriguing patchwork of local and often fragmentary narratives discussing texts as diverse as the 17th-century diary of John Evelyn, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and an 1855 art guide by Swiss art historian Jacob Burckhardt. Further authors considered include 17th-century collector John Bargrave, 18th-century novelist Tobias Smollett, poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, critic John Ruskin as well as the 20th-century architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner.

Reproduced ieith permission from Arcktw Mas PALACIO DEL MARQUES DE DOS AQUAS, VALENCIA FROM THE PYRENEES TO PORTUGAL BY ROSE MACAULAY HAMISH HAMILTON LONDON First published in Great Britain, April 1949 by Hamish Hamilton Ltd. Second Impression, May ip p Third Impression, October 1949 Printed in Great Britain by Butler Tanner Ltd, , Frome and London The curved gulfs, the promontories, the shore stretching along the sea, the hills standing close above it, the high towns lapped by the waves . . . the sea walls guarding the ports, the way the marshes and the lakes lie, and the high wild mountains rise. . . . RUFUS FESTUS AVIENUS late 4th century II faut visiter les pays dans leur saison violente, 1 Espagne en etd, la Russie en hiver. THEOPHILE GAUTIER 1845 Being entered Spaine, he must take heed o Posting in that hot Country in the Summer time, for it may stirre the masse of bloud too much. JAMES HOWELL 1642 The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean. SAMUEL JOHNSON 1776 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I SHOULD like very gratefully to thank Dr. J. M. Batista i Roca, of Barcelona and Cambridge, for Hs kindness in looking through and making suggestions for the bettering of some of the Cata-Ionian section of this book, and also for giving me introductions in Barcelona. I am grateful to Mr. Bernard Bevan, lately Infor mation Officer of the British Consulate-General in Barcelona, for much information, kindness and help to Miss Massey, of the same department, for valuable assistance in Barcelona to Mr. W. C. E. F. Leverkus, British Vice-Consul at Cartagena, for his information and advice to the Patronato Nacional del Turismo at Madrid and the Secretariado Nacional da Informacao atLisbon for very kindly supplying me with photographs to Senor Antonio Marquet of Barcelona, and the Instituto Espanol in London, for also helping me with these to Mr. R. B. Neumegen, of Messrs. Offley, Forrester Co., for information about sherry at Jerez to Professor Edgar Prestage for lending me the most recent researches of Portuguese scholars into Prince Henry the Navi gators towns on Capes Sagres and St. Vincent, and to Professor Rhys Carpenter, of Bryn Mawr, for sending me his delightful study, The Greeks in Spain. ROSE MACAULAY CONTENTS Page Introductory I CATALONIAN SHORE 9 VALENCIAN SHORE So MURCIAN SHORE 114 ANDALUCIAN SHORE 123 ALGARVE SHORE 184 Index 199 ILLUSTRATIONS PAIACIO DEL MARQUES DE Dos AGUAS, VALENCIA Frontispiece Facing page SAN PERE DE RODA 12 AMPURIAS 13 GERONA 28 ESCALERA DE SANTO DOMINGO, GERONA 29 CALELLA, COSTA BRAVA 34 COSTA BRAVA 35 TOSSA DE MAR 42 UNFINISHED CHURCH OF THE SAGRADA FAMILIA, BARCELONA 43 SANTA MARIA, TARRASA 60 CATHEDRAL, TARRAGONA 61 SAGUNTO, CASTLE AND AMPHITHEATRE 86 PE ISCOLA 87 DENIA, PORT AND CASTLE 104 PE ON DE IFACH, CALPE 105 ALICANTE HARBOUR 108 MOJACAR 109 ORIHUELA 112 CASA SE ORIAL, LORCA 113 CAVE DWELLINGS, GUADIX 126 GRANADA 127 SACRISTIA OF THE CARTUJA, GRANADA 132 TOCADOR DE LA REINA, ALHAMBRA, GRANADA 133 ARCO ROMANO, RONDA 144 TARIFA 145

A mysterious and rarely seen beast, the Scottish Wildcat is Britain's rarest mammal, and one of the most endangered carnivores in the world. Over the centuries, one by one, Britain's most formidable wild animals have fallen to the thoughtless march of humankind. A war on predators put paid to our lynxes, wolves and bears, each hunted relentlessly until the last of them was killed. Only our wildcats lived on. The Scottish wildcat's guile and ferocity are the stuff of legend. No docile pet cat, this, but a cunning and shadowy animal, elusive to the point of invisibility, but utterly fearless when forced to fight for its life. Those who saw one would always remember its beauty - the cloak of dense fur marked with bold tiger stripes, the green-eyed stare and haughty sneer, and the broad, banded tail whisking away into the forest's gloom. Driven to the remnants of Scotland's wilderness, the last few wildcats now face the most insidious danger of all as their domesticated cousins threaten to dilute their genes into oblivion. However, the wildest of cats has friends and goodwill behind it. This book tells the story of how the wildcat of the wildwood became the endangered Scottish wildcat, of how it once lived and lives now, and of how we - its greatest enemy - are now striving to save it in its darkest hour.

Today, Dubai is a city of shimmering skyscrapers attracting thousands of tourists every year. Yet just sixty years ago Dubai's population scraped a living by picking dates, diving for pearls, or sailing in wooden dhows to trade with Iran and India. Dubai is everything the rest of the Arab world is not. Until recently it was the fastest-growing city in the world, with an economy whose growth outpaced China's while luring more tourists than all of India. The city has become a metaphor for the lush life, where the wealthy mingle in gilded splendour and luxury cars fill the streets, yet it is also beset by a backwash of bad design, environmental degradation and controversial labour practices. Dubai tells its unique story.

Wyl Menmuir’s The Draw of the Sea is a beautifully written and deeply moving portrait of the sea and the people whose livelihoods revolve around it, examining the ephemeral but universal pull the sea holds over the human imagination. Since the earliest stages of human development, the sea has fascinated and entranced us. It feeds us, sustaining communities and providing livelihood, but it also holds immense destructive power that threatens to destroy all we have created.   It connects us to faraway places, offering the promise of new lands and voyages of discovery, but also shapes our borders, carving divisions between landmasses and eroding the very ground beneath our feet. In this lyrical meditation on what it is that draws us to the waters' edge, author Wyl Menmuir tells the stories of the people whose lives revolve around the coastline and all it has to offer. In twelve interlinked chapters, Menmuir explores the lives of local fishermen steeped in the rich traditions of a fishing community, the beachcombers who wander the shores in search of the varied objects that wash ashore and the stories they tell, and all number of others who have made their lives around the sea. In the specifics of these livelihoods and their rich histories and traditions, Wyl Menmuir captures the universal human connection to the ocean’s edge. Into this seductive tapestry Wyl weaves the story of how the sea has beckoned, consoled and restored him. The Draw of the Sea is a meaningful and moving work into how we interact with the environment around us and how it comes to shape the course of our lives. As unmissable as it is compelling, as profound as it is personal, this must-read book will delight anyone familiar with the intimate and powerful pull which the sea holds over us.

small town south A LIFE-IN-AMERICA Prize Book Already published NO LIFE FOR A LADY by Agnes Morley Cleaveland THE ROAD OF A NATURALIST by Donald Culross Peattie TO MARK CHERRY contents PART ONE. GO HOME IN THE SPRING 1. Mrs. Byrds Liltk Boy Comes Home 3 2. Look for iht Lesters 22 3. Mrs. Southerland Requests the Honor 38 4. River Road 53 5. Hickory Nut Hill 77 PART TWO, RIDE A GOLDEN SUNBEAM 6. Obituary of an Era 107 7. Children of the Boom 129 8. The Farmer in the Dell 150 9. Meet the Mayor 163 10. Miss Sophia, Social Worker Extraordinary 176 11. Tourists Accommodated 215 PART THREE. I HAVE BEEN HOME AGAIN 12. Everythings Going To Be Att Right 229 small town south art one Go Home in the Spring one Mrs. Byrtfs Little Boy Comes Home I T WAS spring along the river road and I was going home. The train rolled out of Goldsboro along the Atlantic Coast Line. A few miles more a few minutes more. I leaned forward to watch the sun coming up out of the Carolina fields. Farmhouses clusters of Negro shacks a country church familiar landmarks.. A wagon drawn up at a crossing for us to pass. Souther lands Springs. The patch of woods this side of West brooks farm, dotted white with dogwood this time of year, and the peach orchards at Brogdens in blossom. Seasons trouping theatrical circuits and long nights in Tobacco Road and Of Mice and Men, I had imagined myself riding home on the morning train like this. Two nights before, I had left a darkened stage door and walked over to the heart of Times Square and sat down at Father Duffys feet to survey Broadway with a homesick eye. Douglas Leighs neon roses climbed like rockets to the sky, but my spirits were earthbound. Soft-coal cinders lodged under myeyelids and scratched them red and blew away in the March wind. My head