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Books > Travel > Travel writing > General
"If you're looking for ideas, or planning a bucket-list adventure,
you'll find page after page of sepia-tinted inspiration in the
revised edition of teNeues' Nostalgic Journeys." - Irish
Independent The seaside or the mountains? Today's most important
vacation planning question never came up in days long past. Both
seemed unappealing and nearly inaccessible. It wasn't until the
invention of the railroad that previously sparsely visited and
overlooked areas opened up, and Thomas Cook, the tour operator and
founder of modern tourism, was born. Fishing villages became
sophisticated seaside resorts, remote mountain areas became
destinations for hiking and skiing enthusiasts, and inns became
grand hotels. Nostalgic Journeys takes you on a journey back in
time, through the last two centuries: Ride the Orient Express to
the East, cross the Atlantic on huge ocean liners, travel Route 66
through the United States, and break the sound barrier aboard the
Concorde. As you browse through the pages of this book, you will
get the idea that travelling was, and can be, more than just being
stuck in a traffic jam or passing through numerous security checks.
It can be a stylish and sometimes adventurous way to explore the
world and return home feeling transformed by your many and varied
experiences. Bon Voyage! Text in English and German.
Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2012 Between the Orinoco and the
Amazon lies a fabulous forested land, barely explored. Much of
Guiana seldom sees sunlight, and new species are often tumbling out
of the dark trees. Shunned by the conquistadors, it was left to
others to carve into colonies. Guyana, Suriname and Guyane
Francaise are what remain of their contest, and the 400 years of
struggle that followed. Now, award-winning author John Gimlette
sets off along this coast, gathering up its astonishing story. His
journey takes him deep into the jungle, from the hideouts of
runaway slaves to penal colonies, outlandish forts, remote
Amerindian villages, a 'Little Paris' and a space port. He meets
rebels, outlaws and sorcerers; follows the trail of a vicious
Georgian revolt, and ponders a love-affair that changed the face of
slavery. Here too is Jonestown, where, in 1978, over 900 Americans,
members of Reverend Jones's cult, committed suicide. The last
traces are almost gone now, as the forest closes in. Beautiful,
bizarre and occasionally brutal, this is one of the great forgotten
corners of the Earth: the Wild Coast.
Fall in love with Italy all over again.
There are endless reasons to love Italy. This beautiful country has us
hooked on morning espressos and afternoon spritzes, bowls of pasta and
slices – oh, so many slices – of pizza. It has us wearing chic street
style, admiring great art, driving gleaming sports cars. Heck, it even
has us thinking about the Roman Empire. Italy has seduced us all, and
we’re here for it.
In this love letter to the world’s favourite country, you’ll find
everything you know and love about Italy: the classic food, the dreamy
landscapes, the Renaissance masterpieces. Along the way you’ll meet the
people who make Italy what it is, the philosophies they live by and the
traditions that make la dolce vita.
We all want to live the Italian life. With this book, you’re one step
closer.
Fables of the East is the first anthology to provide textual
examples of representations of oriental cultures in the early
modern period drawn from a variety of genres: travel writing,
histories, and fiction. Organized according to genre in order to
illustrate the diverse shapes the oriental tale adopted in the
period, the extracts cover the popular sequence of oriental tales,
the pseudo-oriental tale, travels and history, and letter fictions.
Authors represented range from the familiar - Joseph Addison,
Horace Walpole, Montesquieu, Oliver Goldsmith - to authors of great
popularity in their own time who have since faded in reputation
such as James Ridley, Alexander Dow, and Eliza Haywood. The
selection has been devised to call attention to the diversity in
the ways that different oriental cultures are represented to
English readers. Readers of this anthology will be able to identify
a contrast between the luxury, excess, and sexuality associated
with Islamic Turkey, Persia, and Mughal India and the wisdom,
restraint, and authority invested in Brahmin India and Confucian
China. Fables of the East redraws the cultural map we have
inherited of the eighteenth century, demonstrating contemporary
interest in gentile and 'idolatrous' religions, in Confucianism and
Buddhism especially, and that the construction of the Orient in the
western imagination was not exclusively one of an Islamic Near and
Middle East. Ros Ballster's introduction addresses the importance
of the idea of 'fable' to traditions of narrative and
representations of the East. Each text is accompanied by
explanatory head and footnotes, also provided is a glossary of
oriental terms and places that were familiar to the texts'
eighteenth-century readers.
2011 marks the centenary of the death of Edward Whymper, one of the
most important figures in the history of mountaineering. His ascent
of the Matterhorn in 1865, and the deaths of four members of his
party on the way down, attracted attention throughout the world,
bringing him praise and criticism in equal measure. In later years,
he largely devoted his life to lecturing and writing guidebooks,
touring Britain, Europe and America. Whymper was an early member of
the Alpine Club and in the club's archives is a set of magic
lantern slides he used to illustrate his lectures. Based on
extensive research, former AC Archivist Peter Berg has combined
these images with extracts from Whymper's books and diaries and
writings by his contemporaries, to recreate the lecture 'My
Scrambles amongst the Alps', first given in 1895. These pictures,
mostly not seen for 100 years and never been published as a set
before, give us a unique glimpse of the mountain world at the end
of the 19th century. We visit the Zermatt valley and its peaks,
passes and glaciers, experience Whymper's many attempts to climb
the Matterhorn, explore the Mont Blanc region, including the
ill-fated building of an observatory on the summit, and share some
of the joys and sorrows of mountaineering. Setting the lecture in
context, is a foreword by the distinguished mountaineer and former
AC President, Stephen Venables.
At a time when that 1960s notion of air travel as decadent and
exceptional is experiencing an unexpected revival, this book ...
could be the G&T in a plastic glass you need.' The Spectator
Travel writer Julia Cooke's exhilarating portrait of Pan Am
stewardesses in the Mad Men era. Come Fly the World tells the story
of the stewardesses who served on the iconic Pan American Airways
between 1966 and 1975 - and of the unseen diplomatic role they
played on the world stage. Alongside the glamour was real danger,
as they flew soldiers to and from Vietnam and staffed Operation
Babylift - the dramatic evacuation of 2,000 children during the
fall of Saigon. Cooke's storytelling weaves together the true
stories of women like Lynne Totten, a science major who decided
life in a lab was not for her, to Hazel Bowie, one of the
relatively few African American stewardesses of the era, as they
embraced the liberation of a jet-set life. In the process, Cooke
shows how the sexualized coffee-tea-or-me stereotype was at odds
with the importance of what they did, and with the freedom, power
and sisterhood they achieved.
Spaniards are reputed to be amongst Europe's most forthright
people. So why have they kept silent about the terrors of their
Civil War and the rule of General Franco? This apparent 'pact of
forgetting' inspired writer Giles Tremlett to embark on a journey
around Spain and its history. He found the ghosts of Spain
everywhere, almost always arguing. Who caused the Civil War? Why do
Basque terrorists kill? Why do Catalans hate Madrid? Did the
Islamist bombers who killed 190 people in 2004 dream of a return to
Spain's Moorish past? Tremlett's curiosity led him down some
strange and colourful byroads, and brought him unexpected insights
into the Spanish character.
Now a limited Netflix series starring Zoe Saldana! This Reese
Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller is "a
captivating story of love lost and found" (Kirkus Reviews) set in
the lush Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the
healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest
hours. It was love at first sight when actress Tembi met
professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. There was just
one problem: Saro's traditional Sicilian family did not approve of
his marrying a black American woman. However, the couple,
heartbroken but undeterred, forged on. They built a happy life in
Los Angeles, with fulfilling careers, deep friendships, and the
love of their lives: a baby girl they adopted at birth. Eventually,
they reconciled with Saro's family just as he faced a formidable
cancer that would consume all their dreams. From Scratch chronicles
three summers Tembi spends in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela, as
she begins to piece together a life without her husband in his tiny
hometown hamlet of farmers. Where once Tembi was estranged from
Saro's family, now she finds solace and nourishment-literally and
spiritually-at her mother-in-law's table. In the Sicilian
countryside, she discovers the healing gifts of simple fresh food,
the embrace of a close knit community, and timeless traditions and
wisdom that light a path forward. All along the way she reflects on
her and Saro's romance-an incredible love story that leaps off the
pages. In Sicily, it is said that every story begins with a
marriage or a death-in Tembi Locke's case, it is both. "Locke's raw
and heartfelt memoir will uplift readers suffering from the loss of
their own loved ones" (Publishers Weekly), but her story is also
about love, finding a home, and chasing flavor as an act of
remembrance. From Scratch is for anyone who has dared to reach for
big love, fought for what mattered most, and those who needed a
powerful reminder that life is...delicious.
It's two decades since Chris Stewart moved to his farm on the wrong
side of a river in the mountains of southern Spain and his daughter
Chloee is preparing to fly the nest for university. In this latest,
typically hilarious dispatch from El Valero we find Chris, now a
local literary celebrity, using his fame to help his old
sheep-shearing partner find work on a raucous road trip; cooking a
TV lunch for visiting British chef, Rick Stein; discovering the
pitfalls of Spanish public speaking; and recalling his own first
foray into the adult world of work. Yet it's at El Valero, his
beloved sheep farm, that Chris remains in his element as he, his
wife Ana and their assorted dogs, cats and sheep weather a near
calamitous flood and emerge as newly certified organic farmers. His
cash crop? The lemons and oranges he once so blithely drove over,
of course.
WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021 A
FINANCIAL TIMES, I PAPER AND STYLIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'In his
absorbing book about the lost and the gone, Peter Ross takes us
from Flanders Fields to Milltown to Kensal Green, to melancholy
islands and surprisingly lively ossuaries . . . a considered and
moving book on the timely subject of how the dead are remembered,
and how they go on working below the surface of our lives.' -
Hilary Mantel 'Ross is a wonderfully evocative writer, deftly
capturing a sense of place and history, while bringing a deep
humanity to his subject. He has written a delightful book.' - The
Guardian 'The pages burst with life and anecdote while also
examining our relationship with remembrance.' - Financial Times
(best travel books of 2020) 'Among the year's most surprising
"sleeper" successes is A Tomb with a View. In a year with so much
death, it may have initially seemed a hard sell, but the author's
humanity has instead acted as a beacon of light in the darkness.' -
The Sunday Times 'Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably
idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely
optimistic about the inevitable.' - The Observer 'Ross has written
[a] lively elegy to Britain's best burial grounds.' - Evening
Standard (*Best New Books of Autumn 2020*) 'One of the non-fiction
books of the year.' - The i paper (*2020 Best Books for Christmas*)
'Brilliant.' - Stylist (*Best Christmas books for Christmas 2020*)
'Never has a book about death been so full of life. James Joyce and
Charles Dickens would've loved it - a book that reveals much
gravity in the humour and many stories in the graveyard. It also
reveals Peter Ross to be among the best non-fiction writers in the
country.' - Andrew O'Hagan 'His stories are always a joy.' - Ian
Rankin 'I'm a card-carrying admirer of Peter Ross.' - Robert
Macfarlane 'A startling, delight-filled tour of graveyards and the
people who love them, dazzlingly told.' - Denise Mina 'A
phenomenal, lyrical, beautiful book.' - Frank Turner 'A walk
through the graveyards of Britain guided by one of the most
engaging wordsmiths willing to take you by the hand.' - The Big
Issue (*Best Books 2020*) 'A celebration of life and of love. It
confronts our universal fate but tends towards a comforting embrace
of mortality. It is also imbued with something deeply moving.' -
The Herald 'Beautifully written and strangely life affirming.' -
Norman Blake, Teenage Fanclub For readers of The Salt Path,
Mudlarking, Ghostland, Kathleen Jamie and Robert Macfarlane. Enter
a grave new world of fascination and delight as award-winning
writer Peter Ross uncovers the stories and glories of graveyards.
Who are London's outcast dead and why is David Bowie their guardian
angel? What is the remarkable truth about Phoebe Hessel, who
disguised herself as a man to fight alongside her sweetheart, and
went on to live in the reigns of five monarchs? Why is a Bristol
cemetery the perfect wedding venue for goths? All of these
sorrowful mysteries - and many more - are answered in A Tomb With A
View, a book for anyone who has ever wandered through a field of
crooked headstones and wondered about the lives and deaths of those
who lie beneath. So push open the rusting gate, push back the ivy,
and take a look inside...
Following on from her hugely popular books, My Good Life in France
and My Four Seasons in France, ex-pat Janine Marsh shares more
heart-warming and entertaining stories of her new life in rural
France. Since giving up their city jobs in London and moving to
rural France over ten years ago, Janine and husband Mark have
renovated their dream home and built a new life for themselves,
adjusting to the delights and the peculiarities of life in a small
French village. Including much-loved village characters such as Mr
and Mrs Pepperpot, Jean-Claude, Claudette and the infamous Bread
Man, in Toujours la France! Janine also introduces readers to some
new faces and funny stories, as she and Mark continue their lives
in this special part of northern France. With fantastic food,
birthday parties, rural traditions old and new - Jean-Claude
introduces snail racing to the village - and trouble with uninvited
animals, there is never a quiet moment in the Seven Valleys.
Once in a while fate sets you off in a direction you never
expected. When Barbara Haddrill was asked to be a bridesmaid at her
friend's wedding in Australia she decided to take the most
eco-friendly route possible. Giving up on the easy option - a long
haul flight that would have got her to Brisbane in 24 hours - she
set off on what was to become an incredible nine-month overland
journey. This journey changed her life and let to a worldwide
debate about air travel. Feted and attacked by journalists and
internet bloggers she became the centre of a media storm that
threatened to overshadow the whole trip. Half way through her epic
adventure, stranded in the Australian outbreak, reliant on the good
will of truckers to get her past a dangerous cyanide spill, she
fell to a low point of emotional exhaustion, leading her to
question the whole point of her journey. Can one person really make
a difference?
London, a city of constant transition, transaction, translation.
London does not exist; London is a language without a place and it
is the aphasic city; it's the mother of all languages. Lucifer Over
London is a new anthology nine narrative essays written by a host
of international prize-winning authors including Chloe Aridjis,
Viola di Grado, Xiaolu Guo, Joanna Walsh and Zinovy Zinik. First
published in Italy by Humboldt Books, Lucifer Over London is now
appearing in English for the first time. This is a version of
London as seen from the immigrants of recent migrations, of
deportations to come, from those who create London even as they
contradict it.
Craving an escape from everyday life, Gregor Ewing writes a
personal account of his 1,000 mile walk over nine weeks with collie
Meg that takes them through the central belt of Scotland, literally
following in Robert the Bruce's footsteps. From Kintyre, Arran and
Ardrossan north to Ayr through Glasgow to Fort William and Elgin,
south to Inverurie, Aberdeen and Dundee, over the Forth to
Edinburgh and Berwick upon Tweed then east through Roxburghshire to
Bannockburn, Gregor frames his expedition with historical
background that follows Robert the Bruce's journey to start a
campaign which led to his famous victory seven years later.
One life sabbatical. Two laps around the world. After being married
for a year, Bob Riel and his wife, Lisa, decided to take a chance
in life. They took time off from their careers and embarked on a
round-the-world journey, intent on having an adventure before
starting a family. Then, two-and-a-half years later, when the
children hadn't arrived and the travel bug hadn't left, they set
out on another voyage to resume their sabbatical experience. During
their two journeys, they faced the shock of a terrorist bombing in
Egypt, met a Turkish carpet dealer who trained acrobatic pigeons,
discussed life with Masai tribesmen, visited a Japanese family
whose mother thought she knew them in another lifetime, and watched
the sunrise from a boat on the Ganges River and from atop Mount
Sinai. Lyrical and humorous, "Two Laps Around the World" is a
testament to the possibilities of travel, as Bob and Lisa's
explorations also grew into a series of Life Lessons and Global
Rules that will inspire reflection. This captivating memoir is
certain to arouse wanderlust in every reader.
Anthony Trollope (1815-82) was a prolific English Victorian writer,
famous for work such as the 'Chronicles of Barsetshire', and his
satirical masterpiece The Way We Live Now. He wrote forty-seven
novels as well as several travel books and numerous short stories.
After a poor and unhappy childhood, he spent much of his life
working for the General Post Office, travelling extensively to
carry out postal surveys and writing in his spare time. He became a
senior civil servant in the organisation and was responsible for
the introduction of pillar boxes to Britain. Published in 1862,
this two-volume work is Trollope's first-hand account of North
American culture during the American Civil War. Volume 1 focuses on
Canada and the northern United States, in particular Boston, New
England and New York. It also discusses women's rights and American
education and religion.
Half boat, half aeroplane, taking off in a thrilling tumult of
spray, the flying boat was the journey of a lifetime, Imperial
Airways' legendary Empire boats flying up the Nile in nightly hops
and alighting on lakes and in harbours all the way down to South
Africa. But in 1939 the Empire boat Corsair came down in fog on a
tiny river in the Belgian Congo and, through an epic salvage
operation, gave its name to a new village in an obscure backwater
of Central Africa. The Flying Boat That Fell to Earth, re-published
with a new Afterword, tells the story of this amazing adventure,
and seeks out, from Alaska to the Bahamas, the very last places on
earth where it was still possible to catch a flying boat.
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