The 1930s were one of the most important decades in defining the history of the twentieth century. It saw the rise of right-wing nationalism, the challenge to established democracies and the full force of imperialist aggression. Cultural Encounters makes an important contribution to our understanding of the ideological and cultural forces which were active in defining notions of national identity in the 1930s. By examining the work of writers and journalists from a range of European countries who used the medium of travel writing to articulate perceptions of their own and other cultures, the book gives a comprehensive account of the complex intellectual climate of the 1930s.

This book is about the authora s amazing trip across six continents and the world economy and society. It discusses whoa s sinking and whoa s swimming, which countries are on the rise and which are collapsing, where you can make a million and where you could lose one. Every place he stopped on the trip, Rogers talked to businessmen, bankers, investors and regular people. He learned reams of information that youa d never learn from reading the financial pages of any periodical. Delivers a thrilling account of the journey of a lifetime and provides tips that would enable you to pay for a trip just like it.

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'We have lost touch with nature, rather foolishly as we are a part of it, not outside it. This will in time be over and then what? What have we learned?... The only real things in life are food and love, in that order, just like [for] our little dog Ruby... and the source of art is love. I love life.' DAVID HOCKNEY Praise for Spring Cannot be Cancelled: 'This book is not so much a celebration of spring as a springboard for ideas about art, space, time and light. It is scholarly, thoughtful and provoking' The Times 'Lavishly illustrated... Gayford is a thoughtfully attentive critic with a capacious frame of reference' Guardian 'Hockney and Gayford's exchanges are infused with their deep knowledge of the history of art ... This is a charming book, and ideal for lockdown because it teaches you to look harder at the things around you' Lynn Barber,The Spectator 'Designed to underscore [Hockney's] original message of hope, and to further explore how art can gladden and invigorate ... meanders amiably from Rembrandt, to the pleasure principle, andouillette sausages and, naturally, to spring' Daily Telegraph On turning eighty, David Hockney sought out rustic tranquillity for the first time: a place to watch the sunset and the change of the seasons; a place to keep the madness of the world at bay. So when Covid-19 and lockdown struck, it made little difference to life at La Grande Cour, the centuries-old Normandy farmhouse where Hockney set up a studio a year before, in time to paint the arrival of spring. In fact, he relished the enforced isolation as an opportunity for even greater devotion to his art. Spring Cannot be Cancelled is an uplifting manifesto that affirms art's capacity to divert and inspire. It is based on a wealth of new conversations and correspondence between Hockney and the art critic Martin Gayford, his long-time friend and collaborator. Their exchanges are illustrated by a selection of Hockney's new, unpublished Normandy iPad drawings and paintings alongside works by van Gogh, Monet, Bruegel, and others. We see how Hockney is propelled ever forward by his infectious enthusiasms and sense of wonder. A lifelong contrarian, he has been in the public eye for sixty years, yet remains entirely unconcerned by the view of critics or even history. He is utterly absorbed by his four acres of northern France and by the themes that have fascinated him for decades: light, colour, space, perception, water, trees. He has much to teach us, not only about how to see... but about how to live. With 142 illustrations in colour

'Killing It combines three popular, profound topics: where our food comes from, how to achieve purpose in life and how to find lasting love' - Sunday Times

After a career spent writing about food, Camas Davis came to a realization: she had never forced herself to grapple with how it actually got to her plate. Out of love with her life and with the world she found herself in, she knew she had to make a change.

And so she set off for France. There, in the rolling countryside of Gascony, she would learn the art of butchery, and with it the art of eating and drinking well. Surrounded by farmers, producers, cooks and food-lovers, eating some of the world's least processed and most lovingly made food, Camas discovered the very authenticity she'd longed for in her old life. She just needed to return to America, and bring what she'd learnt back with her . . .

Killing It is the story of one woman's quest to understand what it means to be human and what it means to be animal too.

"Mid-life crises don’t have to be boring and staid. Buy a mountain bike and the best adventure of your life is just over the next hill" - Quote unquote from the guy at the bike shop. What he didn’t tell you is that when you’re on a bicycle most hills turn into mountains. And he also didn’t tell you beware of riding next to guy with a long bucket list. Because he will casually ask if you want ride with him from Harare to Cape Town.

After completing the trip (unexpected experiences – both good and bad- forever skeyched in your memory), you get home exhausted but exhilarated, patting yourself on the back for having raised more than a million Rand for charity, and your friends call you lazy for choosing a downhill destination. So straight away, you look for another mountain to aim at, a pointy one this time called Kilimanjaro.

Cape Town to Kilimanjaro is about having fun, doing good, and above all doing epic. It will make you laugh and cry if you are on the receiving end of the intravenous antibiotics. Hopefully it will also inspire. All you need is a bike and a destination.

Bruce Springsteen -- 'The Boss' -- has towered over the rock world since he shot to international fame with 'Born to Run' and other classics in the early 1970s. He has always been an outspoken advocate of his home state of New Jersey, which has produced many stars of stage, screen and the musical world, and was the backdrop for the international success of award-winning The Sopranos TV series. In this remarkable narrative of travel and cultural history, Oxford historian and author James Pettifer makes his own philosophical journey as a visiting scholar at Princeton University, where Springsteen's music becomes a metaphor for the nature of New Jersey society. Set within the kaleidoscope of life in the state with its rich and complex history, it takes place in the key year of 2007 with the release of the brilliant Magic album at the height of the Bush Administration and against the background of the intensifying Iraq War. This book explores the extraordinary loyalty New Jersey inspires among its cognoscenti as well as derision from its detractors. In a place of acute social contradictions, driving energy and vast differences in wealth, the glittering intellectual world of Princeton is a short Turnpike drive away from some of the most dangerous urban areas in the United States. The Jersey Shore is also a recurrent theme, with its romantic history, sinister marshlands, vast and beautiful sand dunes, and violent winter storms. In Meet You in Atlantic City James Pettifer has written a unique cultural history that will appeal to rock fans with its literary analysis of the 2007/8 Magic album tour, the last to include founder E Street Band members Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons. It is also a guide to the central role of New Jersey in American history generally, where decisive battles in the War of Independence were fought in and near Princeton, and where more recently the influence of crime and gambling on the social and economic forces that led to the Trump presidency was already in evidence.

Year after year the family returns to the lake. The children, barefoot and free, explore its sun-drenched wilderness... The summer Bruce turns ten seems, at first, like any other: swimming out to the raft, watching the gulls, frogs and herons, catching crayfish. But just when he thinks that life is perfect, everything begins to change, and over the course of two months both the harshness of the adult world and the patterns of the natural reveal themselves.Barefoot at the Lake is not only a beautifully written boy's-eye view of the animals, humans and landscape of his youth, it is also delightfully funny, with a moving wisdom at its heart.

Taken for Wonder focuses on nineteenth century travelogues authored by Iranians in Europe and argues for a methodological shift from the study of travel to that of writing travel. This shift allows for a different interpretive framework that moves away from an over-emphasis on the destinations of travel (particularly in cases where the destination, like Europe, signifies larger meanings such as modernity) and which historicizes the travelogue itself as a rhetorical text in the service of its origin's concerns and developments. Within this framework, this book demonstrates the ways in which travel writings to Europe were used to position Qajar Iran (1917-1925) within a global context, i.e. narration of travel to Europe was also narrating the power of the Qajar court even when political events were tipped against it; and relatedly, how both travel to Europe and also translations of travel narratives into Persian should be included in our understanding of the importance of geography and mapping to the Qajars, especially during the latter half of the nineteenth century. In this process, it also re-examines the notion that Iranian modernity was the chief outcome of Iranians travelling in and writing about Europe.

'Moments in Hell' reveals the conflicting loyalties of the war correspondent, caught between political ideologies and personal suffering, and provides enlightening background to recent conflicts.

Join Robert Minhinnick is on a journey across a radioactive planet. Researching the use of depleted uranium in modern weapons, the writer follows a deadly trail from the uranium mines of the USA into Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Here, he is led into the temples of a deserted Babylon and to what his guides insist is the site of the Tower of Babel, and to the horrors of Iraqi society in the years after the first Gulf War. Interspersed with these 'radioactive writings', which seem part documentary, part dream, are essays on a host of different places. Minhinnick pursues Dante through Florence, sees the world through the eyes of Mr Ogmore from 'Under Milk Wood', and searches for a poem given to him by a murdered schoolgirl. The contemporary world is simultaneously familiar and bizarre, yet when Minhinnick is 'back' in his native Wales, its coastline and valleys are as extraordinary as anything encountered in a Babel that might be myth or alarmingly real.

Bruce Springsteen -- 'The Boss' -- has towered over the rock world since he shot to international fame with 'Born to Run' and other classics in the early 1970s. He has always been an outspoken advocate of his home state of New Jersey, which has produced many stars of stage, screen and the musical world, and was the backdrop for the international success of award-winning The Sopranos TV series. In this remarkable narrative of travel and cultural history, Oxford historian and author James Pettifer makes his own philosophical journey as a visiting scholar at Princeton University, where Springsteen's music becomes a metaphor for the nature of New Jersey society. Set within the kaleidoscope of life in the state with its rich and complex history, it takes place in the key year of 2007 with the release of the brilliant Magic album at the height of the Bush Administration and against the background of the intensifying Iraq War. This book explores the extraordinary loyalty New Jersey inspires among its cognoscenti as well as derision from its detractors. In a place of acute social contradictions, driving energy and vast differences in wealth, the glittering intellectual world of Princeton is a short Turnpike drive away from some of the most dangerous urban areas in the United States. The Jersey Shore is also a recurrent theme, with its romantic history, sinister marshlands, vast and beautiful sand dunes, and violent winter storms. In Meet You in Atlantic City James Pettifer has written a unique cultural history that will appeal to rock fans with its literary analysis of the 2007/8 Magic album tour, the last to include founder E Street Band members Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons. It is also a guide to the central role of New Jersey in American history generally, where decisive battles in the War of Independence were fought in and near Princeton, and where more recently the influence of crime and gambling on the social and economic forces that led to the Trump presidency was already in evidence.

In Russia's Far East sits the wild Ussuri Kray, a region known for its remote highlands and rugged mountain passes where tigers and bears roam the cliffs, and salmon and lenok navigate the rivers. In this collection of travel writing by famed Russian explorer and naturalist Vladimir K. Arsenyev (1872-1930), readers are shuttled back to the turn of the 20th century when the Russian Empire was reeling from its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and vulnerable to its Far Eastern neighbors. What began as an expedition to survey the region's infrastructure for the Russian military turned into an adventure through a territory rich in ethnic and ecological diversity. Encountering the disappearing indigenous cultures of the Nanai and Udege, engaging the help of Korean farmers and Chinese hunters, and witnessing the beginning of indomitable Russian settlement, Arsenyev documents the lives and customs of the region's inhabitants and their surroundings. Originally written as "a popular scientific description of the Kray," this unabridged edition includes photographs largely unseen for nearly a century and is annotated by Jonathan C. Slaght, a biologist working in the same forests Arsenyev explored. Across the Ussuri Kray is a classic of northeast Asian cultural and natural history.

Award winning author Reg Egan's third book, Of Rivers, Baguettes and Billabongs, is an insightful look at the history and lives affected by two rivers in two different continents: the Darling in Australia and the Dordogne in France. Egan cleverly draws parallels between the two seemingly unrelated landscapes, exploring the people and their culture. He retraces the travels of our most loved literary figures, including Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson, questioning: How much is our culture affected by our landscape? Egan's love of all things French is only equal to his love of his homeland and, in Of Rivers, Baguettes and Billabongs, Egan proves it is possible for a man to love and be true to two countries in different hemispheres. Of Rivers, Baguettes and Billabongs will appeal to anyone interested in food, history, literature, poetry, and travel. Don't be surprised if this becomes a baby boomer travel guide as inspired readers take to retracing Egan's fascinating exploration of what shapes us.

China has become one of the largest study and teach-abroad, travel, and business destinations in the world. Yet few books offer a diversity of perspectives and locales for Westerners considering the leap. This unique collection of letters offers a rarely seen, intimate, and refreshingly honest view of living and working in China. Here, ordinary people recent college graduates, teachers, professors, engineers, lawyers, computer whizzes, and parents recount their experiences in venues ranging from classrooms to marketplaces to holy mountains. The writers are genuine participants in the daily life of their adopted country, and woven throughout their correspondence is the compelling theme of outsiders coping in a culture that is vastly foreign to them and the underlying love-hate struggle it engenders. We follow their initial highs; the shift to general discomfort and then to full-blown culture shock; and slowly, the return of a sense of balance, identity, and normalcy; and finally, the decision to return home or stay. Written in a down-to-earth, personal, often humorous, always authentic style, these tales of trials, successes, and failures offer invaluable insight into a country that remains endlessly fascinating.

Critically acclaimed author Kevin Turner (Bonjour! Is This Italy? A Hapless Biker's Guide to Europe) heads off on another ill-thought out adventure, aiming his heavily laden Kawasaki north towards the towering waterfalls of Norway, before heading east on a long and treacherous journey to Moscow. This fascinating adventure - part sprint, part marathon - charts the perils, pitfalls and thrills of a 6000 mile solo motorcycle journey across Europe, Scandinavia and into Asia. The author's observations and anecdotes transform this motorcycle guidebook into a laugh-a-minute page turner, which inspires and entertains in equal measure.

The idea of a journey without companions is too daunting for most travelers. Not so the women of this collection. These contemporary pioneers savor the ultimate freedom of solo travel. Marybeth Bond discovers the dubious pleasures of desert camel-riding when she decides to follow an ancient Indian trading route. Faith Adiele, a black Buddhist nun, enters a deserted train station at 3:00 a.m. in a Thai village controlled by armed bandits. Ena Singh negotiates with Russian police to visit the blue-domed city of Samarkand. In A Woman Alone, these women and others tell their funny, thrilling, occasionally terrifying, ultimately transformative stories of navigating some of the most unusual destinations on the globe.

A heart-rending account of a Spanish village torn apart by the coming of the Civil War - A rare humanist and female voice on a war which has otherwise been colonised by political commentary and male voices. A balance to the cruelty of Orwell's Homage to Catalonia - Woolsey, a poet, was married to Gerald Brenan, one of the Bloomsbury set who with the publication of South from Grenada became the English authority on Spain - New afterword by Michael Jacobs, author of The Factory of Light and the current authority on Andalucia - Perfect backlist tie-in to the current wave of highly popular Spanish travel writing

Welcome to New Auburn, Wisconsin, where the local vigilante is a farmer's wife armed with a pistol and a Bible, the most senior member of the volunteer fire department is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives (both of whom work at the only gas station in town), and the back roads are haunted by the ghosts of children and farmers. Against a backdrop of fires and tangled wrecks, bar fights and smelt feeds, "Population: 485" is a comic and sometimes heartbreaking true tale leavened with quieter meditations on an overlooked America.

This is an account of an American woman's recent travels through North Korea. Throughout her journey, she continually witnessed rundown villages, starving children with hollow eyes, haggard women crawling in the fields for single grains of rice and civilians unloading food aid at the point of bayonets. The author predicts that North Korea's economic reform, which has just started, will progress slowly, but that the country will one day be open to the outside world. It may, however, take another twenty years for this reform to be complete. Small, reluctant changes have already happened though, and this book expresses optimism that one day the North Korean people will end their isolation and join the world's mainstream.

Two kittens were abandoned in a park. The women who found them were about to head off on a mountain trek and the animal shelter was closed. The cats seemed game so their rescuers brought Bolt and Keel (so named) along for the adventure. It was the first of many. Kayleen VanderRee, an avid photographer, chronicled their trips on Instagram and soon the cats' adventures went viral. Bolt and Keel invites readers to join the cats (and their humans) on a journey through British Columbia's forests, mountains and rivers. With the cats sitting in the bow of a canoe, perched on a shoulder or navigating snowy trails, these images and charming captions capture an exploration of the natural world that any cat-and any cat lover or adventure seeker-would envy.

In writings about travel, the Balkans appear most often as a place traveled to. Western accounts of the Balkans revel in the different and the exotic, the violent and the primitive - traits that serve (according to many commentators) as a foil to self-congratulatory definitions of the West as modern, progressive, and rational. However, the Balkans have also long been traveled from. The region's writers have offered accounts of their travels in the West and elsewhere, saying something in the process about themselves and their place in the world. The analyses presented here, ranging from those of 16th-century Greek humanists to 19th-century Romanian reformers to 20th-century writers, socialists and men-of-the-world, suggest that travelers from the region have also created their own identities through their encounters with Europe. Consequently, this book challenges assumptions of Western discursive hegemony, while at the same time exploring Balkan 'Occidentalisms.'

Tom Weir is one of Scotland's best-known and best-loved figures, a world traveller who brings a tireless and charming enthusiasm to the promotion of Scotland's natural heritage.

Jon McConal, longtime columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, takes readers on a trip back through 20 years of writing about Texasits history, people, and unusual places. The native Texan writes about a wide variety of subjects including ghosts, cemetaries, celebrations, pets, veterans, and personal stories.