Filled with fascinating observations and anecdotes about the nature of contemporary Spain, this intriguing account tells the story of Tony Kevin, an overweight 63-year-old former diplomat who set off on an eight-week trek across the country armed only with a small rucksack and a staff. Rich with the history, politics, and culture of the region, this travel narrative follows two of the many pilgrim trails that crisscross Spain and Portugal and lead to the cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela, Europe's most famous center of pilgrimage. By retelling Kevin's journey, it delves into what drives tens of thousands of people of all nationalities and creeds to make long, exhausting walks across the cold mountains and hot tablelands of Spain. Beautifully capturing the flavor of both the past and present experiences of walking the "camino," this chronicle depicts the concept of pilgrimage as not only having the potential to unlock hidden memory and conscience but also as a profound meditation on the nature of modern life. In addition to cultural and spiritual discussions, this diverse exploration also offers practical advice for would-be pilgrims--from packing and training to walking techniques and navigation. By addressing all of these aspects of the pilgrimage, this is the perfect book for religious pilgrims and armchair travelers alike.

So this is surfing in Britain, I told myself as I grumpily walked up a slope of wet rocks and wispy beach grass, trying to keep a foothold as rain and wind both tried their utmost to send me skidding back down to the freezing beach below. Tom Anderson has always loved surfing - anywhere except the UK. But a chance encounter leads him to a series of adventures on home surf... As he visits the popular haunts and secret gems of British surfing he meets the Christians who pray for waves (and get them), loses a competition to a non-existent surfer, is nearly drowned in the River Severn and has a watery encounter with a pedigree sheep. All this rekindles his love affair with the freezing fun that is surfing the North Atlantic.

Changing the narrative of mountaineering books, Sherpa focuses on the people who live and work on the roof of the world. Amid all the foreign adventurers that throng to Nepal to scale the world's highest peaks there exists a small community of mountain people at the foothills of Himalayas. Sherpa tells their story. It's the story of endeavour and survival at the roof of the world. It dives into their culture and tells of their existence at the edge of life and death. Written by Ankit Babu Adhikari - a writer, social science researcher and musician - and Pradeep Bashyal - a journalist with the BBC based in Nepal - Sherpa traces their story pre- and post-mountaineering revolution, their evolution as climbing crusaders with previously unpublished stories from the most notable and incredible Sherpas of the last 50 years. This is the story of the Sherpas.

This book covers the two most famous expeditions of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration: Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition of 1910-12 and Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition of 1914-16. It focuses not only on the two expeditions, but also on the ways in which the reputations of the men who led them have evolved over the course of the last century. For decades after Scott's tragic death on the return journey from the South Pole - to which he had been beaten by only five weeks - he was regarded as a saint-like figure with an unassailable reputation born from his heroic martyrdom in the frozen wastes of the Antarctic.In recent years, however, Scott has attracted some of the most intense criticism any explorer has ever received. Shackleton's reputation, meanwhile, has followed a reverse trajectory. Although his achievements were always appreciated, they were never celebrated with nearly the same degree of adulation that traditionally surrounded Scott. But in the final decades of the twentieth century Shackleton has come to be regarded as the beau ideal of the heroic explorer, a man capable of providing leadership lessons not only for other explorers but also for corporate executives and politicians.Today, Scott and Shackleton therefore occupy very different places in the polar pantheon than they once did. This change has come about with little new information about either man or the expeditions they led coming to light. Their actions and personalities, their virtues and flaws, have not changed. How, when and why attitudes towards Scott and Shackleton have altered over the course of the twentieth century forms the subject of this book. It explores how the evolution of their reputations has far more to do with broader cultural changes in Britain and the United States.

The pioneering autobiographical story of a British Zionist in her fifties who moves to Israel and chooses to live among 25,000 Muslims in the all-Arab Israeli town of Tamra, a few miles from Nazareth. Susan Nathan's revelatory book about her new life across the ethnic divide in Israel is already creating international interest. At a time when Middle Eastern politics (in many ways central to the current world disorder) have become mired in endless tit-for-tat killings, Susan Nathan is showing - by her own daily example - that it is perfectly possible for Jews and Arabs to live peacefully together in a single community, recognising their common humanity. The author's familiarity with the former injustices of apartheid South Africa enables her to draw telling comparisons with the state of Israel. The increasing segregation of, and discrimintation against, the million-strong Arabic population of Israel is something she witnesses at first hand, but in describing her experiences in Tamra she is as observant of Arab frailties as of Jewish oppression. Written with warmth, compassion and humour, 'The Other Side of Israel' is one courageous woman's positive life-enhancing response to a situation in which entrenched attitudes lead only to more violence and bloodshed.

Because Japan , is a truly unabashed account of the less publicised side of life in Tokyo for a 'foreigner'. The book offers a witty, vivid and honest insight into the daily life of a British Expat over the course of two years. The author narrates stories taken from his "Journal of Firsts" which depict many new events including his first struggle, first mental challenge, and first exciting moment he faced living in this strange and fascinating new world. Through the use of newly learned Japanese phrases whilst travelling the country, themes of soul-searching, overcoming mental health obstacles, sexual orientation, racial discrimination, and culture shock are explored with honesty and candour. With the addition of a train-based mini series of hilarious encounters, Because Japan offers a behind the scenes insight into the 'real' Japan.

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

"An extraordinary tale of derring-do told in a mesmerising new book via fascinating archive pictures - and worthy of a Hollywood movie too." - Daily Mail In the late 19th century, the Norwegian Artic explorer Fridtjof Nansen undertook a pioneering expedition: he wanted to reach the North Pole with the specially designed ship Fram. The Nansen Photographs recounts this expedition, from the launch in 1890 through to the end of Nansen's international lecture tour in 1897, using original photographs alongside personal diary entries from Nansen and seven of his crew members. Together, they illustrate in a poignant and sometimes disconcerting way how the expedition members went about their daily lives and conducted their research, the conflicts they faced, and how they ultimately brought their daring undertaking to its successful conclusion. This book brings new life to previously known facts and introduces the reader to hundreds of previously unknown photographs from the expedition. The large format of the book brings the smaller details in the photographs to the forefront, providing new insight into the work and life on board, the equipment and the clothing. Opposing diary entries from Nansen and the men about the same situations show that life on board was not always easy and tell a gripping story of survival and the human condition. Nansen's lack of empathy and practical skills caused frustration among the men, and several of them resorted to fists to sort out their differences, but nonetheless they all pulled through and set a new standard for arctic expeditions to come. When Nansen leaves the ship for his legendary 18 month journey with Hjalmar Johansen towards the North Pole, we follow both Nansen and Johansen and the crew left on board through their photographs and diaries. The return to Norway and the spectacular celebration is told in detail through photographs, newspaper reports, speeches, menus and ephemera. This stunning 712-page book comes with an illustrated dustjacket and contains 850 photographs and illustrations, 35 ship drawings and 25 maps.

To travel the Silk Road, the greatest land route on earth, is to trace the passage not only of trade and armies but also of ideas, religions, and inventions. Making his way by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart, and camel, Colin Thubron covered some seven thousand miles in eight months--out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey--and explored an ancient world in modern ferment.

Every encounter begins with a greeting. Be it a quick `Hello!' or the somewhat longer and gracious `Sula manchwanta galunga omugobe!' shaking hands or shaking, well, rather more private parts of our anatomy, we have been doing it many times daily for thousands of years. It should be the most straightforward thing in the world, but this apparently simple act is fraught with complications, leading to awkward misunderstandings and occasionally even outright violence. In the illuminating and entertaining One Kiss or Two? Andy Scott goes down the rabbit hole to take a closer look at what greetings are all about. In looking at how they have developed, he discovers a kaleidoscopic world of etiquette, body-language, evolution, neuroscience, anthropology and history. Through in-depth research and his personal experiences, and with the help of experts, Scott takes us on a captivating journey through a subject far richer than we might have expected.

'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.