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Books > Sport & Leisure > Travel & holiday > Travel writing
Die laaste reis is Karel Schoeman se “reisbriewe” ? mymeringe,
gedagtes en herinneringe van sy laaste drie kort reise na Lesotho
saam met Jemina Meko en Mamohau Lekula wat hom die afgelope nege
jaar versorg het. Dit behels drie kort verslae oor sy besoeke in
die maand voor sy dood en is in die vorm van e-posse aan ’n paar
“persoonlike korrespondente” gestuur. Vanselfsprekend staan die
tema van afskeid sentraal in die briewe.
Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted
self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from
America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the
crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a
beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to
investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in
Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in
the world? Do citizens of Qatar, awash in petrodollars, find joy in
all that cash? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative
to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North
Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights,
Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering
travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier
destinations and dispositions.
**NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING ROBERT PATTINSON, CHARLIE HUNNAM AND
SIENNA MILLER** 'A riveting, exciting and thoroughly compelling
tale of adventure'JOHN GRISHAM The story of Colonel Percy Harrison
Fawcett, the inspiration behind Conan Doyle's The Lost World
Fawcett was among the last of a legendary breed of British
explorers. For years he explored the Amazon and came to believe
that its jungle concealed a large, complex civilization, like El
Dorado. Obsessed with its discovery, he christened it the City of
Z. In 1925, Fawcett headed into the wilderness with his son Jack,
vowing to make history. They vanished without a trace. For the next
eighty years, hordes of explorers plunged into the jungle, trying
to find evidence of Fawcett's party or Z. Some died from disease
and starvation; others simply disappeared. In this spellbinding
true tale of lethal obsession, David Grann retraces the footsteps
of Fawcett and his followers as he unravels one of the greatest
mysteries of exploration. 'A wonderful story of a lost age of
heroic exploration' Sunday Times 'Marvellous ... An engrossing book
whose protagonist could out-think Indiana Jones' Daily Telegraph
'The best story in the world, told perfectly' Evening Standard 'A
fascinating and brilliant book' Malcolm Gladwell
In 2016, Sandy Winterbottom embarked on an epic six-week tall-ship
voyage from Uruguay to Antarctica. At the mid-way stop in South
Georgia, her pristine image of the Antarctic was shattered when she
discovered the dark legacy of twentieth century industrial-scale
whaling. Enraged by what she found, she was quick to blame the men
who undertook this wholescale slaughter, but then she stumbled upon
the grave of an eighteen-year-old whaler from Edinburgh who she
could not allow to bear the brunt of blame. There are two sides to
every story. The Two-Headed Whale vividly brings to life the
spectacular scenery and wildlife of the vast Southern Oceans, set
alongside the true-life story of Anthony Ford, the boy in the
grave, as he sailed the same seas and toiled in an industry where
profits outranked human life. In this compelling account, Sandy
challenges our preconceptions of the Antarctic, weaving in themes
of colonialism, capitalism and its link to both environmental and
human exploitation. Drawing together threads of nature and travel
writing with an unflinching narrative of life onboard a whaling
factory ship and the legacy it left behind, The Two-Headed Whale
leaves us questioning our troubled relationship with the
extraordinary abundance of this planet.
In 1982, at the age of just twenty-three and halfway through her
architecture studies, Elspeth Beard left her family and friends in
London and set off on a 35,000-mile solo adventure around the world
on her 1974 BMW R60/6. Reeling from a recent breakup and with only
limited savings from her pub job, a tent, a few clothes and some
tools, all packed on the back of her bike, she was determined to
prove herself. She had ridden bikes since her teens and was well
travelled. But nothing could prepare her for what lay ahead. When
she returned to London nearly two and a half years later she was
stones lighter and decades wiser. She'd ridden through unforgiving
landscapes and countries ravaged by war, witnessed civil uprisings
that forced her to fake documents, and fended off sexual attacks,
biker gangs and corrupt police convinced she was trafficking drugs.
She'd survived life-threatening illnesses, personal loss and brutal
accidents that had left permanent scars and a black hole in her
memory. And she'd fallen in love with two very different men. In an
age before email, the internet, mobile phones, satnavs and, in some
parts of the world, readily available and reliable maps, Elspeth
achieved something that would still seem remarkable today. Told
with honesty and wit, this is the extraordinary and moving story of
a unique and life-changing adventure.
Samestellers Corlia Fourie en Annelize van Rooyen bring vermaaklike
reisstories deur 46 skrywers byeen, o.a. Marita van der Vyver, Kirby
van der Merwe, Sophia Kapp, Jacques Pauw, Irma Joubert, Julian Jansen,
C. Johan Bakkes, Bettina Wyngaard en Frederik de Jager.
Die skrywers vertel van verrassende gebeure tydens reise, met snaakse,
bittersoet of heuglike gevolge. Maar altyd is die ervaringe verrykend.
Reis saam van Fraserburg tot Timboektoe; Arizona tot Zanzibar; en nog
baie ander plekke!
"As I sat on the side of Hamnafield on Foula in the Shetland
Islands, looking down at my 'enormous' 38-foot ferry stowed in its
cradle on the quay in Ham Voe, over 1,000 feet below me, I
reflected on a moderately successful career to date, and wondered
how on Earth I had ended up driving what was, in effect, a floating
dust cart" After 42 years at or connected with the sea, Jeremy
Walker ended up on the Shetland Island of Foula commanding and
running a small ferry to the mainland of Shetland. Throughout the
course of his career, firstly as a seagoing deck officer with a
large, but now defunct, British shipping company, then as a
Hovercraft Commander for four years, returning to sea for a brief
period as Master of two small coastal tankers and then for the
majority of his career as a Pilot on the River Humber, he
encountered many amusing situations. In this book he attempts to
relate these stories and to illustrate the lighter side of what was
a very difficult, responsible and, at times, incredibly stressful
job. And little did he know that his career was far from over and
new opportunities and challenges would take him on for a further 13
years to eventual retirement.
"As I sat on the side of Hamnafield on Foula in the Shetland
Islands, looking down at my 'enormous' 38-foot ferry stowed in its
cradle on the quay in Ham Voe, over 1,000 feet below me, I
reflected on a moderately successful career to date, and wondered
how on Earth I had ended up driving what was, in effect, a floating
dust cart" After 42 years at or connected with the sea, Jeremy
Walker ended up on the Shetland Island of Foula commanding and
running a small ferry to the mainland of Shetland. Throughout the
course of his career, firstly as a seagoing deck officer with a
large, but now defunct, British shipping company, then as a
Hovercraft Commander for four years, returning to sea for a brief
period as Master of two small coastal tankers and then for the
majority of his career as a Pilot on the River Humber, he
encountered many amusing situations. In this book he attempts to
relate these stories and to illustrate the lighter side of what was
a very difficult, responsible and, at times, incredibly stressful
job. And little did he know that his career was far from over and
new opportunities and challenges would take him on for a further 13
years to eventual retirement.
"The art of travelling is only a branch of the art of thinking,"
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote in 1790 in a review of a travel narrative
set in Ireland. A Short Residence was her own travel memoir, and
became the work that Wollstonecraft most admired in her own
lifetime. The text narrates Wollstonecraft's journey through
Scandinavia, accompanied by her young daughter; the letters are
addressed to an unnamed lover. Passionate and personal, the letters
also explore the comparative political and social systems of
Europe. The result is a travel book that is both as much a work of
political thought as Wollstonecraft's more well-known treatises,
and an innovative and influential work in the genre. This Broadview
Edition provides a helpful introduction and extensive appendices
that contextualise this remarkable text in relation to a number of
key political and aesthetic debates.
WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD Once we thought monsters
lived there. In the Enlightenment we scaled them to commune with
the sublime. Soon, we were racing to conquer their summits in the
name of national pride. In this ground-breaking, classic work,
Robert Macfarlane takes us up into the mountains: to experience
their shattering beauty, the fear and risk of adventure, and to
explore the strange impulses that have for centuries lead us to the
world's highest places.
Isobel Wylie Hutchison was many things: a botanist, traveller, poet
and artist. She travelled solo throughout the arctic collecting
plant samples, wrote and published extensive volumes of essays and
poetry, and was - in short - one of the most remarkable Scottish
figures of her time. However, since her death in 1982 her legacy
has been forgotten compared with her male counterparts. Now Isobel
can speak for herself again. While better known for her solo
journeys across the Arctic, these essays detail Isobel's journeys
across Scotland, including visits to Skye, John O' Groats and the
various literary shrines across the country. Written with
characteristic wit and a keen interest in both science and myth and
folklore, the essays serve as important cultural markers not just
of Scotland as it was and has developed, but of a woman's
experience of travelling alone and a testament to the importance of
cultural connection, exploration and communication.
Between soaring mountains, across arid deserts, parched plains and
valleys of fruit orchards and olive groves, down glittering
coastlines and along viaducts towering above plunging ravines...
there is no better way to see Spain than by train. Rail enthusiast
Tom Chesshyre, author of Slow Trains to Venice, Ticket to Ride and
Tales from the Fast Trains, hits the tracks once again to take in
the country through carriage windows on a series of clattering
rides beyond the popular image of "holiday Spain" (although he
stops by in Benidorm and Torremolinos too). From hidden spots in
Catalonia, through the plains of Aragon and across the north coast
to Santiago de Compostela, Chesshyre continues his journey via
Madrid, the wilds of Extremadura, dusty mining towns, the
cathedrals and palaces of Valencia and Granada, and finally to
Seville, Andalusia's beguiling (and hot) capital. Encounters?
Plenty. Mishaps? A lot. Happy Spanish days? All the way.
This collection On Travel is clever, funny, provoking and
confrontational by turn. In a pyrotechnic display of cracking one-
liners, cynical word play and comic observation, it mines three
thousand years of wit and wisdom: from Martha Gellhorn to Confucius
and from Pliny to Paul Theroux.
Expectation meets Julie and Julia, The Yellow Kitchen is a
brilliant exploration of food, belonging and friendship. London,
2019. A yellow kitchen stands as a metaphor for the lifelong
friendship between three women: Claude, the baker, goal-orientated
Sophie and political Giulia. They chase love and careers; dreaming
and consuming in the city, but always returning to the yellow
kitchen to share a meal. That is, until a trip to Lisbon unravels
unexplored desires between Claude and Sophie. Having sex is one
thing, waking up the day after is the beginning of something new.
Exploring the complexities of female friendship, The Yellow Kitchen
is a hymn to the last year of London as we knew it and a
celebration of the culture, the food and the rhythms we live by.
Praise for The Yellow Kitchen: 'Rich and thoroughly intoxicating,
The Yellow Kitchen is a sensual journey into friendship, food and
female sexuality, full of complex, fascinating characters and bold
ideas. I loved it' Rosie Walsh 'A heady mix of politics,
friendship, sex and food, poignant, provocative and utterly
distinctive' Paula Hawkins 'An exquisite novel - beautifully
rendered, powerfully told, and so deeply felt. I urge you to read
this novel - you will never forget it' Lucia Osborne-Crowley
'Mixing female friendship, romance, loss, redemption, and memorable
meals, The Yellow Kitchen is the perfect recipe for a flavorful
literary feast. With subtle dashes of wit and generous sprinklings
of honesty, Margaux Vialleron has crafted a brave and tender tale'
Kim Fay, author of Love & Saffron 'The Yellow Kitchen is so
warm and convivial in atmosphere, and its discussion of the
politics of the UK and their impact very poignant. It portrayed
beautifully the sense of adventure of being a certain age, with its
rush and richness and emotional confusion, and I found it such a
satisfying read' Emily Itami, author of Fault Lines
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