Artist and photographer Clare Newton rediscovers and records the faint remnants of old London, only made visible when lit by a fleeting low winter's sun. These images are the conduits through time, analysing the sometimes uncomfortable balance between a struggling heritage to exist and the insatiable appetite of modern regeneration. But deep inside East London also lies a Victorian era. The mother of inventions, which not only stimulated change across the world then but even now their lingering artefacts and sayings effect us even in today's hi-tech social world. Strange but true stories that explain how and where artefacts have come from. Including the roots of 'Sarcasm' or the colour purple, both invented in the east end. Or how Shoreditch got its name. This book arose after many previous years exploration for a large exhibition displayed before the Olympics in London, called Riches Uncovered. The facts of which will be made into a series of photographic studies for all to enjoy and smile over. About Clare Newton In 2001 Clare Newton was awarded the British Female Inventor of the Year, and she has received 5 international awards for innovation. Born in London, her creative talents were expressed at a young age, first painting her bedroom to building wooden aeroplanes. But when she was given her first camera, a little Minolta, at the age of 14, it inspired her to build a dark room in the roof of her parents' house, where she taught herself how to shoot and develop photographs, with neighbours encouraging her with small commissions. She took a degree in art and design in East London and worked as a Graphic & Interior Designer for many years. Photography really took off for her when the Olympics came to London. She made her first large photographic installation in 2009, 'Riches Uncovered', a collection of photographic montages to explain and document East London's disappearing heritage. After this first project she went on to produce numerous extraordinary community art projects, involving hundreds of children and adults. The resulting photographic montages were displayed outdoors in unexpected public places, encouraging all to take part, share and learn about local heritage. Clare believes that it is through the passion of creating participatory public projects, that art can positively affect people in different and personal ways, even drawing communities together. Clare's next endeavour was to create Jump4London - the World's Longest Photograph, with 5,000 people taking part, who appeared to jump simultaneously. Two meters high and one kilometre in length, it was printed on 2.5 tons of specialist photographic material, and documented an important piece of London's history as people celebrated the 2012 Olympic Games. It made a Double Guinness World Record as part of the Cultural Olympiad's World Record London.

"This is a book ripped from the headlines, from Black Lives Matter to recently thriving downtowns stripped of office workers and service workers. Those catching the brunt of it all, those with the steepest hills to climb, may have been fucked at birth. But for everyone, as Maharidge observes, the feeling of safety is folly. A sharp wake-up call to heed the new Depression and to recognize the humanity of those hit hardest." -Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW "Dale Maharidge takes us coast to coast in 2020, down highways along which he first reported decades ago. His honed class awareness-unrivaled among contemporary journalists-reveals that today's confluent health, economic and social crises are the logical conclusion to generations of unvalidated, untreated despair in a wealthy nation. Forget hollow commentary from detached television news studios in New York City. Fucked at Birth is the truth." -Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Dale Maharidge has spent his career documenting the downward spiral of the American working class. Poverty is both reality and destiny for increasing numbers of people in the 2020s and, as Maharidge discovers spray-painted inside an abandoned gas station in the California desert, it is a fate often handed down from birth. Motivated by this haunting phrase-"Fucked at Birth"-Maharidge explores the realities of being poor in America in the coming decade, as pandemic, economic crisis and social revolution up-end the country. Part raw memoir, part dogged, investigative journalism, Fucked At Birth channels the history of poverty in America to help inform the voices Maharidge encounters daily. In an unprecedented time of social activism amid economic crisis, when voices everywhere are rising up for change, Maharidge's journey channels the spirits of George Orwell and James Agee, raising questions about class, privilege, and the very concept of "upward mobility," while serving as a final call to action. From Sacramento to Denver, Youngstown to New York City, Fucked At Birth dares readers to see themselves in those suffering most, and to finally-after decades of refusal-recalibrate what we are going to do about it.

This unique book is the first to bring together a group of influential China experts to reflect on their cultural and social encounters while travelling and living in the People's Republic. Filling an important gap, it allows scholars, journalists, and businesspeople to reflect on their personal memories of China. Private experiences-vivid and often entirely unanticipated-often teach more about how a society actually works than a planned course of study can. Such experiences can also expose the sometimes naive misconceptions visitors often bring with them to China. China experts relate stories that are always interesting but also more: they tell not just anecdotes but telling anecdotes. Why are there no campus maps? (Because, if you don't know where you're going and why, you don't need to be here.) What's the allure of Mickey Mouse? (He could break all sorts of rules and get away with it.) What's a sworn brother in China? (Somebody who fights for your honor even when you're not looking.) Covering nearly a half-century from 1971 to the present, these stories open a vivid window on a rapidly evolving China and on the zigzag learning curve of the China trippers themselves.

One summer, writer and musician, Jasper Winn set himself an extraordinary task. He would kayak the whole way round Ireland - a thousand miles - camping on remote headlands and islands, carousing in bars and paddling clockwise until he got back where he started. But in the worst Irish summer in living memory the pleasures of idling among seals, fulmars and fishing boats soon gave way to heroic struggles through storm-tossed seas ... and lock-ins playing music in coastal pubs. Circling the country where he grew up, Jasper reflects on life at the very fringes of Ireland, the nature and lore of its seas, and his own eccentric upbringing - sprung from school at age ten and left free to explore the countryside and its traditional life. Charming, quietly epic, and with an irresistible undertow of wit, Paddle is a low-tech adventure that captures the sheer joy of a misty morning on Ireland's coast. As the sun breaks through, you'll be longing to set off too.

The second volume of exuberant, lively letters from legendary travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor

The first collection of letters from Patrick Leigh Fermor, Dashing for the Post, delighted critics and public alike. This second volume, More Dashing, presents a further selection of letters that exude a zest for life and adventure characteristic of the man known to all as 'Paddy'.

Paddy's exuberant letters contain glimpses of the great and the good: a chance conversation with the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, when Paddy opens the wrong door, or a glass of ouzo under the pine trees with Harold Macmillan. They describe encounters with such varied figures as Jackie Onassis, Camilla Parker-Bowles, Oswald Mosley and Peter Mandelson, while also relating adventures with the humble: a 'pick-nick' with the stonemasons at Kardamyli, or a drunken celebration in the Cretan mountains with his old comrades from the Resistance, most of them simple shepherds and goatherds. Paddy was at ease in any company - unfailingly charming, boyish, gentle and fun.

Patrick Leigh Fermor has long been recognised as one of the greatest travel writers of his time. Nowhere is his restless curiosity and delight in language more dazzlingly displayed than in his letters, skilfully edited in this collection by Adam Sisman.

Toe hy 21 jaar gelede vir die eerste keer in Parys aankom, sou die kunstenaar Louis Jansen van Vuuren hom nooit kon indink dat hy eendag ’n château in die Franse platteland sou besit nie.

In Amper Frans vertel hy op skreesnaakse wyse hoe hy alles wat Frans is ontdek en beproef het – daar is neusoptrekkerige kelners, statige hertoginne, etlike botsings met die berugte Franse burokrasie en natuurlike talle faux pas in sy gebrekkige Frans. Om die vervalle château saam met sy lewensmaat, Hardy Olivier, in ’n boetiekhotel te omskep het groot geduld en uithouvermoë geverg. Talle lesse is op die harde manier geleer. Een daarvan is dat vier verwarmers geensins genoeg is om ’n hele château te verhit nie en dit sal jou dae lank sonder elektrisiteit laat.

Louis vertel ook van kaskenades met hulle gaste en hul eie avonture soos hulle die land platry agter vlooimarkte en avontuur aan. Hy vermeng stories oor hul lewe in Frankryk met brokkies geskiedenis en fassinerende inligting oor eg Franse tradisies.

Dit is ’n moet vir Frankofiele!

"Fresh and diverting, informative and topical without being slight or ephemeral. This supremely well-edited combination of current affairs, journalism, commentary, and fun facts is perfect for our pause-button moment." -Australian Financial Review, Best Books of the Year Fully illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world. IN THIS VOLUME: Growing Uncertainty in California's Central Valley by Anna Wiener * What Does It Mean to Be a Solution? by Vanessa Hua * Shadows in the Valley by Francisco Cantu. Plus: direct democracy and unsustainable development, the rise of the Land Back movement, LA's cultural renaissance in the face of rampant gentrification, visions of the future, the death of the Californian Dream, the burning of Paradise and much more . . . "Wildfire season had already begun, and, as the car pitched along the road through Kings Canyon, I tried to tamp down a feeling like dread. In California, where the effects of global warming are pervasive and unsubtle, spending time in the forest always makes me feel unspeakably lucky and dizzy with remorse. Families in masks stomped through the Giant Forest to pose for photographs in front of General Sherman, a 275-foot-tall tree. Children licked ice-cream bars by the visitor center. In the parking lot, some of the oldest living trees in the world shaded eight-seat SUVs: Kia Tellurides, Chevy Tahoes, Toyota Sequoias." -From "Growing Uncertainty in California's Central Valley" by Anna Wiener

"Inspirational" - The Daily Mail "Sarah Sands has written about stillness with an eloquence that fizzes with vitality and wit. This wonderful book charts a journey to some of the most beautiful and tranquil places on earth, and introduces us to people whose inner peace is a balm for our troubled times. I loved every page of it." - Nicholas Hytner Suffering from information overload, unable to sleep, Sarah Sands, former editor of the BBC's Today programme, has tried many different strategies to de-stress... only to reject them because, as she says, all too often they threaten to become an exercise in self-absorption. Inspired by the ruins of an ancient Cistercian abbey at the bottom of her Norfolk garden, she begins to research the lives of the monks who once resided there, and realises how much we may have to learn from monasticism. Renouncing the world, monks and nuns have acquired a hidden knowledge of how to live: they labour, they learn and they acquire 'the interior silence'. This book is a quest for that hidden knowledge - a pilgrimage to ten monasteries round the world. From a Coptic desert community in Egypt to a retreat in the Japanese mountains, we follow Sands as she identifies the common characteristics of monastic life and the wisdoms to be learned from them; and as she discovers, behind the cloistered walls, a clarity of mind and an unexpected capacity for solitude which enable her, after years of insomnia, to experience that elusive, dreamless sleep.

Adam Thorpe's home for the past 25 years has been an old house in the Cévennes, a wild range of mountains in southern France. Prior to this, in an ancient millhouse in the oxbow of a Cévenol river, he wrote the novel that would become the Booker Prize-nominated Ulverton, now a Vintage Classic.

In more recent writing Thorpe has explored the Cévennes, drawing on the legends, history and above all the people of this part of France for his inspiration. In his charming journal, Notes from the Cévennes, Thorpe takes up these themes, writing about his surroundings, the village and his house at the heart of it, as well as the contrasts of city life in nearby Nîmes. In particular he is interested in how the past leaves impressions - marks - on our landscape and on us. What do we find in the grass, earth and stone beneath our feet and in the objects around us? How do they tie us to our forebears? What traces have been left behind and what marks do we leave now?

He finds a fossil imprinted in the single worked stone of his house's front doorstep, explores the attic once used as a silk factory and contemplates the stamp of a chance paw in a fragment of Roman roof-tile. Elsewhere, he ponders mutilated fleur-de-lys (French royalist symbols) in his study door and unwittingly uses the tomb-rail of two sisters buried in the garden as a gazebo. Then there are the personal fragments that make up a life and a family history: memories dredged up by 'dusty toys, dried-up poster paints, a painted clay lump in the bottom of a box.'

Part celebration of both rustic and urban France, part memoir, Thorpe's humorous and precise prose shows a wonderful stylist at work, recalling classics such as Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes.

INTRODUCED BY CAROLINE EDEN, award-winning author of Black Sea, Red Sands and Samarkand 'Medieval pomp, splendour, and picturesqueness... a life that one can hardly even realize.' In 1912, Ella R. Christie - a veteran Scottish traveller who had made expeditions to Kashmir, Tibet, Malaya, Borneo, China, Korea and Japan - steamed across the Caspian Sea to explore Central Asia. Her travels through the Russian Empire took her to the Silk Road cities of Tashkent and Samarkand, and she became the first British woman to visit the Khanate of Khiva. Eschewing the cloak and dagger intrigues of a previous generation of Great Game spies, Christie was a meticulous observer of the everyday - whether meeting khans, dining with generals or vividly chronicling market life - shortly before war and revolution swept that world away.

In this series of deft and beautifully written essays, conservationist Stephen Spear and journalist Janice Riley chronicle a year of cultivating blueberries on Cape Cod's Hokum Rock Farm. Spear's family has owned the farm since 1973 and began cultivating blueberries exclusively in 1986, selling thousands of pints each season. The photographs and stories, a blend of nature writing, personal reflection, and practical knowledge, inspire thoughts on the reasons farming is important and the ways we find meaning in the natural world. Learn about the history of blueberry cultivation, the biodiverse flora and fauna on the farm, and facts about blueberries. Also try out the mouth-watering recipes such as lemon pound Bundt cake with blueberries, easy graham crust blueberry pie, and blueberry-cranberry cobbler. Fans of stories about the natural world, farming, or simply Cape Cod, will appreciate this celebration of blueberries and a life lived close to the earth.

The Beagle Diary was used to write Darwin's famous book 'Voyage of the Beagle' (1839). The narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836. Darwin describes each day of the voyage, some in intimate detail, during the Beagle's circumnavigation of the globe.

Peter Mayne (1908-1979) is to Morocco what Peter Mayle is to Provence or Lawrence Durrell to Greece. This 1953 classic in a new edition captures the very essence of the people and place. Having already learned to appreciate Muslim life when he was in Pakistan, Mayne bought a house in the labyrinthine back streets of Marrakesh. He wanted to settle there, not as a privileged visitor in a hotel or grand villa, but as one of the inhabitants. He learned their language, made friends, took part in their festivals, and wrote their letters. This is not a travel book in the accepted sense of the word - it is a record of personal experience in a region of foreign life well beyond the tourist's eye. Mayne contrives in a deceptively simple prose to disseminate in the air of an English November the spicy odors of North Africa; he has turned, for an hour, smog to shimmering sunlight, woven a texture of extraordinary charm.

The late Samuel Eliot Morison was one of the most eminent American historians of the 20th century. The Great Explorers, an abridgement of his two-volume magnum opus, The European Discovery of America, vividly describes the early voyages that led to the discovery of the New World. Based on Morison's own trips, by plane, to the places the early discoverers landed, and on massive research into their maps, travelogues, and means of navigation, it tells, as no other book does, what the experience of these early explorers was. Morison describes their fear of sailing uncharted waters, their encounters with natives, their joy-and surprise-at discovering new land, and enriches his story with the photographs and maps he made while retracing the great voyages.

In April 2004, Barbara Egbert and Gary Chambers and their precocious 10-year-old daughter Mary embarked on a 2,650-mile hike from Mexico to Canada along the famed Pacific Crest Trail. This the well-told tale of their epic adventure, which required love, perseverance, and the careful rationing of toilet paper. Six months later, Mary would become the youngest person ever to successfully walk the entire trail.The trio weathered the heat of the Mojave, the jagged peaks of the Sierra, the rain of Oregon, and the final cold stretch through the Northern Cascades. They discovered which family values, from love and equality to thrift and cleanliness, could withstand a long, narrow trail and 137 nights together in a 6-by-8-foot tent. Filled with tidbits of wisdom, practical advice, and humor, this story will both entertain and inspire readers to dream about and plan their own epic journey.

Perfect Camping for You in Montana. From the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness in the northwest to the Yellowstone River Valley in the south, the new full color edition of Best Tent Camping: Montana by Jan and Christiana Nesset is a guidebook for car campers who like quiet, scenic, and serene campsites. This completely updated guidebook includes 50 private, state park, and state and national forest campgrounds divided into distinct regions; detailed campground maps; key information such as fees, restrictions, and dates of operation; driving directions; and ratings for beauty, privacy, spaciousness, security, and cleanliness. Whether you are a native Montanan in search of new territory or a vacationer on the lookout for that dream campground, this book by local outdoor adventurers Jan and Christina Nesset unlocks the secrets to the best tent camping Montana has to offer.

Read the stories of several amazing characters as they pass through a mountain store and hostel on the Appalachian Trail. Before he was an award-winning author, Winton Porter found success in the outdoor retail business. His family enjoyed living wherever his work took him: Atlanta, Chicago, Salt Lake City. But like so many others, he often stared out the window, wanting something different. Eventually, he cashed in his 401k and ransacked his bank account to become a backpack-purging, tent-selling, hostel-running, first-aid-dispensing, lost-kid-finding, argument-settling, romance-fixing, chili-making shopkeeper deep in the Georgia woods, smack on the Appalachian Trail. Nowadays, Winton opens the door to strangers at midnight, doesn't wear clean clothes every day, and sometimes eats Snickers bars for breakfast. He also meets amazing people every day and hears some incredible stories! In Just Passin' Thru, Winton captures the daily reality show of his family's new life at the store, Mountain Crossings at Walasi-Yi. With humor and grace, he introduces an old man who liked to sleep on his roof, an man in his 80s who still hikes just to keep from getting bored, an ex-Navy SEAL who was sometimes mistaken for a homeless person, and so many others. Among the parade of people who are just passin' thru, some show up once and others appear again and again. Either way, the author masterfully introduces them to you in the pages of this remarkable book. Inside you'll find: 20 captivating true stories about real people Photographs that help bring the stories and characters to life Map that shows the location of Winton's mountain store and hostel

'Byrne comes across like a post-punk Michael Palin.' Sephen Dalton, The Times 'An engaging book; part-diary, part-manifesto.' Observer David Byrne, co-founder of the group Talking Heads, has been riding a bicycle as his principal means of transportation since the 1980's. When he tours, Byrne travels with a folding bicycle, bringing it to cities like London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Manila, New York, Detroit and San Francisco. The view from his bike seat has given Byrne a panoramic window on urban life all over the world. An enchanting celebration of bike riding and of the rewards of seeing the world at bike level, this book gives the reader an incredible insight into what Byrne is seeing and thinking as he pedals around these cities.

This book takes the reader on walks along packhorse routes and bridges of the English Lake District. Walking on Bridges lists and describes the old packhorse bridges. It also contains descriptions of 24 walks over passes used by the packhorses, ten short walks and twelve longer, circular walks which are mainly on packhorse routes.

'4 stars. Attlee, who knows and loves Italy and the Italians, takes the reader through the country's scented gardens with her sharp descriptions, pertinent stories and quotes and intriguing recipes. I was there with her' Anna del Conte, Sunday Telegraph A delightful book about Italy's unexpected history, told through its citrus fruits The story of citrus runs through the history of Italy like a golden thread, and by combining travel writing with history, recipes, horticulture and art, Helena Attlee takes the reader on a unique and rich journey through Italy's cultural, moral, culinary and political past. 'Fascinating . . . A distinguished garden writer, Attlee fell under the spell of citrus over ten years ago and the book, like the eleventh labour of Hercules to steal the golden fruit of the Hesperides, is the result. She writes with great lucidity, charm and gentle humour, and wears her considerable learning lightly . . . Helena Attlee's elegant, absorbing prose and sure-footed ability to combine the academic with the anecdotal, make The Land Where Lemons Grow a welcome addition to the library of citrologists and Italophiles alike' The Times Literary Supplement 'A paradise of citrus is how I always think of Italy too: a place where ice-cold limoncello is sipped from tiny glasses on piazzas, and everything from ricotta cake to osso bucco is enlivened with zest. What a joy, therefore, to read Helena Attlee's The Land Where Lemons Grow, which tells the story of Italy through its citrus fruit' Bee Wilson, Telegraph

Travelogues Collection offers readers a unique glimpse into the diverse landscape, culture and wildlife of the world from the perspective of late 19th and early 20th century esteemed travelers. From the exotic islands of Fiji to the lush jungles of Africa to the bustling streets of New York City, these picturesque backdrops set the scene for amusing, and at times prejudiced, anecdotes of adventure, survival and camaraderie. Photographs and whimsical illustrations complement the descriptive text, bringing to life the colorful characters encountered along the way. The Shelf2Life Travelogues Collection allows readers to embark on a voyage into the past to experience the world as it once was and meet the people who inhabited it.