INCLUDES "WAITING FOR THE TALIBAN, "PREVIOUSLY AVAILABLE ONLY AS AN EBOOK""
2011 JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION WRITING AND LITERATURE AWARD FINALIST
Travel books bring you places. War books bring you tragedy. In "Peace Meals, "war reporter Anna Badkhen brings us not only an unsparing and intimate history of some of the last decade's most vicious conflicts but also the most human elements that transcend the dehumanizing realities of war: the people, the compassion they scraped from catastrophe, and the food they ate.
Making palpable the day-to-day life during conflicts and catastrophes, Badkhen describes not just the shocking violence but also the beauty of events that take place even during wartime: the spring flowers that bloom in the crater hollowed by an air-to-surface missile, the lapidary sanctuary of a twelfth-century palace besieged by a modern battle, or a meal a tight-knit family shares as a firefight rages outside. Throughout Badkhen's stories, punctuated by recipes from the meals she shared with the people she encountered, emerges the most important lesson she has observed in conflict zones from Afghanistan to Chechnya: that war can kill our friends and decimate our towns, but it cannot destroy our inherent decency, generosity, and kindness--that which makes us human.

'A true masterpiece.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'Simply beautiful.' STEPHEN MOSS 'Quietly courageous.' PATRICK BARKHAM 'Lyrical, wholehearted and wise.' LEE SCHOFIELD 'A knockout. I loved it.' MELISSA HARRISON 'Honest, raw and moving.' SOPHIE PAVELLE 'An extraordinary book by an extraordinary author.' CHRIS JONES 'A book of wit, wonder and of wisdom.' NICK ACHESON 'Beautiful.' NICOLA CHESTER - A visit to the rapid where she lost a cherished friend unexpectedly reignites Amy-Jane Beer’s love of rivers setting her on a journey of natural, cultural and emotional discovery. On New Year’s Day 2012, Amy-Jane Beer’s beloved friend Kate set out with a group of others to kayak the River Rawthey in Cumbria. Kate never came home, and her death left her devoted family and friends bereft and unmoored. Returning to visit the Rawthey years later, Amy realises how much she misses the connection to the natural world she always felt when on or close to rivers, and so begins a new phase of exploration. The Flow is a book about water, and, like water, it meanders, cascades and percolates through many lives, landscapes and stories. From West Country torrents to Levels and Fens, rocky Welsh canyons, the salmon highways of Scotland and the chalk rivers of the Yorkshire Wolds, Amy-Jane follows springs, streams and rivers to explore tributary themes of wildness and wonder, loss and healing, mythology and history, cyclicity and transformation. Threading together places and voices from across Britain, The Flow is a profound, immersive exploration of our personal and ecological place in nature.

Further adventures in extreme (and not so extreme) sports, from the bestselling author of ANGRY WHITE PYJAMAS. Having learnt Aikido with the Tokyo riot police (ANGRY WHITE PYJAMAS) and hunted for the world's longest snake in the jungles of the Far East (BIG SNAKE), Robert Twigger now turns his attention to other traditionally male pursuits and pastimes (some of which are fairly close to home, some of which are more extreme), and looks at the questions these raise about masculinity and the role of man in modern society. BEING A MAN features Twigger participating in, and writing on: the informal rules and thrill seeking of solo climbing, bullfighting in Spain, the 'illicit pleasure of buying my first gun', and the rules of survival with a tribe of Naga headhunters - the sort of activities and pursuits often scorned in the modern, interiorised office-based world.

Metro Cowboys, Tiny Elevators, Trusting The New Patisserie..."Paris, I've Grown Accustomed To Your Ways" continues the saga begun in Me, Myself and Paris, humorist and writer Ruth Yunker's account of her forays into life in Paris, part time tourist, part time resident. In Paris, I've Grown Accustomed To Your Ways the training wheels have come off. Ms. Yunker negotiates the exquisitely charming, but impossibly exacting, City of Light with a new sense of ease, and an increasing sense of feeling right at home. She revels in the amber warmth of Angelina's chocolate Eden on a cold November day. She zeroes in on, after six visits, her favorite arrondissement in which to rent her apartment...the fifteenth, just so you know She shops in Montmartre with aplomb, and still does not climb up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. She sees passionate love in unexpected places out on the streets of Paris. She watches cowboys riding the metros, and considers the sweet life of a lemon as it rolls out of her apartment door. A little boy in St. Suplice wins her heart. The concierge at the apartment on rue Vaneau does not. She discovers there are rules for finishing one's plate in restaurants. But there are no rules for which pain rustique will make the very best toast every morning. In Paris, I've Grown Accustomed To Your Ways, Ruth Yunker delves deeply to discover what makes the heart of Paris sing, and emerges more in love than ever.

Commemorating Cicerone's 50th year, Fifty Years of Adventure is a compilation of tales by Cicerone authors. A story to celebrate each year Cicerone has been publishing outdoor activity guidebooks, the collection is a delicious hotpot of adventures in their every shape and form. Soak up the sun, ice-cream in hand, with Aileen Evans on the Isle of Man coast path; discover the secret side of Snowdon with Rachel Crolla; cycle downhill for five weeks on the Danube Cycleway with Mike Wells; climb Kilimanjaro with Alex Stewart; and feel the sting of sub zero temperatures climbing K2 - the Savage Mountain - with Alan Hinkes. Also featured are ten tales of mishaps and misadventures that have befallen Cicerone authors while out and about, researching for a guidebook. Between stifling giggles and gasping out loud, gain greater insight into the mighty task that is guidebook writing. And in 'The Cicerone Story', learn about other aspects of guidebook creation, and discover how things have changed over the last fifty years. Accompanied by outstanding photography, each page of this finely crafted anniversary book is a veritable visual delight. As enchanting as it is inspiring, Fifty Years of Adventure is a must for anyone with an appreciation for adventure.

What if you quit your job . . .
Sold everything . . .
and bought a small hotel on the beach . . .

South of Cancun, Mexico and down a long narrow road ending in turquoise blue water, you will find Soliman Bay. Here is where most people's dreams are found, a small bay, white sand and palm trees, and a reef just offshore full of colorful fish. If you are visiting, the dream looks real, but if you intend on staying the locals have one bit of advice - guard your sanity.

Though it may not seem possible, this comedy you are about to read is 99% true. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

May you laugh at our expense.

Memories of Chinatown is a Singapore classic and is now republished with a new visual interpretation by watercolour artist Graham Byfield. Both a memoir and a narrative guide to the vibrant spirit of a bygone Singapore, it is written by much loved 'walking treasure' and heritage tour pioneer Geraldene Lowe-Ismail. Blessed with a rich trove of stories and personal knowledge stretching over 50 years, Geraldene delivers a unique insight into the glory and past of one of Southeast Asia's truly original Chinatowns. For anyone interested in heritage architecture and culture, this is a fascinating read.

In Wild Winter, John D. Burns, bestselling author of The Last Hillwalker and Bothy Tales, sets out to rediscover Scotland's mountains, remote places and wildlife in the darkest and stormiest months. He traverses the country from the mouth of the River Ness to the Isle of Mull, from remote Sutherland to the Cairngorms, in search of rutting red deer, pupping seals, minke whales, beavers, pine martens, mountain hares and otters. In the midst of the fierce weather, John's travels reveal a habitat in crisis, and many of these wild creatures prove elusive as they cling on to life in the challenging Highland landscape. As John heads deeper into the winter, he notices the land fighting back with signs of regeneration. He finds lost bothies, old friendships and innovative rewilding projects, and - as Covid locks down the nation - reflects on what the outdoors means to hillwalkers, naturalists and the folk who make their home in the Highlands. Wild Winter is a reminder of the wonder of nature and the importance of caring for our environment. In his winter journey through the mountains and bothies of the Highlands, John finds adventure, humour and a deep sense of connection with this wild land.

Explore the landscapes and places that inspired great art: find peace in Monet's lily-filled garden oasis, climb Mount Fuji on a printmaker's pilgrimage, sail with Gauguin to the South Pacific to stretch your imagination, or contemplate light and the changing seasons on Chelsea Embankment. Artistic Places is a stunningly hand-illustrated, visionary guide for seekers of beauty, rare tales and cultural riches. Find yourself instantly transported to the places where great artists have sought refuge, found their inspiration and changed the course of art history forever. Susie Hodge, bestselling author and art historian, presents 25 famous and forgotten artistic destinations around the world, and connects these to the artists they inspired. In keeping with the Inspired Traveller's Guide series design, each entry is accompanied by specially commissioned illustrations from Amy Grimes which perfectly evoke the wonders that first attracted the masters, while Hodge delves into each location's curious history with insightful stories both in and beyond the canon. So take a leaf out of your favourite artist's sketchbook and discover the places they loved best. Artists and locations include: J.A.M Whistler in London, England John Constable in Suffolk, England Barbara Hepworth in St Ives, England Paula Rego in Cascais and Estoril, Portugal Pablo Picasso and Guernica, Spain Salvador Dali in Catalonia, Spain Claude Monet in Giverny, France Vincent van Gogh in Arles, France Rene Magritte in Brussels, Belgium Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland Michelangelo in Florence, Italy Canaletto in Venice, Italy Johannes Vermeer in Delft, Netherlands Anni Albers in Dessau, Germany Caspar David Friedrich in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, Germany Gustav Klimt and Lake Attersee, Austria Edvard Munch in Oslo, Norway Hilma af Klint and Lake Malaren, Sweden Henri Matisse in Tangier, Morocco Hokusai on Mount Fuji, Japan Paul Gauguin in Papeete and Papeari, Tahiti Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York, USA Grant Wood in Iowa, USA Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico, USA Frida Kahlo in Coyoacan, Mexico Each book in the Inspired Traveller's Guides series offers readers a fascinating, informative and charmingly illustrated guide to must-visit destinations round the globe. Also from this series, explore intriguing: Spiritual Places, Literary Places, Hidden Places and Mystical Places.

Following on from the best-selling first volume of his autobiography, Within Whicker's World, Alan Whicker presents a hugely entertaining and characteristically insightful second volume that will delight his army of devoted fans. We've all been around the world many times with Alan Whicker - and every expedition has been fun. Our guide and travelling companion for over forty years, this wry observer has revealed secret worlds and let us eavesdrop on the powerful, the villainous, the exotic...Throughout his years as Foreign Correspondent and then television's Man Around the World, Whicker has covered everything from wars and revolutions to plastic surgery and mudmen. His belief that you can ask anyone anything as long as you do it pleasantly gained him access to the elusive and the secret: voodoo rituals in Haiti, drug squads in Singapore, bank raids in San Francisco, ashrams in India, polar bears in Alaska - even the social fortress of Palm Beach. With instinctive curiosity and a nose for a great story, he has lived a life of adventure, excitement and danger, winning a raft of awards from peers and public. His genius is to make everything that happens in Whicker's World look easy. This lightness of touch encourages the hesitant interviewee, disarms the threatening Dictator. Whicker has influenced a generation of fellow journalists, helped the careers of a gaggle of impersonators and, most important of all, encouraged the rest of us to travel and explore. In this book, we go with him to the palaces of the Sultan of Brunei, watch Luciano Pavarotti make life hell on a paradise island and consider the mysterious death of a colleague on the First Sea Lord's flagship. We learn why India is the best place to murder your husband, and discover the amiable Mexican sponger who was a top state secret policeman. We meet a little old Californian lady who always shot them straight between the eyes and a dolphin who accepts credit cards. In a dusty African game park one cheetah and 156 people struggle to overcome a Masai curse

The astounding saga of an American sea captain and the New Guinean nobleman who became his stunned captive, then ally, and eventual friend Sailing in uncharted waters of the Pacific in 1830, Captain Benjamin Morrell of Connecticut became the first outsider to encounter the inhabitants of a small island off New Guinea. The contact quickly turned violent, fatal cannons were fired, and Morrell abducted young Dako, a hostage so shocked by the white complexions of his kidnappers that he believed he had been captured by the dead. This gripping book unveils for the first time the strange odyssey the two men shared in ensuing years. The account is uniquely told, as much from the captive's perspective as from the American's. Upon returning to New York, Morrell exhibited Dako as a "cannibal" in wildly popular shows performed on Broadway and along the east coast. The proceeds helped fund a return voyage to the South Pacific-the captain hoping to establish trade with Dako's assistance, and Dako seizing his chance to return home with the only person who knew where his island was. Supported by rich, newly found archives, this wide-ranging volume traces the voyage to its extraordinary ends and en route decrypts Morrell's ambiguous character, the mythic qualities of Dako's life, and the two men's infusion into American literature-as Melville's Queequeg, for example, and in Poe's Pym. The encounters confound indigenous peoples and Americans alike as both puzzle over what it is to be truly human and alive.

• Story of J. R. "Model-T" Tate's thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail
• Recollections of grueling climbs, knee-wrecking descents, mountaintop thunderstorms, snakes underfoot, and the myriad characters encountered on an AT thru-hike
• Conveys the beauty of the trail and the community that surrounds it

A Muslim curator and archivist who preserves in his native Timbuktu the memory of its rabbi. An evangelical Kenyan who is amazed to meet a living ""Israelite."" Indian Ocean islanders who maintain the Jewish cemetery of escapees from Nazi Germany. These are just a few of the encounters the author shares from his sojourns and fieldwork. An engaging read in which the author combines the rigors of academic research with a ""you are there"" delivery. Conveys thirty-five years of social science fieldwork and reverential travel in Sub-Saharan Africa. A great choice for the ecumenical-minded traveller.

When author John Eyberg announced his plan to bicycle two thousand miles across Texas and back, most people thought he was crazy. But for Eyberg, it was a goal he'd dreamed about for years--a feat only the supremely confident or utterly foolhardy would attempt. In Dry'd, Fry'd, and Sky'd by Headwinds and Heat, he provides a day-by-day journal of his travels beginning June 11, 2011, when he climbed on his tandem recumbent Doublevision and pushed off from El Paso, Texas, in 101-degree heat for a planned forty-three-day ride.

In this travel memoir, Eyberg narrates his odyssey--his battles with the intense sun and the often strong headwinds, the route and topography he covered from El Paso to Houston, the gracious and generous people he met throughout his journey, the effects he felt on his middle-age body, and the mechanical breakdowns he experienced.

A detailed account of one man's personal biking adventure, Dry'd, Fry'd, and Sky'd by Headwinds and Heat shows Eyberg's commitment to his adage: you don't know until you go.

Piet Maritz was vir jare lank 'n karakoelpelskoper in die ou Suidwes. Gedurende sy vele omswerwinge het hy baie interessante mense ontmoet en dinge ondervind. In Kruis en dwars deur ou Suidwes deel hy van hierdie herinneringe en laat jou lag, huil en verlang na vervloe dae.