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A Spectator Book of the Year 'Sweeping . . . Poetic . . . Not only
readable but also vital' Literary Review 'A terrific storyteller'
New York Times 'Exceptional . . . tender and beautifully written'
Country Life The groundbreaking story of Nomadic peoples on the
move across history. Tracing the epic paths of wanderers across
twelve thousand years, acclaimed travel writer Anthony Sattin
recovers the stories of tribes who lived beyond imperial borders
and created their own kingdoms and empires: Scythian, Xiongnu,
Persian, Hun, Arab, Mongul, Mughal, Ottoman and others. With their
embrace of multiculturalism, respect for nature's rhythms, and need
for free movement, wandering peoples brought a glorious cultural
flourishing to Eurasia, enabling the Renaissance and changing the
human story. This sweeping narrative reconnects us with our deepest
mythology, our unrecorded antiquity and our natural world. Nomads
is the untold history of civilisation, told through its outsiders.
In a ruined temple along the Nile, Anthony Sattin sees a woman
praying to the gods of ancient Egypt to bless her with a child.
Later that day, a policeman stops his taxi to ask to borrow a
mobile phone to call his mother. The ancient rubs up against the
modern just as dramatically as when Flaubert wrote, 'Egypt is a
wonderful place for contrasts - splendid things gleam in the dust".
Anthony Sattin has tracked down extraordinary examples of ancient
survivals in the hurly-burly of modern Egypt.
The history of the African Association, the world's first
geographical society, dedicated to the exploration of the interior
of a continent known only through legend and vague report. Africa
was once seen as an El Dorado - a gold-encrusted continent of hope
and prosperity, where the ancient civilisations of the Phoenicians
and the Egyptians might have survived intact. The African
Association, the world's first geographical society, set itself the
task of revealing the mysteries of the interior of Africa. Founded
in 1788 by a group of London-based gentlemen, made famous by the
amazing exploits of its adventurers, for forty-three years it was
engaged in a quest for geographical knowledge, personal glory,
immense wealth and the fulfilment of national ambitions. There are
two strands to the narrative. First there are the people who
planned and paid for expeditions, the geographers, scholars,
politicians, humanitarian activists and sharp-eyed traders, the
richest commoner in England and two former prime ministers among
them. Theirs is a lively tale of tavern meetings, court lobbying
and salon intrigue during one of the most dramatic periods of world
history. Then there are the adventurers, a mixed group of ex-cons
and social outcasts - British, French, Germans and Americans among
them - who went to the magical continent in search of glory and the
unknown. They included Mungo Park, whose account of his travels was
a bestseller for more than a century, and Jean Louis Burckhardt,
discoverer of Petra and Abu Simbel. Each of their journeys was
extraordinary, packed with drama and excitement, made notable by
geographical discoveries and, with very few exceptions, ending in
death. An outstanding account of a unique period characterised by
the passion, ambition, courage and sheer sense of adventure of its
participants.
A Sunday Times Best History Book of the Year A Spectator Book of
the Year 'A book of beauty and beguiling rhythm that offers
unsettling lessons about our present-day world of borders' The
Times 'Thoughtful, lyrical yet ambitiously panoramic . . . an
important, generous and beautifully-written book' William Dalrymple
The ground-breaking story of Nomadic peoples on the move across
history. Humans have been on the move for most of history. Even
after the great urban advancement lured people into the great
cities of Uruk, Babylon, Rome and Chang'an, most of us continued to
live lightly on the move and outside the pages of history. But
recent discoveries have revealed another story . . . Wandering
people built the first great stone monuments, such as the one at
Goebekli Tepe, seven thousand years before the pyramids. They tamed
the horse, fashioned the composite bow, fought with the Greeks and
hastened the end of the Roman Empire. They had a love of poetry and
storytelling, a fascination for artistry and science, and a respect
for the natural world rooted in reliance and their belief.
Embracing multiculturalism, tolerant of other religions, their need
for free movement and open markets brought a glorious cultural
flourishing to Eurasia, enabling the Renaissance and changing the
human story. Reconnecting with our deepest mythology, our
unrecorded antiquity and our natural environment, Nomads is the
untold history of civilisation, told through its outsiders.
In 1922, his dreams of an independent Arabia shattered, T.E.
Lawrence enlisted in the RAF under the assumed name John Hume Ross.
Though methodical and restrictive, life there seemed to suit
Lawrence: 'The Air Force is not a man-crushing humiliating slavery,
all its days. There is sun & decent treatment, and a very real
measure of happiness, to those who do not look forward or back.'
With poetic clarity, Lawrence brings to life the harsh realities of
barracks life and illuminates the strange twilight world he had
slipped into after his war experiences. For anyone interested in
the life of one of the 20th century's most enduring heroes and his
life beyond the well-documented Arab revolt, The Mint is essential
and compelling reading.
Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher*
Unexpected stories from unexpected places. Many places can feel
like nowhere: a desert, an isolated village, even the middle of a
bustling, impersonal city. And then something happens: an
adventure, a revelation, an experience that changes the whole
landscape. The discovery that every place is the centre of the
world to somebody and has its own riches and wonders. The authors
of these 30 real-life tales find passion, surprise and illumination
in the middle of Borneo or Beijing, in a Mayan mountain village,
along a timeworn trail in Tuscany, on an isolated South Pacific
island, or under a desert moon in Mali. These richly varied stories
all celebrate and illuminate one simple truth: if we embark on each
adventure with an open heart and an open mind, travel will take us
places we never planned to go, and enrich and enlighten us in ways
we never otherwise would have known. Featuring stories by: Anthony
Sattin, Danny Wallace, Jason Elliot, Pam Houston, Ralph Potts, Pico
Iyer, Tim Cahill, Simon Winchester About Lonely Planet: Started in
1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide
publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as
well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital
travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely
Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the
world and to truly get to the heart of the places where they
travel. TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner
in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite
simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on
everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on
mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's
telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' -
Fairfax Media (Australia) *#1 in the world market share - source:
Nielsen Bookscan. Australia, UK and USA. March 2012-January 2013
It's the spring of 1941 and the German army's eastward march
appears unstoppable. In the Egyptian desert, the young officer
Simon Boulderstone, twenty years old and wet behind the ears, waits
in dreadful anticipation of his first experience of combat. The
people of Cairo are waiting, too. In crowded apartments, refugees
from Europe wait; in palm-shaded mansions, Anglo-Egyptians wait. At
night they are joined in the city's bars and cabarets by soldiers
on leave, looking for a last dance before going off to the front
lines.
Into this mix enter Guy and Harriet Pringle, whose story began in
Olivia Manning's magisterial Balkan Trilogy. They have successfully
escaped Nazi-occupied Greece but are dogged by uncertainties about
their marriage. And, as Simon discovers that the realities of war
are both more prosaic and more terrible than he had imagined,
Harriet is forced to confront her precarious health and her place
beside her husband.
T. E. Lawrence was one of the most charismatic characters of the
First World War; a young archaeologist who fought with the Arabs
and wrote an epic and very personal account of their revolt against
the Turks in Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Yet this was not the first
book to carry that iconic title. In 1914 the man who would become
Lawrence of Arabia burnt the first Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a
manuscript in which he described his adventures in the Middle East
during the five years before the war. Anthony Sattin uncovers the
story Lawrence wanted to conceal: the truth of his birth, his
tortuous relationship with a dominant mother, his deep affection
for an Arab boy, the intimate details of the extraordinary journeys
he took through the region with which his name is forever connected
and the personal reasons that drove him from being a student to
becoming an archaeologist and a spy. Young Lawrence is the first
book to focus on the story of T. E. Lawrence in his twenties,
before the war, during the period he looked back on as his golden
years. Using first-hand sources, museum records and Foreign Office
documents, Sattin sets these adventures against the background of
corrosive conflicts in Libya and the Balkans. He shows the
simmering defiance of Arabs, Armenians and Kurds under Turkish
domination, while uncovering the story of an exceptional young man
searching for happiness, love and his place in the world until war
changed his life forever.
In the winter of 1849, Florence Nightingale was an unknown
29-year-old - beautiful, well-born and deeply unhappy. After
clashing with her parents over her refusal to marry, she had been
offered a lifeline by family friends who suggested a trip to Egypt,
a country which she had always longed to visit. By an extraordinary
coincidence, taking the same boat from Alexandria was an
unpublished French writer, Gustave Flaubert. Like Nightingale, he
was at the crossroads in his life that was to lead to future
acclaim and literary triumph. Egypt for him represented escape and
freedom as well as inspiration. But as a wealthy young man
travelling with male friends, he had access to an altogether
different Egpyt: where Nightingale sought out temples and
dispensaries, Flaubert visited brothels and harems. In this
beguiling book, Anthony Sattin takes a key moment in the lives of
two extraordinary figures on the brink of international fame, and
provides a fascinating insight into the early days of travel to one
of the greatest tourist destinations on the planet.
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