34 Travel and Places
redolent of the city’s days of imperial splendour. We are taken on six walks arranged by district featuring all the major sites and a personal selection of less well known ones. Useful maps and b/w photos, 338pp in paperback. £9.99 NOW £3.50
69848 MY ATTAINMENT OF THE POLE by Dr. Frederick A. Cook
No-one knows for sure who first conquered the North Pole, with two rival claims emerging within days of each other in 1909. Frederick Cook, author of this recently reprinted memoir of 1911, claimed he had got there in 1908. Robert Peary immediately challenged the claim with his own conquest, and in a fascinating introduction Robert M. Bryce assesses the angry and defamatory claims and counter-claims and presents the evidence. Cook first crossed the Greenland icecap as a member of an expedition led by Peary. His claim in 1906 to have conquered Mt. McKinley, now disputed, brought in the financial backing for an attempt on the Pole in 1908-9, but during the celebrations Peary returned from his own expedition and challenged the truth of Cook’s account. Cook’s memoir still offers a fascinating and vivid first hand description of polar exploration. 618pp, 2001 rare imported paperback, b/w photos, drawings. $22.95 NOW £3
69341 GREAT WALL REVISITED: From the Jade Gate to Old
Dragon’s Head by William Lindesay
William Lindesay has spent 15 years
researching photographs and has re-photographed more than 150 locations, and chosen half of them for inclusion in this splendid book. He presents 72 ‘then and now’ comparisons with useful histories, literary impressions by famous visitors and contemporary accounts which explain the changes which have taken place along the Wall from the Jade Gate to the Yellow Sea coast. Our book presents the findings of a quest to answer how has the Great Wall changed. Here is Juliet Bredon taking travellers for a stroll along the Wall, towers, passes, ridges, the Eastern Dam Gate, and also maps and plans and calligraphy. 292pp with one spectacular gatefold 180 degree panorama. Colour illus. £25 NOW £6
70508 TAO OF TRAVEL by Paul Theroux
One of the greatest ever travel writers, Paul Theroux here celebrates 50 years of global wandering by collecting together the best writing on the subject of travel from the books which shaped him, as both traveller and reader. Part reminiscence, part miscellany, which includes such esoteric subjects as the contents of travellers’ bags, exposés
of those who wrote about places that they never visited, travel as an ordeal, the perverse pleasures of the inhospitable, travellers’ favourite places, travel epiphanies and the essential Tao of travel. Excerpts from Theroux’s own work are interspersed with selections from other travellers, both familiar and unexpected, which include Vladimir Nabokov, Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Freya Stark, Anton Chekov, Graham Greene and V.S. Pritchett. 285pp paperback.
£13.99 NOW £4.75 69908 COAST TO COAST: Vintage Travel in
North America by Antony Shugaar “Politicians, speculators, trollops, tycoons, croupiers, judges, actresses and cattlemen” were among the fashionable crowd at the resort of Saratoga Springs around 1941. Transcontinental railways, begun during the Civil War, finally made long-distance travel both speedy and comfortable. This book documents the passenger experience including observation domes, luxurious dining and sleeping cars, cogwheel railways up precipitous slopes such as Mount Washington, private trains for moguls and chateau hotels. Archive photos are supplemented by inset facsimiles, including an 1891 menu from the Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs featuring Terrapin Bouillon and Roast Plover with Cress. Among the illustrations are a Florida steamboat in 1886, the Pueblo Indians’ Moki Snake dance in 1902, spectacular shots of the Niagara, Shoshone and the Bridal Veil waterfalls, the famed Kentucky Art Deco Seelbach Hotel and amazing railroad pictures, from Colorado gorges to Sixth Avenue elevated trains. Hundreds of colour and sepia photos, travellers’ quotations, insets. 318pp. £35 NOW £10.50
70016 AN AFFAIR OF THE
HEART by Dilys Powell Hailed as a classic when it was first published more than 40 years ago, this unforgettable evocation of a country and its people has stood the test of time and is still regarded as one of the most outstanding books on Greece ever written. The author is remembered as the leading film critic of her day. Before the WWII, she spent many years in Greece, where her husband was Director of
the British School of Archaeology. After his tragic early death, she returned again and again to the country she had loved. In this personal odyssey, she gives a deeply moving account of her journeys. 280 paperback pages with maps.
£9.99 NOW £3.75
70523 MY FIRST TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA
by Isabella Bird
Isabella Lucy Bird Bishop died in 1904 at the height of the popularity of her eight travel narratives. Her first book on Hawaii was published in 1875 and she had given hundreds of lectures on social, political and religious issues. In 1882 she was made the first woman Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. This book was first published early in 1856 under the title ‘The English Woman In America’ and this edition has a new introduction by Clarence C. Strowbridge. She recounts with passion and sensitivity such insights as wigwams on Prince Edward Island and Quebec’s romantic falls of Lorette as well as dark encounters with cholera, slavery and harrowing storms at sea. 363pp in paperback. £15.99 NOW £5
70708 JOURNEYS OF A LIFETIME by National Geographic and Keith Bellows
Subtitled 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips, with stunning colour photographs, colour maps and expert advice for making each trip a reality. You will find in it an Alaskan polar bear safari, trekking in Nepal or for those in want of luxury, board the Orient Express and travel from Venice to London. Zoom down the world’s longest ski run in Chamonix or follow in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac across America. From truffle-hunting in Italy to Sushi-shopping in Japan, along the way we can explore ancient Egypt, classical Greece, Moorish Spain or Renaissance Italy. Gourmet heaven, culture vultures satisfied, hands-on action adventures, bird’s eye views, pilgrimages for readers and dreamers and history fans, this is a book to dip into 500 times over. Plus more than 20 top ten lists in categories ranging from sailing cruises to underground walks and long distance cycle routes. Glossy paper, 400pp 9" x 12".
£25 NOW £14
70037 LOST LANDS FORGOTTEN STORIES by Alexandra Pratt
Subtitled ‘A Woman’s Journey to the Heart of Labrador’ here is a lyrical and adventurous journey studded with life or death encounters and with sharp insights into the lives of the Innu people of Labrador. Alexandra Pratt shifts effortlessly between harrowing contemporary real- life adventure, historical perspective and a poignant commentary on the plight of the local people. Accompanied by an experienced Innu guide and hunter, she confronts an unforgiving landscape that surprises her at every turn. Caught between sheer cliffs, deadly rapids and a fast-approaching forest fire, her story comes to a breathtaking climax. 265pp in paperback. £9.99 NOW £3
70489 THE LONG EXILE
by Melanie McGrath Nanook of the North captured the world’s imagination when it was released in 1922. It was Robert Flaherty’s film, the fictitious story of an Eskimo hunter who lived in an igloo with his family in a mythical Arctic Eden of spring flowers and polar bears. Just two years later, the man who played Nanook, the Inuit hunter Alakariallak, starved to death on the Arctic ice. By this
time, Flaherty had quit the Arctic for good, leaving behind his bastard son Joseph to grow up Eskimo. 30 years later, the Canadian government drew up a list of Inuit who were to be experimentally resettled in the uninhabited Polar Arctic and left to fend as best they could. Joseph Flaherty and his family were on that list. This is their tale. 302pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.75
70072 SNOW TOURIST by Charlie English
Subtitled A Search for the World’s Purest, Deepest Snowfall, this is a fine and enchanting book. From Alaska and Glencoe to Baffin Island, Wildstrubel, Chamonix, Vermont, Cairngorm, Vienna and back to London, here is a tale of one man’s search for snow, a report on the precarious state of our extreme climates, an evocative poem for lost childhood winters and more. What is it about snow that leaves us spellbound? What draws us to play with it, sledge over it, ski on it, tell stories about it, build our homes or hotels out of it and even risk our lives in it? Self-confessed snow obsessive Charlie English wraps up warm and goes in search of the answers. 276pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £2.50
70510 TO PRUSSIA WITH LOVE by Roger Boyes
In a desperate attempt to save his relationship with his girlfriend Lena and take a break from the world of journalism, Roger Boyes agrees to make a great escape from the easy urban lifestyle of Berlin and decamp to the countryside. He has hopes for Italy, but Lena has inherited a run-down old schloss in deepest, darkest Brandenburg. Needing a form of income, they decide to set up a B&B with a British theme. Enter unhelpful Harry and his Trinidadian chef cousin, an unhinged Scot who advised them on re-branding Brandenburg, some suicidal frogs and a posse of mad tourists. It all culminates, naturally, in a cricket match between the Brits and the Germans on an old Russian minefield. 254pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.50
70682 100 MOST
BEAUTIFUL CITIES OF THE WORLD
edited by Manfred Leier The city break is the most popular form of contemporary tourism and this beautiful book makes an imaginative choice of worldwide destinations, giving a brief account of their history and main attractions and capturing the essence of the cityscape with big colour
photographs. The capitals of Europe are joined by other major centres of culture: London by the very different Oxford, Dublin and Edinburgh, Salzburg’s Baroque complementing Vienna’s coffee house culture, and westward-looking St. Petersburg contrasting with Moscow’s monumental assertions of national identity. Dresden, Bratislava, Dubrovnik and Helsinki are other European gems. North America offers New Orleans, the jazz capital of the world, together with Mexico City and its three cultures - Aztec, Spanish, and the modern Mexican fusion of the two histories. 208pp. Colour photography. ONLY £6
70065 THE ANDES: A Cultural History by Jason Wilson
The Andes form the backbone of South America. The clash between Atahualpa, the last Inca, and the illiterate conquistador Pizarro, between indigenous identity and
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European mercantile values, had forged Andean culture and history for the last 500 years. Wilson explores the Andes’ mystery, inaccessibility and power through the insights of chroniclers, scientists and modern-day novelists. His accounts start at sacred Cuzco and Machu Picchu, moves along the imagined Inca routes south to Lake Titicaca and then follows the Argentine and Chilean Andes to Patagonia. Then it moves north and into Colombia, along the Cauca Valley up to Bogotá and then east to Caracas. Spectacular landscapes, many imagined, are recalled in this rather dramatic travelogue. 266pp in illus softback. £12 NOW £4.25
70227 JOURNAL OF WILLIAM BECKFORD IN
PORTUGAL AND SPAIN 1787-1788 edited by Boyd Alexander
William Beckford was the son of a Lord Mayor of London and a precocious genius. He is perhaps best remembered as the builder of the massive neo-Gothic Fonthill Abbey. His oriental tale Vathek has been reprinted many times. Readers may be less familiar with his travel writings which are amongst the best of their genre, as they will be able to judge from this witty personal account of his Iberian sojourn. Beckford was ostracised by polite society after being accused of misconduct with the young son of Lord Courtenay and, soon afterwards, was forced to flee England. En route to plantations in Jamaica, he arrived in Lisbon and, due to having suffered terrible seasickness, refused to go any further. It was the beginning of a love affair with Portugal. Through his friendship with the Queen’s favourite, Diego, Marquis of Marialva, he was fêted by the Portuguese nobility and also met a choirboy, Gregorio Franchi, who became his most intimate friend and general factotum. In Spain he became simultaneously entangled with an older married woman, a young married girl and a 12-year-old boy! 250 paperback pages, illus. £18 NOW £6
68000 EGYPT YESTERDAY AND TODAY by David Roberts
A collection of lithographs produced from the drawings of David Roberts, an artist who visited Egypt in 1838. The coloured plates are shown here together with a photograph of the present-day scene, presenting an intriguing contrast between Victorian and modern Egypt. Roberts’ softly coloured, highly detailed drawings are presented in extra-large format on quality paper. His views range from pyramids, temples and the sphinx to sacred trees, obelisks and Nile boats. Some drawings are a hive of activity, such as that depicting a silk vendor’s bazaar which features turbaned, striped-gowned sellers with their piles of fabrics, sheltering under a shaded section of the street. 14½” x 10½”. 272pp with colour illus.
ONLY £5
69496 PLAYING CARDS IN CAIRO by Hugh Miles
Subtitled Mint Tea, Tarneeb and Tales of the City, Hugh Miles learns the most intimate tales of Cairo. While the Arabic women cut and shuffle and play tarneeb, Miles listens to their stories and learns about what it means to be a young Muslim woman, dating, dieting and divorcing in a country where traditional Islamic values are in the ascendant. It is unusual for a European man to be permitted to share secrets and confidences of Muslim women, but somehow he hears from behind the veil the frustrations, fads, fashions and fallibilities. 279pp in paperback.
£8.99 NOW £2.50 WAR AND MILITARIA
70503 A SENSELESS SQUALID WAR: Voices from Palestine 1890-1948 by Norman Rose
‘An admirably concise narrative of events from the arrival of Sir Herbert Samuel as the first High Commissioner of Palestine in July 1920 to the departure of Sir Alan Cunningham as the last.’ - Sunday Times. The events in Palestine between the end of the Second
World War and the declaration of the State of Israel in May 1948 ruptured Middle Eastern history and left an indelible mark on the modern world. Amidst the horrific revelations of the Holocaust and a diplomatic stalemate over the partitioning of Palestine, militant guerrilla groups sought to undermine the British presence. Jewish refugees had been trying to enter Palestine in their thousands since the early 1940s, many on the notorious ‘death ships’ from Eastern Europe and often with fatal consequences. The massacre at Deir Yassin and the forced transfer of up to 700,000 Palestinians, the British withdrawal and the celebration of independence are all voiced by those who lived through it. 278pp in paperback with illus and maps. £12.99 NOW £4
70649 CHILDREN OF THE CAMPS: Japan’s Last Forgotten Victims by Mark Felton
In 1942 Singapore was a disaster area. Conditions in the camps were notoriously appalling and for the 40,000 children who were interned it was a damaging psychological experience from which many of those who survived were never to recover. On the march to Changi,
the worst of the internment camps, heads of recently executed people were displayed as a warning on spikes by the road. Children were usually separated from their parents, but at the Japanese Santo Tomas camp, in a rare humanitarian gesture, fathers were reunited with their families. Survivor Jacqueline Honnor describes how her family was able to improvise a shelter on stilts by selling mango jam made from the tree which sheltered them. There were occasional acts of defiance, for instance when the band struck up the British National Anthem during the infamous tenko, a roll-call which involved standing around for hours in intense heat. 202pp.
£19.99 NOW £6 e-mail:
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68920 MEYRICK’S MEDIEVAL KNIGHTS AND ARMOUR
by Samuel Rush Meyrick Brimming over with full colour illuminated engravings from his original 1842 survey of weaponry from the Middle Ages, this volume is a stunning historical showcase of European armour spanning the 9th
to the 15th centuries. From Richard the Lionheart in full battle regalia to the equipage of numerous anonymous knights, he presents a splendid panorama of medieval paladins and their weapons and chronicles the military regalia of the Middle Ages in all its forms. 69 full page plates in colour and b/w. 8" x 11" paperbound. £19.99 NOW £3.50
68870 ENGLISH CIVIL WAR 1640-1660 by Blair Worden
The political upheaval of the mid-17th century has no parallel in English history. The Monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished to be replaced by a republic and military rule. The Church of England was overthrown and the liberty of conscience established. New ideas about politics, religion and society found eloquent voice. This wonderfully readable account explores the origins and course of the conflict - the rise of the New Model Army, the execution of Charles I, the rule of Oliver Cromwell, the Restoration - and assesses the motives of the participants. 192pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £2.50
69153 RAF EVADERS: The Comprehensive Story of Thousands
of Escapers and their Escape Lines, Western Europe, 1940-
1945 by Oliver Clutton-Brock Packed with information, key figure biographies and listings - such as 2,198 evaders who have been identified - this volume is a moving, comprehensive testimony to the
courage of all those involved both in escaping and being helped to escape from prisoner of war camps during the Second World War, as well as a memorial to the unbelievable courage of all those concerned. During the five years from May 1940 to May 1945, several thousand Allied airmen, forced to abandon their aircraft behind enemy lines, evaded capture and reached freedom by land, sea and air. The territory held by the Germans was immense - from Norway and Denmark in the north, through Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg to the south of France and, initially, there was no organisation to help men on the run. A respected historian has painstakingly researched in depth this secret world of evasion, uncovering some treachery and many hitherto unpublished details of operations. Written in a very colourful style, with numerous anecdotes which reveal info until now unavailable to historians and the public alike, here is the low down on various escape routes such as the PAT/PAO line, which ran along the Mediterranean coast to Perpignan and across the Spanish border, and here too is the Comet line from Brussels to the Pyrenees. There are key figures such as Abbé Pierre Carpentier, who ran a safe house but was betrayed and beheaded, Jean-Claude Camors whose organisation helped some 60 airmen to evade, Geneviève Soulié, who helped 136 Allied airmen to escape from France and dozens more - many of whom paid dearly for their assistance. All the routes were fraught with danger, not only for the evaders, but for anyone who helped them. For those who were caught, the penalty was death. Theirs is both a stirring and awe-inspiring story. 494 pages 18cm x 25cm with b/w archive photos, map, notes, glossary, details of selected personalities and eight appendices including lists of both RAF and Comet evaders, sea evacuations and detailed statistical tables. £35 NOW £11
68871 GO! GO! GO!: The Definitive Inside
Story of the Iranian Embassy Siege by Rusty Firmin and Will Pearson The SAS storming of the Iranian Embassy at Princes Gate, near the Royal Albert Hall in London, began at 1924hrs on 5 May 1980 and ended a siege controlled by six men which had started at 1120hrs five days previously. The pictures of the initial SAS attack are some of the best known in the world, and made the SAS a household name the world over. “Operation Nimrod”, became the gold standard for hostage-rescue missions. Rusty Firmin was leader of the SAS team that made the assault on the rear of the building - PC Trevor Lock, who was on the door of the Embassy when the six forced their way in and Sim Harris, the BBC soundman who had arrived 20 minutes earlier to collect a visa, give their accounts. 228pp paperback. Colour and b/w photos. £12.99 NOW £3
69024 WINGS OF WAR: Airborne Warfare 1918-
1945 by Peter Harclerode Parachutists were originally used in warfare mainly for tactical and spying purposes. The new technologies associated with airborne warfare and military transport rapidly pushed forward man’s ability to wage war with ever-increasing effectiveness, and in WWII airborne warfare would prove to be crucial to the outcome. 656pp
paperback which tells the complete story from 1918 to the end of 1945, covering both the key individual operations as well as the aircraft and systems developed for the safe deployment of troops, vehicles, weapons, supplies and other equipment. £10.99 NOW £2.50
68916 LOSING THE PEACE: Failed Settlements and the Road to War
by Matthew Hughes and Matthew Seligmann Many of the major wars of the 20th century emerged from the ruins of previous peace settlements. French hostility to the Treaty of Frankfurt of 1871 contributed to the tense political climate that culminated in the First World War. German resentment at the Treaty of Versailles helped to create the conditions necessary for Hitler’s attempt to reshape Europe by force in the Second World War. Likewise, the Cold War had its roots in the outcome of the titanic Russo-German struggles of 1914-17 and 1941-45. Beyond Europe, post-1945 wars
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