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At first relieved to be back in his childhood home after a debilitating illness, William Fiennes soon becomes bored and restless. Chancing across a copy of Paul Gallico's "The Snow Goose" he is filled with a longing to take flight himself. He goes to Texas, locating vast flocks of snow geese shortly before their spring migration to their summer home beyond the Arctic Circle. Over a period of months he follows their voyage north, considering how and why birds regularly undertake such dangerous and lengthy flights. This unusual and well written book is a fascinating insight into the habits and capabilites of geese and other species, as well as a meditation on the tugs of wanderlust and homesickness.
Price: EUR 12.90
Hodder What happens if someone walks along an English street 'accidentally' bumping into people or, even worse, jumping a queue? Kate Fox, English social anthropologist with an international background, selflessly served as her own guinea pig in the attempt to decode the hidden rules of English behaviour. Her aim is to detect the essence of Englishness, so she has painstakingly observed and analysed every imaginable aspect of English life. Accompanying her on her journey through middle-class front gardens or eavesdropping on conversations in pubs, at funerals or office Christmas parties is not only tremendously funny but also very illuminating. She also examines quite a few well-known stereotypes such as the English fondness for discussing the weather and the legendary English sense of humour. Fox is not just very accurate and pertinent with her observations but also gives us an insight into the social and psychological reasons behind the behaviour she describes. Kate Fox's book is a great source of enlightenment for English people and foreigners alike.
Price: EUR 11.90
When she was ten months old, Kari Herbert went to live with her parents for two years amongst the last surviving tribes of the Polar Inuit hunters. Her first words were in Inuktun and her first friends children of the local tribe. In 2002, she returns to the Arctic alone where she rediscovers the compelling world of her early childhood by piecing together its lost memories. She encounters a people torn between wanting to keep their ancient traditions alive as hunter gatherers in a life of endurance and hardship or submitting to the seductions of easier ways offered by the modern world. Herbert's compelling narrative weaves family memoir, myth and personal adventure with just the right amount of colour and atmosphere to create a truly unique and haunting story of the Arctic and of finding home.
Price: EUR 16.90
A legend, a land once seen and then lost forever, Thule was a place beyond the edge of the maps, a northerly dreamland and a mystery for thousands of years. Drawn to the north and its remote coldness, Joanna Kavenna decides to find Thule for herself. On her exploration, she travels to Shetland, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Greenland and Svalbard, all possible candidates for the magical lost land. She also makes a detour through Munich and her own personal history in search of the philosophers, poets and explorers who claimed Thule for themselves. This unique and evocative account of crossing frontiers, particularly into 'no man's land', also sheds light on our growing knowledge of climate change, pollution and the persistent wish for something uncanny just beyond the horizon!
Price: EUR 13.90
In 1325, aged 21, Ibn Battutah left his home in Tangier to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. He was not to return for nearly 30 years, instead zigzagging his way around the globe. Award winning travel writer MacKintosh-Smith sets off across North Africa intending to trace the first stage of I.B.'s (as he calls him) journey as far as the Crimea. Sliding seamlessly between the centuries in the shadow of his predecessor, he shares with us a world swirling with the weird and wonderful. Intoxicating, dazzlingly erudite, yet full of gentle wit and informed by its author's profound knowledge of Muslim society, this book is a breathtaking achievement.
This fascinating, frank and upbeat travel book tells the story of twenty thousand miles of motorbike travel in four months. The two travellers, actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, motorbike their way through Europe, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia, travel across the Pacific to Alaska then down through Canada and America. On the way, they encounter unpredictable weather and turbulent politics. For example, they are pursued by paparazzi in Kazakhstan, hassled by police for suspicious behaviour and then given bulls' testicles for supper by Mongolian nomads! Yet despite the odds, the two friends do realise their quest for freedom and adventure.
Price: EUR 9.90
After roaming the jungles of three different continents, Redmond O'Hanlon has found it virtually impossible to locate any more untouched spots on our planet. Therefore, he has turned to seeking adventure in the deep sea, one of nature's last unknown terrains. Together with a marine biologist, he joins the fishing crew of a trawler in the North Atlantic. To make sure he gets the 'real thing' he insists on going out in the worst weather at the worst time of year. He gets what he has asked for: a terrible storm, freezing cold, serious sleep-deprivation and a generous helping of sea-sickness. It is hard to tell what is more challenging: the capture of amazing creatures seized from the depths of the ocean or the exclusively male environment with its own particular rules and superstitious rituals. O'Hanlon does his best to become part of this masculine universe, although he is ridiculed as the one 'with hands like a girl'. Nevertheless, despite the crew's demonstration of occasional misogyny, there is good team spirit and even tenderness between them which O'Hanlon lovingly and humourously describes.
Garth Cartwright, Princes Amongst Men: Journeys with Gypsy Musicians, Serpent’s Tail, Garth Cartwright interweaves historical fact, mythic tales and contemporary voices in an off-beat and impressionistic style in this Balkan odyssey in search of the secret history and culture of Europe’s greatest musicians The Roma Gypsies. In this fascinating journey, he travels through the ruins of post-Communist Serbia and observes Roma refugees from the Kosovo conflict. He attends a Gypsy wedding in Macedonia, conveys the tragedy of Romania in the aftermath of Ceausescu, scours Skopje for opium, charts the Euro-Asian beauties so prominent in Bulgaria, almost marries a Gypsy princess in Kocani and witnesses the fiery celebrations that mark Ederlezi, the Night of the Gypsies, in a Bulgarian Gypsy ghetto. This is a trailblazing account of Balkan gypsy music and Roma culture, predestined to become a classic on this subject!
Price: EUR 14.90
This chunky little hardback is a philosophical exploration of travel. Alain de Botton reflects on all aspects of our desires to escape from our usual surroundings, drawing from his own journeys as well as those of artists and authors such as Flaubert, Wordsworth and Van Gogh. The perfect antidote to guidebooks that tell us what to see and do once we get there, 'The Art of Travel' tries to explain why we really wanted to go there in the first place.
