Biography: adventurers and explorers Books
Ebury Publishing Ill Die After Bingo
Book SynopsisNominated for the Chortle Comedy Book Award 2023 ''Blisteringly well written, deeply humane and very funny'' Daily Telegraph''Enough to make you die laughing'' Daily Mail''Funny and moving'' Daily ExpressWhether he''s initiating a coup d''état against new regulations with the residents, or forging a bond with the 98-year old who once called him a fat slut, Pope Lonergan''s work is infinitely varied. This no-holds-barred account shows what life inside a care home is really like, for both residents and carers. Featuring night-time drama, incontinence pads and the uniquely dark humour of one double-amputee Alzheimer''s patient, here you can learn everything you ever wanted to know (and a few things you probably really didn''t) about Britain''s care system.This important memoir challenges us all to think differently about the value of our elderly, and also the carers who look after them.
£999.99
Ebury Publishing Stronger Together
Book SynopsisIt''s okay to be scared, to feel lonely... we''ll get through it, because we have to.''''For more than 40 years Linda and Anne have performed side by side on stage as members of iconic Irish girl group The Nolans. But in 2020 the sisters sat next to each other for a very different experience. Soon after returning home from filming their hit TV series The Nolans Go Cruising, with their sisters Coleen and Maureen, Linda and Anne received devastating cancer diagnoses within days of each other and soon began gruelling rounds of chemotherapy together. It was a stark reminder of how cruel life can be, and, of course, of their beloved sister Bernie, who also faced and lost the same battle. Stronger Together is Linda and Anne''s story. A reflection on their close-knit relationship, in the limelight and behind the scenes, and of how family helped them hold it all together when things got tough. Deeply personal, incredibly moving and told with trademark h
£15.29
Random House Just Sayin
Book Synopsis''It''s very candid, and movingly so.... Not only in Blackman a grafter- even more, and in the face of more, than we already knew. She''s someone with whom you do not mess. Good on her. She''s earned it'' The Telegraph Malorie Blackman is one of Britain''s best and most beloved children''s authors, the landmark Noughts & Crosses series included amongst her many books. Her journey to becoming a writer was a long one, but throughout it all she retained a sense of wonder and humour. Before her BAFTA award wins, her OBE and appointment as Children''s Laureate in 2013, Malorie was a young girl from South London who fell in love with books and found a home in her local library and a world of words at her fingertips. From embracing her alternative way of seeing the world and all its fascinating differences and possibilities; to her desire to share that passion with others by becoming an English teacher but being told no by her careers advisor because of
£16.99
Random House AntiSocial The secret diary of an antisocial
Book SynopsisPerfect for fans of The Secret Barrister and Adam Kay''s This is Going to Hurt.__________________________________''Superb. This hysterically funny and moving memoir of an anti-social behaviour officer is a real eye-opener that hits all the right notes'' FRANKIE BOYLE''Anti-Social is brutally honest, exceptionally funny and terribly sad - a scything indictment of broken 21st century Britain. I could not put it down.'' THE SECRET BARRISTER''A fascinating insight into a job that stitches together the cracks in compassion in our communities'' RENI EDDO-LODGE, bestselling author of Why I Am No Longer Talking To White People About Race__________________________________Has your life become unbearable because the person living above you has a fondness for crack cocaine, the company of strangers and dance music? Or maybe you''re a social worker, mental health nurse, police officer, firefighter, dog warden
£16.99
Broadview Press Inc The Pedro Gorino
Book SynopsisCaptain Harry Foster Dean's 1929 memoir The Pedro Gorino is the extraordinary story of his time in southern Africa around the turn of the twentieth century. Dean's narrative describes his thrilling maritime adventures and his encounters with important figures in history, but he never loses sight of his main purpose: establishing a colony where diasporic Africans could settle alongside native-born Africans and together build a racial empire. His beloved ship, the Pedro Gorino, was at the center of his plans. A race leader manqué, Dean attempted throughout his life to convince Black people everywhere of the importance of the sea for the success of the race.A rich selection of contextual documents supplements the annotated memoir, providing materials on Dean's life and work, imperialism and environmental exploitation in South Africa, Black seafaring, and the Pan-African missionary movement.
£20.66
Viva Editions Too Funny for Words
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£17.99
Pegasus Books Completely Mad
Book SynopsisFrom the New York Times bestselling author of First Man comes a sweeping saga involving two extraordinary—and extraordinarily different—adventurers who have only one thing in common: the ambition to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat . . . alone. In this bracing adventure tale, the story of John Fairfax and Tom McClean are woven together for the first time. Fairfax would set off from the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa with his sights on Florida. McClean charted a course from Newfoundland to Ireland. The two men couldn’t have been more different. John Fairfax was a golden-haired playboy, gambler, whiskey, gun smuggler, and ex-pirate who blamed his boat often, and who brazenly took time off from his goal of reaching America to hop aboard large ships for a drink, a shower, and good food. He courted the press like a modern-day Richard Branson or Elon Musk. The egoless Tom McClean was an orphan with a tough, Dickensian ch
£12.34
Pegasus Books A Polar Affair
Book SynopsisA captivating blend of true adventure and natural history by one of today’s leading penguin experts and Antarctic explorers.George Murray Levick was the physician on Robert Falcon Scott’s tragic Antarctic expedition of 1910. Marooned for an Antarctic winter, Levick passed the time by becoming the first man to study penguins up close. His findings were so shocking to Victorian morals that they were quickly suppressed and seemingly lost to history. A century later, Lloyd Spencer Davis rediscovers Levick and his findings during the course of his own scientific adventures in Antarctica. Levick’s long-suppressed manuscript reveals not only an incredible survival story, but one that will change our understanding of an entire species. A Polar Affair reveals the last untold tale from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. It is perhaps the greatest of all of those stories—but why was it hidden to begin with? The ever-fascinating a
£17.07
Inprov Limited Hanging by a Thread The Saving Moses Journey
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£999.99
University of Alberta Press Kurdish Womens Stories
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£21.59
University of Alberta Press Crossing Into Canada
Book SynopsisCompelling and intimate journeys, told in first person, by two generations of US war resisters who crossed into Canada in search of safe haven.
£21.59
Goose Lane Editions Tappan Adney
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£19.79
Caitlin Press The Eventful Life of Philip Hankin
£16.99
Caitlin Press Accidental Blooms
£16.15
Caitlin Press Arctic Patrol
£18.69
Caitlin Press The Weight of Survival
£13.59
Pushkin Press Rilke The Last Inward Man
Book SynopsisAn incisive and intimate account of the life and work of the great poet Rilke, exploring the rich interior world he created in his poetryWhen Rilke died in 1926, his reputation as a great poet seemed secure. But as the tide of the critical avant-garde turned, he was increasingly dismissed as apolitical, as too inward. In Rilke: The Last Inward Man, acclaimed critic Lesley Chamberlain uses this charge as the starting point from which to explore the expansiveness of the inner world Rilke created in his poetry. Weaving together searching insights on Rilke''s life, work and reception, Chamberlain casts Rilke''s inwardness as a profound response to a world that seemed ever more lacking in spirituality. In works of dazzling imagination and rich imagery, Rilke sought to restore spirit to Western materialism, encouraging not narrow introversion but a heightened awareness of how to live with the world as it is, of
£20.00
Michael O'Mara Books Ltd Wallis in Love
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£15.00
Rowanvale Books Turkmenistan Where on Earth Is That
£12.34
Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd Francis Egerton 1st Earl of Ellesmere
Book SynopsisThe first biography of a cultured nineteenth century benevolent industrialist, friend of Prince Albert, Wellington and Robert Peel, whose former estate houses the RHS Bridgewater Garden.
£18.77
Orion Publishing Co What Makes Us Stronger
Book Synopsis''Freya Lewis is extraordinary'' Katie Piper''A love letter to the NHS'' Lorraine Kelly''A poignant story of courage and pain but, most of all, it is a striking testament to friendship.'' Daily Express''A candid account of the terrorist attack and the effect it has had on her life.'' The i''An unflinching story of grief, survival and love'' YOU MagazineThe Manchester Arena attack nearly destroyed her.Love and courage saved her.Freya Lewis was just three metres away from the terrorist who detonated the bomb at the Manchester arena on the night of 22nd May 2017. Her best friend Nell was tragically killed, but Freya - thrown forwards by the blast - somehow survived. She suffered 29 separate injuries, was in a coma for five days, and wheelchair-bound for three months.Yet just 12 months later, she was on her feet, running the Junior Great Manchester Run and raising 60,000 for the
£14.24
Carcanet Press Ltd Letters of Keith Douglas
Book Synopsis
£17.09
Sally Milner Billy
Book SynopsisI had never experienced a regular home environment, and certainly nothing even approaching what people take for granted today. I had never experienced the feeling of belonging to a proper family, or the warm comfort of a family home. Life for me had always been a game of chance; a matter of heads or tails. Yet it was here, on that faraway island, while chained to a cable on an old timber wharf, that I had my first yearning for home. -- Billy YoungThis book has been compiled from a personal chronicle penned by Billy Young throughout the 1970s, supplemented by hundreds of conversations that Lynette and Billy have shared in the course of their close friendship spanning over two decades. It is the only first-hand published account by an ordinary soldier imprisoned by the Japanese at the infamous Sandakan POW Camp, and one of only three books by a survivor at the Kempeitais equally notorious Outram Road Gaol. Billy is now the only soldier left alive from Sandakan, and the only Australian pr
£17.09
Sally Milner Publishing Pty Ltd At War with My Father
Book SynopsisIt is June 2008, and I am on a hillside overlooking the NSW country town of Boorowa. It is a long time since I felt any need to visit the cemetery, but today I have come to talk to my father. My research on the notorious BurmaThai railway, where he was a POW has brought me to this moment. For the past 13 years I have been following my fathers war time footsteps as a way of understanding him as a person and intern understanding myself. Sergeant Fred Howe struggles to stay conscious. A hundred needles from the barbed wire securing him to the tree pierce his bony body; cigarette burns inflicted by his tormentors sting his bare skin; the hot tropical sun escalates his thirst and hunger tears at his gut. In his lucid moments, Fred ponders his decision to enlist. After all, he was 34 years of age at the time, a married man and father to four children. He wonders how much longer he can last, both physically and mentally. Will the war soon be over and those who have made it thus far be on thei
£17.09
Huia Publishers Graham Latimer
Book SynopsisSir Graham Latimer managed to navigate Aotearoa New Zealand''s stormy political seas for decades. This biography tracks Sir Graham''s life from his humble beginnings to the setbacks and triumphs of his public career. Harrison''s biography evokes life in Aotearoa New Zealand''s far north, the shocking J Force occupation of Japan, and the salient Maori political issues and personalities of the past half century.
£22.94
Otago University Press Fitz
Book SynopsisThe story of James Edward FitzGerald, whose energy and enthusiasm contributed so much to the early history of Christchurch. Orator, writer, politician and journalist, he was the first Canterbury Pilgrim to set foot in New Zealand, first superintendent of the province of Canterbury, first leader of the general government, and founder of the Press newspaper. From his early years in the Anglo-Irish gentry of England to his old age as auditor-general of the colony, Fitz is a gripping biography that reads like a novel, breathing new life into the extraordinary man who played a major role in public life through fifty years of New Zealand history.
£17.05
Vertebrate Publishing Ltd The Last Blue Mountain: The great Karakoram
Book Synopsis‘When an accident occurs, something may emerge of lasting value, for the human spirit may rise to its greatest heights. This happened on Haramosh.’The Last Blue Mountain is the heart-rending true story of the 1957 expedition to Mount Haramosh in the Karakoram range in Pakistan. With the summit beyond reach, four young climbers are about to return to camp. Their brief pause to enjoy the view and take photographs is interrupted by an avalanche which sweeps Bernard Jillott and John Emery hundreds of feet down the mountain into a snow basin. Miraculously, they both survive the fall. Rae Culbert and Tony Streather risk their own lives to rescue their friends, only to become stranded alongside them.The group’s efforts to return to safety are increasingly desperate, hampered by injury, exhaustion and the loss of vital climbing gear. Against the odds, Jillott and Emery manage to climb out of the snow basin and head for camp, hoping to reach food, water and assistance in time to save themselves and their companions from an icy grave. But another cruel twist of fate awaits them.An acclaimed mountaineering classic in the same genre as Joe Simpson's Touching the Void, Ralph Barker’s The Last Blue Mountain is an epic tale of friendship and fortitude in the face of tragedy.Table of ContentsIntroduction to the 2020 Edition by Ed DouglasForeword to the 1959 Edition by Lord HuntAuthor’s Note1 HARAMOSH2 IN THE KUTWAL VALLEY3 ABOVE THE HARAMOSH LA4 TROUBLE WITH THE HUNZAS5 THE LOST FOOD DUMP6 THE CLIMB TO CAMP IV7 THE SNOW CAVE8 EMERY AND THE CREVASSE9 THE AVALANCHE10 THE SNOW BASIN11 THE TREACHEROUS TRAVERSE12 THE TRACKS DIVIDE13 FIGHTING FOR LIFE14 DISINTEGRATION15 ALONE AT CAMP III16 LAST NIGHTS ON THE MOUNTAINAfterwordAppendix: ‘The Runcible Cat’ by John EmeryPhotographs and IllustrationsIndex
£12.34
Words By Design Arctic Norway Journeys
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£15.00
Monash University Publishing Jean Galbraith Writer in a Valley
Book SynopsisThis is the story of Jean Galbraith, one of Australia's most influential botanists and writers on nature, plants and gardens. During a writing career that spanned seventy years, she turned botanical writing into a literary art, developed new forms of garden writing in Australia, and was tireless in spreading knowledge of native plants. The magic of her writing delighted her readers. She put her vision of nature into words and helped Australians of all ages to see their own landscapes in new ways. This is also the story of a writer and her place, a valley in Gippsland, Victoria. The valley was fundamental to her being and the source of her inspiration. She celebrated the beauty of all she saw a peppermint tree by her fence, a drift of wildflowers near a creek but she was also witness to encroaching industrialisation that transformed her landscapes. Through telling the story of Jean Galbraith's passion for nature and her simple life, of her writing and its farreaching influence, this book offers insights into Australia's gardening, botanical and environmental history.
£26.09
Monash University Publishing Democratic Adventurer
£24.29
Simon & Schuster The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden
Book SynopsisThe world’s leading expert on Osama bin Laden delivers for the first time the definitive biography of a man who set the course of American foreign policy for the 21st century, and whose ideological heirs we continue to battle today. In The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, Peter Bergen provides the first reevaluation of the man responsible for precipitating America’s long wars with al-Qaeda and its descendants, capturing bin Laden in all the dimensions of his life: as a family man, as a zealot, as a battlefield commander, as a terrorist leader, and as a fugitive. The book sheds light on his many contradictions: he was the son of a billionaire, yet insisted his family live like paupers. He adored his wives and children, depending on two of his wives, both of whom had PhDs, to make important strategic decisions. Yet he also brought ruin to his family. He was fanatically religious, yet willing to kill thousands of civilians in the name of Islam. He inspired deep loyalty yet, in the end, his bodyguards turned against him. And while he inflicted the most lethal act of mass murder in United States history, he failed to achieve any of his strategic goals. The lasting image we have of bin Laden in his final years is of an aging man with a graying beard watching old footage of himself, just another dad flipping through the channels with his remote. In the end, bin Laden died in a squalid suburban compound, far from the front lines of his holy war. And yet despite that unheroic denouement, his ideology lives on. Thanks to exclusive interviews with family members and associates, and documents unearthed only recently, Bergen’s portrait of Osama will reveal for the first time who he really was and why he continues to inspire a new generation of jihadists.
£28.50
ibidem-Verlag, Jessica Haunschild u Christian Schon From Nowhere to Somewhere
Book SynopsisNationalism has long been the subject of analysis and debate. Has it been a positive or negative factor in human development? Since nationalism first took hold in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, scholars have developed various theories and historical narratives to describe this worldwide ideological and political phenomenon. But how does nationalism work? How do certain groups of people become nationalities? What concrete mechanisms have been adopted by governments and/or intellectual leaders to transform often disparate individuals into groups who become conscious of their common identity and distinctiveness from others?No new theory of nationalism is put forth in From Nowhere to Somewhere. Rather, in a memoiristic and clearly personal manner, the text provides a kind of nuts-and-bolts guide to nationality-building. It focuses on developments during the last half century among Carpatho-Rusyns, or Ruthenians, a numerically mid-sized stateless people living in the heart of Europe and among the diaspora it has spawned in the United States. To paraphrase the most famous person of Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry, Andy Warhol, the reader of this book will discover how Carpatho Rusyns, a previously unknown people from nowhere, have become recognized and can now be found somewhere.
£999.99
Manohar Publishers and Distributors Patel Political Ideas and Policies
Book SynopsisPatel: Political Ideas and Policies comprehensively presents the different facets of Sardar Patel's political life, his ideas and their applications. The book provides a detailed analysis of his perspectives on liberal democracy, nationalism and the statethe three pillars of his political life. Patel's role in the Constituent Assembly, transfer of power, integration of princely states with independent India and their territorial reorganization, administrative reforms, formation of the Planning Commission and creation of India's foreign policy were decisive to the consolidation and the very survival of India as a nation. He played an equally decisive role in the formulation of India's economic policies. After Patel's death in 1950, his contributions to the nation have often been undermined and various negative characteristics have been attributed to him.
£37.99
Orient BlackSwan Lost Letters and Feminist History
Book SynopsisWhile Gandhiâs life and work have continued to fascinate historians, Sarala Devi has not yet been the subject of a comprehensive biography. Critical of writings that tend to sensationalise Gandhiâs relationships with women, Forbesâ analysis instead brings her into focus as an equal participant.
£20.42
Rupa Publications India Pvt Ltd. Homi J. Bhabha
Book SynopsisHomi J. Bhabha: Aife is a comprehensive biography of the renowned theoretical physicist, showcasing his intellect, artistic talents, and pivotal role in India's nuclear program. It offers insights into his personal and professional life, highlighting his contributions to Indian science and the atomic energy program.
£42.67
Manohar Publishers and Distributors Decoding Ambedkar
Book SynopsisThis book has tried to search for the aspects of social justice in Ambedkarâs thoughts.
£26.99
HarperCollins Publishers India Five Decades in Politics
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£19.99
HarperCollins Publishers India Tagore In Tripura
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£999.99
Aleph Book Company Ambedkar
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£23.28
HarperCollins Publishers Wilfred Thesiger
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£999.99
HarperCollins Publishers The Life and Adventures of William Cobbett
Book SynopsisA remarkably perceptive and vivid life of one of England's greatest radicals.Trade Review‘This is a wonderful portrait of a great Englishman…Richard Ingrams’s biography does a fantastic job of fleshing out this bold, bacon-eating, bloody-minded and often very funny writer.’ Independent on Sunday ‘The publicity hype – “a perfect match of author and subject” – really is spot-on. Both are supreme satirists, masters of the vituperative arts and excellent writers of plain, vigorous English.’ Mail on Sunday ‘It is a packed and combative life, and Richard Ingrams, who knows all about people trying to silence you with libel writs, is the ideal man to write it. He does so spiritedly and entertainingly.’ Daily Mail ‘CK Chesterton remarked: “The man who does not find one of Cobbett's books amusing is doomed to find every book dull.” The same applies to anyone who reads this entertaining biography.’ Independent ‘There have been many biographies of Cobbett but the story is a good one, full of adventures, and few can have told it with the succinctness of Ingrams.’ Guardian ‘Cheerful and enthusiastic…an entertaining read. Ingrams…shows us a man of quite extraordinary passion, energy and principle.’ Daily Telegraph
£14.24
HarperCollins Publishers The Quest for C
Book SynopsisA fascinating and unique history of the launch of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service through the unusual life of its founder, Mansfield Cumming.Sir Mansfield Cumming, the founder of the British Secret Service and the original C', has until now been a shadowy figure. For this authorised biography, the Secret Intelligence Service has released to Alan Judd, Cumming's voluminous diaries, which have never been seen outside the Service and will be put back into storage in perpetuity when Judd has used them.The result is likely to be the most sensational biography of the season, and the definitive account of how MI5 and MI6 the models for all subsequent secret services all over the world were set up.Cumming signed himself C', was referred to as such in Whitehall and always used green ink, traditions maintained to this day. His life not only makes riveting reading but casts fascinating light on the development of the Secret Service and its influence on the twentieth century.
£9.99
HarperCollins Publishers VOYAGES OF DELUSION The Search for the North West Passage in the Age of Reason
Book SynopsisVoyages of Delusion in the Age of Reason: Williams’s book charts the 18th-century’s perilous and often fatal attempts to discover a passage through the Arctic to the Pacific. An astounding work of the history of arctic exploration.Trade Review‘Remarkable… never was there a tale which joined such horror and pity, disaster and triumph, such fortitude in adversity. Glyn Williams’ narrative brings out all the drama of the story.’ NAM Rodger, TLS
£12.34
HarperCollins Publishers Through the Narrow Gate
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£999.99
HarperCollins Publishers Emmas War
Book SynopsisLove, corruption, violence and the dangerous politics of aid in the Sudan, by an exciting new writer.Emma McCune's passion for Africa, her unstinting commitment to the children of the Sudan, and her striking glamour set her apart from other aid workers the moment she arrived in southern Sudan. But no one was prepared for her decision to marry a local warlord a man who seemed to embody everything she was working against and throw herself into his violent quest to take over southern Sudan's rebel movement.At once a disturbing love story and a penetrating examination of the Sudan, Emma's War charts the process by which Emma's romantic delusions led to her descent into the hell of Africa's longest running civil war.Trade Review‘One of the best (books) I have ever read on the difficult relationship between the developed world and the Third World. An eye-opener. Scroggins is as brave as her subject…she has written a wonderful and challenging book.’ William Shawcross, Sunday Times ‘A wonderful book and a gripping history of the Sudan which doesn’t shrink the complexities.’ Observer ‘Scroggins is to be congratulated for making the story of McCune’s ill-fated foray into Africa such a good read.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Deborah Scroggins’ analysis provides sharp relevance. It is the story both of a woman and a strange and sorrowful world.’ Sunday Independent ‘Remarkable…it has the feel of an epic tale, taking in the tragedy of Sudan…Scroggins steers a tight path between writing this book as an account of her own fascination with Sudan and as the story of McCune’s life.’ New Statesman ‘Her biography is a painstaking and loving portrait of this remarkable woman.’ Evening Standard ‘Deborah Scroggins has a sharp eye. “Emma’s War” is about the politics of the belly, and what happens when the fat white paunch meets the swollen stomachs of the hungry in Africa. It is a sorry story, but Ms Scroggins tells it awfully well.’ Economist ‘Part history, part biography and part Scroggins’ own memoir, “Emma’s War” offers an enthralling, accessible account of Sudan’s most recent history.’ Sunday Business Post
£11.69
HarperCollins Publishers GILCHRIST ON BLAKE The Life of William Blake by Alexander Gilchrist
Book SynopsisLIVES THAT NEVER GROW OLD Part of a radical new series – edited by Richard Holmes – that recovers the great classical tradition of English biography. Gilchrist’s ‘The Life of William Blake’ is a biographical masterpiece, still thrilling to read and vividly alive.
£11.39
HarperCollins Publishers The Knox Brothers
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£999.99
HarperCollins Publishers The Gates of Africa Death Discovery and the Search for Timbuktu
Book SynopsisThe 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.Trade Review‘Enthralling. One of the most fascinating accounts of exploration that I’ve read in a long time.’ Jim Blackburn, Wanderlust ‘In “The Gates of Africa”, Anthony Sattin has excelled himself’.’ Conde Nast Traveller ‘Absorbing, highly readable and in places ironically humorous, a well-rounded and definitive study.’ Martin Booth, Sunday Times ‘An extraordinary panorama of adventure, scholarship, intellectual enterprise and ideological conviction, enlivened by frequent splashes of eccentricity and beautifully written throughout.’ Jan Morris
£14.24
