Expeditions: popular accounts Books

Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2023* NOW A MAJOR DOCUMENTARY SERIES ON ALL 4 *‘This is a fabulous adventure – reckless, insanely ambitious and filled with sweat, tears and laughter ... irresistible reading.’ Joanna Lumley‘Alex Bescoby weaves travel, adventure, history and the contemporary together like no one else. His great gift is to take us on a journey through past and present.' Dan Snow_______________________________________________________________‘A journey that I don’t think could be made again today’. It was this comment by Sir David Attenborough on the fiftieth anniversary of the iconic First Overland expedition that became an irresistible challenge for filmmaker and adventurer Alex Bescoby.In 1955, Attenborough, then a young TV producer, was approached by six recent university graduates determined to drive the entire length of ‘Eurasia’, from London to Singapore. It was the unclimbed Everest of motoring – many had tried, none had succeeded. Sensing this time might be different, Attenborough gave the expedition enough film reel to cover their attempt. The 19,000-mile journey completed by Tim Slessor and the team captivated a nation emerging from postwar austerity. Tim’s book, The First Overland, soon became the bible of the overlanding religion. Inspired by the First Overland, Alex made contact with now eighty-six-year-old Tim and together they planned an epic recreation of the original trip, this time from Singapore to London. Their goal was to complete the legendary journey started more than sixty years ago in the original Land Rover. In awe of the unstoppable Tim, and haunted by his own grandfather’s declining health, Alex and his team soon find themselves battling rough roads, breakdowns and Oxford’s constantly leaky roof to discover a world changed for the better – and worse – since the first expedition.Trade ReviewBescoby is a terrific travelling companion, full of insight, sharp observation and enviable sangfroid. -- Michael WoodElegant, wry, indomitable, self-deprecating – a splendid, sparkling addition to expeditions and to travel writing. -- Rory StewartThe Last Overland is an epic overland journey, epitomising the spirit of the great modern adventure. -- Levison WoodAlex Bescoby weaves travel, adventure, history and the contemporary together like no one else. His great gift is to take us on a journey through past and present. By its end we have learned more about the world and ourselves -- Dan SnowThe First Overland was an amazing journey, underlining the fact that adventure is always out there for anybody who seeks it. This epic recreation of that trip shows us that whether you’re the first or the thousandth, the view from the mountaintop is just as incredible. I know that Alex’s Last Overland expedition will inspire other intrepid explorers to ensure that this is definitely not the last – there is always more to see and explore -- Tony Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely PlanetThis is a fabulous adventure – reckless, insanely ambitious and filled with sweat, tears and laughter ... irresistible reading. An immense challenge and a thrilling true story -- Joanna LumleyA proper adventure story – a journey halfway around the world with all the scrapes, hiccups, wonderment and exhilaration to be expected from an epic journey in an old Land Rover with a leaky roof. Told with an infectious enthusiasm, passion and compelling verve, this is the story of an overland journey that says much about our ongoing relationship with the planet on which we live, but also the passage of time and an undimmed thirst for adventure. -- James HollandNot content to just pay homage to a legendary journey, Alex Bescoby must drive the very Land Rover, complete with GIN and TONIC Jerry cans, that made the trip in 1955. Spoiler alert: nothing goes to plan. The Last Overland is steered by an indomitable spirit through time, friendships, obsession, doubt and perpetual motion. A book not only for adventurous hearts who want to seize life, but for those who want to interrogate what it is to be human. -- Keggie Carew

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Book Synopsis'Conjures the rasp of the ski runner, the scent of burning blubber and the rippling iridescence of the Northern Lights' Sara Wheeler '[An] astonishing, haunting memoir' Isabella Tree The rediscovered classic memoir - the mesmerizingly beautiful account of one woman's year spent living in a remote hut in the Arctic In 1934, the painter Christiane Ritter leaves her comfortable home for a year with her husband on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen. On arrival she is shocked to realise that they are to live in a tiny ramshackle hut on the shores of a lonely fjord, hundreds of miles from the nearest settlement. At first, Christiane is horrified by the freezing cold, the bleak landscape and the lack of supplies... But after encounters with bears and seals, long treks over the ice and months of perpetual night, she finds herself falling in love with the Arctic's harsh, otherworldly beauty. This luminous classic memoir tells of her inspiring journey to freedom and fulfilment in the adventure of a lifetime. Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe Translated by Jane Degras With a foreword by Sara Wheeler Born in 1897, CHRISTIANE RITTER was an Austrian artist and author. She wrote A Woman in the Polar Night on her return to Austria from Spitsbergen in 1934. It has since become a classic of travel writing, never going out of print in German and being translated into seven other languages. 'A year in the Arctic should be compulsory to everyone,' she would say in her later years. 'Then you will come to realise what's important in life and what isn't.' Ritter died in Vienna in 2000 at the age of 103.Trade Review“An epic story, elegantly told and full of mystery. Even though I could never hope to match her bravery and aplomb, Ritter made me long to decamp at once for the harshest and wildest corners of the earth.” — Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle

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Book SynopsisThe long-awaited final volume of the trilogy by Patrick Leigh Fermor. A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water were the first two volumes in a projected trilogy that would describe the walk that Patrick Leigh Fermor undertook at the age of eighteen from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. 'When are you going to finish Vol. III?' was the cry from his fans; but although he wished he could, the words refused to come. The curious thing was that he had not only written an early draft of the last part of the walk, but that it predated the other two. It remains unfinished but The Broken Road - edited and introduced by Colin Thubron and Artemis Cooper - completes an extraordinary journey.Trade ReviewNobody could do the job better than the book's editors. Colin Thubron is a travel writer of Leigh Fermor's calibre, Artemis Cooper is his masterly biographer . . . It contains wonderful passages of purest Leigh Fermor . . . Time and again he gives us vivid glimpses of encounters along the way - priests and peasants, the squalors of the back country, high life in Bucharest - and this virtuoso display is embedded as always in his astonishing range of learning . . . full of fun, kindness, easy learning, sophistication and innocence . . . a gently fitting conclusion to his tumultuous masterpiece -- Jan Morris * Mail on Sunday *This is a major work. It confirms that Leigh Fermor was, along with Robert Byron, the greatest travel writer of his generation, and this final volume assures the place of the trilogy as one of the masterpieces of the genre, indeed one of the masterworks of post-war English non-fiction -- William Dalrymple * Guardian *Colin Thubron and Artemis Cooper have put this book to bed with skill and sensitivity . . . Friends and fans, acolytes, devotees and disciples can all rest easy. It was worth the wait -- Justin Marozzi * Spectator *The editors have done a fine job * Literary Review *It is magnificent. Cooper and Thubron have done an immense service in bringing the book to publication, for it unmistakably stands comparison with its remarkable siblings. The prose has the glorious turbulence and boil of the first two books, and the youthful magic of his 'dream-odyssey' is still potent * Robert MacFarlane, The Times *A fitting conclusion to his masterpiece . . . This book is momentous * Mail on Sunday *The pages are filled with brilliant evocations of his life on the road, none richer than the time he spent in a Romanian broth . . . It is a fitting epilogue to 20th-century travel-writing and essential reading for devotees of Sir Patrick's other works * The Economist *I set off along The Broken Road laden with expectations that I would have to make allowances. Yet almost from the off, I realised that I would have no use for these. Here was a wealth of descriptions that only Leigh Fermor could have conjured up . . . In a stroke of brilliance, Thubron and Cooper have included the separate diary that Leigh Fermor kept of the month he spent exploring Mount Athos in Greece immediately after leaving Istanbul. So, the Athos diary, aglow with rich experience, finally brings the journey to its rightful end in the spiritual heart of the country that was to prove, though the young author did not yet know it, Leigh Fermor's "real love and destination" * New Statesman *This is a picaresque essay, a virtuoso tapestry of anecdote in the author's best tradition * Country Life *The first two volumes were a joy to read, not least for Leigh Fermor's ability to recapture in later life the intense excitement of being a young man lighting out. The latest book offers similar joys . . . Also evident are another of the joys of the earlier books - the pyrotechnics of his writing. Exuberance is expressed in heightened suggestions . . . it captures the joy of the open road, the fresh view he gives of Europe as it began to show the stresses that led to world war, and the glimpses of a long-lost life and innocence * Observer *The Mount Athos diary - untampered with by his older self - reminds us what an extraordinary young man he was . . . This early style is more immediate, more youthful; a pleasure to read in a wholly different way from the later magnificence * Financial Times *A road trip that is as illuminating as it is incomplete made by a traveller, warrior and jewelled stylist * Independent *There is plenty to enjoy, so much so that the reader often forgets to wonder how much is true, and how much the revisionist work of an inventive and poetic mind . . . the pleasure lies in its combination of erudition, exuberant speculation, lively anecdote and meticulous, picture-painting language . . . Gorgeous imagery, granted, yet it is in Leigh Fermor's disarming cameos that The Broken Road excels * Sunday Times *His literary executors have topped, tailed and polished with such sympathy and skill that their interventions cannot be detected. This is pure Paddy: these are his feelings, perceptions and responses, his the observations, his the descriptions, consummate in a phrase, acute and intense when extended to paragraph or page; this is his style yet it is in many ways a youthful text, its core the adventure of a very young man, its embellishments the experience, curiosity and wisdom of his older self * Evening Standard *What a poignant and somehow fitting finale for a legendary procrastinator. It was certainly worth the wait * National *This final leg, through Romania and Bulgaria rounds off a classic trilogy * i *For readers of the other two books, to see the odyssey at last (almost) concluded, will naturally be irresistible. For everyone else there is the discovery of a unique writer * Sunday Express *The final volume confirms the trilogy as one of the 'masterpieces' of English travel writing * Week *A scintillating continuation of the prodigious walk that took the young Leigh Fermor right into the heart of magically different pre-war Europe and beyond . . . his journey is complete, his world task accomplished, with the whole undertaking as thick in marvels as Aladdin's cave * Irish Times *The perfect present for anyone with wanderlust * Good Housekeeping *The third unfinished volume of Leigh Fermor's enchanted journey through Mitteleuropa is here at last * TLS Books of the Year *Glorious . . . Artemis Cooper and Colin Thubron created THE BROKEN ROAD from a rejected essay on walking (15 times the size requested of Paddy), some failed drafts and a pair of flimsy travel journals. But the author is arguably more present in their loving editorial hands . . . than in any of his other books. There is also that infectious enthusiasm for the road and the lived experience, for spoken language, oral knowledge and for everything Byzantine and Greek * Daily Telegraph, Best Books of the Year *His epic journey's erudite conclusion will not disappoint his many fans * Saga *Offers a fascinating glimpse of a lost time and talent * Financial Times, Books of the Year *My favourite book this year was the final, unfinished and posthumous volume of Patrick Leigh Fermor's walking trilogy . . . it is every bit as masterly as Between the Woods and the Water * Observer, Books of the Year *Glorious . . . Artemis Cooper and Colin Thubron created The Broken Road . . . but the author is arguably more present in their loving editorial hands . . . than in any of his other books. There is also that infectious enthusiasm for the road and the lived experience, for spoken language, oral knowledge and for everything Byzantine and Greek * Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year *Offers a fascinating glimpse of a lost time and talent * Financial Times, Books of the Year *Its rich depictions and liquid language make this a masterpiece to savour * Sunday Express *In magnificent prose [Patrick Leigh Fermor] describes liaisons with countesses in crumbling castles, changing landscapes, now lost forever, and the delight of a young man with nothing but himself and his quest for adventure. Travel writing at its most sublime * Daily Express *His award-winning biographer Artemis Cooper and travel writer Colin Thubron have painstakingly and sensitively worked on Paddy's draft of the final leg of his epic journey and ghosted a wonderful account of his swashbuckling journey . . . It conjures up a life that's unimaginable in more cautious modern times and is beautifully written * Daily Mail *Like many really good things, it's hard to say why The Broken Road, the final volume of Patrick Leigh Fermor's account of his walk from Holland to Constantinople, is so satisfying. But it is * Mail on Sunday *

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Book Synopsis**SHORTLISTED FOR ADVENTURE TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2018 EDWARD STANFORD AWARD** A thrilling and dangerous adventure through Arunachal Pradesh, one of the world's least explored places. 'A fabulously thrilling journey through a beguiling land' Joanna Lumley  'With tremendous verve and determination Antonia plunges through an extraordinary world. Thank heavens she survived to tell this vivid and thoughtful tale' Ted Simon, author of Jupiter's Travels  'A tale of delight and exuberance - and one I'd thoroughly recommend. Bolingbroke-Kent proves a great travelling companion - compassionate, spirited and with a sharp eye for human oddity' Benedict Allen, author of Edge of Blue Heaven and Into the Abyss  'A transformative journey that gripped me from the very first

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Book SynopsisContains the descriptions of North America, a bountiful land of grapes and vines, discovered by Vikings five centuries before Christopher Columbus. This title counts the Icelandic settlement of Greenland by Eirik the Red and the chance discovery by seafaring adventurers of a mysterious new land.

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Book SynopsisThe age of exploration was drawing to a close, yet the mystery of the North Pole remained. Contemporaries described the pole as the ‘unattainable object of our dreams’, and the urge to fill in this last great blank space on the map grew irresistible.In 1879 the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds and amid a frenzy of publicity. The ship and its crew, captained by the heroic George De Long, were destined for the uncharted waters of the Arctic. But it wasn’t long before the Jeannette was trapped in crushing pack ice. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew found themselves marooned a thousand miles north of Siberia with only the barest supplies, facing a seemingly impossible trek across endless ice. Battling everything from snow blindness and polar bears to ferocious storms and frosty labyrinths, the expedition fought madness and starvation as they desperately strove for survival. Trade Review‘Tells the extraordinary story of this little known expedition in Hampton Sides’ well-honed style – meticulous research shoring up a fast-paced narrative’. * Financial Times *‘A stirring story… a brilliant exposition of narrative non-fiction: moving, harrowing, as gripping as any well-paced thriller but a lore more interesting because it is also true’ * The Times *'A splendid book in every way... a marvelous nonfiction thriller.' * Wall Street Journal *‘[Sides] is a scrupulous researcher who has mined all the primary material, including extensive journals and medical logs carried home by survivors, and he quotes judiously, interleaving the narrative with heartbreaking extracts from letters written by De Long’s young wife’ * Spectator *'A vivid tale of exploration set in a howling, deadly wilderness.' -- T.J. Stiles, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt'An astonishingly good story.' -- Candice Millard, New York Times bestselling author of The Destiny of the Republic and The River of Doubt'Harrowing and impeccably paced.' * New Yorker *‘Hampton Sides is a master storyteller, and here he has delivered a stunningly vivid account of perhaps the most dramatic polar mission you never heard of. Once you start, you won't stop.’ -- Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down'Reads like a first-class epic thriller.' -- Lev Grossman * Time *‘Unforgettable…a pulse-racing epic of endurance set against an exceedingly bizarre Arctic backdrop… a masterful work of history and storytelling.’ * Los Angeles Times *‘Phenomenally gripping… Sides works story-telling magic.' * Boston Globe *'Sides spins a propulsive narrative from obscure documents, journals and his own firsthand visits to the Arctic regions visited by the Jeannette and its crew.' * USA Today *‘First-rate polar history and adventure narrative... a harrowing story, well told.’ * New York Times Book Review *'The history of polar exploration sets a high bar for extreme physical ordeal — think John Franklin, Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott — and the tribulations of De Long and his crew stack up with the worst of them.' * Washington Post *'A dazzling page-turner.' * Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea *'Masterful storytelling... The reader is drawn into the ice from the first page and will not want to leave until the fate of every man is known.' * Caroline Alexander, author of The Endurance and The Bounty *'An Arctic thriller, an authentic narrative masterpiece.' * S.C. Gwynne, author of Empire of the Summer Moon *'One of the greatest and most harrowing adventures of all time. Spellbinding.' * David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z *'Sides has brought together an absolutely marvelous cast of characters… All works of history should be half this much fun.' -- Scott Anderson, author of Lawrence in Arabia

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Book Synopsis* NOW A MAJOR DOCUMENTARY SERIES ON ALL 4 *‘This is a fabulous adventure – reckless, insanely ambitious and filled with sweat, tears and laughter ... irresistible reading.’ Joanna Lumley ‘Alex Bescoby weaves travel, adventure, history and the contemporary together like no one else. His great gift is to take us on a journey through past and present. By its end we have learned more about the world and ourselves.’ Dan Snow_______________________________________________________________‘A journey that I don’t think could be made again today’. It was this comment by Sir David Attenborough on the fiftieth anniversary of the iconic First Overland expedition that became an irresistible challenge for filmmaker and adventurer Alex Bescoby.In 1955, Attenborough, then a young TV producer, was approached by six recent university graduates determined to drive the entire length of ‘Eurasia’, from London to Singapore. It was the unclimbed Everest of motoring – many had tried, none had succeeded. Sensing this time might be different, Attenborough gave the expedition enough film reel to cover their attempt. The 19,000-mile journey completed by Tim Slessor and the team captivated a nation emerging from postwar austerity. Tim’s book, The First Overland, soon became the bible of the overlanding religion.Inspired by the First Overland, Alex made contact with now eighty-six-year-old Tim and together they planned an epic recreation of the original trip, this time from Singapore to London. Their goal was to complete the legendary journey started more than sixty years ago in the original ‘Oxford’ Land Rover.In awe of the unstoppable Tim, and haunted by his own grandfather’s declining health, Alex and his team soon find themselves battling rough roads, breakdowns and Oxford’s constantly leaky roof to discover a world changed for the better ­­– and worse – since the first expedition.Trade ReviewTold with verve, passion, and above all a huge amount of fun, this is the real thing ... Bescoby is a terrific travelling companion, full of insight, sharp observation and enviable sangfroid. -- Michael WoodElegant, wry, indomitable, self-deprecating – a splendid, sparkling addition to expeditions and to travel writing. -- Rory StewartA fantastic piece of travel writing set to become a classic of the genre. The Last Overland is an epic overland journey, epitomising the spirit of the great modern adventure. -- Levison WoodAlex Bescoby weaves travel, adventure, history and the contemporary together like no one else. His great gift is to take us on a journey through past and present. By its end we have learned more about the world and ourselves -- Dan SnowThe First Overland was an amazing journey, underlining the fact that adventure is always out there for anybody who seeks it. This epic recreation of that trip shows us that whether you’re the first or the thousandth, the view from the mountaintop is just as incredible. I know that Alex’s Last Overland expedition will inspire other intrepid explorers to ensure that this is definitely not the last – there is always more to see and explore -- Tony Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely Planet‘This is a fabulous adventure – reckless, insanely ambitious and filled with sweat, tears and laughter ... irresistible reading. An immense challenge and a thrilling true story.’ -- Joanna LumleyA proper adventure story – a journey halfway around the world with all the scrapes, hiccups, wonderment and exhilaration to be expected from an epic journey in an old Land Rover with a leaky roof. Told with an infectious enthusiasm, passion and compelling verve, this is the story of an overland journey that says much about our ongoing relationship with the planet on which we live, but also the passage of time and an undimmed thirst for adventure. -- James HollandNot content to just pay homage to a legendary journey, Alex Bescoby must drive the very Land Rover, complete with GIN and TONIC Jerry cans, that made the trip in 1955. Spoiler alert: nothing goes to plan. The Last Overland is steered by an indomitable spirit through time, friendships, obsession, doubt and perpetual motion. A book not only for adventurous hearts who want to seize life, but for those who want to interrogate what it is to be human. -- Keggie CarewThe epitome of an epic expedition. This story speaks to the spirit of adventure. That innately curious part of the human condition that seeks to push boundaries and endure. * Country & Town House magazine *Alex Bescoby recreates a journey originally documented in the mid-1950s, bookending one of the great overland adventures of the last century in buccaneering fashion. * Wanderlust *A poignant meditation on age, health and acknowledging the heroes of the past * Waterstones *

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Book Synopsis**SHORTLISTED FOR THE STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR**Alev Scott's odyssey began when she looked beyond Turkey's borders for contemporary traces of the Ottoman Empire. Their 800-year rule ended a century ago - and yet, travelling through twelve countries from Kosovo to Greece to Palestine, she uncovers a legacy that's vital and relevant; where medieval ethnic diversity meets 21st century nationalism, and displaced people seek new identities.It's a story of surprises. An acolyte of Erdogan in Christian-majority Serbia confirms the wide-reaching appeal of his authoritarian leadership. A Druze warlord explains the secretive religious faction in the heart of the Middle East. The palimpsest-like streets of Jerusalem's Old Town hint at the Ottoman co-existence of Muslims and Jews. And in Turkish Cyprus Alev Scott rediscovers a childhood home. In every community, history is present as a dynamic force.Faced by questions of exile, diaspora and collective memory, Alev Scott searches for answers from the cafes of Beirut to the refugee camps of Lesbos. She uncovers in Erdogan's nouveau-Ottoman Turkey a version of the nostalgic utopias sold to disillusioned voters in Europe and the U.S. And yet - as she relates with compassion, insight and humour - diversity is the enduring, endangered heart of this fascinating region.Trade ReviewA lovely, lyrical and always insightful account that is as much about the present as the past. A joy from start to finish * Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads *Beautifully written with clear-eyed judgements and a sharp ear for fascinating anecdote and memorable characters. Exhilarating and often eye-opening, it shows this crucial region of the world from a new perspective. Essential reading for anyone interested in Turkey and its history * Michael Wood *Alev Scott approaches the crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean by side roads and unfrequented channels. Her book is clear, bright, humane and never disheartened. * James Buchan *Brilliantly written with a real feel for character, the book is a pleasure to read and an erudite lesson in a fascinating chapter of Modern History. An indispensable addition to our understanding of the Middle East today. * Roger Scruton *This is a book full of fun, "I never knew that" moments . . . Scott's mission is not to tell the history of the calamitous way the British and French dismantled the empire. Her aim is to find out whether the bits left behind as Ottoman imperialists became Turkish nationalist have common threads . . . She is fascinated by the survival and difference of forgotten, represses and otherwise threatened minorities -- Richard Spencer * The Times *Moving and amusing * Financial Times *Beautifully written - combines history, travel writing and personal discovery . . . Scott's writing is lyrical . . . She writes with a maturity and insight that belies her age, and is surely a rising star of the literary world. Her overall message is one of optimism. -- Saul David * Telegraph *Despite the bloody histories and ugly contemporary realities she seeks to investigate, Scott is always entertaining. She regales her reader with witty pen portraits. -- Alev Adil * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisJohn Muir wrote many wonderful books about his travels, but one story—about his long walk from San Francisco to Yosemite—is one book he did not author himself. In April 1868, a very young John Muir stepped off a boat in San Francisco and inquired about the quickest way out of town. “But where do you want to go?” was the response, to which Muir replied, “Anywhere that is wild.” Using Muir’s personal correspondence and published articles, Peter and Donna Thomas have reconstructed the real story of Muir’s literal ramblings over California hills and through dales, with lofty Sierra Nevada peaks, Englishmen, and bears mixed in for good measure. The trip is illustrated by charming cut-paper illustrations that take their inspiration from Muir's love of nature. John Muir’s story-telling is so compelling that even 150 years later, seeing the world through his eyes makes us want to head out into the wild.Trade ReviewLIBRARY JOURNAL, February 15, 2018: The authors have reimagined the narrative as an ebullient letter penned to inspire Muir's friends to experience the wonders of California in person. This slim volume sparkles with Muir's poetic descriptions of the ecology, flora, and fauna of the Yosemite Valley, while [Emily Brown's] cut-paper illustrations lend a graceful and classic quality. VERDICT Essential reading for Muir devotees and those interested in the natural history of the Yosemite region.—KELSY PETERSON, FOREST HILL COLL., MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

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Book SynopsisVivid, powerful and absorbing, this is a first-person account of one of the most startling military episodes in history: the overthrow of Montezuma''s doomed Aztec Empire by the ruthless Hernan Cortes and his band of adventurers. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, himself a soldier under Cortes, presents a fascinatingly detailed description of the Spanish landing in Mexico in 1520 and their amazement at the city, the exploitation of the natives for gold and other treasures, the expulsion and flight of the Spaniards, their regrouping and eventual capture of the Aztec capital.Table of ContentsThe expedition of Francisco Hernandex de Cordoba; the expedition of Juan de Grijalva; the expedition of Hernando Cortes - preparations; the voyage; Dona Marina's story; a pause on the coast; the stay at Cempoala; the foundation of Vera Cruz; the march to Cingapacinga and return of Cempoala; events at Vera Cruz - the destruction of the ships; the Tlascalan campaign; peace with Tlascala - embassies from Mexico; the march to Mexico; the entrance into Mexico; the stay in Mexico; Montezuma's captivity; Cortes in difficulties; the flight from Mexico; Cortes collects fresh strength; expeditions around the lake; the siege and capture of Mexico.

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Book SynopsisA riveting account of a landmark expedition that left only one survivor, now back in print for the first time in decades.Arabia Felix is the spellbinding true story of a scientific expedition gone disastrously awry. On a winter morning in 1761 six men leave Copenhagen by sea—a botanist, a philologist, an astronomer, a doctor, an artist, and their manservant—an ill-assorted band of men who dislike and distrust one another from the start. These are the members of the Danish expedition to Arabia Felix, as Yemen was then known, the first organized foray into a corner of the world unknown to Europeans. The expedition made its way to Turkey and Egypt, by which time its members were already actively seeking to undercut and even kill one another, before disappearing into the harsh desert that was their destination. Nearly seven years later a single survivor returned to Denmark to find himself forgotten and all the specimens that had been sent back ruined by neglect. Based on diaries, notebooks, and sketches that lay unread in Danish archives until the twentieth century, Arabia Felix is a tale of intellectual rivalry and a comedy of very bad manners, as well as an utterly absorbing adventure.Arabia Felix includes 33 line drawings and maps.

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Book SynopsisOne of the finest mountaineering books. A phenomenal tale of strength and valour. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JOE SIMPSON In 1950, no mountain higher than 8,000 meters had ever been climbed. Maurice Herzog and other members of the French Alpine Club resolved to try. This is the enthralling story of the first conquest of Annapurna and the harrowing descent. With breathtaking courage and grit manifest on every page, Annapurna is one of the greatest adventure stories ever told. As well as an introduction by Joe Simpson, this new edition includes 16 pages of photographs, which provide a remarkable visual record of this legendary expedition. The distinguished French mountaineer Maurice Herzog was leader of the 1950 expedition to Annapurna. He was one of the two climbers to reach the summit.Trade Review'A classic of its kind... His vivid, high powered but never overdramatised account of the ascent still reads splendidly' * The Irish Times *After being swept off his feet by an avalanche and left dangling by a rope around his neck, Herzog 'began to pass water, violently and uncontrollably'. Your reaction may be only slightly less extreme as you move from one nail-biting moment to the next in this wonderful 1952 tale of triumph and frostbite. * Outside *Quite simply the greatest mountaineering book ever written. * Joe Simpson, from the Introduction *The climb took place before the Himalayas were a tourist attraction and before Gore-Tex cold-weather gear was available in Marks & Spencer. They had no oxygen, little food and on the descent Herzog lost his gloves, got trapped in a storm, was buried in an avalanche and became frostbitten. His descriptions don't stint on the details of maggot-ridden flesh and amputations without anaesthesia -- Richard EyreThose who have never seen the Himalayas...will know that they have been a companion of greatness * New York Times Book Review *

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Book SynopsisDescribes the customs of India, recounts the story of the king who died eighty-four times and explains how to retrieve diamonds from snake-infested caves...

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Book SynopsisThe Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was perhaps the most ambitious, elaborate and confident of all the British attempts to master the South Pole. Like the others it ended in disaster, with the Endeavour first trapped and then crushed to pieces in the ice and its crew trapped in the Antarctic, seemingly doomed to a slow and horrible death. In the face of extraordinary odds, Shackleton, the expedition''s leader, decided on the only course that might just save them: a 700 nautical mile voyage in a small boat across the ferocious Southern Ocean in the forelorn hope of reaching the only human habitation within range: a small whaling station on the rugged, ice-sheeted island of South Georgia.South tells the story both of the whole astonishing expedition and of Shackleton''s journey to rescue his men - one of the greatest feats of navigation ever recorded.

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Book SynopsisHighlighting the true heroism of Antarctic explorers, the dangers they face and the equipment used to prevailTrade ReviewSpine-chilling stuff -- Sir Ranulph FiennesCompelling

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Book SynopsisFresh from finishing the Marathon des Sables, Ranulph Fiennes has become the oldest Briton to complete this ultimate endurance test. The world''s greatest living explorer, has travelled to some of the most remote, dangerous parts of the globe. Well-known for his experiences at the poles and climbing Everest, he has also endured some of the hottest conditions on the planet, where temperatures regularly exceed 40 degrees and, without water and shelter, death is inevitable.

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Book SynopsisOn December 17, 1922, Andre Citroen sent an expedition of Citroen half tracks or autochenilles to follow the camel tracks across the Sahara desert from Algeria to Timbuktu on the banks of the River Niger. This was the first motorized crossing of the Sahara and took twenty-one days. It permitted the establishment of a land connection between North Africa and the Sudan, at that time extremely isolated, and opened the way for the exploration of the heart of Africa. This first crossing was the culmination of the long, slow penetration of the Sahara by car and plane between 1910 and 1921. During this time, the courageous drivers and pilots of the French military squadrons based in Algeria and Tunisia explored the dunes of the Grand Erg and Tanezrouft, sometimes losing their lives, but they paved the way for this first, victorious Citroen expedition. To reconstruct the history of this Crossing of the Sands, Ariane Audouin-Dubreuil has delved into the diaries and archives of her father who was one of the pioneers of the exploration of the Sahara during those years. Along with Georges Marie Haardt, Andre Citroen's close collaborator and partner, he planned and led the expedition which succeeded in reaching Timbuktu, and then returned by a different route to Algeria. The book is rich in wonderful period photographs and vividly recounts the dangers and difficulties of exploration in those times. First published in French in 2005, the book has now been translated into English by Dalton Watson Fine Books.

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Book Synopsis“An extraordinary tale of derring-do told in a mesmerising new book via fascinating archive pictures – and worthy of a Hollywood movie too.” — Daily Mail "A new book showcasing them all is a fascinating read… The care and dedication that has gone into The Nansen Photographs is obvious." — Amateur Photographer "This epic tome, lovingly and painstakingly put together by Geir O Klover, director of the Fram Museum in Oslo, recounts this expedition using original photos and diary entries." — Black and White Photography In the late 19th century, the Norwegian Artic explorer Fridtjof Nansen undertook a pioneering expedition: he wanted to reach the North Pole with the specially designed ship Fram. The Nansen Photographs recounts this expedition, from the launch in 1890 through to the end of Nansen’s international lecture tour in 1897, using original photographs alongside personal diary entries from Nansen and seven of his crew members. Together, they illustrate in a poignant and sometimes disconcerting way how the expedition members went about their daily lives and conducted their research, the conflicts they faced, and how they ultimately brought their daring undertaking to its successful conclusion. This book brings new life to previously known facts and introduces the reader to hundreds of previously unknown photographs from the expedition. The large format of the book brings the smaller details in the photographs to the forefront, providing new insight into the work and life on board, the equipment and the clothing. Opposing diary entries from Nansen and the men about the same situations show that life on board was not always easy and tell a gripping story of survival and the human condition. Nansen’s lack of empathy and practical skills caused frustration among the men, and several of them resorted to fists to sort out their differences, but nonetheless they all pulled through and set a new standard for arctic expeditions to come. When Nansen leaves the ship for his legendary 18 month journey with Hjalmar Johansen towards the North Pole, we follow both Nansen and Johansen and the crew left on board through their photographs and diaries. The return to Norway and the spectacular celebration is told in detail through photographs, newspaper reports, speeches, menus and ephemera. This stunning 712-page book comes with an illustrated dustjacket and contains 850 photographs and illustrations, 35 ship drawings and 25 maps.Trade Review“An extraordinary tale of derring-do told in a mesmerising new book via fascinating archive pictures – and worthy of a Hollywood movie too.” - Daily Mail"A new book showcasing them all is a fascinating read… The care and dedication that has gone into The Nansen Photographs is obvious." - Amateur Photographer"This epic tome, lovingly and painstakingly put together by Geir O Klover, director of the Fram Museum in Oslo, recounts this expedition using original photos and diary entries." - Black and White Photography

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Book SynopsisThis under-documented expedition was a pivotal moment in the annals of polar exploration and was the starting point, in historical terms, of revealing the great unknown continent of Antarctica. It was the first time in nearly 70 years since Captain James Cook had circumnavigated Antarctica, that a Royal Naval voyage of discovery had ventured so far South. They set a new 'furthest south' record in the process beating the one set up by James Weddell in a whaling ship in 1823. The expedition set sail from Greenwich in 1839. It consisted of two wooden sailing ships commanded by Captain James Clark Ross and Commander Francis Crozier. The ships were manned exclusively by Royal Naval personnel and each ship had a complement of 64 men and officers. Their primary task was of a scientific nature to study the Earth's magnetic field and build up a set of results that could provide a greater understanding of the effects of magnetism on compasses and their use in navigating the world's oceans. This voyage had a set of planned targets and all were accomplished. In the process a vast amount of scientific information was collected. Many exotic places were visited during the voyage amongst them Madeira, St Helena, Cape Town, Kerguelen island, New Zealand, Australia and the Falkland Islands but the pinnacle was the discovery of the Ross Sea, The Ross Ice Shelf and the mighty volcanoes of Erebus and Terror (named after the two ships). The crews experienced the dangers of navigating in ice-strewn waters and narrowly escaping being crushed by icebergs. Illness was kept at bay although several lives were lost due to accidents. It would be another 60 years before the scenes of their greatest discoveries were visited again and then the Golden Age of Discovery was ushered in with the likes of Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen.Table of ContentsPart 1 - The Expedition. In the Beginning; Targets and instructions; James Clark Ross and Francis Crozier; Setting sail to Madeira and the Atlantic Islands; Cape Town and beyond; Next stop - Hobart, Tasmania; First taste of the ice; Amazing discoveries and wonders to behold; Turning North; South again to the Great Ice Barrier; Impending Disaster; Wild cattle hunt and a third winter away; Return to the Antarctic. Part 2 - The sailors' stories. Part 3 - The sailors' ships

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Book Synopsis 'This is a book to be awed by.' – Daily MailIn 1924, the British Mount Everest Expedition led by George Mallory set out to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak. In 2024, documentaries and exhibitions – some sponsored, like the original climb, by the Royal Geographical Society – will commemorate the 100th anniversary of this famous adventure. Everest 24, published with the RGS, presents a newly curated portfolio of images from the expedition and those that preceded it. These include John B. Noel’s hand-coloured lantern slides and film stills; retouched black-and-white photographs; artefacts discovered on George Mallory’s body in 1999; mountain cartography; and the original expedition correspondence. The book casts new light on this exceptional archive through ‘from the collection’ features; and narrates the story of Mallory and ‘Sandy’ Irvine’s

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Book Synopsis'He effectively combines the genre of travel writing with investigative journalism, and brings to light little-known conflicts and events from around the world.' - Perceptive TravelIn Journeys to Impossible Places, best-selling author and presenter Simon Reeve reveals the inside story of his most astonishing adventures and experiences, around the planet and close to home.Journeys to Impossible Places continues the story Simon started in his phenomenal Sunday Times bestseller Step by Step, which traced the first decades of his life from depressed and unemployed teenager through to his early TV programmes.Now Simon takes us on the epic and thrilling adventures that followed, in beautiful, tricky and downright dangerous corners of the world, as he travelled through the Tropics, to remote paradise islands, jungles dripping with heat and life, and on nerve-wracking secret missions. Simon shares what his unique experiences and encounters have taught him, and the deeper lessons he draws from joy and raw grief in his personal life, from desperate struggles with his own fertility and head health, from wise friends, fatherhood, inspiring villagers, brave fighters, his beloved dogs, and a thoughtful Indian sadhu.Journeys to Impossible Places inspires and encourages all of us to battle fear and negativity, and embrace life, risk, opportunities and the glory of our world.Trade ReviewHe effectively combines the genre of travel writing with investigative journalism, and brings to light little-known conflicts and events from around the world * Perceptive Travel *"Not only is Simon good at manoeuvring in and out of precarious situations, but he is also deft at painting those moments on the page." * Scottish Field *

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Book SynopsisA journey – both historical and contemporary – among the fantastical landscapes, resourceful inhabitants and isolated tribes of the world's fourth-largest island of enduring fascination for its rich biodiversity: Madagascar. 'A beautifully written depiction of the history of this beguiling island' Literary Review 'Courageous, exploratory, humane and with a wry sense of humour' Spectator 'A feat of journalism, observation and determination' Dr Alyson Hitch 'Wonderfully witty and wry' Benedict Allen We think we know Madagascar but it's too big, too eccentric, and too impenetrable to be truly understood. As well as visiting every corner of the island, John Gimlette journeys deep into Madagascar's past. Along the way, he meets politicians, sorcerers, gem prospectors, militiamen, rioters, lepers and the descendants of seventeenth-century pirates. Insightful and wryly humorous, here's an encounter with the people, landscapes, politics and history of one of the most remarkable places on Earth.Trade ReviewFew writers have delved into [Madagascar's] history and none as thoroughly and mercilessly as Gimlette... His descriptions of the everyday sights of Madagascar are wonderful... Enjoy the book as an evocation of this extraordinary island, in all its complexity and all its contradictions' * Literary Review *A beautifully written depiction of the people and history of this beguiling and perplexing island -- Edward PaiceCourageous, exploratory, humane and with a wry sense of humour * Spectator *Destined to scoop whatever travel book awards are still in existence these days * The Bay (Swansea) *The best English-language travel writer out there * Travel Mag *A fabulous new book * Timeless Travels *John Gimlette's latest thoughtful study sees him explore the relatively recent human history of the world's fourth largest island * Wanderlust *This is classic Gimlette – an utter delight. Here is the tale of an enchanted island, one enlivened by its spirited inhabitants and mysterious past. But what makes the book so readable is the author's unfailing eye for the quirky and unexpected. It's a wonderfully witty and wry book, the author's wanderings through Madagascar lit all along the way by his telling eye for detail and accustomed panache -- Benedict AllenIn this chronicle of the fascinating strangeness of Madagascar [...] incredulity, horror and amusement coalesce in Gimlette's customarily talented narration of the weird * Irish Times *Gimlette's 'walk-through history' is a tour de force, taking in slavery, Welsh missionaries, ancestor worship, French conquest, and forts whose ramparts are rendered in millions of egg whites * Telegraph *[Gimlette] takes us to the beautiful but extremely weird tropical island where everything – especially its history and fauna – is larger than life -- Andrew Roberts, Engelsberg Ideas

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Book SynopsisFor acclaimed Australian chef Aaron Turner, hot chicken isn’t just food – it’s salvation in crispy, fried and devilishly spicy form. In The Hot Chicken Project, he travels back to Nashville, the place of its birth, to pay his respects to the makers, to chart the love and obsession that has shaped his world, and to make sure that what he does back home is doing it justice. Part cookbook, part pilgrimage, The Hot Chicken Project is both an epic love letter to the fiery bird and a celebration of a way of life that is in danger of vanishing forever.The Hot Chicken Project is part recipe book (40 recipes covering the best mains, sandwiches, sides, salads and sauces), part narrative, part pictorial celebration of the history and power hot chicken holds over the city of Nashville – and now beyond (including London!). It frames the stories of the people and families and communities who have cooked and eaten and appropriated it in Nashville over several generations. It offers a loud, opinionated take-no-prisoners perspective on food culture in the US (and beyond) today, as well as being an incomparable how-to manual for the VERY best hot chicken and accompaniments – wherever you are.

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Book SynopsisHailed by The Guardian and other publications as 'a real-life Indiana Jones,' Slovenian archaeologist Ivan Sprajc has been mapping out previously unknown Mayan sites in Mexico's YucatÁn Peninsula since 1996. Most recently, he was credited with the discovery of the ChactÚn and Lagunita sites in 2013 and 2014, respectively, helping to fill in what was previously one of the largest voids in modern knowledge of the ancient Maya landscape: the 2,800-square-mile Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in central YucatÁn.Previously published in Sprajc's native Slovenian and in German, this thrilling account of machete-wielding jungle expeditions has garnered enthusiastic reviews for its depictions of the efforts, dangers, successes, and disappointments experienced as the explorer-scientist searches out and documents ancient ruins that have been lost to the jungle for centuries. A skilled communicator as well as an experienced scholar, Sprajc conveys in eminently accessible prose a wealth of information on various aspects of the Maya culture, which he has studied closely for decades.The result is a deeply personal presentation of archaeological research on one of the most enigmatic civilizations of the ancient world. Generously illustrated, this book follows the chronology of Sprajc's discoveries, focusing on what he considers the most interesting episodes. Those who specialize in Mesoamerican prehistory and archaeology will certainly relish Sprajc's reports concerning his many field surveys and the discoveries that resulted. General readers, too, will enjoy his accounts of previously undocumented sites, ancient urban centers overtaken by the jungle, massive sculpted monuments, and mysterious hieroglyphic inscriptions.Trade ReviewIvan Sprajc captures the excitement, the frustration, and the sheer slog of seeking ancient Maya cities in the tropical forest of southern Mexico. His discoveries have changed our understanding of Maya civilization in that region: this book is a record of scholarship attained as well as adventure accomplished." - Norman Hammond, author of Ancient Maya Civilization."A charming, nostalgic revisiting of the romance and adventure of the Great Explorer Era of Maya archaeology. Lost Maya Cities is a fascinating, informative, captivating retrospective of real exploration and scientific study. This volume serves up a literary feast while also clearly and simply explaining the solid science and 'why' of modern Maya field research. For anyone longing for or new to the genuine adventure and romance of the 'Great Explorer' genre of Maya studies, Sprajc has produced a true gem in this book." - Joseph W. Ball, author of Cahal Pech, the Ancient Maya, and Modern Belize: The Story of an Archaeological Park

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Book SynopsisAn elegant, densely textured work, like a tapestry A welcome contribution to polar studies.' Sara Wheeler, Spectator [MacInness] handles the whole thing with masterly skilltakes us to the heart of the hope, love, anguish and grief' The TimesTrade Review‘A captivating, heartrending, emotionally exhausting, beautifully crafted bloody brilliant book’ Ben Tarring ‘I am reading it with fascination. It’s magnificent. [MacInnes has] an almost supernatural ability to conjure up the past.’ Sue Limb: co-author of Captain Oates: Soldier and Explorer 'The story of the five women waiting at home for Captain Scott and his doomed polar party is naturally occluded in tragedy. In this engaging book Katherine MacInnes for the first time presents them – two mothers at the outset, and three wives – as distinct individuals, separated one from the other by class, education, faith and temperament …An elegant, densely textured work, like a tapestry … A welcome contribution to polar studies.’ Sara Wheeler, Spectator ‘[MacInness] handles the whole thing with masterly skill…takes us to the heart of the hope, love, anguish and grief’ Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Times ‘A breathless parallel narrative, flipping from the Antarctic horrors to the worried women keeping calm and carrying on … Mesmerising … Movingly done’ Kate Green, Country Life '[MacInnes] relies … deftly on photographs, from which she derives many of her descriptions of precise moments. It is fascinating and impressive to have her prose bring these images to life, as she plausibly recaptures the moments they depict … She show[s] that history in the making is not only experienced but felt, poignantly and painfully.' Stephanie Barczewski, TLS ‘Combining historical research, including access to family archives, with a vivid storytelling style, author Katherine MacInnes presents … the public and private fallout of the tragedy, which reveals much about society at the time. In doing so she presents a fresh and fascinating perspective on a well-worn story, as well as a window onto a lost world.’ This England magazine 'A truly gripping, original and refreshing angle on the history of polar exploration' The Bay magazine ‘Superb’ Bute Museum

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Book SynopsisRobert Falcon Scott was born in 1868. He became a naval cadet at the age of 13 and he was made a full lieutenant in the Royal Navy in 1889. The Royal Geographical Society appointed him to command the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. The expedition set sail on the Discovery and reached further south than anyone before. Scott returned to Britain as a national hero. In 1910 Captain Scott organised a second expedition to sail to the Antarctic on board the Terra Nova. On the 17th January 1912 the party reached the pole, only to find that they had been beaten by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Scott and his companions died on their march back to safety on 29 March 1912.Eight months later, a search party found the tent, the bodies and Scott's journals. The journals were first published in 1913.Trade ReviewThe death of Captain Oates ("I am just going outside and may be some time") and Scott's last entry ("For God's sake look after our people") have become the stuff of legend, but what stands out is his skill as a writer. Unlike Amundsen, who simply raced to the South Pole, Scott took a more leisurely, scientific interest in everything he saw, making notes on the "green ghostly light" of dawn, the changeable weather, the blizzards, the penguins, the killer whales, even his own dogs and ponies. He has nothing but praise for his men * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisLauren Elkin is the author of several books, including Flâneuse: Women Walk the City, a Radio 4 Book of the Week, a New York Times Notable Book of 2017, and a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel award for the art of the essay. Her essays on art, literature, and culture have appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Granta, Harper's, Le Monde, Les Inrockuptibles, and Frieze, among others. She is also an award-winning translator, most recently of Simone de Beauvoir's previously unpublished novel The Inseparables. After twenty years in Paris, she now lives in London.Trade ReviewAn uplifting, gender-bending critique of how women negotiate public space -- Deborah Levy * Guardian, Book of the Year *Deliciously spiky and seditious, she takes her readers on a rich, intelligent and lively meander through cultural history, biography, literary criticism, urban topography and memoir… I defy anyone to read this celebratory study and not feel inspired to take to the streets in one way or another. -- Lucy Scholes * Observer *Well researched and larded with examples, this picaresque account of a picaresque longing successfully paints women back into the city... Elkin reboots the appetite to go walking and thinking in the city, which can only be a good thing. * Evening Standard *Flâneuse is not simply a reclaiming of space, but also of a suppressed intellectual and cultural history. Finding ways to reframe images of women walking and to reverse male gazes, Flâneuse builds on recent work by Rebecca Solnit and the artist Laura Oldfield Ford, among others, with striking intellectual vigour and clear, enrapturing prose. * Financial Times *The thoughtful urban stroller Lauren Elkin is a self-appointed heir to Woolf's 'street haunter'. A memoir, a travelogue and an eminently likeable work of literary criticism, Flaneuse is more like a song sung under Elkin’s breath. [...] At its best, her book evokes reading aloud... reading your own life through the novels that form part of it. -- Gaby Wood * Daily Telegraph *Wonderful… a joyful genealogy of the female urban walker. The book’s narrative meanders brilliantly and appropriately across several times periods at once… Elkin’s Flaneuse does not simply wander aimlessly, any more than Elkin does herself in this elegant book: she uses her reflection to question, challenge and create anew the life that she observes. -- Lara Feigel * Guardian *An intense meditation on what it means to be a women and walk out in the world. Flaneuse encourages its readers to lace up their shoes and go for a walk. Elkin lets the reader become a companion to many women who have thought seriously about the relationship between a woman and the path she chooses to tread. -- Erica Wagner * New Statesman *I've been waiting for years to see the history of women walkers in the city added to the critical literature of the flaneur--and here, in Lauren Elkin's really smart and lovely book -- Vivian GornickEngaging, inspiring and vigorous... The persuasiveness with which she urges us to rethink and expand our understanding of the art of flânerie, together with the force of her insights and the strength and weight of her voice, leaves us with a contribution to the field that feels singular. Buy it, read it, talk about it. And carry it with you in your mind when you next go walking in the city. -- Matthew Adams * The National *Flâneuse offers a rich engagement with the “psychogeography” of 20th-century literature and the contemporary city… A rich, rewarding pedalogue -- Martin Doyle and Sara Keating * Irish Times *In her richly evocative and absorbing debut, cultural critic Elkin homes in on the female version of the flaneur . . . In this insightful mix of cultural history and memoir, Elkin emerges at the protagonist as she mines her personal journey from the suburbs of Long Island to her current home in Paris * Publishers Weekly *Marvellously eclectic and erudite * Bookseller *An appealing blend of memoir, scholarship, and cultural criticism . . . Elkin's own story runs through the text like a luminous thread. She tells us the woman-in-the-street stories of Jean Rhys, Virginia Woolf, George Sand, Sophie Calle, Agnès Varda, and Martha Gellhorn, but all sorts of other cultural figures appear, including Barthes, Rilke, Baudelaire, Hemingway, Derrida, Dickens, and numerous others . . . Enlightening walks through cities, cultural history, and a writer's heart and soul * Kirkus *This is a book about wandering women, the author included, who build relationships with their cities by walking through them . . . Women can and do make feminist statements simply by strolling through their stomping grounds; Elkin creates an interesting and inarguable case for this. She, too, is a wanderer and provides compelling anecdotes about her own journeys, interspersed with those of literary heavy-hitters George Sand, Jean Rhys, Virginia Woolf, and others . . . This is ultimately a celebration of women. You'll want to take a stroll by the end * Library Journal *Inspiring * Psychologies *

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Book SynopsisAs war clouds darkened over Europe in 1914, a party led by Shackleton set out to make the first crossing of the entire Antarctic continent via the Pole. But their initial optimism was short-lived as ice floes closed around their ship, gradually crushing it and marooning 28 men on the polar ice. Alone in the world's most unforgiving environment, Shackleton and his team began a brutal quest for survival. And as the story of their journey across treacherous seas and a wilderness of glaciers and snow fields unfolds, the scale of their courage and heroism becomes movingly clear.Table of ContentsSouth: The Endurance ExpeditionIntroduction by Fergus FlemingPrefaceI. Into the Weddell SeaII. New LandIII. Winter MonthsIV. Loss of the EnduranceV. Ocean CampVI. The March BetweenVII. Patience CampVIII. Escape from the IceIX. The Boat JourneyX. Across South GeorgiaXI. The RescueXII. Elephant IslandXIII. The Ross Sea PartyXIV. Wintering in McMurdo SoundXV. Laying the DepotsXVI. The Aurora's DriftXVII. The Last ReliefXVIII. The Final PhaseAPPENDIX IScientific WorkSea-Ice NomenclatureMeteorologyPhysicsSouth Atlantic Whales and WhalingAPPENDIX IIThe Expedition Huts at McMurdo SoundIndex

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Book SynopsisEnding in Ice is about Wegener's explorations of Greenland, blending the science of ice ages and Wegener's continental drift measurements with the story of Wegener's fatal final expedition trying to rescue starving workers at the central Greenland ice station of Esmitte in 1930.Trade Review'This is a revealing and expertly written book that deserves a wide audience...' Polar Publishing, 2007Table of Contents1. Scientist and Explorer ; 2. Wegener's Shocking Idea ; 3. The World Reacts to Wegener's Idea ; 4. Preparing for Greenland ; 5. Arriving in Greenland ; 6. Establishing Eismitte ; 7. The Fourth Trip to Eismitte, September, 1930 ; 8. Winter at East Station and West Station, 1930-1931 ; 9. Winter at Eismitte ; 10. The Search for Wegener and Villumsen ; 11. Searching for Reasons ; 12. Remembering Wegener ; 13. Progress After 1960 ; Endnotes ; Select Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisAround 1600, Richard Hakluyt sought to honour his nation by publishing a compilation of every document he could find relating to English voyages beyond Europe’s boundaries. In a dazzling account of an editorial project seminal to England’s encounter with the world and the nation’s idea of itself, Fuller unlocks Hakluyt’s work for modern readers.Trade Review“Mary Fuller is one of the foremost scholars of early modern English travel writing, and Lines Drawn across the Globe is the result of a long career of nuanced assessment of writings on travel and encounter. Not just a textual study, this is also an investigation into early modern geography, European rivalries, and global expansion. It provides the most comprehensive guide to reading Hakluyt that is currently available.” Daniel Carey, University of Galway“Lines Drawn across the Globe is a magisterial work many years in the making, a personal reading of Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations of the English Nation by a scholar of literature that deploys real expertise, and an indispensable analytical guide to a text whose size and diversity can be daunting. While Hakluyt is often interpreted in the context of the history of early English colonialism in the Atlantic, emphasizing long-term historical consequences and the mythology of New World exceptionalism, Fuller offers a more nuanced exploration of the book’s rich and varied contents.” Joan-Pau Rubiés, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

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Book SynopsisFrom the earliest migrations to the dawn of space tourism, experience the excitement of travel throughout the ages in this gloriously illustrated book! The quest for adventure has defined human history since the beginning of time. Whether it be for food, pilgrimages, trade, or scientific curiosity, people have been compelled to set forth into the wild for centuries. Trace their incredible journeys in this beautifully illustrated book! From the first trade networks in ancient Sumer, to the Crusades, the Grand Tour, and the Voyager missions in outer space. This enthralling visual history of travel includes maps, paintings, photographs, and journal entries to fascinate every armchair traveler. Be transported through space and time with the only comprehensive and fully illustrated book on the history of travel. Inside it you''ll find: -Stories of great exploration, migration, and scientific discovery, accompanied by historic maps, paintings and pho

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Book Synopsis''A roaring tale ... remains as vivid and exciting today as it was on publication in 1697'' GuardianThe pirate and adventurer William Dampier circumnavigated the globe three times, and took notes wherever he went. This is his frank, vivid account of his buccaneering sea voyages around the world, from the Caribbean to the Pacific and East Indies. Filled with accounts of raids, escapes, wrecks and storms, it also contains precise observations of people, places, animals and food (including the first English accounts of guacamole, mango chutney and chopsticks). A bestseller on publication, this unique record of the colonial age influenced Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver''s Travels and consequently the whole of English literature.Edited with an Introduction by Nicholas Thomas

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Absorbing." --Christian Science Monitor"Jolliet and Marquette is an engrossing history book that covers an early European expedition into lands unfamiliar to its explores; it is respectful in analyzing the not yet colonized cultures they encountered." --Foreword Reviews“An authoritative and long-overdue treatment of the historic Jolliet-Marquette voyage of discovery. Walczynski reaffirms and explains what is good in past scholarship while demonstrating where the established histories went off the track. The guiding of the reader up the Illinois River on Marquette and Jolliet’s return trip is unparalleled and priceless.”--Michael McCafferty, author of Native American Place-Names of Indiana“This is a good read, and also a handy one in the 'old school' form of reliable regional history. The author writes about much more than the voyage. He contextualizes and discusses the earliest years of French interest in establishing a colony, and delves into the political mechanisms that drove early French colonial settlement in the Midwest. Walczynski also provides a welcome detailed description of the Illinois River Valley as it was during the seventeenth century.”--Robert F. Mazrim, author of At Home in the Illinois Country: French Colonial Domestic Site Archaeology in the Midwest, 1730–1800Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: The Historical Background to 1665 Confronting the Haudenosaunee, Searching for Ore, and Allouez in the Upper Country Copper Mines, Cavelier, and Wisconsin St. Lusson, Marquette, Jolliet and the Sault, Adrien Jolliet, and Frontenac St. Ignace to the Des Moines River From the Illinois Villages to the Illinois River From the Mississippi to Kaskaskia Kaskaskia to Lake Michigan and Beyond Canada, Jolliet, and Marquette Marquette Returns to Kaskaskia La Salle Allouez, and Kaskaskia Hudson Bay, La Salle in the Illinois, and the Recollects La Salle, the Illinois Country, and the Gulf Epilogue Appendix: Timeline of Events Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Absorbing." --Christian Science Monitor"Jolliet and Marquette is an engrossing history book that covers an early European expedition into lands unfamiliar to its explores; it is respectful in analyzing the not yet colonized cultures they encountered." --Foreword Reviews“An authoritative and long-overdue treatment of the historic Jolliet-Marquette voyage of discovery. Walczynski reaffirms and explains what is good in past scholarship while demonstrating where the established histories went off the track. The guiding of the reader up the Illinois River on Marquette and Jolliet’s return trip is unparalleled and priceless.”--Michael McCafferty, author of Native American Place-Names of Indiana“This is a good read, and also a handy one in the 'old school' form of reliable regional history. The author writes about much more than the voyage. He contextualizes and discusses the earliest years of French interest in establishing a colony, and delves into the political mechanisms that drove early French colonial settlement in the Midwest. Walczynski also provides a welcome detailed description of the Illinois River Valley as it was during the seventeenth century.”--Robert F. Mazrim, author of At Home in the Illinois Country: French Colonial Domestic Site Archaeology in the Midwest, 1730–1800Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: The Historical Background to 1665 Confronting the Haudenosaunee, Searching for Ore, and Allouez in the Upper Country Copper Mines, Cavelier, and Wisconsin St. Lusson, Marquette, Jolliet and the Sault, Adrien Jolliet, and Frontenac St. Ignace to the Des Moines River From the Illinois Villages to the Illinois River From the Mississippi to Kaskaskia Kaskaskia to Lake Michigan and Beyond Canada, Jolliet, and Marquette Marquette Returns to Kaskaskia La Salle Allouez, and Kaskaskia Hudson Bay, La Salle in the Illinois, and the Recollects La Salle, the Illinois Country, and the Gulf Epilogue Appendix: Timeline of Events Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe story of the world''s largest, longest, and best financed scientific expedition of all time, triumphantly successful, gruesomely tragic, and never before fully told The immense 18th-century scientific journey, variously known as the Second Kamchatka Expedition or the Great Northern Expedition, from St. Petersburg across Siberia to the coast of North America, involved over 3,000 people and cost Peter the Great over one-sixth of his empire''s annual revenue. Until now recorded only in academic works, this 10-year venture, led by the legendary Danish captain Vitus Bering and including scientists, artists, mariners, soldiers, and laborers, discovered Alaska, opened the Pacific fur trade, and led to fame, shipwreck, and one of the most tragic and ghastly trials of suffering in the annals of maritime and arctic history.

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Book SynopsisA classic book from the bestselling travel writer and historian, Charles Allen, author of Plain Tales from the Raj, first published by Abacus in 1983.Trade ReviewFor 30 years Allen has been quietly plugging away at the unfashionable field of colonial history, producing a whole shelf-full of well-researched, well-written and eminently readable works of narrative history, illuminating a whole succession of previously unwritten corners of British Indian history -- William Dalrymple

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Book SynopsisAn engrossing history of the voyages of exploration that ignited curiosity about nature and gave birth to modern science.Trade Review"Ranges across 400 years of history with characters from Christopher Columbus to Charles Darwin. Shores of Knowledge explains how the curiosity of Old Europe broke free of church dogma, creating the world we inhabit today." "A unique perspective... Appleby tells it through the contributions of an array of characters-explorers, writers, collectors and early naturalists- giving the reader a sense of the progress over the centuries as seen through their eyes." -- Marcia Bartusiak "An ambitious book that covers the sweep of history from Columbus to Darwin-and finds unexpected kinship between explorers and scientists of those centuries... Fascinating!" -- Mark Anderson, author of The Day the World Discovered the Sun "An invigorating journey through time and space, shedding insight into the relationship between science and society." -- John Gribbin, author of Erwin Schrodinger and the Quantum Revolution "Like an exotic seed washed up from a distant land, Joyce Appleby's Shores of Knowledge blossoms in marvelous ways. This supple and sparkling chronicle of discovery shows why even Columbus was baffled by his myriad discoveries, and how Europeans gradually decoded the mysteries of the New World. A lucid account of cultural transmission." -- Laurence Bergreen, author of Columbus "Christopher Columbus's landing in the Western Hemisphere in 1492 marked a decisive moment in world history. But as Joyce Appleby argues in this lucid and economically written survey of scientific thought, its intellectual impact unfolded gradually. In riveting prose, she shows how American geography, peoples, flora, and fauna forced European scientists to alter their understanding of nature. Those interested in the intersection of exploration and scientific knowledge should book passage on Professor Appleby's charming, story-filled journey across the Atlantic and back again." -- Peter Mancall, author of The Fatal Journey

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Book SynopsisIn the 18th and 19th centuries, treasure-hunting became a professional occupation. Presenting a story of a national obsession, this work features a history of a peculiarly English phenomenon - of outstanding bravery, of exceptional recklessness, and above all, of dreams of treasure.Trade Review"* 'His scholarship is solid, and his telling if this complex story is lucid and well-paced.' Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph * 'A thoroughly entertaining read that dispels a number of myths and spins many a good yarn' Daily Mail * 'Masterful...a much needed reappraisal' The Sunday Times, Best Summer Books * 'Peter Earle's distinguished and thorough study... puts all kinds of preconceptions about piracy to the sword... a fascinating and timely reminder that no outlaw ever exists outside the society he opposes' Scotland on Sunday"

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Book Synopsis''A life-affirming book'' Daily Mail''An uplifting personal story of a year lived like no other'' Daily ExpressTwo days after her husband of sixty-seven years dies, nonagenarian Miss Norma is diagnosed with cancer. When given her treatment options - surgery, chemo and radiotherapy - she rises to her full five feet and says in the strongest voice she can muster: ''I'm ninety years old. I'm hitting the road!'' Driving Miss Norma is the story of her inspirational road trip across the US in a thirty-six-foot motorhome with her son, Tim, his wife, Ramie and their Poodle, Ringo - showing us that it''s never too late to begin an adventure, inspire hope or become a trailblazer. As the journey unfolds, Miss Norma finally spreads her wings and lives life on her own terms for the very first time. With each adventure a once timid Miss Norma says YES to living in the face of death - whether it''s experiencing her very first pedicure or tTrade ReviewProfound * The Guardian *This life-affirming book is an inspirational account... It's about three people learning to let go of their fears and find love and trust in each other and the world around them. * Daily Mail *The author celebrates life and offers a heartfelt vision of what dying a good death really means . . . Uplifting and life-affirming. * Kirkus Reviews *Joyful and moving… offers profound insights into how we choose to live. * Publishers Weekly (starred review). This text refers to the Audio CD edition. *An uplifiting personal story of a year lived like no other... a touching and eloquently argued manifesto for a different kind of care for the elderly, one that embraces joy, life and human connection. -- Jane Warren * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisRobert Whitaker is a science journalist and the author, most recently, of the much-acclaimed Mad in America. He has won the George Polk Award for Medical Writing and a National Association of Science Writers' Award for best magazine article. He was a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, considered US journalism's top prize. Robert Whitaker's long fascination with South America began in the late 1970s, when he built and lived in a bamboo hut on the Ecuadorian coast. He now lives and writes in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Trade Review'Gripping...one of the best books I have read this year' * DAILY TELEGRAPH *'An unlikely page-turner...as a testament to frustration, endurance and mutual devotion, this takes some beating' * SUNDAY TIMES *'Enthralling...Full of mystery and danger, bravery and tragedy, with a rapturous love story at its core that transcends both time and continents. A marvellous read' * DENNIS LEHANE *'In the brilliant tradition of Dava Sobel's Longitude...combines powerful storytelling with excellent historical research in a book that reads like a novel' * ALAN LIGHTMAN, author of 'Einstein's Dreams' *'An exemplary narrative history and a fascinating tale of science, love and survival' * MARK HONIGSBAUM, author of 'The Fever Trail' *

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Book SynopsisDreams as R-evolution is both the catalogue for an art installation of the same name, and a work of art itself. The book is a sumptuously-designed record of an exhibit conveying the work of Durban-based artist, Coral Bijoux, landscaped into the spaces of the Westville Plant Nursery.Trade ReviewDreams as R-evolution is both the catalogue for an art installation of the same name, and a work of art itself. The book is a sumptuously-designed record of an exhibit conveying the work of Durban-based artist, Coral Bijoux, landscaped into the spaces of the Westville Plant Nursery. Among the images that open the book is text by the artist that functions as a poem, a warning, and as historical observation. “When you want to enslave a people, you steal their ability to dream.” Reminiscent of the U.S. Black poet Langston Hughes’ 1951 lyric, “A Dream Deferred,” (What happens to a dream deferred/Does it dry up/Like a raisin in the sun…Or does it explode?), Bijoux’s text prepares us to consider dreaming as an act of insurrection. Rich color photography reveals Bijoux’s suggestively figurative and fanciful work with its tones of menace and restriction, her use of plastic in the contrastingly green and vibrant environment of the nursery, sheets of clear plastic hanging and wafting like ghosts, shapes of little girls with iron grills in their mouths, lounging animals, abstract forms, plastic the artists calls “a toxic material that will not leave us” because it is so difficult to recycle, and the artist herself adorned in jewelry of plastic spoons and formal gown;the plastic is a suffocating artifact of an artificial, threatening, and wasteful social order. At the same time, the way the art pieces are planted, so to speak – among the greenery of plants and trees, curtains of artist-made leaves, figures interacting with soil and green life – creates an ecology of hope. In many ways, this volume contains multitudes, certainly in the population of creatures, spirits, beings, structures, flags, life forms, objects, and mysteries erected by the artist like an imaginary city of dreams and dreamers throughout the installation. The multitude is also evident because Bijoux has opened her art to the observations of several writers and poets who center their voices around possibilities emanating from the work, and their own artistic endeavors. Meditations by Salim Washington, Prof H. Baijnath, Usha Seejarim, André Croucamp, Pralini Naidoo, Malika Ndlovu, Tracy-Lee Easthorpe, Diana Ferrus, Ashraf Jamal, and Bijoux herself offer layers of memory, thought, and history to absorb. Bijoux’s text functions as a guide throughout Dreams as R-evolution, revealing aspects of her life story as the descendant of an order that construed human beings into categories such as “colored” that defined her family and township, her thoughts on the self as a construction, racial justice, the palpability of history in our current lives, our existence as part of the natural world, and the salvation that can be found in dreams.Table of Contents1. Dreams as R-evolution; 2. Lalela Umoya (Listen to the Wind); 3. The Door of No Return; 4. Bio-illuminating Bilirubin; 5. Six Years of Dreaming; 6. Junk Status; 7. Future Ancestor; 8. Embedded yet Unbound; 9. I've Walked Through the Darkness; 10. 'n Blom sal Ontluik; 11. Orphan Nursery

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Book SynopsisFrank A. Worsley was the Captain of the H. M. S. Endurance, the ship used by the legendary explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton in his 1914-16 expedition to the Antarctic. On its way to the Antarctic continent the Endurance became trapped and then crushed by ice, and the ship''s party of twenty-eight drifted in an ice floe for five months. Finally reaching an uninhabited island, Shackleton, Worsley and four others sailed eight hundred miles in a small boat to the island of South Georgia, an astounding feat of navigation and courage. All hands survived this ill-fated expedition; as Worsley writes, ''By self-sacrifice and throwing his own life into the balance, (Shackleton) saved every one of his men...although at times it looked unlikely that one could be saved.''Trade ReviewA breath-taking story of courage, skill and determination under the most appalling conditions -- Sir Edmund HillaryOne of the great survival stories of our time * Library Journal *A remarkable book... Worsley writes without heroics...but makes us feel to the marrow the conditions that the party endured before all hands were rescued * New Yorker *Simply gripping * Irish Mountain Log *A stirring account of a fascinating adventure * Sunday Tribune *

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Book SynopsisIn the breaststrokes of Roger Deakin's Waterlog, this is the story of one man's search for himself across the breadth of Britain's wild waters.Trade Review'Lovely, lively, passionate... a celebration of nature's ability to inspire healing and joy' Robert MacFarlane‘Minihane writes with refreshing candour... a transformative emotional journey’ Observer 'Roger Deakin’s Waterlog journey, rebooted for the 21st century, Floating is a delicious slice of nature writing with a truly human heart' Alexandra Heminsley, author of Leap In ‘Minihane writes cleanly and with honesty, and never misses a factual or stylistic stroke’ TLS'A gem... so thoughtful. Prose as clean and beautiful as a good swim' Jessica Lee, author of Turning‘An ode to the joys of wild swimming in Britain’ Lonely Planet‘I love this book... this has to sit next to Waterlog in every swimmer’s library’ Jenny Landreth, author of Swell: A Waterbiography'Minihane finds in swimming a rare moment of being free from anxiety and learns that it can be integral in overcoming depression' Wanderlust ‘A string of immersive green dreams, from still, pollen-dusted ponds of warm days to the cold churning power of the sea... this is an effortless, absorbing read. Floating highlights the beautiful variety of outdoor swims possible in Britain and the great positive impact they can have’ Caught by the River ‘Minihane writes with a compulsive honesty and clarity that draws you into its stream as beguiling as any river Deakin ever swam – a wonderful read. Highly recommended!’ Kate Rew founder of the Outdoor Swimming Society‘Engaging and enjoyable... as much a commentary on the changing nature of Britain as a celebration of wild swimming’ The Idler‘A wonderful book: a love letter to wild swimming, a hate letter to anxiety and a story of how we can learn to live with ourselves, our overclocked minds, even after we climb out of the water’ Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine

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Book Synopsis''You almost feel you are taking that trek with the party as Robert Macklin cites the obstacles - torrential river crossings, dense bush, the Snowy Mountains and more. Macklin covers Hume''s public and private life, emphasising his affinity with the country and rapport with the Indigenous people, as well as providing a portrait of the evolving colony.'' SYDNEY MORNING HERALDThe stirring untold story of a true Australian hero who opened up the nation.While English-born soldiers, sailors and surveyors have claimed pride of place among the explorers of the young New South Wales colony, the real pathfinder was a genuine native-born Australian. Hamilton Hume, a man with a profound understanding of the Aboriginal people and an almost mystical relationship with the Australian bush, led settlers from the cramped surrounds of Sydney Town to the vast fertile country that would provide the wealth to found and sustain a new nation.Robert Macklin, author of the criTrade ReviewTo Come * Canberra Times *This is an enjoyable, enlightening account that should be read by every thinking adult. * MC Reviews *For those who enjoy reading about Australian history, and the making of a nation, I highly recommend Hamilton Hume as an enjoyable and fascinating read. * The Reviewers blog *Our long history of putting a difficult problem out of our sight. * Crickey.com.au *You almost feel you are taking that trek with the party as Robert Macklin cites the obstacles - torrential river crossings, dense bush, the Snowy Mountains and more * Sydney Morning Herald, Newcastle Herald, Burnie Advocate, Western Advocate, Northern Daily Leader, North West Star, Ballarat Courier, Daily Advertiser, Bendigo Advertiser, Launceston Examiner *https://startsat60.com/stories/entertain/books/is-hamilton-hume-australias-greatest-explorer * Starts at 60 *a fine biography, a fitting tribute * Golden Plains Miner *Review * Redland City Bulletin *This book, which is anything but a dry history, brings the first 80 years of this settlement alive * Good Reading *Review * Dubbo Photo News *

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