Places and peoples: general and pictorial works Books

Book SynopsisExplores the rich and fascinating history of Penzance through an examination of some of its greatest architectural treasures.

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Book SynopsisExplore the fascinating history of Liverpool in this fully illustrated A-Z guide to the city's people and places.

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Book SynopsisExplore Abergavenny's secret history through a fascinating selection of stories, facts and photographs.

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Book SynopsisAs read on BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.This is the generation that will change China. The youth, over 320 million of them in their teens and twenties, more than the population of the USA. Born after Mao, with no memory of Tiananmen, they are destined to transform both their nation and the world.These millennials, offspring of the one-child policy, face fierce competition to succeed. Pressure starts young, and their road isn't easy. Their stories are also like those of young people all over the world: moving out of home, starting a career, falling in love.Wish Lanterns follows the lives of six young Chinese. Dahai is a military child and netizen; 'Fred' is a daughter of the Party. Lucifer is an aspiring superstar; Snail a country migrant addicted to online games. Xiaoxiao is a hipster from the freezing north; Mia a rebel from Xinjiang in the far west.Alec Ash, a writer in Beijing of the same generation, has given us a vivid, Trade ReviewA provocative portrait of a fast-changing society riven by internal contradictions . . . a fine addition to the field, one of the best I have read about the individuals who make up a country that is all too often regarded as a monolith, but which abounds with diversity on multiple levels. Fluently written with nice touches of humour . . . this books supplies much food for thought, informing the wider debate while retaining its value as a closely observed picture of how some Chinese live today * Financial Times *An intimate portrait of six young Chinese — three women and three men — on a journey from high school into the workforce . . . Lyrical, with its characters finely drawn, Ash’s book paints a telling portrait of this most restless generation raised in a system that has provided them with unprecedented personal opportunities while denying them political ones . . . a gifted observer * The Washington Post *Wish Lanterns is a beautiful and thoughtful book about the life of young people in China. Alec Ash has succeeded in giving us an intimate and complex portrait of the one child policy generation. It skillfully documents their features, modes of life and dreams of the future. I enthusiastically recommend you to read it -- Xiaolu Guo, author of I Am ChinaWithout listening to Young Chinese, you won't understand what today's China, the woke up dragon, wants to do next. Alec Ash's book has opened a window in the wall between China and the west for us to see the hopes and fears of these young Chinese who are struggling to build their lives in a world that their parents could never dream of -- Xinran, author of The Good Women of China Wish Lanterns announces the arrival of a talented young observer of today’s China. Alec Ash documents the lives of Chinese millennials with detail, insight, and sympathy, and his book is an invaluable resource for anybody hoping to understand the country’s future possibilities. -- Peter Hessler, author of River Town: Two Years on the YangtzeA gem of a book. Its brief chapters flow like a skillfully crafted set of interconnected short stories, yet all are rooted in the real life experiences of six individuals. An impressive debut book by a writer to watch, who makes the most of all he learned while spending his twenties coming of age in the same shapeshifting China as the half dozen Chinese youths whose varied passages to adulthood he chronicles so elegantly and empathetically. -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st CenturyIn Wish Lanterns Alec Ash hangs out with China's "post-80s" generations to give us a series of fascinating and insightful snapshots of where the country might be heading. The Rat Tribes, Leftover Women, Ant Tribes and Bare Branches are all revealed as complex and conflicted, yet filled with hopes and dreams for their own, and their country's, future. -- Paul French, author of Midnight in PekingHere is a completely novel take on contemporary China. Alec Ash embarks on a different sort of Chinese journey, following six Millennials from the nation's far-flung corners as they make their way to university, on stage, deep underground, and even abroad. The result is a work of heart-felt reportage, and also great suspense, as we wait to learn each character's fate. I couldn't put it down -- Michael Meyer, author of In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China and The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City TransformedThrough series of profiles of young Chinese from various walks of life and different geographic regions, Alec Ash has assembled a fascinating mosaic that gives us a wonderfully vivid sense of what it's like to grow up today in the People's Republic of China. By simply describing the lives of six youths, Wish Lanterns enables a reader to get an immediate feel of how contradictory life in this dynamic but still unresolved country often is -- Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Center on US-China Relations, Asia Society, New York CityA wonderfully readable and engaging account of that most mysterious of all groups - Chinese millennials. Alec Ash weaves the joy, heartbreak, drama and trauma of this group through disparate stories, making up a highly realistic, and at times poetic, account of the people who are likely to have the greatest future impact of any one group in the world today. -- Kerry Brown, Professor of China Studies, King's College LondonCompelling and beautifully written * Prospect *At a time when the future of China is so important, it is surprising that so little is understood, outside the world of specialised studies, about the hopes and fears of those most likely to shape it: the roughly 200 million people in the People's Republic currently between the ages of 15 and 24. It is this conspicuous lacuna that Alec Ash's Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China seeks to fill. He does so by telling the stories of six young Chinese born between 1985 and 1990 from the time they entered the world practically up to the present day. His deft style, welcome restraint (he writes the lives of his subjects but does not comment on them or, with a couple of exceptions, appear himself) yet discreet sympathy for the travails of those who have plainly become close friends, make the stories more compelling than they might otherwise have been. Some idea of the predicament of China's young makes this book more valuable still * Standpoint *A masterfully crafted collection of interwoven portraits of six young Chinese. Three men, three women. Millennials born between 1985 and 1990. Their journeys from childhood, balancing parental expectations against personal desires, hopes, dreams, achievements and stumbles . . . through the telling of these six stories, Ash cleverly weaves information about demographics, government policies, political history, as well as social and cultural trends . . . The richness of Ash's book is in the character development, the details of everyday life, dreams, frustrations, and contradictions of these particular individuals. Ash enters their worlds as a peer (he is their same age) and he's a sensitive listener, reporter, and storyteller * LA Review of Books *The people currently ruling China lived through the upheavels of the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen. The millennials who will shape China's future face very different pressures and challenges. In a study that is both literary and political, Ash tries to understand China's future through the lives and aspirations of its rising generation -- Gideon Rachman * Financial Times *You should read this book . . . Alec Ash presents us with a China we've never seen before - a young China, China that's growing not just economically but in its ways, and one that isn't scared to question itself . . . a reporter's approach to everyday stories, with thoughtful insights and historical references chosen with medical precision . . . In true journalistic fashion, the book is as in depth as it is literarily sound . . . The chapters masterfully allow the reader to make up their own mind about each of the subjects . . . it becomes a study of the self (or selves) as much as a study of China * City Weekend *Alec Ash’s storytelling gift in Wish Lanterns: Young lives in new China is essentially a novelist’s. Vivid character portraits such as rockstar wannabe Lucifer, Mia the media diva or Snail the country mouse trying not to be a total loser in the urban minefield are drawn with a humane understanding of some tricky balancing acts achieved between aspiration and compromise, as these “one-child policy” millennials come of age -- Jonathan Keates * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsChapter - 1: Xiaoxiao Chapter - 2: Dahai Chapter - 3: Fred Chapter - 4: Snail Chapter - 5: Lucifer Chapter - 6: Mia Chapter - 7: Snail Chapter - 8: Fred Chapter - 9: Dahai Chapter - 10: Xiaoxiao Chapter - 11: Lucifer Chapter - 12: Mia Chapter - 13: Snail Chapter - 14: Fred Chapter - 15: Lucifer Chapter - 16: Dahai Chapter - 17: Snail Chapter - 18: Xiaoxiao Chapter - 19: Mia Chapter - 20: Lucifer Chapter - 21: Dahai Chapter - 22: Snail Chapter - 23: Fred Chapter - 24: Lucifer Chapter - 25: Dahai Chapter - 26: Xiaoxiao Chapter - 27: Snail Chapter - 28: Mia Chapter - 29: Lucifer Chapter - 30: Fred Chapter - 31: Dahai and Xiaoxiao Chapter - 32: Snail Chapter - 33: Lucifer Chapter - 34: Fred Chapter - 35: Mia Chapter - 36: Xiaoxiao and Dahai Section - i: Author's Note Acknowledgements - ii: Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisIt was 1905 when the man destined to become Waco's photographer first opened his shop. Fred Gildersleeve documented the city he loved, establishing his legacy through iconic images that have become Waco's visual memory. The 186 Gildersleeve images in this volume capture the spirit of early Waco.

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Book Synopsis“...a marvelous book and a great contribution to Chinatown, the Chinese-American community, and to the world community. I am amazed at your photography, your appreciation of color, your mastery of framing, your adventurousness in perspectives...it all worked out beautifully.”—Ben Fong-Torres “Impressively pairing striking imagery with an informative historical narrative, the book transports readers right into the heart of Chinatown’s thriving streets, festivals, local flavor, and cultural intensity. A vividly realized tribute to one of Northern California’s most revered cultural neighborhoods.”—Kirkus Reviews “The unique imprints of different eras are presented as if readers travel through the corridor of time and read "of the many things from ancient to modern". Evans shoots in the context of the times. Leong introduces the history, tourism, daily life, and celebrations of the Chinatown community through clear text descriptions.”—World Journal, the nation’s #1 Chinese newspaper “As far as I am concerned, this is the best book on Chinatown. The book was so well written and all things Chinatown were told with such clarity! And the photographs were stunning! Our neighborhood can be so much prouder of its history and heritage, thanks to you two!! I can't thank you enough for creating such an important book for our community. It will be enjoyed for years to come!!”—Betty Louie, Advisor Chinatown Merchants Association “You have given us a synopsis of history, cultural, political, personal—it's pretty amazing. And while delivering so much content, the book yet evinces a great spirit of the place as well. I love photo books with text—it's a great combination, two modalities of perception that together make more than the sum of their styles.”—Mary Ellen Hannibal, author of Citizen Scientist America’s oldest Chinatown comes alive in stunning photos of its people and places Following his award-winning book on San Francisco’s Mission District, Dick Evans turns his attention to Chinatown, the fifth of a square mile that attracts more tourists than the Golden Gate Bridge but where the median household income is a quarter of the citywide average. From delicious dim sum to wok-filled shops, from iconic red lanterns to elaborate parade floats, from inside single-room occupancy apartments to outdoor games of Chinese chess in Portsmouth Square, Evans captures a place filled with diverse residents and a unique mélange of American and Chinese architecture, cuisine, and culture. Vibrant images are interspersed with sidebars highlighting particular people and institutions, deepening viewers’ immersion into this community. Kathy Chin Leong’s lucid text introduces readers to the history of the neighborhood, as well as to themes of tourism, daily life, and celebrations. At the heart of the book is a tight-knit community and a thriving neighborhood, which welcomes immigrants with supportive institutions and entices tourists to experience a wide array of Chinese traditions. Evans’s photos highlight a place undergoing visible progress but, unlike other San Francisco neighborhoods that are gentrifying, maintaining its unique character and authenticity.Trade Review“...a marvelous book and a great contribution to Chinatown, the Chinese-American community, and to the world community. I am amazed at your photography, your appreciation of color, your mastery of framing, your adventurousness in perspectives...it all worked out beautifully.”—Ben Fong-Torres “Impressively pairing striking imagery with an informative historical narrative, the book transports readers right into the heart of Chinatown’s thriving streets, festivals, local flavor, and cultural intensity. A vividly realized tribute to one of Northern California’s most revered cultural neighborhoods.”—Kirkus Reviews “The unique imprints of different eras are presented as if readers travel through the corridor of time and read "of the many things from ancient to modern". Evans shoots in the context of the times. Leong introduces the history, tourism, daily life, and celebrations of the Chinatown community through clear text descriptions.”—World Journal, the nation’s #1 Chinese newspaper “As far as I am concerned, this is the best book on Chinatown. The book was so well written and all things Chinatown were told with such clarity! And the photographs were stunning! Our neighborhood can be so much prouder of its history and heritage, thanks to you two!! I can't thank you enough for creating such an important book for our community. It will be enjoyed for years to come!!”—Betty Louie, Advisor Chinatown Merchants Association “You have given us a synopsis of history, cultural, political, personal—it's pretty amazing. And while delivering so much content, the book yet evinces a great spirit of the place as well. I love photo books with text—it's a great combination, two modalities of perception that together make more than the sum of their styles.”—Mary Ellen Hannibal, author of Citizen ScientistTable of ContentsContents Introduction by Kathy Chin Leong Tourism Daily Life Celebrations and Traditions Photographer's Statement Acknowledgements About the Authors

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Book SynopsisA tender poetry collection considering home, family, and personal and ecological loss. Liza Katz Duncan’s debut collection is a poignant exploration of the unpredictable shifts that shape our lives. Given considers the notions of home and family and how to survive the changes and losses associated with both. Duncan conjures her home, the New Jersey Shore, in clear and unsentimental lines: “Call of the grackle, / whine of the turkey vulture. Blighted clams, // raw and red in their half-shells.” Duncan’s poems also explore the devastation brought to this place and its community by Superstorm Sandy and the continued impacts of climate change. Interwoven into this thread is the narrator’s miscarriage; the parallels between the desecrated landscape and the personal catastrophe further contribute to the layers of tenderness in this collection, as Duncan urges us to remember and to witness. Despite tragedy and loss, Given is imbued with persistent, dogged hope, showing how survival persists amongst the wreckage, and from this debris is a path towards healing our grief.Given was the winner of 2022 Autumn House Rising Writer Prize in Poetry. Trade Review"[Given] is poised at the boundary between eco-poetics and the poetry of personal tragedy. Duncan explores the trauma of environmental cataclysm not simply as context but as metaphor for devastating personal loss through precise images and shattering restraint." * Adroit Journal *"Given is the record of a haunting, a clear-eyed love song to the notion of home, a frame stilled on the highwater mark after the flood. Through finely wrought lyric poems that swell and break with movement, Duncan articulates the speaker’s longing for family and place 'despite the dying world.' Indeed, the world of Given grapples with a precarious future: hurricanes Sandy and Irene loom large in the town’s memory, and the present, where the 'seasons unseason,' are marked by mass die-offs and the threat of subsummation. And just as the world reckons with the catastrophes of the Anthropocene, so too does the speaker attend to staggering personal loss. Yet the collection trembles with a skeptical but persistent hope. Duncan shows us the town she chooses, though 'neighbors head inland, / leaving the keys in the door.' Here the bay, the uncles; there the Wawa, the 'streets with names / that were self-explanatory: Harbor Way. Shore Concourse.' The speaker asks, 'What if my body is not an apocalypse?' Asks, 'What if my body is not a misunderstanding / with the changing earth?' Given argues, granularly, tenderly, that home and place are worth remembering, worth returning to, that roots, however ephemeral, can ground us in the swirling tides of grief." -- Donika Kelly, author of The Renunciations“Given testifies to the luminous terror of creation: ‘the sky makes and remakes.’ Then: ‘I had to write myself back into this place, if only to watch it fall apart.’ There is so much here being made and unmade: personal griefs decimated by ecology, ecologies decimated by personal loss. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a poet do what Duncan does here, testifying to loss and endurance this way, in such a radiant braid.” -- Kaveh Akbar, author of Pilgrim Bell"Given is one of the strongest debuts I’ve read in a long time. In an age where market and media forces encourage us to silo our griefs, Given makes the necessary argument that our losses intersect and inform one another: from the loss of a child to the loss of a home, a town, a shoreline, a way of living. The poems are emotionally moving and impressive in formal range, from short lyrics to longer sectioned sequences, incantatory litanies to poems in received forms. In Given, Duncan brings home the lived ramifications of dailiness in an age of ecological peril. The book is a necessary addition to our developing libraries of eco-poetry and docu-poetry and poetry period—Given is a must-read." -- Dana Levin, author of Now Do You Know Where You Are

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Book SynopsisFor years, when traveling, I found myself getting in conversations with people when I took their pictures, and started to consult with them—showing them the digital shot, then retaking it until we had one they were happy with. It gave us a reason to interact, and a way to do so, even when we shared no language in common. These portraits are the result of those extended sessions, those moments of accidental intimacy on the road. Readers of my three travel books (Drinking Mare’s Milk on the Roof of the World, And the Monkey Learned Nothing, and The Kindness of Strangers) may recognize some of the people, because a number of them feature in those stories. But each stands on its own—each a testament to the human ability to connect across the fault lines that keep us precariously divided. And each is a tribute to the accidental intimacy of the road.Trade Review“Portraits is one of those photo books you want to look at again and again, a world tour of humanity, and proof that Tom Lutz is not only skilled with a pen but a camera. To have earned the kind of trust that enabled him to make such revealing portraits, in such disparate cultures, is no small thing.”—Judith Freeman, author of The Long Embrace and The Latter DaysPraise for Tom Lutz"A smart and propulsive wild ride from the genteel mansions of Hartford Connecticut to the more louche corners of Asia. Lutz's debut is a technicolor noir, a smart, literary and literate thriller—like love child of Elmore Leonard and Graeme Greene. Original and deft and not to be missed."—Ivy Pochoda, author of Wonder Valley and Those Girls“To read And the Monkey Learned Nothing is to experience the thrill of visiting new places coupled with the pleasure of personal and cultural reflection. The sensitivity and moral intelligence that Tom Lutz brings to his writing allows us to discover the unity to be found in our wondrously diverse world.”—Laila Lalami, author of The Moor’s Account, finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction One would assume that Tom Lutz, esteemed head of a university creative writing department and patriarch of a West Coast cultural journal, lives in a world built of words. But when he morphs into a serial solo vagabond he is a rapt visualist stalking the killer image, and his primary prey is the human face. His book of photographs transports you to virtually every corner of earth, not to take in scenery or local treasure but to meet — emotionally, poetically — the people with whom we share a planet. The tour he gives us is mesmerizing, and in infinite ways. How uncanny a seducer he must be to have won so many over to submit to his camera’s loving gaze, and with such alacrity. In the bracing close-up encounters of Portraits, Lutz renders humanity as a beguiling family album.

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Book SynopsisUndiscovered Victoria is a beautiful travel guide that will inspire you to hit the road and uncover hidden locations scattered across regional Victoria. The One Hour Out team draws on its many years of exploration to showcase the most enriching ways to travel this incredibly diverse state. From secret waterfalls and isolated beaches, to farm tours, art galleries and elusive wine bars, you'll realise the marquee locations of the Twelve Apostles and Phillip Island penguins don't even scratch the surface when it comes to the breadth of visitor offerings awaiting discovery. Featuring stunning photography, recommended itineraries, First Nations information, historical facts and interviews with locals, this inspirational guide will be your constant companion for unearthing the hidden secrets of Victoria.

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Book SynopsisHave you ever wondered how a dinosaur would measure up against the Great Pyramids of Giza, if a hummingbird could outfly a jet plane, or how many atoms could fit inside a grain of sand? These are just some of the questions explored in this extraordinary book of comparisons.Detailed images drawn to scale, informative text and unexpected visual analogies will help the reader to comprehend just how fast, how strong, how small and how big things really are. With stunning Victorian-style artwork by award-winning illustrator Page Tsou, this visual feast of a compendium will surprise and delight inquisitive minds in equal measure.Peek inside and discover a beetle that is stronger than an elephant, meet the pterosaur that was bigger than a spitfire and explore the furthest reaches of the known universe.

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Book SynopsisA slow journey through some of the best-loved and lesser-known gems of the British Isles, from the illustrator and publisher of The Traveller's Colouring Book. Over 50 illustrations of people, buildings, wildlife and landscapes from across the country, produced on elegant 150gsm paper - so no show-through! Each illustration is accompanied by an informative caption from one of Bradt's award-winning Slow Travel guides. After that, it's up to you. From Scotland to the West Country, Wales to East Anglia, an enticing mix of scenes is depicted, ready to be brought to life in full colour. Pencils at the ready for the Glenfinnan (Harry Potter) viaduct, the Isle of Skye, Whitby's 199 steps, Oxford and the Cotswolds, Windsor Castle, Exmoor ponies and delightful Fowey. Look beyond the obvious, too, with a nod to glass-blowing heritage, Devon gnome reserve, Italian chapel on Orkney and blooming wisteria in Notting Hill. Whether you're on the road or stuck at home, The Slow Travel Colouring Book is the perfect cure for wanderlust. Mindfulness has never been so enriching, inspirational - or colourful.Table of ContentsScotland Northern England Central England Wales Southeast England Southwest England

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Book SynopsisThe architecture of Scotland exists in many forms. In Mousa to Mackintosh, Frank Arneil Walker examines the recognisable and recurring features evident in Scotland's buildings across the centuries to build a picture of 'Scottishness' in architecture. This chronological history presents an expansive view of architecture in Scotland, from neolithic brochs and classical country houses to baronial tower-houses and modernist New Towns, including the work of renowned architects such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Robert Adam, Basil Spence and Robert Lorimer. Walker considers the relationship between national characteristics and international influences in these structures to ask: what is the 'Scottishness' of Scottish architecture?Trade Review'a magnificent book that should be considered essential reading - and a lasting reference of value - by anyone with any interest in Scottish Architecture...If you really want to know about Scottish architecture, then look no further.' * Undiscovered Scotland *'this is a book that should be in the possession of anyone even remotely interested in Scottish culture, let alone in Scottish architecture' -- Roger Emmerson * Building Design *

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Book SynopsisEngland and Wales are brimming with them. Not the traditional honeypots we've all seen before, but extraordinary places with bizarre tales to tell. In his fascinating new book, Tony Francis, presenter and producer of ITV's much-loved series, Heart of the Country, gathers photographs and stories of 50 extraordinary villages he's visited.

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Book SynopsisDuring the post-war years the North of England saw the building of some of the most aspirational, enlightened and successful modernist architecture in the world. For the first time, a single photographic book captures those buildings, in all their power and progressive ambition. Over the last few years acclaimed photographer Simon Phipps has travelled and sought out the publicly commissioned architecture of the post-war North. From Newcastle's Byker Wall Estate, voted the best neighbourhood in the UK, to the extraordinary Park Hill Estate in Sheffield, from Preston's sweeping bus station and Liverpool's Royal Insurance Building, these structures have seen off threats to their survival and are rightly celebrated for the imprint they leave upon the skyline and the cultural life of their cities.This inspiring invitation to explore northern modernism includes maps and detailed information about all the architecture photographed.Trade ReviewPraise for Concrete Poetry: 'Mr Phipps follows up on his ace books on Brutalism with this one on post-war Modernist public art in the UK - and it's an absolute beauty that'll get you going for a look about at angular concrete lumps in squares. A masterclass in book design too.' Simon Armstrong, Tate | 'Simon's black and white images of Brutalist and post-war buildings in the UK are defined by their striking compositions in which the raw architectural forms of his subjects are laid bare.' The Modern House

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Book SynopsisOne of England's best-kept secrets, magnificent Shropshire in all its variety is captured on camera by award-winning father and son team Mike and John Hayward.

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Book SynopsisThe bestselling Joshua Tree National Park guidebook for two decades!Over 200 five-star reviews for previous editionsJoshua Tree National Park boasts some of California's most dramatic desert scenery. From the weird and wonderful Mojave Desert to the vast and stark Sonoran Desert, Joshua Tree National Park: The Complete Guide reveals the park’s highlights and hidden gems.Whatever your interests—hiking to the top of Ryan Mountain, rock climbing the Wonderland of Rocks, watching golden sunsets from Keys View—Joshua Tree National Park: The Complete Guide puts the best of Joshua Tree National Park at your fingertips.Over 100 gorgeous color photos showcase the park's best destinations. Fascinating chapters on History, Geology, Ecology, and Wildlife reveal the story behind the scenery. More than 20 detailed maps guide readers on the park’s best hikes. An indispensable guide for outdoor adventurers and travelers on a budget, Joshua Tree National Park: The Complete Guide is the only guide you'll need!Trade Review"Hands down, these are the best travel guidebooks I've ever read." —Wandering EducatorsTable of Contents• Adventures •Basics •Geology •Ecology •Wildlife •History •Mojave Desert •Sonoran Desert

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Book SynopsisPhotographer Ed Hotchkiss traveled to neighborhoods from the north Bronx to Rockaway; from the teeming center of Queens to the western edge of midtown. This unexpected odyssey resulted in a group of photographs that reveals the true humanity on the NYC subway.

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Book SynopsisAn insider’s tour of France’s most beloved and beautiful villages uncovers the country’s hidden treasures. The Best Loved Villages of France brings the reader on a tour of forty-four of the country’s most treasured destinations. Always picturesque, but often well-kept secrets, the book offers insight into village life and local history. Take a tour of a crumbling medieval fortress with the mayor of Lavardin or peruse the maritime objects found at sea by a mustached fisherman in Saint-Suliac. Stroll along the coast of the Wissant bay windsurfer’s paradise or promenade through the manicured grounds of Vaux-le-Vicomte. Watch the sunrise over the fairy-tale castle in Montsoreau or enjoy a fresh langoustine dinner in Piana, Corsica. This book offers an illustrated tour around all twenty-two regions of France, from Provence and the Alps, to Normandy and the Loire. Aerial and intimate photographs invite the reader to explore these splendid locales, while the descriptions, anecdotes, and interviews with local village-dwellers plunge you into the individual history and character of France’s diverse regions. The villages featured in the book were selected in a popular vote by the French public and they represent an authentic journey into the heart of France.

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Book SynopsisBarren red deserts dotted with post-colonial ghost towns, dilapidated inner city factories, discarded country homesteads and a succession of dormant, soot-filled power stations are just a handful of the desolate, yet visually rich narratives that form part of the abandoned Australia landscape. Digging beneath the sun-baked soil, Shane Thoms uncovers the modern ruins scattered over this arid continent and reveals a series of beautifully broken abodes hiding in the crevices of the Great Southern Land. Whispering of both long-gone happy family moments and human darkness, of working lives and the everyday pursuits of living, these atmospheric scenes allow us to reconstruct the stories of the past. Prompting conversations about a growing, diverse country with a complicated history, these abandoned places both connect as well as contrast the past and the present and chronicle the hidden remnants of the evolving Australian story.

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Book SynopsisVenice from the Sky is an outstanding photographic record by Riccardo Roiter Rigoni and Debora Gusson, the fruit of five years' regular flying by helicopter over Venice and its Lagoon. The flights were not confined to the city of Venice, but included all the islands of the splendid Lagoon, from Torcello to Burano, by way of Murano, as well as the wonderful island of San Francesco del Deserto, the military defences in the southern part of the Lagoon, the Lido and Pellestrina, not to mention the many now abandoned islands, large and small, located in one of the most beautiful places in the world.Trade Review"Matthew Christopher's photographic record of decay depicts the tragic truth: that something extraordinary has ended and that nothing like it may ever come back. We're now going in the other direction despite a lot of wishful thinking: toward a loss of complexity, a reduction in the scale of activity, a loss of artistry, and probably the end of many comforts, conveniences and amenities we've come to take for granted." James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere "The places Christopher photographs tell their stories with silence and extraordinary light - the spaces between the life and death of a building. His pictures make me feel like someone told me a secret." Jane Derenowski, Reporter, NBC Nightly News "It's romantic, it's nostalgic, it's wistful, it's provocative. It's about time, nature, mortality, disinvestment." Joann Greco, The Atlantic Cities "Through his photographs, Christopher makes a powerful statement about job loss, urban blight and historic preservation. In light of the collapse of American industry and the subsequent economic meltdown, the relevance of these topics has never been more important to the examination of America's national identity." Joseph and Barrie Ann George, The Sentinel

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Book SynopsisLet Secret Lisbon guide you around the unusual and unfamiliar. Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Lisbon travel guide book and let our local experts show you the well-hidden treasures of an amazing city.Ideal for local inhabitants, curious visitors and armchair travellers alike. The places included in our guides are unusual and unfamiliar, allowing one to step off the beaten track.The most beautiful hidden tiles of the city, the head of the serial killer Lisbon preserved in formalin, the Kabbalistic principles of the south portal of the Jeronimos Monastery or the theory of the fifth Portuguese empire of which we find so many traces in the geography of the city, charming forgotten dead ends, the outstanding panoptic architecture of a former hospital, the impressive wax masks from the Dermatology Museum, a secret passage at the hotel Avenida Palace, the mysterious abbey below Palacio Foz, the reason why the coat of arms of Portugal is inclined at 17 degrees on the facade of the Rossio station...?Far from the usual crowds and cliches, Lisbon still keeps well-hidden treasures that it reveals only to the inhabitants and the travellers who like to think outside the box.

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Book SynopsisThe Soul of Paris Guide reveals 30 unforgettable experiences that capture the soul of Paris. Exceptional experiences, passionate authors, a new approach to the art of travelling

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Book SynopsisLet Secret Rome guide you around the unusual and unfamiliar. Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Rome travel guide book and let our local experts show you the well-hidden treasures of this beautiful city.

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Book SynopsisOne of Europe’s most beautiful cities is celebrated through the talents of artist Fabrice Moireau Florence, the capital of Tuscany, cradle of the Renaissance and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, unfolds in this book its architectural wealth, its emblematic monuments as well as its popular neighborhoods. From churches to museums, from gardens to palaces and from small squares to winding streets, Fabrice Moireau paints a vivid portrait of the city of the Medici, Leonardo da Vinci and Dante Alighieri.

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Book SynopsisOne of Europe’s most beautiful regions is celebrated through the talents of artist Fabrice Moireau When, at the end of the Middle Ages, the kings of France settled in the Loire Valley, they found a very mild climate and began to build castles that would gradually become one of the most harmonious residential complexes in Europe. This book invites you to discover these cultural landscapes that have allowed the Loire Valley to be inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage list. The intimate work of the two authors, who know the region so well, has given them the opportunity to capture the emotions they have accumulated over the years and to show their favorite places, off the beaten track.

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Book SynopsisSid Mary is a voice to be reckoned with.Beloved for his intimate, lyrical poetry, Marty''s depiction of selfhood, connection to place and to landscape have proven him a unique and dissenting voice in Canadian literature as well as a consistent presence in the Canadian environmental movement. These are poems, often strongly resonant of western speech, that celebrate all the vicissitudes of rural life, the loves and losses, the valleys and peaks of life on the prairies, foothills and in the mountains of Alberta and British Columbia.This first-ever collected works, featuring forward written by Kit Dobson and Owen Percy, and interview conducted by Pamela Banting, brings together old and new poems, published and unpublished works, in a celebration of the career and artistry of a Western Canadian icon.

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Book SynopsisIn his second book of poems, David Martin digs deep into an examination of the world using the lens of geology. With lyrically experimental poems expanding and retracting, this collection finds sonic and conceptual energy from the perspective of deep time and the geological forces that have shaped and continue to shape the Earth. Enacting seismic shifts, catastrophes, and erosions throughout the natural and cultural worlds, Martin''s poetic practice pushes forward to contend with the contemporary environmental changes and the structure of the Anthropocene that affect how we live in the twenty-first century. The collection veers from the Rocky Mountains and explorations of "fossilized" towns to family histories and myth-soaked theories, all while seeking a balance between disruptive poetic techniques and the centred lyrical voice.

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Book SynopsisPoems that break down, expose, and reconsider our notions of time. This collection speaks the language of the clock as a living instrument, exposing the sensory impacts of our obsession with time. In oh orchid o’clock, lyrics wind through histories like a nervous system through a body. The poems speak to how we let our days become over-clocked, over-transactional, and over-weaponed. With an instrumental sensibility, Endi Bogue Hartigan investigates what it is to be close to time—collective time, with its alarms and brutalities, and bodily time, intricate and familial. She considers how can we be both captured and complicit within systems of measurement, and she invites us to imagine how to break from, create, or become immune to them. Her poems use language to expose the face of the clock to reveal how gears press against interconnecting systems—economic, capitalist, astronomical, medical, governmental, and fantastical. Trade Review"The clock—its histories, oddities, dominance—is the mechanism of Endi Bogue Hartigan’s oh orchid o’clock. . . . As she evokes the timeless simultaneous information and activity our internet age allows, with its WebMD and newsfeeds and everything else searchable that is packed into these poems, the poet continues to make space for what is before and beyond our conceptions of time. . ." * Harriet Books *"oh orchid o’clock is a book about time, from delineations and attentions to the very loss of time: time sits at a marker from which all else is perceived, written, achieved or ignored. . . . Hartigan offers time as both metaphor and structure, writing of end times, lost times, made-up time, violent time, the times we pay for in advance. She composes this collection as an expansive tapestry of lyric squares, temporal shards and narrative moments, some in motion and others held in amber; time held and held up, turned slowly in the light." * rob mclennan’s blog *“Hartigan’s oh orchid o’clock fluidly rotates constructions of time: our violent times; scientific and philosophical time; the ‘orbit’ of digital time we frequently ‘visit’; the transportive materiality of deep time; the ruling ‘grip of time’ within the timepiece; the illusory ‘streaming of time’ that is ‘a perception trick’; and, critically, time ‘resolved’ or defeated by nature by ‘the orchid opal sky calculating nothing;’ by the imprecision of water, which is ‘the nemesis of all clocks;’ by fire, where the ‘clock surrounds . . . a foliage of flame, clockless.’ Here, in the book’s free rotation of poetic time, which is ‘something pure and round,’ we are not ‘absorbed’ by the ‘vertical worlds’ that ‘fall horizontally.’ Here, in the linguistic rotations constructed by poetry, we are not mere visitors of time or ‘tethered as a clockhand.’ Here, in oh orchid o’clock, we are new rotations, where ‘one side of the orchid is pointing at everything close.’” -- Amy Catanzano, author of Starlight in Two Million: A Neo-Scientific Novella“Time is in the center of this extraordinary poetry collection by Hartigan, who drives us (through a kind of incantatory speech) into a world of subversive syntax, of compressed and expanded language and, most of all, of meaning. This ‘apparatus,’ as the poet subtly refers to the compositions on these pages, rearranges the outlines of matter versus organic matter, of the objective versus the subjective in our known (and unknown) spaces, giving them a new range of expression, a new clarity, to signify and bridge. These poems connect the molecular to the universal to the public to the personal in a single breath. It’s a wildly original and ingenious book, but what catapults us into the bliss of this reading is a sense of finding (astonished) the 'arrows and notches' of our earthly human print.” -- Flávia Rocha, author of Exosfera“Hartigan, in this wondrous and fearsome mélange of meditation, rhyme, and wordwelding, pursues the vortex of Emily Dickinson’s dark conjuncture even as she mounts a Blakean charge against the modern tyranny of clock-time. Her oh orchid o’clock is rife with natural and mechanical marvels—scent clocks and snowflakes, marigolds and gym ellipticals—but its terribly ubiquitous mechanisms are the Taylorized workplace and the AK-15. Counter to these rapacious devices, Hartigan weaves a lush tangle of perceptions, drawn from the everyday, heightened by her deliriously acute ear. Not a knife-beak, not an ink fluke: public events toll ever more ominously in her Northwestern US, and yet these poems, lounging in the clock like certain creatures, lyrically undo the incremental fiction of the hours.” -- John Beer, author of Lucinda“Swirling with condensations and collisions of language, observations, societal and personal conditions, at the center of which abides a constantly fervently spinning heart, these poems also ask: ‘Can the clock burn?’ I think the clock does burn in these poems, also morphs and contracts and grows second (and third, fourth, other) second-hands, seeks alternate ways of counting, amplifying and expanding time inside the interstices that nest beneath and beyond what we can count, what we can comprehend. These poems are clocks of their own count and their own making, setting their tiny pulses against our current collective sense of an impending clock, to dream and create their own intricate, delicate music and meter and measure of what it means to be and feel at this particular moment in time.” -- Dao Strom, author & songwriter of Instrument/Traveler’s Ode“I am awed by Hartigan’s ability to inhabit time’s perplexities. Her sonically sensitive and wondrous meditations on continuity and chronology, accumulation and containment, contemplate the ‘measure of measure,’ each one finding a different way to mesmerize time to investigate its constructions. Never have I so intimately felt the bewilderment of being ‘off the clock’ and of the clock. I love oh orchid o’clock’s quality of deep prayer, how it attends intimately to the feeling of time in lived experience, how it lets go of instrumentality to consider the instrument.” -- Mary Szybist, author of Incarnadine"Open oh orchid o’clock, and you find yourself inside the clockwork maze of a Chinese incense box that releases each hour with a distinct scent. Let the hours teach, sing, dismantle and restore. These poems by Hartigan fathom time’s mythos in nesting dolls and gunshots, measures in galactic orbits and fractals or intervals between ravages and respite as by the Nilometer—the unit that ancient Egyptians used to calculate the precisely rising levels of the Nile between successive flooding. Hartigan’s work shows us the cuckoo in the clock but also the clock in the cuckoo: how time resides in the body, grips the imagination, how it is transactive, a factory of simulacra, a secret seam between what has passed and what is yet to come. The extraordinary richness of this book lies in its showcasing of language as a worthy opponent in wrestling the giant of time; how a phrase, even a phoneme can lock as well as set time free, how poetry can contend with the eternal and the sudden, how the lyric can subdue time’s machinations with a pulse all its own: chiming, colliding or stilled at will—'I am free to fill the silence with denser silence,' the poet declares—a triumph for us all." -- Shadab Zeest Hashmi, author of Ghazal Cosmopolitan

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Book SynopsisPeter Ackroyd turns his gaze to the colours of London in this fascinating and visually engaging work, exploring how the city's many hues have come to shape its history and identity.   Think of the colours of London and what do you imagine? The reds of open-top buses, phone boxes and terracotta bricks? The grey smog of Victorian industry, Portland stone and pigeons in Trafalgar square? Or the gradations of yellows, violets and blues that shimmer on the Thames at sunset – reflecting the incandescent light of a city that never truly goes dark. We associate green with royal parks and the District Line; gold with royal carriages, the Golden Lane Estate, and the tops of monuments and cathedrals. The colours of London have inspired artists (Van Gogh, Turner, Monet), designers (Harry Beck) and social reformers (Charles Booth). Colour is everywhere in the ciTrade Review"A truly invaluable book for lovers of art, history, photography or urban geography, this beautifully illustrated title tells a rich and fascinating story of the history of this great and ever-changing city." * Lovereading.co.uk *Table of ContentsLIGHT, FIRE, WHITE, GOLD, BLUE, GREEN RED, BROWN, GRAY, BLACK THE NIGHT THE FULL SPECTRUM ABOUT THE COLOURIZED PHOTOGRAPHS INDEX PICTURE CREDITS

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Book SynopsisOriginally part of a set, now sold separately, Volume 6 of Sub-Saharan Africa Architectural Guide is dedicated to Central Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes and includes Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa), and Angola. Africa is considered the continent of the future. Nowhere else is urbanisation taking place more quickly and the population growing more rapidly. But are enough of us familiar with the architectural aspects of this change? The seven volumes of Architectural Guide Sub-Saharan Africa present the first comprehensive overview that shows the region’s architecture in all its vast diversity. In 49 chapters, each focusing on one country, detailed texts and illuminating photos document the wealth of architecture south of the Sahara. Featuring 850 selected buildings and over 200 articles, the extensive publication not only showcases but also contextualises the continent’s building culture. This set of books paints a multifaceted picture of sub-Saharan Africa’s architecture across time, revealing how contemporary architecture has been shaped by its traditional and colonial roots as well as globalisation and urbanisation. The diverse contributions by almost 350 African and international authors come together to produce a superlative work giving the region the attention it so rightfully deserves.

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Book SynopsisWhere's the best place to go out on a Saturday night in Barcelona? What off-beat museums can be discovered after Sunday brunch (and where to have it)? Which locations offer the best viewpoints of the Catalan capital? What Gaudí buildings are essential? Where does Barcelona's modernism reach its zenith? Where to take the children? What's the best place to buy wine? And where do the locals hang out? The 500 Hidden Secrets of Barcelona reveals hundreds of good-to-know addresses, avoiding the touristy places and pointing out the urban details you are likely to miss. Mark Cloostermans, a Belgian journalist living in Barcelona, unlocks the various districts, pointing out historical details in the streets of the old town, taking you from green Montjuïc hill to the beach and back. The best places to eat halal, the must-visits for Barça fans and the various festivals you can plan your visit around: The 500 Hidden Secrets of Barcelona reveals it all.Trade ReviewIf you really want to get under the skin of a city, the 500 Hidden Secrets series, which covers a number of cities from Havana to Ghent, all written by people who know the cities inside out, is ideal. It's an innovative and refreshing take on the traditional travel guide. The Independent

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Book SynopsisFeaturing new and iconic images, this follow-up to Prestel's highly successful A Year in Photography: Magnum Archive includes some of the most striking photography ever collected in one volume. As readers flip the pages they will find themselves traveling from west to east across the globe. Each country is represented in three or four images captured by a single photographer. While renowned figures such as Robert Capa, Bruce Davidson, and Martin Parr are included, readers will also find younger photographers such as Olivia Arthur, Alessandra Sanguinetti, and Mikhael Subotzky, all of whom present dazzling new views of our changing world. Shining a light on the human condition in every corner of the globe, this compilation exemplifies Magnum founder Henry Cartier- Bresson's vision of "a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually."Trade Review"Featuring images by founding members like Robert Capa, pioneers like Martin Parr and Bruce Davidson, and newer members like Alessandra Sanguinetti, Mikhael Subotzky, and Olivia Arthur, this book is a testament to the human condition and those who dare to document it." -Feature Shoot

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Book SynopsisExplore Australia 2024 is the 40th edition of the country's longest-running and most-trusted travel guide. This ideal guidebook makes planning easy. For each holiday region there’s a destination overview, a handy map, summaries of top attractions and information on major towns, festivals and events, and photos showcasing featured places. A huge variety of nature and cultural experiences are covered, from waterfalls and bushwalks to museums and wineries. There’s also information on Traditional Owners and many places feature First Nations cultural experiences or describe sacred sites. All of the information in this edition has been checked and updated by travel writer Andrew Bain. Whether you're planning a road trip, caravanning holiday or weekend away, Explore Australia 2024 is easy for you to stow in a car or caravan. It’s time to plan your next adventure, and then get out on the road!

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