Reportage, journalism or collected columns Books
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Too Late To Stop Now
Book SynopsisMore than 40 stories from the glory days of rock''n''roll, featuring Lou Reed, Elton John, Sting and The Clash.Allan Jones brings stories many previously unpublished from the golden days of music reporting. Long nights of booze, drugs and unguarded conversations which include anecdotes, experiences and extravagant behaviour.- A band''s aftershow party in San Francisco being gatecrashed by cocaine-hungry Hells Angels- Chrissie Hynde on how rock''n''roll killed The Pretenders- What happened when Nick Lowe and 20 of his mates flew off to Texas to join the Confederate Air Force- John Cale on his dark alliance with Lou ReedAllan Jones remembers a world that once was one of dark excess and excitement, outrageous deeds and extraordinary talent, featuring legends at both the beginnings and ends of their careers.Trade ReviewMusic fans looking for more vintage fare will enjoy Too Late To Stop Now. * The Independent *The old-school drinking and industrial drug abuse remain, as does the author's decisive indiscretion... many of the chapters unfold at greater length, leaving room for more nuanced reflection on the consequences of all the excessive ribaldry... But mostly, there is comedy... It's ridiculous fun. * Uncut *This unputdownable book ... is rammed with finely recounted anecdotes. This is a first-class Rolls Royce Phantom of a book. -- Paul Davies * Hard Rock Hell *That the book’s subtitle is More Rock’N’Roll War Stories speaks volumes. Because if you want blood, Allan Jones has got it. * The Telegraph *Jones turns it up to 11 with his latest collection. These are captivating and absolutely delightful tales of rock’s wonder and power. * Library Journal *There's unexpected music in Jones's sentences. (Genesis reminded him "less of a rock band than the bell-bottomed equivalent of the school chess team on an outing to an owl sanctuary.") Also unexpected: the disclosure that concludes Too Late to Stop Now. It's 2021, and Jones is invited to tag along on one last gig but realizes that, although "[f]orty-five years ago... I would have jumped on the bus without a second thought," he would prefer to go home to his memories. How lucky for rock diehards that he shares those memories here. * Shelf Awareness *[Jones] knows when to joyfully exploit a glib moment and when to relent to the darkness, like when he goes into extensive detail with Chrissie Hynde about the tragic collapse of the original Pretenders. And there are times when he dead centers the bullseye while taking the measure of his subject. [... If you are looking for a book that gives] a real sense of what real rock and roll was like on either side of the Punk detonation, then look no further. -- Joe Silva * Tracking Angle *Seldom has a rock ’n’ roll memoir been so falling-down funny. Jones doesn’t sit there politely with his notebook and write down the same rote publicist-approved quotes. He waits until they’re completely sloshed, without inhibitions, and then the truth comes out. -- Jim Motavalli * The New York Journal of Books *[The book’s best pieces] combine Jones’ intimate interactions with his interview subjects over time with the sodden interviews recounting them to create insightful portraits of individuals and informed histories of their bands. -- Charles Caramello * Washington Independent Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Are We Rolling? Elton John Roy Harper Chris Farlowe Screaming Lord Sutch Little Feat Loudon Wainwright III Peter Gabriel Ian Anderson Lou Reed Wreckless Eric The Damned Peter Cook Guy Clark Joe Cocker Joe Ely Rockpile Juke Box Jury Sting | The Police Bryan Ferry Jerry Dammers Joe 'King' Carrasco Jon Anderson The Fabulous Thunderbirds Nick Lowe And The Confederate Air Force The Blasters The Rolling Stones Captain Sensible John Cale Nick Lowe Dr Feelgood Elmore Leonard Elvis Costello Bob Geldof R.E.M. Lambchop John Carpenter Oliver Stone Chrissie Hynde Robert Plant John Cale Wilko Johnson The Clash The 101’ers The Aftershow
£15.29
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd What Really Happened In Wuhan
Book SynopsisWalkley Award-winning journalist, Sharri Markson is the Investigations Editor at The Australian and host of prime-time show Sharri on Sky News Australia. The origins of Covid-19 are shrouded in mystery. Scientists and government officials insisted, for a year and a half, that the virus had a natural origin, ridiculing anyone who dared contradict this view. Tech giants swept the internet, censoring and silencing debate in the most extreme fashion. Yet it is undeniable that a secretive facility in Wuhan was immersed in genetically manipulating bat-coronaviruses in perilous experiments. And as soon as the news of an outbreak in Wuhan leaked, the Chinese military took control and gagged all laboratory insiders. Part-thriller, part-expose, What Really Happened in Wuhan is a ground-breaking investigation from leading journalist Sharri Markson into the origins of Covid-19, the cover-ups, the conspiracies and the classified research. It features never-before-seen primary documents exposin
£9.49
Orion Publishing Co Impossible Owls
Book SynopsisA vibrant, surprising and thought-provoking collection of essays from an exciting new literary voice who has been compared to John Jeremiah Sullivan, David Foster Wallace and Janet MalcolmTrade ReviewAgain and again, IMPOSSIBLE OWLS proves that Brian Phillips is a cultural codebreaker of the highest order, unlocking the hidden systems of our mad world. Hilarious, nimble and thoroughly illuminatingA rich mix of derring-do, insightful analysis and creative non-fiction . . . funny, sharp, obsessive and very readable * i NEWSPAPER *Brian Phillips's essays are out of this world: big-hearted, exhaustive, unrelentingly curious, and goddamned fun * THE MILLIONS *An absolute blast . . . I couldn't get enough of this book: Phillips is the perfect adventure guide ? down for anything, talented enough to translate the experience * BUZZFEED *Phillips is a long-form journalist of the old school, a deep research artist, and a killer stylist. His digressive and frequently hilarious explorations . . . recall the work of John Jeremiah Sullivan and the late David Foster Wallace, with a dash of Janet Malcolm. IMPOSSIBLE OWLS is an absorbing and totally distinctive exploration of wildly disparate corners of our world * VOGUE *Brian Phillips has a way of making you care about the things he cares about in the way he cares about them, which is passionately, almost obsessively . . . invigorating and muscular . . . the book is a must-get * ELLE *Big, powerful, beautiful essaysPhillips takes readers down unexpected paths that are as world-expanding as they are entertaining * TIME MAGAZINE *These far-flung tales all share the same inspirational spark: Brian Phillips's soulful, intrepid spirit, and his masterful ability at turning everyday curiosities into epic quests that you can't stop readingGet lost in this captivating essay collection, which brings to life both the extraordinary and the mundane * VULTURE *Takes you deep into worlds both far-flung and familiar - tiger trails, tiny towns of the Yukon, Route 66, a Walmart parking lot. Brian Phillips riffs and reports with abiding curiosity and incisive humour. A fantastic, transporting readWitty, pensive, sometimes whimsical, always truthful, IMPOSSIBLE OWLS is testament to Phillips's gift for enchantment, and his genius for knowing exactly where our alienation from the world meets our sympathy for itI love that this is a book of highways and historical touchstones and large geographic shifts. But I also love that at the heart of those bigger things, there is the gentle touch of Brian Phillips underneath it all, creating a landscape for a reader to see not his work, but to better see themselves[Phillips] has now established himself as a master of long form reporting that is indistinguishable from the literary essay, through which he bares witness to our contemporary moment * LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS *
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Newspaper
Book SynopsisObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Newspaper is about more than news printed on paper. It brings us inside our best and worst selves, from censorship and the intentional destruction of historic record, to partisan and white supremacist campaigns, to the story of an instrument that has been central to democracy and to holding the powerful to account. This is a 400-year history of a nearly-endangered object as seen by journalist Maggie Messitt in the two democratic nations she calls home the United States and South Africa.The first draft of history, newspapers figure prominently through each movement and period of unrest in both nationsfrom the first colonial papers published by slave traders and an advocate for press freedom to those published on id cards, wallpaper, and folio sheets during civil wars. Offices were set on fire. Presses were pushed into bodies of water. Editors were
£9.49
£47.50
Graphic Arts Books Southern Horrors
Book SynopsisSouthern Horrors (1892) is a pamphlet by Ida B. Wells. Published several months after a white mob destroyed the office of her prominent Memphis newspaper, the Free Speech, Southern Horrors is an impassioned work of investigative journalism and political criticism from a leading activist of the nineteenth century. “Nobody in this section of the country believes the old thread-bare lie that Negro men rape white women. If Southern white men are not careful, they will overreach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction; a conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women.” After publishing these words in a May 1892 edition of the Memphis Free Speech, Ida B. Wells left for a brief vacation in New York—no doubt inspired by the numerous threats made against her life at the time. In her absence, a mob of white men destroyed the newspaper’s office, leaving no trace of her extensive research on the last half century of violence perpetrated against African Americans in the name of white supremacy. Undeterred, Wells published Southern Horrors just months later, combining personal reflections on the incident with daring investigative reporting on the widespread practice of lynching in the American South. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Ida B. Wells’ Southern Horrors is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.
£6.06
Quercus Publishing The Storm is Here: America on the Brink
The New Yorker's award-winning war correspondent returns to his own country to chronicle a story of mounting civic breakdown and violent disorder, in a vivid eyewitness narrative of revelatory explanatory power.'This is a searing book, exquisitely reported, lyrically told, and so vivid it will make your heart stop-a dark journey into what ails America' Patrick Radden KeefeOn the morning of January 6, a gallows was erected on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. A little after noon, as thousands of Trump supporters marched past the structure, some paused to climb its wooden steps and take pictures of the US Capitol framed within an oval noose. Up ahead, the dull thud of stun grenades could be heard, accompanied by bright flashes. Several people carried Confederate flags. Others had Tasers, baseball bats, bear spray, and truncheons. 'They need help!' a man shouted. 'It's us versus the cops!' No one seemed surprised by what was taking place. There was an eerie sense of inexorability, mixed with nervous hesitation. It reminded me of combat: the slightly shocked, almost bashful moment when bravado, fantasy, and training crash against reality.In early 2020, Luke Mogelson, who had been living in France and covering the Global War on Terrorism, returned home to report on the social discord that the pandemic was bringing to the fore in the US. Soon, he found himself embedded with militias descending on the Michigan state capitol. From there, the story swept him on to Minneapolis, then to Portland, and ultimately to Washington, D.C. His stories for The New Yorker were hailed as essential first drafts of history. They were just the tip of the iceberg.The Storm Is Here is the definitive eyewitness account of how--during a season of sickness, economic uncertainty, and violence--a large segment of Americans became convinced that they needed to rise up against dark forces plotting to take their country away from them, and then did just that. It builds month by month, through vivid depictions of events on the ground, from the onset of the pandemic to the attack on the US Capitol--during which Mogelson was in the Senate chamber with the insurrectionists--and its aftermath. Bravely reported and beautifully written, Mogelson's book follows the tradition of some of the essential chronicles of war and unrest of our time.
£11.69
Ebury Publishing The Voice: 40 years of Black British Lives
Book SynopsisLaunched at the 1982 Notting Hill Carnival, The Voice newspaper captured and addressed a generation figuring out what it meant to be Black and British. Written for and by Black people, the newspaper shone a light on systematic injustices as well as celebrating Black Britain's success stories. From hard hitting news reports covering the murder of Stephen Lawrence to championing the likes of Sir Lewis Hamilton and Idris Elba, the newspaper has campaigned, celebrated and educated people for the last forty years.As well as celebrating amazing successes in sport, politics and the arts, The Voice documented everyday life in the community, from the emergence of a Black middle class in the '90s and the achievements of Black entrepreneurs to how different facets of the community were explored in contemporary music and literature. Since its small beginnings in Hackney, The Voice has also become a fantastic training ground for prominent journalists and figures including former politician Trevor Phillips, broadcaster Rageh Omaar and writer Afua Hirsch. Today, The Voice is Britain's longest running and only Black newspaper.Told through news reports, editorials and readers' personal letters, this emotive book documents the social history of Black Britain over the last four decades. Each chapter is illustrated with amazing newspaper pages from The Voice's extensive archives as well as iconic and dramatic front covers from 1982 to the present day.With a foreword from Sir Lenny Henry and written by former and current Voice journalists, this powerful book is a celebration of the ground-breaking paper which gave a voice to the voiceless.
£17.00
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press Why Read: Selected Writings 2001 – 2021
Book Synopsis'Will Self may not be the last modernist at work but at the moment he's the most fascinating of the tradition's torch bearers.' New YorkFrom one of the most unusual and distinctive writers working today, dubbed 'the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation' by the Guardian, Will Self's Why Read is a cornucopia of thoughtful and brilliantly witty essays on writing and literature.Self takes us with him: from the foibles of his typewriter repairman to the irradiated exclusion zone of Chernobyl, to the Australian outback and to literary forms past and future. With his characteristic intellectual brio, Self aims his inimitable eye at titans of literature like Woolf, Kafka, Orwell and Conrad. He writes movingly on W.G. Sebald's childhood in Germany and provocatively describes the elevation of William S. Burroughs's Junky from shocking pulp novel to beloved cult classic. Self also expands on his regular column in Literary Hub to ask readers how, what and ultimately why we should read in an ever-changing world. Whether he is writing on the rise of the bookshelf as an item of furniture in the nineteenth century or on the impossibility of Googling his own name in a world lived online, Self's trademark intoxicating prose and mordant, energetic humour infuse every piece.Trade ReviewThe finest essays here are incisive, perceptive and provocative. But they are also wildly entertaining. * Washington Examiner *Sharp, trenchant essays from an enfant terrible of modern letters...[there's] plenty to ponder in this energetic, opinionated collection * Kirkus Reviews *Will Self may not be the last modernist at work but at the moment he's the most fascinating of the tradition's torch bearers. * New York *Self is the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation, a writer whose formidable intellect is mercilessly targeted on the limits of the cerebral as a means of understanding. Yes, he makes you think, but he also insists that you feel. * Guardian *Self often enough writes with such vividness it's as if he is the first person to see anything at all. * New York Times *Self has indeed been a goat among the sheep of contemporary English fiction, a puckish trickster self-consciously at odds with its middle-class politeness. * New York Review of Books *Table of Contents1: Why Read? 2: The Death of the Shelf 3: Absent Jews and Invisible Executioners: W. G. Sebald and the Holocaust 4: Chernobyl 5: Kafka's Wound 6: A Care Home for Novels: The Narrative Art Form in the Age of Its Technical Supersession 7: The Last Typewriter Engineer 8: Isenshard 9: How Should We Read? 10: Junky 11: Being a Character 12: Australia and I 13: The Rise of the Machines 14: Literary Time 15: The Printed Word in Peril 16: The Secret Agent 17: What to Read? 18: On Writing Memoir 19: Apocalypse Then 20: The Technology of Journalism 21: St George for the French 22: Will Self-Driving Cars Take My Job? 23: Reading for Writers
£10.44
Academic Studies Press This Was Not America: A Wrangle Through
Book SynopsisFrom fleeing the Warsaw Ghetto and living underground to fighting for social justice in 1960s’ Seattle and helping smash the communist system in 1980s’ Poland, this is a narrative that erupts into critical moments in Jewish, Polish, and American history. It is also a story of the hidden anguish that accompanies and courses through that history, of the living haunted by the dead. The story is told through a conversation, often contentious, between Michael Steinlauf, historian of Polish-Jewish culture and child of Holocaust survivors, and the anthropologist and artist Elżbieta Janicka. It is illustrated with scores of photographs and documents.Table of Contents1. Poland, 1980s 2. Columbia, 1960s 3. Seattle, first half of the 1970s 4. Brighton Beach, 1950s 5. Brandeis, 1979-88 6. Bondage to the Dead, first time around 7. Bondage to the Dead, second time around 8. Moses, Moyshe, Michał, Maryś, Michel, Michael first time around 9. Moses, Moyshe, Michał, Maryś, Michel, Michael second time around 10. PostscriptsAcknowledgements
£15.19
Eland Publishing Ltd The View from the Ground: Peacetime
Book SynopsisIf you want to know about writing, about how to make others share the horror and intensity of an experience, try the first piece in this collection, Justice at Night. Martha Gellhorn wrote it as a 28-year-old, having just returned home to the States after four years in Europe, in 1936. What follows is a selection of fifty years of peacetime journalism, history caught at the moment of its unfolding, as it looked and felt to those who experienced it. It's about revolutions in the making, guilty acts of state terrorism, poverty, injustice and recovery. It vividly captures the range and intensity of Gellhorn's courageous work and is also a passionate call to arms, not only to remember the wronged and to bear witness to evil, but to stand your ground in the face of it.
£13.49
Colourpoint Creative Ltd Reporting the Troubles 2: More Journalists Tell
Book SynopsisIn this follow-up to their landmark first book, Deric Henderson and Ivan Little have gathered new stories from seventy journalists who have worked in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. These contributors write powerfully about the victims they have never forgotten, the events that have never left them, and the lasting impact of working through those terrible years. Reporting the Troubles 2, which includes contributions from a new generation of journalists, who came up in the years leading to the Good Friday Agreement, provides a compelling narrative of the last fifty years, and covers many of the key events in Northern Ireland’s troubled history, from Bloody Sunday in 1972 to the inquest into the Ballymurphy Massacre in 2021. Grounded in the passionate belief that good journalism and good journalists make a difference, Reporting the Troubles 2 is a profoundly moving act of remembrance and testimony. 'I am sometimes asked to identify the most important story that I dealt with while I was editor of the Irish Times … I answer that the most important story was not published in a single day but over years. And it was not put together by any one journalist but by a whole cohort of reporters, photographers, feature writers and editors … For the most part they just got by-lines and the satisfaction of knowing that what they were doing was important, that the story had to be told, day by day, hour by hour. And that telling it could make a difference. It is difficult to imagine that there could ever have been a peace process without that.’ CONOR BRADY, former editor, Irish Times Contributions from - Gordon Adair, Don Anderson, Ciaran Barnes, Colin Bateman, Jilly Beattie, Charlie Bird, David Blevins, Declan Bogue, Conor Brady, Stephen Breen, Eugene Campbell, Peter Cardwell, Mark Carruthers, Niall Carson, Paddy Clancy, Simon Cole, Liam Collins, Mark Davey, Donna Deeney, Michael Denieffe, Patricia Devlin, Michael Donnelly, Roisín Duffy, Gavin Esler, Michael Fisher, Jim Flanagan, Mike Gaston, Gareth Gordon, Jim Gracey, Paul Harris, Deric Henderson, Mark Hennessy, Gary Honeyford, Paul Johnson, Fergal Keane, Vincent Kearney, Gerry Kelly, Will Leitch, Ivan Little, Robin Livingstone, David Lynas, Darragh MacIntyre, Michael Macmillan, Kevin Magee, Stanley Matchett, Don McAleer, Roisin McAuley, Barry McCaffrey, Jonny McCambridge, Freya McClements, Sir Trevor McDonald, Lindy McDowell, Mark McFadden, Hugh McGrattan, Seamus McKee, Fearghal McKinney, Allison Morris, Rod Nawn, Malachi O’Doherty, Maggie O’Kane, Mike Parry, Lance Price, Colin Randall, Paul Reynolds, Maggie Taggart, Eric Villiers, John Ware, Nicholas Watt, Johnny Watterson, David Young.
£16.14
Poetry Wales Press Cymru and I
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Granta Books Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING Long before the pandemic, care work has been underpaid and its values disregarded. In this remarkable and compassionate book, Madeleine Bunting speaks to those on the front line of the care crisis, struggling to hold together a crumbling infrastructure. A combination of extraordinary first-hand accounts of caring with a history of care and its language, Labours of Love is an impassioned call for change at a time when we need it most.
£9.49
Granta Books Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Contested City
Book SynopsisPakistan's largest city is a sprawling metropolis of 20 million people. A place of political turbulence, where lavish wealth and absolute poverty sit side by side, and where the lines between idealism and corruption can quickly blur. Through the stories of those who know the city best - including a journalist, an activist, and an ambulance driver - Samira Shackle paints a vivid, vibrant and often violent portrait of Karachi over the past decade: a period during which the Taliban arrived in Pakistan, adding to the daily perils of its residents and pushing their city into the international spotlight. Nuanced and fast-paced, Karachi Vice is an immersive, electrifying journey around one of the most compelling cities in the world.Trade ReviewAny of the finely drawn characters in Karachi Vice could be the subject of an entire book - placed beside each other they form a tapestry that reveals a violent, vibrant, remarkable, battered city. I was completely gripped by it -- Kamila ShamsieShackle expertly and empathetically leads the reader in ... the book reveals a city, a people - and through them a country - with tremendous poise and the skills of a fastidious reporter * Daily Telegraph *A blistering tour of Karachi's mean streets, seen through the eyes of the people who know it best. Heart-breaking and compelling in equal measure. To understand the forces shaping the mega-cities of the global south, join Shackle's characters and get under the skin of Pakistan's largest -- Ben RawlenceRemarkable... compelling... This is a sensitive and elegantly constructed book, which offers a moving snapshot of a restless city and its resilient citizens * Prospect *A moving account of the struggles of everday heroes - and of the unhappy metropolis that needs them * Economist *A brilliant portrait of a complex place... in some senses, the book is like a novel: each character is so beautifully drawn that we are in their heads with ease... alongside the brutality is the resilience, vitality and moral backbone of Shackle's five subjects: despite being battered day after day, they hold on to their values, and their character, and in doing so, they give us hope -- Razia Iqbal * Mail on Sunday *Gripping... Karachi Vice meticulously constructs a vibrant mosaic of a city's underbelly, while disentangling the ways in which Karachi is enmeshed with crime lords, gangs, political interests and militants. Samira Shackle's prose is nimble and propulsive, as she expertly combines interview, anecdote and reportage with in-depth socio-political analysis * TLS *Remarkable... compelling... This is a sensitive and elegantly constructed book, which offers a moving snapshot of a restless city and its resilient citizens * Prospect *
£9.49
Granta Books Far Out: The Lives of Former Extremists and What
Book SynopsisA powerful investigation into the world of extremism and redemption, from TIME journalist and author of Cast Away. "Far Out is an excellent mix of investigative journalism, entertaining storytelling and intelligent analysis. Its individual stories are like pieces of a puzzle that McDonald-Gibson assembles to offer deeply human insights into the drivers of radicalisation and extremism" - Julia Eber, author of Going Dark What makes an extremist? From obscure cults to revolutionary movements, people have always been seduced by fringe beliefs. And in today's deeply divided world, more people than ever are drawn to polarising ideologies. All too often we simply condemn those whose positions offend us, instead of trying to understand what draws people to the far edges of society -- and what can pull them back again. In Far Out, we meet eight people from across religious, ideological, and national divides who found themselves drawn to radical beliefs, including a young man who became the face of white supremacy in Trump-era America, a Norwegian woman sucked into a revolutionary conspiracy in the 1980s, a schoolboy who left Britain to fight in Syria, and an Australian from the far-left Antifa movement. By immersing us in their stories, McDonald-Gibson challenges our ideas of who or what an extremist is, and shows us not only what we can do to prevent extremism in the future, but how we can start healing the rifts in our world today.Trade ReviewFar Out is an excellent mix of investigative journalism, entertaining storytelling and intelligent analysis. Its individual stories are like pieces of a puzzle that McDonald-Gibson assembles to offer deeply human insights into the drivers of radicalisation and extremism -- Julia Eber, author of Going DarkAn eye opening and often moving account of how extremist thought takes hold. In Far Out, McDonald-Gibson asks us to open our hearts to those on the political extremes-for those with the most hateful views are the most in need of our forbearance and tolerance. A thoughtful and thought-provoking read -- Cal Flyn, author of Islands of AbandonmentThrough illuminating narratives, Far Out provides examples of how radicalization takes hold around the world, and offers clues as to how we might best counter it -- Christian Picciolini, author of Breaking Hate and White American YouthMcDonald-Gibson goes where many journalists fear to tread: into the hearts of people routinely demonised by the rest of the media. Their stories will intrigue and surprise you: this is an urgent, compelling book of the utmost necessity -- Ben RawlenceFar Out is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand, and do something about, the growing allure of toxic political ideologies. -- David Livingstone Smith, author of Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization
£9.49
Granta Books Had I Known: Collected Essays
Book SynopsisA self-proclaimed 'myth buster by trade', over her long-ranging career as a journalist and political activist Barbara Ehrenreich has delved with devastating wit and insight into the social and political fabric of America. Had I Known gathers together Ehrenreich's most significant articles and excerpts from the last four decades - some of which became the starting point for her bestselling books - from her award-winning article 'Welcome to Cancerland', published shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, to her groundbreaking investigative journalism in 'Nickel and Dimed', which explored living in America on the minimum wage. Issues she identified as far back as the 80s and 90s such as work poverty, rising inequality, the gender divide and medicalised health care, are top of the social and political agenda today. Written with remarkable tenderness, humour and incisiveness, Ehrenreich's describes an America of struggle, inequality, racial bias and injustice. Her extraordinarily prescient and relevant perspective announces her as one of most significant thinkers of our day.Trade ReviewPolemical and passionate, acerbic but introspective, these essays are unsettlingly prescient. Ehrenreich has always been able to see which way the wind is blowing, foreseeing much of the world as we see it today -- Alastair Mabbott * Herald *
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Granta Books A Trillion Trees: How We Can Reforest Our World
Book Synopsis**A Book of the Year in The Times and The Sunday Times ** Trees are essential, for nature and for us. Yet we are cutting and burning them at such a rate that we are fast approaching a tipping point. But there is still hope. If we had a trillion more trees, the damage could be undone. Combining cutting-edge scientific research with vivid travel writing, Fred Pearce shows how we achieve this. Challenging received wisdom about the need for planting, he explains why the best strategy is to stand back, stop the destruction and let nature - and those who dwell in the forests - do the rest. Lucid, revelatory and often surprising, A Trillion Trees is an environmental call to arms, and a celebration of our planet's vast arboreal riches.Trade ReviewWe should all read Fred's book. He tells us in a practical and most readable way, how we can bring back the forests of the Earth and restore our planet to health. -- James LovelockWith Pearce, one of the UK's best science journalists, you always know you are going to get something interesting and counterintuitive. That is certainly the case with this insightful science-based travelogue... [A Trillion Trees] deserves to become an environmental classic * Literary Review *A stirring and surprising book that leaps from country to country, from case study to case study, in a manner reminiscent of Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction... If you care about the future of the planet, you have to read this book -- Cal Flyn * The Times *That most commonplace thing, a tree, is now our best hope for maintaining a habitable planet. This book explains in accessible, urgent prose the many wondrous workings of trees in making rain, wind, oxygen and habitats for much of life on earth as well as a vision for how we can, and must, reforest the world. Essential reading for the twenty-first century -- Ben Rawlence
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Reporting the Middle East: The Practice of News
Book SynopsisHow do the media cover the Middle East? Through a country-by-country approach, this book provides detailed analysis of the complexities of reporting from the Arab World. Each chapter provides an overview of a country, including the political context, relationships to international politics and the key elements relating to the place as covered in Western media. The authors explore how the media can be used to serve particular political agendas on both a regional and international level. They also consider the changes to the media landscape following the growth of digital and social media, showing how access to the media is no longer restricted to state or elite actors. By studying coverage of the Middle East from a whole range of news providers, this book shows how news formats and practices may be defined and shaped differently by different nations. It will be essential reading for scholars and practitioners of journalism, especially those focusing on the Arab World.Table of ContentsIntroduction Reporting Lebanon Reporting Palestine/Israel Reporting Gaza Reporting Jordan Reporting Iraq Reporting Saudi Arabia Reporting Turkey Reporting Iran Reporting Egypt Reporting Syria Conclusion: Thoughts on Reporting the Middle East
£82.50
Orpen Press The Best of Brian
£12.82
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Love Falls On Us: A Story of American Ideas and
Book SynopsisIn 2009 Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill became a top global news story. Two years later Hillary Clinton declared “Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights,” but still today there is little consensus on how to advance those rights beyond the U.S. and Europe. The fact is that international LGBT activism and allies have created winners and losers. In Africa those who easily identify with the identities of the global movement find support, funding and care. Those whose sexualities don’t align so neatly don’t. In this faithful and moving investigation, award winning journalist Robbie Corey-Boulet shows that LGBT liberation does not look the same in Africa as it does in the United States or Europe. At a time when there is a groundswell of interest in LGBT life in Africa and attempts at reversing LGBT rights across much of the ‘developed’ world Corey-Boulet lays bare past failures. To the extent that there exists a right way to engage on LGBT issues in Africa—and, indeed, worldwide—Love Falls on Us is for those looking to learn what it is.Trade ReviewTimely and ambitious .. Love Falls on Us deepens our understanding of these lives beyond just the persecution described in western media … Corey-Boulet’s work elevates the extraordinary ordinariness of L.G.B.T.Q. Africans who are trying to live full, peaceful and free lives in the places they call home. * New York Times *The author of the memoir Lives of Great Men discusses the skewed coverage of gay life in Africa. * The Nation *Insightful, well-researched and compelling … This is an important book for the queer community and activist movement on the continent. * Mail and Guardian *In a world where LGBT rights are being reversed even in “developed” countries, Corey-Boulet investigates the right way to address LGBT issues in Africa. * Washington Blade *Love Falls on Us creates an alternative narrative for the queer African experience [and] Ddelves deep into the diversity and the realities of LGBT Africans on the continent through easily relatable narratives utilizing African queer history, personal stories of African gay activists and average people. * Bay Area Reporter *This book provides a gripping portrait of queer life in West Africa, and an intimate insight into the resilience, courage and creativity of those who are marginalized, not only by societal norms of gender and sexuality, but also by global narratives of LGBT rights. * Adriaan Van Klinken, Associate Professor of Religion and African Studies, University of Leeds *In Africa, gay rights – like most other human rights – exist in a tenuous state, merely tolerated in the best of times, violently repressed in the worst. But beneath the surface, gay lives go on, and unique forms of gay culture thrive even in hostile environments, as Robbie Corey-Boulet writes in this vivid and important book. Their voices are heard in Loves Falls on Us, loudly and irreverently, revealing surprising truths about Africa – and the people who misjudge it from afar. * Andrew Rice, author of The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget *Love Falls on Us offers moving accounts of LGBT Africans’ lives and loves, while demystifying the complexity of gender and sexual diversity politics on the continent. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in LGBT rights and activism. * Ashley Currier, author of Politicizing Sex in Contemporary Africa and Out in Africa *Robbie is a meticulous researcher with an unparalleled knowledge of LGBT rights in Africa, a deep connection with local activists, and an understanding of the complex relationship between well-intended outside human rights groups and the local activist community. * Corinne Dufka, Human Rights Watch, Associate Director, West Africa *At last, a book with fresh reporting and nuanced insight on the LGBT community in Africa. Corey-Boulet launches the reader into the fight for the rights of queer Africans, with thoughtful attention to the global and local dynamics of activism across cultures. Even better, he gives us more stories of ordinary African lives, animating them with context and charm. This is an important book. * Dayo Olopade, author of The Bright Continent: Breaking Rules and Making Change in Modern Africa */i>'Corey-Boulet offers a rare insight into the lives of queer men and women in three African countries. These moving life stories defy stereotypes of African queer people as passive victims in need of liberation, and show how the geopolitics of LGBTQ rights can inadvertently harm the very people they aim to help. Crafted by a gifted and sensitive writer, Love Falls On Us is a landmark of journalism that illuminates the deep story behind a sensationalistic issue drawing on both long-term investigative journalism and social studies. It will be essential reading for those involved in the global fight to combat homophobia but also to human rights activists, postcolonial scholars, and students of contemporary Africa. * Professor Vinh-Kim Nguyen, Department of Anthropology, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies *Explores with nuance and sophistication the paradoxical effects of transnational LGBT rights activism. * Graeme Reid, LGBT Programme Director, Human Rights Watch *Explores with nuance and sophistication the paradoxical effects of transnational LGBT rights activism. * Graeme Reid, LGBT Programme Director, Human Rights Watch'Robbie is a meticulous researcher with an unparalleled knowledge of LGBT rights in Africa, a deep connection with local activists, and an understanding of the complex relationship between well-intended outside human rights groups and the local activist community.' *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Cameroon 1. Indomitable Lions 2. Do No Harm 3. More Fear Than Joy 4. Human Rights Feeds on Horror 5. Love Falls On Us Part 2: Côte d’Ivoire 6. Here in the Realm of Art 7. L’Affaire pédophilie 8. A Life for Two 9. Winners and Losers 10. Brahima du jardin Part 3: Liberia 11. Everybody Will Carry Their Own Burden 12. Anti-Liberian, Anti-God 13. Let That Awareness Be Created 14. Grown Woman 15. Finding Our Own Champions
£999.99
C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd Voices of Jordan
Book SynopsisJordan’s diverse socioeconomic make-up encapsulates, like no other Middle Eastern state, both the array of pressing short-term problems facing the region, and the underlying challenges that Arab states will need to face once the current spate of civil conflicts is over: meaningful youth employment, female participation in politics, and integration of refugees into society. This book tells the story of Jordan through the lives of ordinary people, including a political cartoonist, a Syrian refugee, a Jihadist and a female parliamentarian. The raw voices and everyday struggles of these people shine a fresh light on the politics, religion, and society of a culture coming to terms with the harsh reality of modernisation and urbanisation at a time of regional upheaval. With her deep knowledge of Jordan’s landscape, language and culture, Rana Sweis sketches an intimate portrait of the intricacies and complexities of life in the Middle East. Rather than focusing on how individuals are affected by events in the region, she reveals a cast of characters shaping their own lives and times. Voices of Jordan shares those stories in all of their rich detail, offering a living, breathing social and political history.Trade Review'A delight to read because of the sensitivity, sincerity and pure grace with which Sweis describes the character, lifestyle, dreams and disappointments of those she interviewed.''An exquisite mosaic of personal lives, social commentary, political insight, and historical context. Sweis has brought Jordan to life with deep sensitivity and a world-class journalist's penchant for nuance. The result is a true masterpiece of story-telling.' -- Wendy Pearlman, author of 'We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria''With the Arab world in turmoil, the testimonies of ordinary men and women are rarely heard. In this beautifully written book, Sweis has given a powerful voice to those people who really matter.' -- Fabian Hamilton MP'In a sea of books on the Middle East, Voices of Jordan is a rare gem. Sweis builds on a formidable reputation as one of the best international reporters in the Middle East, with the sharpest eye for detail and an instinct for the human stories that really count.' -- Tim Sebastian, television journalist'To understand a society as rich, complex and important as Jordan's means understanding its people. This enlightening book allows a range of Jordanian voices to express themselves clearly, so that we can truly hear them.' -- Sir Ciarán Devane, Chief Executive of the British Council'A vivid, varied and revealing portrait of a country often ignored by Western media. All of the Arab world's pressures are here: unemployed youth, religious extremists, Syrian refugees, and a restive population competing to shape the future of Jordan.' -- Deborah Amos, international correspondent for NPR News
£20.90
Europa Editions (UK) Ltd Naples
Book SynopsisIn recent years, Naples has been the subject of countless books, films and TV series, making it even more difficult to imagine a Neapolitan normality, if it exists at all.As Naples becomes the most filmed city in Italy, where to look for the ordinary, the average?Maybe we need to go up to Vomero, a neighborhood considered almost alien to the city, middle class, homogeneous, peaceful? A reality in sharp contrast with the over-the-top life of the historic centre, crossed as it is by a thousand stratifications - architectural, historical and social.And yet even there we find an alternative reading: the city as a model of coexistence between ancient and modern.While some areas have been waiting for decades for much promised redevelopment, others have benefited from cutting-edge projects with far-reaching positive impact, representing a Naples that attracts talent, exports models, colonizes instead of being colonized.IN THIS VOLUME: Paolo Macry on Naples' monarch mayorsFran
£17.09
Verso Books A Massacre in Mexico: The True Story behind the
Book SynopsisOn September 26, 2014, 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College went missing in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. On route to a protest, local police intercepted the students and a confrontation ensued. By the morning, they had disappeared without a trace. Hernández reconstructs almost minute-by-minute the events of those nights in late September 2014, giving us what is surely the most complete picture available: her sources are unparalleled, since she has secured access to internal government documents that have not been made public, and to video surveillance footage the government has tried to hide and destroy. Hernández demolishes the Mexican state's official version, which the Peña Nieto government cynically dubbed the "historic truth". As her research shows, state officials at all levels, from police and prosecutors to the upper echelons of the PRI administration, conspired to put together a fake case, concealing or manipulating evidence, and arresting and torturing dozens of "suspects" who then obliged with full "confessions" that matched the official lie. By following the role of the various Mexican state agencies through the events in such remarkable detail, Massacre in Mexico shows with exacting precision who is responsible for which component of this monumental crime.Trade Review[A] detailed coverage of the government's horrifying and often clumsy attempt at a cover-up... her sources are clear and convincing. -- Rachel Nolan * London Review of Books *
£11.39
Penguin Books Ltd Ukraine 22: Ukrainian Writers Respond to War
Book Synopsis'The extraordinary writers in this volume articulate the taste, the terror, and the dialect of war; they command their powers of description to face a shameless empire intent on annihilating them' Ellena SavageA selection of Ukraine's leading writers convey the reality of life within Ukraine during the first year of the invasionOn 24 February 2022, the lives of Ukrainians were devastatingly altered. Since that day, many of Ukraine's writers have attempted to fathom what is happening to them and to their country. This anthology brings together writing from inside Ukraine, by Ukrainians, available in English for the first time. Here they document everyday life, ponder the role of culture amid conflict, denounce Russian imperialism and revisit their relations with the world, especially Europe and its ideals, as they try to comprehend the horrors of war.From tearing-downs of Russia's use of culture as justification of the war to moving descriptions of nights spent sheltering in corridors, poignant snatched moments with a husband on his single night away from the army, to descriptions of the eerie weather in the months leading up to the invasion, as if nature was trying to warn Ukraine, these essays reveal the texture, rawness and reality of life in Ukraine under war as never before.Trade ReviewI am extremely grateful this collection found its way to me. I read it compulsively over two sittings while my decidedly war-free calendar called me back to it with its seductions (delusions) of normality. The extraordinary writers in this volume articulate the taste, the terror, and the dialect of war; they command their powers of description to face a shameless empire intent on annihilating them. You won't find patriotic sentimentality here, but an exquisite unity of life and word against a barbaric invasion that is already shaping Europe's future. Ukraine 22 is a remarkable and significant collection which ought to be read widely -- Ellena SavageThis book thrums with the voices of everyday Ukrainians trying to live while the spectre of war looms blackly above them. Filled with heart-wrenching minute details, this book demands its readers consider a baby making air raid siren noises instead of speaking its first words, the quiet defiance in buying cinnamon buns during a war, and how do you choose which books to leave behind? As the country dances its “deadly tango”, Ukrainian writers offer us a slice of insight into what life is like when normal is destroyed -- Hanan Issa
£12.34
The History Press Ltd Untold London: Stories from Time-Trodden Streets
Book Synopsis“Just pick up a copy and set off. You’ll be amazed at what you’ve missed.” - Sir Michael PalinMARCH, 2020: A columnist watches as London locks down, facing a conundrum as his weekly deadline for his newspaper diary approaches.With the city shutting up shop and column inches to fill, journalist Dan Carrier takes to the deserted streets of Central London to uncover the forgotten stories the heart of the UK capital holds.Untold London is a consideration and celebration of a city whose famous landmarks and thoroughfares are often taken for granted. Setting out to find lingering evidence of days gone by, Dan reveals unexpected delights, triumphs and tragedies alongside plenty of skulduggery and scandal in the greatest city in the world.Trade Review"Dan about town! CNJ reporter publishes his lockdown ‘love letter’ to London" - featured in Camden New Journal. * Camden New Journal *
£16.99
EnvelopeBooks Postmark Africa: Half a Century as a Foreign
Book SynopsisThe intelligence and passion that brought independence to colonial countries in Eastern and Southern Africa was greeted with enthusiasm by many progressive Whites. Michael Holman was one of them. A Rhodesian student activist whose support for black independence frightened his own minority white government, he was inspired by the black unionists and political leaders he interviewed, and whose message he took to Western readers, notably through the London Financial Times. But as the years passed, their early ideals became increasingly corrupted, internally and by what Holman still sees as the misguided policies of outside donors. Now brought together into a single volume, Holman’s 50 years of reporting vividly conveys the hopes and disappointments of the post-colonial era.Trade ReviewAlexander McCall Smith: "If you want to see what a good man in Africa has done, read this book. It contains profound observations of real and lasting significance on virtually every page ..."; Malcolm Rifkind: "This book should be read by anyone who not only wants to know the history of central and southern Africa but to understand its people, black and white. They are a fine people and in Michael they have had an honest, articulate and worthy champion, as rigorous, objective and professional in this book as he was in his journalism as Africa Correspondent for the Financial Times. He has an energy and an eloquence in recording not just what he knows or has analysed but also what he feels to be the reality of his homeland's tragic experience both under white, colonial domination and the black-led governments that followed ..."; Ed Balls: "Africa has no fiercer critic and no greater advocate than Michael Holman. Passionate, sometimes angry but also caring and often hilarious, Michael Holman once again delivers his trademark combination of beautiful prose and compelling story-telling. This book is both a delight and a tragic tale of hopes still unfulfilled ..."; John Githongo: "Throughout his career as a journalist and author, Michael has been a rebel with a clear cause. He has a seamless capacity to get under the African skin, and a ruthless insight for sniffing out what's working, even though it may not look it, and what's an utter waste of time, even though no one else will admit. He has brought this insight and unapologetic attitude in his quest for the truth to everything he has ever done, on and for Africa. All of it is informed by a deep sense of empathy for the land of his upbringing, warts and all, and a biting sense of humour ..."Table of Contents1960s Letter, Bulawayo Chronicle, 10 September 1964 1970s Apartheid, Rhodesian-style, 27 August 1971 Letter to friends in London, 11 March 1974 Dr. Sithole's success story, 16 June 1974 Mr. Smith in the black books, 23 July 1974 Daniel Madzimbamuto, 25 January 1975 Ndabaningi Sithole, 31 January 1975 Last hide-out for the Tangwena, 6 July 1975 Letter from Lusaka, 8 July 1976 Ian Smith torturers exposed, 4 September 1977 1980s In search of the missing M form, 18 June 1982 The strains begin to tell, 6 January 1983 Julius Nyerere, 1986 Medicine too harsh, 15 February 1988 Kinshasa: As time goes by, c. 1988 Namibia, 16 November 1988 Don't trust those statistics, 14 December 1989 1990s Facing up to the ethnic issue, 26 July 1990 Between reform and more decline, 13 August 1990 Step ahead, leap back, 2 November 1991 A continent at stake, September 1993 Long snakes and short ladders,15 March 1994 Who, me? A racist?, 21 January 1995 Robert Mugabe's legacy, 1995 Apartheid and the power of rugby, 20 May 1995 Patensie, Eastern Cape, June 1995 Welcome to the Hotel Milimani, c. 1995 A hotel at the peak of its decline, 14 October 1995 The sultan's band, 7 October 1996 Harry Oppenheimer, grandee, 7 November 1998 2000s Ideas of luxury, 2 October 2002 From Gwelo to Soweto, 2004 Africa's Potemkin village, 20 January 2004 Lessons from Kenya, August 2005 When a crocodile eats the sun, March 2007 Oliver Tambo, 2007 Desmond Tutu, 2007 Beyond the Malachite Hills, July 2009 2010s The last resort: A Zimbabwe memoir, May 2010 Mandela: Conversations with myself, December 2010 Band Aid, September 2011 Africa is rising, 28 February 2012 Dambisa Moyo: Dead Aid, August 2012 The last train to Zona Verde, June 2013 Blue Dahlia, Black Gold, September 2013 Mandela's magic, 6 December 2013 Mandela obituary, 7 December 2013 Funeral circus, 16th December 2013 Investors in corrupt 'new Africa', 9 April 2014 A young continent, 23 December 2014 The World Bank fails to credit, 27 January 2015 David Beresford, April 2016 What's next for Zimbabwe? 6 October 2016 The struggle continues, 13 January 2017 Can a crocodile change its spots? November 2017 Robert Mugabe: creature of colonialism, September 2017 Zimbabwe's broken dreams, 13 July 2018 Robert Mugabe obituary, 6 September 2019 Counting the geckos, May 2020 Appendices Rhodesian cabinet minutes, 1967 Exemption Board hearing, 13 January 1977
£12.34
Cipher Press Front Lines: Trans Journalism 2007-2020
Book SynopsisJuliet Jacques was one of the first trans writers in the UK to contribute broadly to both British and foreign media, writing widely about the trans experience. Spanning over a decade, Jacques' ground-breaking journalism about selfhood, society, art, politics, freedom, and gender identity, tracks the backlash against emerging trans rights and the rise of a new and more explicit form of media transphobia. Front Lines is a seminal collection of writings on trans and queer art, politics, and media, from a period in which the relationship between trans and non-binary people and the British media was exceptionally turbulent. Jacques navigates the tension between wanting to simply write about art and culture and needing to counter the dishonest, damaging rhetoric being published about trans people in virtually every national newspaper in the UK. 'I never believed any journalism was objective, nor that there was any point in even trying to be,' writes Jacques in her introduction. 'Above all, activism is needed to fight this, with journalism to support it: there is no point in pretending to be objective in our work, as the stakes remain just as high as they were back in 2010, perhaps even higher... We're entering a new phase of collective struggle, with new fronts and new tactics needed: I hope this book can help to inform that.' This crucial collection asks what we can learn from the last decade and, importantly, what we can do now. How can new writers take up the struggle for trans liberation? And what will the future of trans writing look like?
£10.79
Amber Books Ltd Endangered Places: From the Amazonian rainforest
Book SynopsisOur beautiful planet is in danger: the warning signs are there, year after year – from vast forest fires across Australia to coral bleaching in the Pacific and the rapid break up of polar ice and the consequent rise in sea levels, threatening low-lying coastal communities everywhere. Arranged by continent, Endangered Places introduces the reader to many of the most stunning natural locations from the around the world that are currently under threat. Learn about the magnificent Bornean rainforest, home to threatened species such as orangutans, probiscis monkeys and the Sumatran rhinoceros; marvel at the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef, stretching 2,300 kilometres along Australia’s east coast and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps; explore the Aral Sea, formerly the fourth largest lake in the world and today less than 10 per cent of it’s original size after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects; and understand the process of desertification, which has led to the huge expansion of the Sahara Desert and the dramatic shrinkage of Lake Chad. Illustrated with more than 180 photographs of more than 100 threatened locations, Endangered Places celebrates the beauty of our planet while reminding us of how easily this can be lost through human behaviour and climate change.Trade Review"the book's 180 vibrant photographs feel at once like a call to travel and a call to action, inspiring readers to seek out these astonishing destinations and take steps to help conserve them before it's too late." * Frommers *Table of ContentsContents: Introduction EUROPE: Bittern, Reedbed, Suffolk Hurst Castle, Hampshire, England Thornham Marshes, Norfolk, England Bennerley Viaduct, Derbyshire– Nottinghamshire, England Canning and Salthouse Docks, Liverpool, England St-Émilion Vineyards, Nouvelle- Aquitaine, France St-Jorioz Reedbed, Lake Annecy, Haute-Savoie, France Gironde Estuary, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France Couvent de Récollets, Nivelles, Wallonia, Belgium De Duivelskuil Nature, Limburg, Netherlands Wadden Sea Salt Marsh, Netherlands Simbach-am-Inn, Bavaria, Germany Sylt Island, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Historic Centre of Vienna, Austria Venice, Italy Civita di Bagnoregio, Lazio, Italy Lake Balaton, Veszprém, Hungary Zahara de la Sierra, Cádiz, Spain Orleans-Bourbon Palace, Sanlucar de Barrameda, Cádiz, Spain Neptune Baths, Baile Herculane, Romania Danube Delta, Tulcea, Romania Black Sea, Ukraine–Russia St Stephen, Nesebar, Bulgaria Patriarchate of Pec Monastery, Peja, Kosovo Big Kemeri Bog, Latvia Yelnya Reserve, Belarus AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST: Municipal Hall, Benghazi, Cyrenaica, Libya Atiq Mosque, Benghazi, Cyrenaica, Libya Ghadamès, Tripolitania, Libya Tadrart Acacus, Ghat, Libya Leptis Magna, Tripolitania, Libya Telouet, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco Lake Burullus, Kafr El Sheikh, Egypt Osireion, Abydos, Sohag, Egypt Temple of Ramesses II, Abydos, Sohag, Egypt Pyramids of Giza, Greater Cairo, Egypt Nuri, Northern State, Sudan Kasubi Tombs, Kampala, Uganda Timbuktu, Mali Great Mosque of Djenné, Mali Nabiyotum Crater, Lake Turkana, Kenya Ngorongoro Crater, Arusha, Tanzania Great Mosque of Kilwa Kisiwani, Lindi, Tanzania Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania Cape of Caotinha, Benguela, Angola Table Mountain National Park, Western Cape, South Africa Etosha National Park, Kunene, Namibia Congo Basin Rainforest, Democratic Republic of the Congo Garamba National Park, Haut-Uélé, Democratic Republic of the Congo Salonga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo Batammariba Home, Koutammakou, Togo Comoé National Park, Côte d’Ivoire Ashanti Shrine, Ashanti, Ghana Aïr and Ténéré Natural Reserves, Arlit, Niger Adrar Plateau, Mauritania Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal Hebron Old Town, West Bank Petra, Ma’an, Jordan Dead Sea, Jordan–Israel–West Bank Beirut Central District, Lebanon Damascus, Syria Citadel of Aleppo, Syria Zabid, Al Hudaydah, Yemen ASIA, PACIFIC & the POLES Sea Ice, Svalbard, Arctic Ocean Aral Sea, Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan Minaret of Jam, Ghor, Afghanistan Bamyan Valley, Afghanistan Shakhrisabz, Qashqadaryo, Uzbekistan Shahdara Bagh, Lahore, Pakistan Taj Mahal, Agra, India Chand Baori, Abhaneri, India Western Ghats, Karnataka, India Hawksbill Turtle, Maldives, Indian Ocean Panam Nagar, Narayanganj, Bangladesh Horton Plains National Park, Central Province, Sri Lanka Yongtai Fortress, Gansu, China Zhuangzhai, Fujian, China Choijin Lama Temple, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Kaathe Swayambhu Shree Gha Chaitya, Kathmandu, Nepal Bunong Village, Mondulkiri, Cambodia Preah Khan, Siem Reap, Cambodia Sea Pong Lai Waterfall, Bolaven Plateau, Laos Inle Lake, Myanmar Huai Mae Khamin Waterfall, Khuean Srinagarindra National Park, Thailand Rainforest of Borneo, Indonesia– Malaysia–Brunei Mt Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia Barrington Tops National Park, New South Wales, Australia Lord Howe Island, New South Wales, Australia Yarra Ranges National Park, Victoria, Australia Cassowary Falls, Daintree, Queensland, Australia Stirling Range National Park, Western Australia Torres Strait Islands, Queensland, Australia Nan Madol, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia Coastal Dunes, New Zealand Cape Bird, Ross Island, Antarctica Juhyo, Mt Zao, Yamagata, Japan NORTH AMERICA North Shore Alvar Preserve, Kelleys Island, Lake Erie, USA Herschel Island–Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park, Yukon, Canada Athabasca Glacier, Canada Bull Kelp, Alexander Archipelago, Alaska, USA Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico, USA Boston Harbor, Massachussetts, USA Cachuma Lake, California, USA Everglades, Florida, USA Logan Pass, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA North Sixshooter Peak, Bear Ears Monument, Utah, USA Fallen Roof Ruin, Bears Ears Monument, Utah, USA SOUTH AMERICA Hotel Oloffson, Port-au-Prince, Haiti Gulf of California, Baja California, Mexico Old Town, Ponce, Puerto Rico Barrier Reef, San Pedro, Belize Temple I, Tikal, Guatemala Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica La Mosquitia, Honduras Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, Riviera Maya, Mexico Fortifications of Portobelo and San Lorenzo, Colón, Panama Tepuis, Venezuela Madidi National Park, Beni, Bolivia Salar de Uyuni, Potosí, Bolivia Potosí, Tomás Frías, Bolivia Machu Picchu, Cusco, Peru Chan Chan, La Libertad, Peru Huaquis, Nor Yauyos Cochas Reserve, Lima, Peru Monte Alegre State Park, Pará, Brazil Amazon Rain Forest, South America Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works, Iquique, Chile Grey Glacier, Southern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile Floreana Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador Moai, Easter Island, Chile
£16.99
Verso Books The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American
Book SynopsisFully updated from the original edition. As the retreat from Kabul shows, America goes to war not to bring democracy, or glory, but in the pursuit of profit. In The Spoils of War, leading Washington reporter, Andrew Cockburn, reveals the extent of the rot that stretches from the Pentagon and the White House, to Wall St and Silicon Valley.The American war machine can only be understood in terms of the "private passions" and "interests" of those who control it - principally a passionate interest in money. Thus, as he witheringly reports, Washington expanded NATO to satisfy an arms manufacturer's urgent financial requirements; the U.S. Navy's Pacific fleet deployments were for years dictated by a corrupt contractor who bribed high-ranking officers with cash and prostitutes; senior marine commanders agreed to a troop surge in Afghanistan in 2017 "because it will do us good at budget time."Based on years of wide-ranging research, Cockburn lays bare the ugly reality of the largest military machine in history: squalid, and at the same time terrifyingly dangerous.Trade ReviewCockburn is ... an assiduous investigator and skillful narrator. -- Foreign AffairsCorruption is the recurring theme that runs through the US journalist Andrew Cockburn's brilliant journalism collected in The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine. -- Richard Norton-Taylor * Declassified UK *An accessible yet forensic account of not only why runaway military spending is wrong, but how. -- Ed O'Loughlin * Irish Times *A devastatingly convincing account of the runaway nature of a powerful grouping of interests - the defence, intelligence and financial sectors in the US. -- Mary Kaldor * openDemocracy *This is robust, old-fashioned progressive, polemical journalism . Cockburn describes some shocking practices, and provides valuable critiques - for example, of the over-reliance on sanctions as a coercive instrument. -- Lawrence Freedman * New Statesman *He possesses a uniquely detailed knowledge of the arcane, lucrative machinations of this world, as well as a deep historical understanding of the forces that built it. And while the specifics change, the stories he tells all have the same shocking moral. "People say the Pentagon does not have a strategy," he quotes a former Air Force colonel as saying. "They are wrong. The Pentagon does have a strategy. It is: 'Don't interrupt the money flow.'" -- Jon Schwarz * The Intercept *A withering exposé reveals the insatiable and squalid profit motive that drives the US military apparatus - the largest in modern history * Morning Star *Informative and entertaining. -- Mike Phipps * Labour Hub *Nothing I have read for years has so reoriented, even revolutionized, my thinking about the corporate/political forces that underly our constructing and "modernizing" a doomsday machine, the subject of my own life's work I am urging everyone to read this book. -- Daniel Ellsberg, author of The Doomsday Machine, Confessions of a Nuclear War PlannerCockburn presents a damning account of America's military-industrial complex, culled from his best work over a decade on the paradoxical nature of American military power...Spoils of War is a meticulously researched book that presents a critical perspective on the 'American War Machine.' -- Marc Martorell Junyent * Responsible Statecraft *
£10.44
Verso Books Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers:
Book SynopsisThis short book calls to account the government misrulers and corporate criminals who made suffering from the global coronavirus pandemic more acute. Modeled on a famous 1940 bestseller--a pamphlet exposing appeasers of Nazi Germany--Guilty Men shows how the crisis has been stoked by the callous and opportunistic decisions of powerful men. The rogues gallery begins with Donald Trump, who deliberately downplayed the crisis despite knowing its dangers, as well as his international political allies, above all Boris Johnson. Billionaire politicians like Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler moved stocks at the same time they were telling Americans all was well . Political charlatans like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos undermined public safety in order to advance their agenda, Trump-controlled agencies, led by the ever-crooked Federal Reserve, bailed out Wall Street while failing to provide basic relief for workers. Libertarian "think tanks" like the Ayn Rand Institute decried public expenditures but were first in line to get bailout checks. Pharmaceutical companies gamed the vaccine race, and the most rapacious global corporations like Facebook, Visa, and Pfizer have found the pandemic to be very profitable indeed, vastly enriching the already grotesquely bloated fortunes of trillionaires like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Charles Koch. Guilty Men closes with a call for a version of the Pecora Commission, initiated by newly elected Franklin Roosevelt, that took aim at what FDR called "speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, and profiteering" that stoked the Depression. The commission led to some of the most far-reaching reforms in US history, as well as sensational hearings that led to the fall of the leading bankers and financiers of that era.Trade ReviewOn The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: Henry Wallace is a political figure-one of the giants of the mid-twentieth century-who has kind of been pushed out of the national political discussion. Nichols [tells us] that one of the reasons Wallace was not renominated in 1944 was because of his opposition to racism. The segregationists didn't want him around. -- Senator Bernie SandersOn The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: More than a history book-this is an examination of what progressives must do to retake our democracy. Nichols points the way toward how we can build a party based on peace, liberty, and justice for all. -- Representative Ilhan OmarOn The 'S' Word: A chilling reminder of how much rich American history has been erased by shallow messaging. A crucial book. -- Naomi KleinOn The 'S' Word: The Tom Paine of our time. -- Bill MoyersSure to alarm as much as it angers and informs ... [Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers] will leave readers with a renewed hunger for justice regarding the pandemic. * Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) *
£16.99
Verso Books Radius: A Story of Feminist Revolution
Book SynopsisIn 2012, the joyful hopes of the democratic Egyptian Revolution were tempered by revelations of mass sexual assault in Tahrir Square in Cairo, the revolution's symbolic birthplace. This is the story of the women and men who formed Opantish - Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment - who deployed hundreds of volunteers, scouts rescue teams, and getaway drivers to intervene in the spiraling cases of sexual violence against women protesters in the square. Organized and led by women during 2012-2013 - the final, chaotic months of Egypt's revolution - teams of volunteers fought their way into circles of men to pull the woman at the center to safety. Often, they risked assault themselves. Journalist Yasmin El-Rifae was one of Opantish's organizers, and this is her evocative, aching account of their work, as they raced to develop new tactics, struggled with a revolution bleeding into counter-revolution, and dealt with the long aftermath of assault and devastation. Told in a daring, hybrid narrative style drawn from years of interviews and her own, intimate experience, it is a story of overlapping circles: the circles of male attackers activists had to break through, the ways sexual violence can be circled off as "irrelevant" to political struggle, and the endless repetitive loops of living with trauma. Introducing a powerful new voice, a writer whose searchingly beautiful, spare prose cuts to the core of a story ever more urgent and relevant: of women's resistance when all else has failed.Trade ReviewA remarkable book which penetrates into the heart of feminist political activism without neglecting its roots in the complex lives of women or the harsh dynamics which can unfold in the midst of emancipatory struggle. -- Jacqueline Rose * New Statesman *This book is one of the most powerful reports on rescue work done in a revolutionary war zone that I have ever read; and the fact that it is work done by women on behalf of other women who've been sexually harassed (to put it mildly) not by the enemy but by their fellow revolutionaries makes it all the more gripping. I wish Radius a long life, with dazzling reviews and an ever-increasing readership. -- Vivian Gornick, author of Taking a Long LookAn intimate and revealing account of the post 2011 mosaic of contentious politics in Egypt. Rifae's narrative reveals important intersections between gender politics, collective organizing, and processes of becoming. -- Lina Attalah, founding editor of Mada MasrI devoured this book in one sitting. A must read not just for its gripping and complex depiction of feminist resistance during the Egyptian revolution from an organizer who was on the ground, but for those of us who care about feminism and radical movement-building all over the world. -- Katie J.M. Baker, award-winning investigative reporter and national correspondent at The New York TimesRadius fearlessly dives into the violent, disastrous omnishambles that transpired in Cairo in 2013 ... an urgent and timely study of what it means to lead, partake in and witness a revolution in the Middle East -- Mariam Elnozahy * Times Literary Supplement *Readers won't soon forget El-Rifae's captivating book; essential reading for feminists and historians. -- Library JournalPowerful testimony of the Egyptian Revolution destroying itself and the courageous people who hoped to save it. * Kirkus *The writing is beautiful and clean, carrying readers through harrowing and heartbreaking moments....This account of a brave, generous, and largely unacknowledged enterprise is not only an essential record of modern Egyptian history; it's a testament to what women are capable of, to what can be achieved through passionate collective action. -- Ursula Lindsey * New York Review of Books *A powerful book -- Amina Abdel-Halim * Egyptian Streets *A tapestry of trauma, revolution, healing, catharsis, and pain, replicating the spectrum of emotions unleashed by present-day activism in the Middle East...Calling out the patriarchy in the Arab world without succumbing to imperialist and racist tropes projected onto the Middle East is a fine balancing act, one that El-Rifae accomplishes in Radius. -- Tareq Baconi * Baffler *A unique account of a feminist revolutionary moment from the inside. Yasmin El-Rafae somehow manages to convey in graphic detail the inspirational struggle to protect women from the sexual violence that erupted at the heart of the Arab Spring, while remaining true to the difficulties and pain that can arise within any such movement, the whole story framed by her own first steps into the no less complex reality of motherhood. Beautifully negotiating the terrain between public and private worlds for women, Radius is a feminist manifesto for our times. -- Jacqueline Rose, author of The PlagueTable of ContentsIntroductionPart ICh 1-13Part IICh 14-17Part IIICh 18-25Part IVCh 26-38
£14.24
Transworld Publishers Ltd McIlvanney On Boxing
Hugh McIlvanney is a living legend in sports journalism. A regular winner of the fiercely contested UK Sports Writer of the Year award, he also has the unique distinction of being the only sports writer to have been voted Journalist of the Year. He is respected for his incisive commentaries and perceptive analyses of football and racing, but this collection contains the best of his writing on his first great passion, boxing. The book features in-depth analysis of the build-up, climax and aftermath of over 25 showdowns including: Muhammad Ali vs. Henry Cooper (1966) Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali (1971) George Foreman vs. Ken Norton (1974) Eusibio Pedvoza vs. Barry McGuigan (1985) Lloyd Honeyghan vs. Marlon Starling (1989) Mike Tyson vs. Frank Bruno (1989) An essential read for boxing lovers of all ages with writing so vivid that readers will feel like they have a ringside seat.
£10.44
The Lilliput Press Ltd Trinity Tales: Trinity College Dublin in the
Book SynopsisThis, the fifth and final volume in the Trinity Tales series, completes a cycle that began with tales from the 1960s. It invites readers to step into the world of Trinity College as it was in the first decade of this century through the reflections of students who attended the university during those years. Within its pages lie the stories of twenty-eight graduates from a mix of diverse backgrounds whose experiences may dispel the myths of what it means to be a ‘Trinity student’. The collection reveals the rapidly changing world of the early 2000s. This was a time of the internet revolution, when social media first affected student life, when mobile phones and laptops became ubiquitous, when handwritten work was passing into history, when The Buttery closed its doors – and all this coming against the backdrop of an overheating then imploding Irish economy. This kaleidoscope of recollections captures a student body in transformation and features stories of personal discovery and achievement against the odds. For some it proved a life-changing era when sexual, racial or class barriers were confronted. This volume concludes a remarkable half-century journey, portraying the lives of others, and of ourselves.
£17.10
The Lilliput Press Ltd A Bit of a Writer
Book SynopsisThis edition gathers all the articles and essays that Behan published in newspapers from 1951 to his death in 1964.The articles reveal a serious writer capable of great comic set pieces and amusing yarns as well as thoughtful reflections on cultural and historical issues.
£16.14
Pallas Athene Publishers Postings
Book SynopsisA collection of absurdities, many online, gleefully collected by the editor and bibliophile Jim McCue, best known for his edition (with Christopher Ricks) of Eliot's poetry. Elegantly presented and an ideal small Christmas present.
£8.99
Little, Brown Book Group Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs: 100 years of the best
Book SynopsisMany female journalists came to the fore during the first and second world wars, and their perspective was very different to that of their male peers, who were reporting from the field. Specifically, they often wrote about war from the perspective of those left at home, struggling to keep the household afloat. And with 'How it feels to be forcibly fed' (1914) by Djuna Barnes, one of the world's very first experiential, or 'gonzo' journalists, came a new age of reporting.Since then, women have continued to break new ground in newspapers and magazines, redefining the world as we see it. Many of the pieces here feel almost unsettlingly relevant today -- the conclusions Emma 'Red' Goldman drew in her 1916 'The social aspects of birth control', Maddy Vegtel's 1930s article about becoming pregnant at 40, Eleanor Roosevelt's call for greater tolerance after America's race riots in 1943. Many have pushed other limits: Naomi Wolf's Beauty Myth brought feminism to a new generation; Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones caused a media revolution; Ruth Picardie's unflinchingly honest column about living with cancer in 1997 brought a wave of British candour and a host of imitators; and when two iconic women come face to face, we have at one end Dorothy Parker on Isadora Duncan (1928) and at the other Julie Burchill on Margaret Thatcher (2004). This collection of superlative writing, selected by the Sunday Times's most senior female editor, brings together the most influential, incisive, controversial, affecting and entertaining pieces of journalism by the best women in the business. Covering: War; Crime; Politics & Society; Sex & Romance; Body Image & Health; Family, Friendship & Birth; Emancipation & Having it All; Hearth & Home; Icons & Interviews. Including: Lynn Barber, Djuna Barnes, Julie Burchill, Angela Carter, Marie Colvin, Jilly Cooper, Joan Didion, Margaret Drabble, Helen Fielding, Zelda Fitzgerald, Kathryn Flett, Martha Gellhorn, Nicci Gerrard, Emma Goldman, Germaine Greer, Nicola Horlick, Erica Jong, Jamaica Kincaid, India Knight, Christina Lamb, Daphne du Maurier, Nancy Mitford, Suzanne Moore, Camille Paglia, Sylvia Pankhurst, Dorothy Parker, Allison Pearson, Ruth Picardie, Erin Pizzey, Eleanor Roosevelt, Zadie Smith, Susan Sontag, Gloria Steinem, Martha Stewart, Mary Stott, Jill Tweedie, Rebecca West, Zoe Williams, Jeanette Winterson, Naomi Wolf.
£14.24
Vintage Publishing Seeing Things as They Are: Selected Journalism
Book SynopsisAn enlightening anthology of George Orwell's journalism and non-fiction writing, showing his genius across a wide variety of genres. Selected by leading expert Peter Davison.Famous for his novels and essays, Orwell remains one of our very best journalists and commentators. Confronting social, political and moral dilemmas head-on, he was fearless in his writing: a champion of free speech, a defender against social injustice and a sharp-eyed chronicler of the age. But his work is also timeless, as pieces on immigration, Scottish independence and a Royal Commission on the Press attest. Seeing Things As They Are, compiled by renowned Orwell scholar Peter Davison, brings together in one volume many of Orwell’s articles and essays for journals and newspapers, his broadcasts for the BBC, and his book, theatre and film reviews. Little escaped Orwell’s attention: he writes about the Spanish Civil War, public schools and poltergeists, and reviews books from Brave New World to Mein Kampf. Almost half of his popular ‘As I Please’ weekly columns, written while literary editor of the Tribune during the 1940s, are collected here, ranging over topics as diverse as the purchase of rose bushes from Woolworth’s to the Warsaw Uprising. Whether political, poetic, polemic or personal, this is surprising, witty and intelligent writing to delight in. A mix of well-known and intriguing, less familiar pieces, this engaging collection illuminates our understanding of Orwell’s work as a whole.Trade ReviewThis selection of Orwell’s journalism is a ceaseless delight… There is a treat on almost every page -- Alex Massie, 5 stars * Daily Telegraph *Orwell’s luminous gift was for seeing things, for noticing what others missed, took for granted or simply found uninteresting, for discovering meaning and wonder in the familiarity of the everyday... Nothing escaped or seemed beneath his notice, which was what made him such a good reporter... [Seeing Things As They Are] is intended to be a collection first and foremost of his journalism, with preference given to lesser-known pieces and reviews as well as some of the poems he wrote. It is full of interest and curiosities -- Jason Cowley * Financial Times *Peter Davison gives us a feast of [Orwell's] shorter writings, showing how from such hesitant beginnings he evolved into the writer of enduring importance we know, committed to decency, equality and political honesty, who could nevertheless wax lyrical over the first signs of spring or an imaginary English pub -- Gordon Bowker * Independent *Davison, now in his late 80s, has grown grey in the service of Orwell Studies, but Seeing Things As They Are is one of his best efforts yet – possibly the best of all, for it succeeds in demonstrating quite how important hackwork was to Orwell’s sense of his professional identity... At the same time, Seeing Things As They Are is full of dry runs, and the first stirrings of ideas that would be treated at greater length elsewhere -- DJ Taylor * The National *Seeing Things is packed with delights * Camden Review *
£21.25
Profile Books Ltd Hello Everybody!: One Journalist's Search for
Book SynopsisIn Hello Everybody! a bestseller in his native Holland, Joris Luyendijk tells the story of his five yearsas a reporter in the Middle East. Young and inexperienced but fluent in Arabic, he speaks to stone throwers and soldiers, taxi drivers and professors, victims and aggressors chronicling first-hand experiences of dictatorship, occupation and war. But the more he witnesses, the less he understands and he becomes increasingly aware of the yawning gap between what he sees on the ground and what is later reported in the media. As a correspondent he is privy to the multitude of narratives with conflicting implications, yet again and again the media favours those stories that will confirm and reinforce the oversimplified beliefs of the West.Hello Everybody! Is a story of disillusionment and enlightenment, by turns hilarious and despairing, but most importantly it is a powerful wake up call to the way the media gives us a filtered and manipulated version of reality in the Middle East.Trade ReviewSuperb...This book will make readers think twice when they scan foreign news in the papers -- Julian Fleming * Sunday Business Post *Excellent...breezy but self-critical -- Ian Black * Guardian *Powerful...written in a very engaging, even gripping, style and what makes it most admirable is its honesty -- Dan Glazebrook * Morning Star *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Chain Of Curiosity
Book SynopsisSandi Toksvig - broadcaster, writer, actor, and seeker of all things whimsical, has turned her probing mind to many of the most intriguing questions of our times in the pages of the Sunday Telegraph for many years. Now, for the very first time, these musings have been collected in one hilarious collection. In The Chain of Curiosity, Sandi takes the reader on a side-splitting journey through life's peculiarities in a book packed with wit, wisdom and wonderment. From pondering the joys of World Pencil Day to examining the intricacies of applause etiquette, and from tip-toeing around the delicate art of school report vocabulary to researching the oddest way to meet a sticky end, the tickling tidbits and intriguing revelations contained within the book will delight Sandi's fans, both old and new.Trade ReviewInspires ... wonderment and gentle chortles Independent
£13.49
Nomad Publishing Tripoli Witness: The Remarkable First Hand
Book Synopsis
£9.45
Scribe Publications The Changing of the Guard: the British army since
Book SynopsisA TLS and a Prospect Book of the Year A revelatory, explosive new analysis of the military today. Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Britain has changed enormously. During this time, the British Army fought two campaigns, in Iraq and Afghanistan, at considerable financial and human cost. Yet neither war achieved its objectives. This book questions why, and provides challenging but necessary answers. Composed from assiduous documentary research, field reportage, and hundreds of interviews with many soldiers and officers who served, as well as the politicians who directed them, the allies who accompanied them, and the family members who loved and — on occasion — lost them, it is a strikingly rich, nuanced portrait of one of our pivotal national institutions in a time of great stress. Award-winning journalist Simon Akam, who spent a year in the army when he was 18, returned a decade later to see how the institution had changed. His book examines the relevance of the armed forces today — their social, economic, political, and cultural role. This is as much a book about Britain, and about the politics of failure, as it is about the military.Trade Review‘Akam’s beautifully written, from the inside out, account of the British Army’s reluctance to engage with the realities of recent small wars, in Afghanistan in particular, is a must-read for every serious student of modern military history. At one level, it explains how and why we managed to turn victory over Al Qaeda in Afghanistan into defeat at the hands of the Taliban. But this book is about much more than the army in Afghanistan — it is a parable about failure, the failure of a revered institution, with a proud history and an uncritical public, to come to terms with a changed and changing world.’ -- Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, former British ambassador to Afghanistan‘Simon Akam has written a perceptive, challenging and passionate book that looks at modern soldiering. In doing so, Akam provides an invaluable look at how the British Army works — and how the changing world in the 21st century is asking new and complex questions for soldiers and military strategy alike.’ -- Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads‘This brave, absorbing and prodigiously well-researched tour de force renders every previous account of the British Army in its disastrous recent campaigns obsolete. Akam makes an unanswerable case that we are no longer very good at fighting wars, building his arguments with panache and good sense. In doing so he has done his country, and the army, a great service — although the Generals may not see it quite that way just yet. Put away the self-serving autobiographies and the obsequious histories of in-house academics; this is the definitive account of the British Army in its 21st Century misadventures.’ -- Frank Ledwidge, author of Losing Small Wars‘Simon Akam delivers a devastating indictment of Britain’s military chiefs for overseeing the shocking decline of the nation’s armed forces. His book is compulsory reading for every patriot.’ -- Tom Bower, biographer‘A brilliant book … Gets right to the heart of so many of the British Army’s problems.’ -- Simon Scarrow, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Eagles of the Empire series‘A new book looks at the changes the British Army has undergone and roles it has played as an almost volunteer sidekick to the American military in the war on terror.’ -- CJ Chivers * The New York Times *‘The truth about the British Army’ -- Jason Burke * The Guardian *‘Akam is an angry young man and the book is better for it.’ * The Times *‘A blockbuster critique … with heaps of evidence.’ -- Matthew Paris * The Times *‘A passionate book.’ -- Max Hastings * The Sunday Times *‘It’s compellingly written — I got through all 500-plus pages in two sittings — and it is certainly worth the effort.’ -- Adrian Weale * Mail on Sunday *‘Detailed and well structured.’ -- Anthony Loyd * New Statesman *‘Impassioned … It is a valuable addition to analysing the past, present and future of a venerated institution.’ -- Kim Sengupta * The Independent *‘A blistering account … Akam’s research, including interviews with 260 individuals, is formidable.’ -- Richard Norton-Taylor * Declassified UK *‘A scathing account of the British army in the years after 9/11 … Akam has not just done his homework, interviewing 260 people, but also shows his working in 89 pages of footnotes, full of forensic detail — and delicious gossip.’ -- Shashank Joshi * Spectator Australia *‘Akam makes many important points and reports in depth on officers’ recollections of specific episodes.’ -- Helen Parr * Prospect *‘The Changing of the Guard is a major book that provides the first serious analysis of the effectiveness of the modern British Army … With a particular focus on the failure of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he gives a brunt assessment of the Army as an institution and its role in society. There is lots of interesting material here and some relevant lessons for Australia.’ -- Jeff Popple * Canberra Weekly *‘It is a review of the British Army … It does not tell a ‘pretty’ story — rather, it is a ‘warts and all’ tale … Simon Akam has written a fine book on how and why the British Army has changed, between 2001 and 2020. For those who have seen military service, it will provide a broad picture of the conditions some soldiers have faced in the early 21st Century. For those who have not, it shows clearly the true face of war, as it is fought in this day and age, and may, possibly, be fought in the near future and within current social value sets.’ -- Rob Ellis * RUSI VIC Library *‘[In] beautifully written, evocative and passionate prose, [Akam places] you in the boots of British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan suddenly discovering the mission they’ve volunteered for isn’t the war they’re fighting at all … He begins asking questions at ground level, 260 interviews probing everyone from commanders, medal winners to those convicted of war crimes … This breadth of research gives Akam’s book immense power.’ -- Nicholas Stuart * The Canberra Times *‘Simon Akam … has written a timely, elegant and important book, The Changing of the Guard, about the British army’s failures in Afghanistan and Iraq.’ -- David Patrikarakos * The Spectator *‘Full of gripping reportage and compelling personal stories … the story he tells is profoundly important.’ -- David French * TLS *‘A powerful, compelling, and fascinating polemic. Essential reading.’ -- William Boyd‘A “state-of-the-nation” book of resounding power, deep conviction, and far-reaching significance.’ -- Richard Davenport-Hines * TLS *‘Akam contends that there was as little accountability within the military hierarchy as there was outside it … The military would obviously like to avoid a close examination of this unbroken string of catastrophes, but Akam’s book is a gentle account — critical, but not unsympathetic.’ -- Tom Stevenson * London Review of Books *‘Gripping and thoroughly disheartening.’ -- Al Murray‘[A] valuable and salutary read.’ * Foreign Affairs *‘The Changing of the Guard has contributed to the ongoing debate over how the British Army might change further as it enters a post-pandemic world where security challenges demand considerable flexibility of mind… Anything that provokes such self-awareness is good for institutions.’ * War on the Rocks *‘This is an unofficial oral history, created by hundreds of interviews as well as documents and personal observations by the author … This is a well written, organised and researched book … It reads well and is dynamic keeping the reader engaged … I commend Simon Akam for creating an accurate book that could be used as a Leadership discussion case study for the British Army as well as other militaries … It should become required reading at Sandhurst and the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College as well as the Defence Academy of the UK.’ -- Preston McLaughlin * Small Wars Journal *
£21.25
Scribe Publications Women We Buried, Women We Burned: a memoir
Book SynopsisFollowing the acclaimed No Visible Bruises, a piercing account of the author’s childhood in an evangelical Christian community, her teenage escape, and her career as a reporter at the frontline of the global epidemic of violence against women. Award-winning journalist Rachel Louise Snyder has spent her career reporting on abuse that happens under the cover of ‘private life’. And yet the story of her own troubled family is one she has always kept locked away. Snyder was eight when her mother died, and her distraught father thrust the family into an evangelical, cult-like existence halfway across the country. Furiously rebellious against this life, she was expelled from school, and then from home. Living out of her car and relying on strangers, she soon found herself masquerading as an adult, talking her way into college, and eventually travelling the globe. In places like India, Tibet, and Niger, she interviewed those who had been through the unimaginable. In Cambodia, where she lived for six years, she watched a country reckon with the horrors of its own recent history. Written with a storyteller’s gift for immediacy, and weaving the personal with the universal, Women We Buried, Women We Burned is a necessary story of family struggle, female survival, and the passionate drive to bear witness.Trade Review‘With the same virtuosity and eye for detail she brought to No Visible Bruises, Rachel Louise Snyder uses her own story to illuminate the many divides that plague America, from class and culture wars to toxic religiosity and frayed family ties. Women We Buried, Women We Burned is a gorgeous memoir that parses the patriarchy with an endearing frankness as fierce as it is, astonishingly, forgiving.’ -- Beth Macy, New York Times bestselling author of Raising Lazarus and Dopesick‘Bravery and honesty are the cornerstone of the memoir, but Snyder adds to this — generosity. This is a compassionate telling of a sometimes brutal story. Women We Buried, Women We Burned reminds me of opera, with its beautiful sadness and artistic triumph. The hope contained on these pages is hard won, and all the more precious due to the struggles from which it emerges.’ -- Tayari Jones, New York Times bestselling author of An American Marriage‘With a journalist’s keen eye and a novelist’s elegant prose, Rachel Louise Snyder delivers an unsentimental and bone-deep observational memoir of death and family, class and history, East and West, and politics and travel; at the centre of each story is a reaffirmation of human survival as an art of triumph.’ -- Suki Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Without You, There Is No Us: undercover among the sons of North Korea's elite‘Women We Buried, Women We Burned is a profoundly moving and layered memoir that is nuanced in all the spaces where life gets complicated. A writer with wit as sharp as her prose, Rachel Louise Snyder’s story connects on so many levels because she writes honestly about traumas, forgiveness, and the hard work it takes to build a life. A truly stunning book that will broaden hearts and minds, and also educate and inspire.’ -- Loung Ung, bestselling author of First They Killed My Father‘A bold and searing memoir about family and violence, illness and independence, pain and fear and beauty. With wry humour and enormous humanity, Rachel Louise Snyder shows us how to summon the courage to imagine in a cruel and dangerous world. A beautiful book.’ -- Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times bestselling author of Rogues, Empire of Pain, and Say Nothing‘A harrowing story of survival that also brims with warmth, wit and insight, this memoir has the propulsive force of a novel, driven by a spirit of compassion and curiosity that will not be broken.’ -- Chelsea Bieker, author of Heartbroke and Godshot‘Rachel Louise Snyder’s story begins with a series of profound losses but becomes, in her careful and compassionate telling, a story about what we might gain by looking directly at the most difficult parts of our pasts. This is a gorgeous and radiantly honest book, brilliant in its ability to capture the way grief reverberates across a lifetime. Rather than force trauma into a false closure, Snyder transforms it into a radical openness and ability to connect.’ -- Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections‘As stunning as it is powerful, Women We Buried, Women We Burned is a tour-de-force memoir of family, faith, love, loss, resilience, and, ultimately, redemption. With deftness and grace, Snyder navigates the complicated terrain of childhood trauma and presents a model for how to reconcile with the ghosts of your past.’ -- Monica West, author of Revival Season‘The tenacity and bravery of a young woman determined to survive and make her own mark on the world move the narrative with unstoppable force as the sentences build in intensity and poignancy … Anyone moved by No Visible Bruises should put this at the top of their to-read list. Exceptional writing, a harrowing coming-of-age story, and critical awareness combine to make a must-read memoir.’ -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review‘Snyder’s most recent book, No Visible Bruises, explored the psychological entanglements of domestic violence. This offering once again considers complex relationships, but at a personal level … searingly honest and moving.’ * Booklist *‘How do you write a book about overcoming extreme hardship, about the singular people who convince you to take a chance on yourself, about finding the big world after a childhood that prepared you for a tiny one, about discovering that you love the people who failed to love you — and manage not to strike a single trite note? How do you remember every detail and make the reader feel like they saw, heard, and felt each moment? I have no idea, actually, but Rachel Louise Snyder has done it.’ -- Masha Gessen, National Book Award–winning author of The Future Is History and Surviving Autocracy‘With wonderfully evocative prose, Rachel Louise Snyder captures here the stark horror of a child losing her mother and half her roots as she’s then swept into her evangelical father’s second family and has to either flee or be erased. As nakedly honest as it is fair, what is so remarkable about Women We Buried, Women We Burned is that Ms. Snyder does flee, and her lone voyage to her very self is the voyage of so many girls and women around the world who have been uprooted and cast aside and must find their own way back. This is an important and profoundly moving memoir, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.’ -- Andre Dubus III, New York Times bestselling author of Townie and Such Kindness‘An affecting memoir … Excellent writing and a clear perspective enhance this primer on how to hope.’ * Los Angeles Times *‘[A] gripping memoir … Snyder’s curiosity is matched by her own resilience; writing stories about survivors parallels her own story of overcoming trauma and finding grace.’ * Washington Post *‘A penetrating memoir on grief and redemption … Snyder delivers her inspiring story with lyrical prose and sharp insights, particularly about the fraught father-daughter relationship at its centre. It’s an eloquent portrayal of the power of forgiveness.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘Inspirational … Snyder observes the world with both an unsparing eye and a generous spirit … Instead of getting trapped in the familiar impasse of either/or, Snyder thinks in terms of ands. This expansiveness is of a piece with her writing on domestic violence … Snyder’s memoir shows how one might — must — live amid multiple truths.’ -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times *‘Women We Burned is written with precision and intention. It is affecting but, crucially, never sentimental — and full of hard-won hope.’ -- Pippa Bailey * The New Statesman *‘The author of No Visible Bruises writes a searing memoir telling the story of her triumph over impossible odds, from her mother’s early death, expulsion from school and homelessness to her global reporting on domestic violence.’ * USA Today *‘Snyder’s memoir is as heartbreaking, wrenching and compelling as the stories of the victims in her eye-opening book on domestic violence … In explaining her own history, Snyder shows why she was drawn to the darkest stories and how she is able to retell them with such detail and compassion … The violence and neglect of her adolescence sounds nearly unsurvivable. And yet she is here, proof that there can be healing, reconciliation and professional triumph.’ * Minneapolis Star-Tribune *‘Rachel Louise Snyder’s two most recent books are like pendant portraits, each complementing and illuminating the other, a literary matched set. In No Visible Bruises, Snyder probed the pathology and sociology of intimate partner violence … Women We Buried, Women We Burned, an engrossing memoir of her own troubled, motherless early life, helps explain both her attraction to that dark subject and her appreciation of its complexity. [Snyder’s] difficult past, with all its emotional complexities, becomes an asset. It renders her unafraid to explore the grittier aspects of human nature … moving.’ * The Boston Globe *‘Compelling, propulsive, gripping and disturbing in equal measure.’ -- BookPage, starred review‘For fans of Tara Westover’s Educated, Snyder provides a triumphant story of beating the odds and of radical self-definition — with a punk rock backdrop to boot.’ * Oprah Daily *‘[Snyder’s] background as a journalist shines through as she describes her experiences honestly but without added drama or artifice, instead letting the people and events speak for themselves. This results in a narrative whose style belies its depth, for even as Rachel recounts her own maturation as a woman and a writer, she’s also commenting obliquely on how trauma is recapitulated and the countless ways in which male authority warps and erases women’s stories and lived realities. How she undertakes this work is subtle, even crafty.’ * Bookreporter *
£10.44
The Indigo Press These Bones Will Rise Again
Book SynopsisWhat are the right questions to ask when seeking out the true spirit of a nation? In November 2017 the people of Zimbabwe took to the streets in an unprecedented alliance with the military. Their goal, to restore the legacy of Chimurenga, the liberation struggle, and wrest their country back from over thirty years of Robert Mugabe’s rule. In an essay that combines bold reportage, memoir and critical analysis, Zimbabwean novelist and journalist Panashe Chigumadzi reflects on the ‘coup that was not a coup’, the telling of history and manipulation of time and the ancestral spirts of two women – her own grandmother and Mbuya Nehanda, the grandmother of the nation.Trade Review‘In a searing account that explores the heady post-independence days of the eighties, the economic downturn of the nineties, through to the effects of the land reform policies at the end of the century, Chigumadzi weaves together reflections on a nation’s founding spirit’ https://www.thedailyvox.co.za/these-bones-will-rise-again-is-an-intimate-telling-of-zimbabwean-history-shaazia-ebrahim/ -- Jennifer Malec * The Johannesburg Review of Books *‘Best summer books 2018, as picked by writers and cultural figures – part 2’ ‘an extraordinary and thrilling history of Zimbabwe’ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/08/best-summer-holiday-reads-2018-philip-pullman-maggie-ofarrell-nina-stibbe-part-two -- Alex Preston * The Guardian *‘These Bones Will Rise Again reminds its readers of the complexities in the cultures of Africa . . . Panache Chigumadzi’s essay is a welcome addition to the new cannon of decolonised historical literature.’ https://livemag.co.za/book-review-panashe-chigumadzis-these-bones-will-rise-again/ -- Terry Simelane-Mathabathe * Live Mag *http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2018/08/27/i-wanted-to-interrogate-the-legacy-that-belonged-to-me-panashe-chigumadzi-on-these-bones-will-rise-again/ -- Rufaro Samanga interviews Panashe Chigumadzi * Okay Africa *‘By refusing to conceal the marks of its making, Chigumadzi’s essay lays bare the challenges of constructing historical narratives’ http://review31.co.uk/article/view/592/perhaps-she-was-this-perhaps-she-was-that -- Jacqueline Landey * Review 31 *‘Chigumadzi writes of her feeling of dislocation from the land of her birth having been raised in South Africa and her ancestral connection to Zimbabwe. Her sincerity to seek truth carries out beautifully throughout the book.’ https://www.thedailyvox.co.za/these-bones-will-rise-again-is-an-intimate-telling-of-zimbabwean-history-shaazia-ebrahim/ -- Shaazia Ebrahim * The Daily vox *‘the author has masterfully succeeded in providing the reader with a book that is a powerful ode to the various women, both great and small, who took Zimbabwe through its multiple phases of liberation’ http://www.rewritelondon.com/portfolio/book-review-these-bones-will-rise-again/ * Rewrite *‘Panache Chigumadzi passionately places her personal story, connected to the family history and the history of her nation, within a blend of Zimbabwe’s national mythology & socio-political turmoil’ https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/books/non-fiction/2019-05-02-these-bones-will-rise-again-breaks-120-years-of-oppression/ -- Bryan Davis * Sunday Times Books *Opinion: Mugabe Is Dead, but Big Man Politics Lives On https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/opinion/robert-mugabe-zimbabwe.html -- Panashe Chigumadzi * New York Times *10 Best Political Activism Books of All Time https://bookauthority.org/books/best-political-activism-books?t=h63snq&s=author&book=1999683307 * Book Authority *Panashe Chigumadzi ZAM Nelson Mandela Lecture 2023 https://youtu.be/LuuV1KFei-0 * ZAM Magazine *
£7.59
Hatje Cantz Beuys & Duchamp: Artists of the Future
Book SynopsisIn conversations and interviews Joseph Beuys mentioned Marcel Duchamp more than any other artist. And hardly anyone else seems to have challenged him more than this artist from the previous generation. Direct evidence of this is his oft-cited action Das Schweigen von Marcel Duchamp wird überbewertet (The Silence of Marcel Duchamp is Overrated) from 1964, through which Beuys attempted to shift focus onto the political and social dimensions of his concept of expanded art. The associations and connections between the artists go deep. Both used similar radical strategies to rejuvenate the concept of art and the role of art in everyday life; their questions had a number of aspects in common. This richly illustrated catalogue is the first to undertake a profound exploration of this multilayered relationship, while investigating both artists’ future-oriented potential.
£999.99
Quarto Publishing PLC Women Photograph What We See
Book SynopsisIn What We See, open your eyes to a new world view with 100 women photojournalists’ stories from behind the lens.Trade Review“What We See brings together an astonishing array of work from places as varied as conflict zones to backyards. The quality of the work is impressive. It is, indeed, a combination of voices that should never be repressed. We are all the better for a more inclusive view of the world, and this book puts a sharp finishing point on that." * The Washington Post *"A simply fascinating and richly illustrated study." * Midwest Book Review *Table of ContentsForeword by Kat Chow Introduction by Daniella Zalcman 01 Identity 02 Place 03 Conflict 04 Reclamation The 100 Photographers: Adam, Rhiannon Addario, Lynsey Agusti, Luján Al-Arashi, Yumna Al-Asaker, Maha Aliaga Ticona, Sara Alsultan, Tasneem Arévalo Gosen, Ana Maria Báez, Gabriella N. Barbutes, Tracy Beal, Endia Berman, Nina Bhaskar, Gabriela Blast, Delphine Brinson, Kendrick Bronstein, Paula Carballo, Koral Cárdenas, Verónica G. Chor, Laurel Cruz Bacani, Xyza Dass, Angélica de Middel, Cristina Dhaliwal, Meghan Dörr, Luisa Dugan, Jess T. Duong, Yen Effendi, Rena Eid, Kholood Eldalil, Rehab Emezi, Yagazie Fabián, Citlali Fezehai, Malin Flanagan, Annie Flash, Lola Fondriest, Terra Garcia, Mariceu Erthal Ghanbari, Mojgan Golden Guzy, Carol Habjouqa, Tanya Harib, Nada Hayashi, Noriko Hayeri, Kiana Inruh, Irina Ireland, Susannah Irvine, Tailyr JEB (Joan E. Biren) Johnson, Lynn Kang, Mary Keyssar, Natalie Khan, Gulshan Khandelwal, Saumya Kosofsky, Isadora Koyoltzintli Larsen, Erika Laub, Gillian Laula, Nyimas Locher, Olivia Matar, Rania McGarvey, Maddie Meiselas, Susan Mokri, Clara Mollenkof, Bethany Morris-Cafiero, Haley Morton, Rosem Muirhead, Nicola Naccache, Natalie Pabst, Sarah Parafeniuk, Oksana Philomène, Laurence Pixley, Tara Plunkett, Suzanne Poh, Charmaine Rago, Rozette Rajaonary, Miora Reyes Morales, Hannah Romero, Cara Rosella, Raphaela Sadurni, Sumy Sakaguchi, Haruka Schmitz, Charlotte Seaman, Camille Sharma, Smita Sim, Chi Yin Skovranova, Michaela Spitzer, Kali Sulakauri, Daro Taylor-Lind, Anastasia Tung, Nicole Vera, Alicia Villasana, Danielle Vitale, Ami Waguih, Asmaa Waiswa, Sarah Willis, Deb Yoon, Arin Yoon, Hannah Yvonne, Etinosa Zalanga, Patience Zehbrauskas, Adriana
£18.70
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) The Lion and the Nightingale
Book SynopsisTurkey is a land torn between East and West, between its glorious past and a dangerous, unpredictable future. After the violence of an attempted military coup against President Erdogan in 2016, an event which shocked the world, journalist and novelist Kaya Genç travelled around his country on a quest to find the places and people in whom the contrasts of Turkey's rich past meet. As suicide bombers attack Istanbul, and journalists and teachers are imprisoned, he walks the streets of the famous Ottoman neighbourhoods, telling the stories of the ordinary Turks who live among the contradictions and conflicts of Anatolia, one of the world''s oldest civilizations. Featuring new material on the 2023 elections, The Lion and the Nightingale presents the spellbinding story of a country whose history has been split between East and West, between violence and beauty - between the roar of the lion and the song of the nightingale. Weaving together a mixture of memoir, interv
£14.24
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The New Spanish Revolutions: A Rebellious Journey
Book SynopsisTravelling from Madrid to The Valley of the Fallen, through Castile and León and across the fiercely contested region of Catalonia, Christopher Finnigan meets a remarkable cast of characters behind some of the biggest political events Spain has witnessed in decades. Whether it is the Indignados left-wing activists rethinking society, the everyday citizens sitting in parliament, or the Catalan separatists fighting for a new nation, The New Spanish Revolutions meets those struggling at the heart of historic change. Spain today finds itself in the grip of immense social upheaval, still shaken by the financial crash of 2008 and still struggling with its fascist past. Against a fragmented and polarised backdrop, Christopher Finnigan discovers how individuals and ideas that were once outside the mainstream are now shaping the nation’s future.Trade Review'Spain has always fascinated and mystified outsiders in equal measure, not least in the intensity of the debates that have polarised its communities over the past decade. At last, we have a companionable and informed guide: whether attending a demonstration in Madrid, listening to arguments for Catalan independence in Barcelona or on a coach trip to the Valley of the Fallen, he reveals a nation moving towards its future, still haunted by its past. * James Attlee, author of Guernica: Painting the End of the World *'Most political analyses are conducted at 10,000 feet. Not so New Spanish Revolutions. Ever eager to get his hands dirty, Christopher Finnigan throws himself into the world of Spain’s grassroot political movements with dexterity and determination. The result is an enormously engaging, politically varied and, above all, vividly lived account of political turmoil currently engulfing the country. A timely reminder in an age of populism and personality that politics is ultimately about people – real people, living real lives, fighting for real change. * Oliver Balch *Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Madrid the City 3. Madrid the State 4. The Valley of the Fallen and a City Visit (North or South) 5. Catalonia: Rewriting History 6. Barcelona: An Older Generation Lead
£16.14