Search results for ""author miranda vickers""

For 10,000 years the River Thames meandered from source to sea, periodically throwing up mudbanks or carving parallel channels on the bends and creating islands along much of its length. There are around 180 islands altogether, some accessible by footbridge, some by road and others, like Pharaoh's Island and Garrick’s Ait, only by boat. Thirty are inhabited by small settlements, single houses or houseboats, all highly sought-after locations today. Many are important nature reserves; others directly connected to major historical events or famous personalities. Oliver’s Eyot was a refuge for Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War, whilst Lot’s Ait was the unlikely setting for Humphrey Bogart’s 1951 film The African Queen, and the legendry Eel Pie Island played a key role in the development of British popular music. These islands, known as Eyots or Aits, form the skeletal backbone of the Thames. In this fascinating and detailed book, Miranda Vickers considers their history and role in helping us understand how the river evolved.

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Communist Albania was unlike any other European nation. It was a 'hermit state' ruled by a dictator, Enver Hoxha, who presided over a repressive Stalinist regime. When John Watkins visited Albania in the late 1980s, he saw peasants toiling in the fields and enormous state-owned factories scarred the landscape. In 1991, the old regime was overthrown. Hoxha's statues were pulled down and his books burned. But reminders of his Albania were everywhere: in the monotonous apartment blocks and derelict factories; in the old collective farms and irrigation channels; in the thousands of bunkers that still dotted the landscape. But how much deeper did Hoxha's influence go? What marks had he left on the political system and on the nation's psyche? To answer these questions, the author returned to the places he had visited in the 1980s. He started in Shkoder and travelled south through Durres and Tirana to Sarande. He had taken photos on those first tours. He wanted to find the exact spots where he had taken them, so he could use them as a barometer of change. But the real power of the images lay not just in their evocation of the past, but in the connections they allowed him to make in the present. Through the photos, he was able to talk to Albanians from different generations and walks of life. For those born after 1991, they were revelatory, images of a world they knew little about. For older people, they were a key that unlocked memories, both good and bad. These exchanges, together with eyewitness research over thirty years, have given the author an in-depth insight into how Albanians are coping with the transition from dictatorship to an often-chaotic free market economy. As Albania emerges as a modern democratic state, this book reveals that it is still struggling with the legacy of its traumatic past. 'Enver Hoxha's Long Shadow,' a colourful account of this enigmatic country's landscapes and people, is essential reading for anyone wanting a fuller understanding of contemporary Albania.

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