Colin Thubron
Thubron learnt Russian and entered the then Soviet Union in an old Morris Marina in which he camped and drove for almost 10,000 miles between the Baltic and Caucasus. This book provides a revealing picture of the many races who inhabit the country and the human side behind state socialism. With a keen grasp of Russia's history, a deep appreciation for its architecture and iconography, and an inexhaustible enthusiasm for its people and its culture, Colin Thubron is the perfect guide to a country most of us will never get to know firsthand. Here, we can walk down western Russia's country roads, rest in its villages, and explore some of the most engaging cities in the world. Beautifully written and infinitely insightful, Among the Russians is vivid, compelling travel writing that will also appeal to readers of history and current events - and to anyone captivated by the shape and texture of one of the world's most enigmatic culture. REMAINDER MARK..
224pp, 8x5.25 ... Paperback
Published price £8.99 -- You save £5.00 ... 56%
James Harpur & Jennifer Westwood
A beautifully illustated, worldwide journey celebrating the places where legend, myth and reality meet: from Camelot to the natural landscapes of Mount Fuji or Ayers Rock, Assisi to the Taj Mahal.
240pp, 11x9, illus. ... Hardback
Published price £24.99 -- You save £14.00 ... 56%
Kevin Rushby
Rushby's interest in the ancient diamond trade was piqued after a chance meeting with a diamond smuggler in Ethiopia. Driven to unearth the history-drenched underbelly of the diamond trade, Rushby (author of Eating the Flowers of Paradise: A Journey Through the Drug Fields of Ethiopia and Yemen) treks across India in search of old gemstone mines and ancient accounts. Rushby isn't quite sure what he's looking for, but he narrows his focus to the fate of the Koh-i-Noor, the world's largest diamond, from its origins circa 1000 B.C., when it was believed to be a gift from the Sun God, to its present home in the Tower of London. Luried into a strange world of hidden towns with no names, a land of charms, chakras, cardamom, and missing gem mines, Rushby pursues the history of the Koh-I-Noor, a 106-karat piece of crystalline perfection now part of England's Crown Jewels. Research takes him across India and into a culture so exotic - and simultaneously so mystical, esoteric, and often criminal - that he may as well have fallen into Middle-earth. He seeks out unorthodox storytellers, be they miners, peasants, gem dealers, diplomats, gurus or Jesuit priests. Rushby weaves Chasing the Mountain of Light with lush detail, creating a tale as compelling, multifaceted, and breathtaking as the diamond itself. REMAINDER MARK.
272pp, 9x6 ... Paperback
Published price £9.99 -- You save £5.60 ... 56%
Kira Salak
"Over and over again Kira Salak has thrust herself into a world that could destroy her and has come back to pay homage to that world in deft, irresistible prose that seems to make travel an imperative, not a luxury. The same qualities that make her a great writer - attention to detail, grandness of vision, empathy for others - also make her a great explorer. Rarely are writing and exploration woven together as gracefully as in this book." - Sebastian Junger
320pp, 9x6.25 ... ISBN 0792274571 ... Hardback
Published price £16.99 -- You save £11.00 ... 65%
Peter Matthiessen
Matthiessen has once again lit upon a subject profoundly fitted to his creative genius. He is simply the ultimate lyricist of loss, a writer brilliantly attentive to the way vanishings are braided into even the most exquisite moments of our lives. He agonizes over what is passing away, but does so in a manner that increases our appreciation of what remains. In "End of the Earth," Matthiessen joins the crew of the Akademik-a 384-foot research vessel bound for wild and storied South Georgia Island and Antarctica. Along the way we are treated to a patented Matthiessen brew: lyricism and emotion applied to the sharp-eyed evaluations of a seasoned naturalist. Brilliant and instructive observations of the creatures inhabiting this far-flung region are sprinkled with eloquent disquisition on the history of the region (Shackleton, Captain Cook, the first Antarctic whaling station at Grytviken which processed 25, 60-foot whales a day between 1900 and 1903) the effects of pollution and the resulting global warming that, unchecked, threaten polar meltdown and the exponential obliteration of vast quantities of the world's land mass. He tells us why the waters off South Georgia are one of the richest whale-feeding grounds of the world, how the wandering albatross-with the greatest wingspan (ll. feet) of any bird on earth-"arching down the sky to vanish behind a wave, curving high again like a white cross", excited cries of wonder from the crew of the Akademik. We learn of the inexplicable king penguin congregation (70,000 strong) in Gold Harbor, how seabirds process saltwater, the habits of every variety of fur seal, walrus petrel and penguin that inhabit the region. And just when you think your appetite for nature depiction is slaked, an intense hurricane batters the Akademik for two days, injuring virtually everyone on board. Like all great writers Matthiessen is both obsessive and expansive as he converts his travels to the world's most remote and unforgiving places into opportunities to embrace a host of landscapes and creatures with a boundless curiosity. After 28 books and 75 peripatetic years, his passion for the natural world is undiminished, and "Islands at the End of the Earth," is Matthiessen at the very top of his game.
288pp, 9x6 ... ISBN 0792268369 ... Paperback
Published price £9.99 -- You save £6.00 ... 60%
Dr. Bernard Jensen
Travel along with one of the world's greatest natural health practitioners as he experiences life on the highest mountains and plains of this world during his spiritual odyssey to Tibet. With his zest for learning, Dr. Jensen probes into Tibetan healing, herbal remedies, solving life's problems, the dedicated life, and the dawning of a new age. This personal journey reflects his inner thoughts and feelings. A very special book describing unusual experiences. Remainder mark.
144pp, 9x6 ... ISBN 0895293900 ... Paperback
Published price £7.99 -- You save £4.30 ... 53%
Leila Hadley
There are journeys of discovery, in the tradition of Marco Polo and the great Victorians like Richard Burton and Isabelle Eberhardt, in which the traveler records odd native customs and details of landscape and lore for readers back home. And then there are journeys of self-discovery, like ''A Journey With Elsa Cloud,'' in which the traveler learns about herself, as Leila Hadley does in India, that paradigmatic region of self-discovery. She has gone there in hopes of regaining a daughter from whom she has been estranged - Veronica, who once wanted to be ''the sea, the jungle or else a cloud,'' thereby earning a second name, Elsa Cloud. In the course of their roundabout journey from New Delhi to the residence of the exiled Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, Ms. Hadley will confront much about herself that explains her troubled relationship with Veronica. The pleasure for the reader, beyond the interest of the women's stories, lies in the lucky circumstance that Ms. Hadley is a gifted travel writer with an artist's eye for the composition - and the look, smell and history - of every scene. From a world of fashion and possessions, she moves toward the world that Veronica seems to have chosen, where wealth is for the senses and the spirit, transitory, infinitely renewable, incapable of being carted off. Little by little, the psychological focus of the narrative melts away before the actuality of the landscape and people of India. Ms. Hadley has a remarkable gift for bringing all this to our eyes and ears: from ''the brook's rushing susurrus and the glottal burbling of tree frogs'' to the ''hundreds of gilded images of the Buddha . . . crowded on the floor, reflecting the flames of hundreds of little lamps . . . parallel rows of maroon-and-saffron-robed monks with heads shaved to shadowed helmets.'' Vividly, she sketches out the world of the Tibetan monks, who have, among other qualities, the almost magical ability to sing in the male and female register at once. In their song, she remarks, we can be freed of ''the tiresome bindings of 20th-century acedia.'' At least some travelers can be, or have been, and ''A Journey With Elsa Cloud'' is in the best of that happy tradition. "The best travel book I've ever read." - Norman Mailer. Remainder mark.
600pp ... Paperback
Published price £9.99 -- You save £5.00 ... 50%
Thomas Hoepker
Latin America's longest civil war, which lasted 36 years, ended in 1996. For the Mayan Indians it is the end of centuries of suppression and brutality. Now, for the first time since the Conquistadors invaded 500 years ago, the Maya have the chance to live like normal citizens in Guatemala. They are rediscovering their grandiose culture and history and are finally free to practice their ancient religion. This is an extraordinary story of an ancient culture which has survived centuries of oppression. The traditional costumes, the ancient religious ceremonies, the daily customs are all still strong and powerful forces giving meaning and structure to the lives of the Maya. Thomas Hoepker is a member of the prestigious Magnum agency. His work has been exhibited widely and published in major magazines and newspapers worldwide.
160pp, 12x9, illus. ... Hardback
Published price £25.00 -- You save £15.01 ... 60%
Dervla Murphy
Dervla Murphy has been recording her travel experiences/treks through (among other places) India, Transylvania, and several countries in Africa-for well over thirty years. In South from the Limpopo, she continues her writings on the African continent, bringing her unique insights to the still-troubled country of South Africa. This three-part journey of more than 6,000 miles took Murphy through all nine provinces of the new South Africa. She stayed in remote impoverished ex- homeland villages, the luxurious homes of rich whites and the simple homes of poor whites. This powerful book places the complex and apparently insoluble problems of South Africa in a new light, and movingly exhibits the great love she and the people she met share for the country. Remainder mark.
432pp, 9x6 ... Paperback
Published price £10.99 -- You save £6.00 ... 55%
Michael Freeman & Alistair Shearer
A photographic tour of the greatest natural and manmade spiritual sites in Asia. More than anything else, long-distance travel in the late twentieth century has opened the eyes of millions of people in the West to the rich cultural heritage of the Asian countries, and to the ability of their great belief systems to regenerate, refresh, and renew. Whether the focus is the original animist beliefs of the far-distant past or the vitality of present-day Hinduism and Buddhism, the sacred site, natural or manmade - mountain, valley, temple, or shrine--is a place of central importance, where heavenly and earthly energies most perfectly intersect. Through the amazing odyssey undertaken by the master photographer Michael Freeman across thousands of miles of the Indian subcontinent and eastern Asia, the extraordinary numinous power of these sacred places is captured with a force that has never been so well expressed. Here are the greatest natural sites, from the Sagaing hills of Myanmar to the sacred mountain, Agung, in Bali. Here, too, are the great temple complexes, Angkor and Borobudur, and the intimate Shintoist shrines of Japan. The photographs are organized as journeys that reflect the historical spread of Eastern religions, yet each will feel to the reader like a personal quest. 200 color photographs.
208pp, 11x10, illus. ... Hardback
Published price £24.95 -- You save £12.96 ... 52%
Michael Willis
With a wealth of specially commissioned artworks and magnificent full-color photographs, Tibet is a superb pictorial record of one of the world's most fascinating cultures. It reveals the broad repertoire of Tibetan symbols and motifs and presents the art of Tibet, from its most monumental temples to its most exquisitely detailed statues of Buddhas, deities, and saints.
144pp, 10x10½, illus. ... Hardback
Published price £17.95 -- You save £9.00 ... 50%
Jon Ortner
"Out of Ortner's 20 years of travel and adventure in Asia and the Himalayas comes this truly magnificent photographic journal. The pictures are breathtaking, startling, and evocative by turns: spectacular scenery swallows Hindu ascetics covered in ashes; ancient temples with gilded spires tower over herders and water buffalo; intricately carved facades assert themselves amid lush jungle greenery. More than a beautiful picture book, its text shares the author's observations and his insights into the history and people of these lands." - NAPRA Review. Ortner's photographic pilgrimage begins in the birthplace of the Buddha - Nepal. Capturing some of the most brilliant images of the abode of the gods - the mountains, streams and rustic sanctuaries. Ortner reveals a truly imaginative and gifted eye for the simple yet deeply religious veins that have come to define this ancient civilisation. Moving onto India, the images of individual ascetics and reverential crowds gathered for the Kartika Purnima on the Ganges helps us to remember that India is indeed both the centrepiece and perhaps even the masterpiece of the gods. Further sections capture the essence of the world's great spiritual cultures Angkor Wat, Borobodur, Wat Pho, Schwedagon, Ladakh, and the temples of Bali.
240pp, 11x10, illus. ... Hardback
Published price £35.00 -- You save £19.01 ... 54%
Jung Chang
Blending the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history, Wild Swans has become a bestselling classic in thirty languages, with more than ten million copies sold. The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, it is an engrossing record of Mao's impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love.
Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a"b arefoot doctor," a steelworker, and a electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving - and ultimately uplifting - detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.
544pp, 8.25x5.5 ... ISBN 0743246985 ... Paperback
Published price £9.99 -- You save £5.70 ... 57%
