Considered by Graham Greene to be Maugham`s best work, ” Don Fernando” is a paean to a golden age of enormous creative energy. It discusses the writings of St. Teresa & the paintings of El Greco, & comments with sagacity & wit on such illustrious figures as Cervantes, Velazquez & the creator of Don Juan. This vibrant assessment of a great people at their greatest hour is full of happy surprises, curious facts & stimulating opinions that reflect Maugham`s lifelong enchantment with the landscape & people of Spain. ...

Don Mc Cullin`s reputation stands as one of the greatest war photographers of our times. In recent years he has photographed the landscape surrounding his home in Somerset, but his later travels have taken him to some of the most remote regions in the world. His skill in photographing people in extreme situations has enabled him to mix with tribes on the edges of civilisation. His work among the people of Irian Jaya, including cannibals, appeared in his last book, Don Mc Cullin. Mc Cullin`s new work in Africa reaches one of the last corners of the earth where signs of outside influence are few, though they appear ominously significant. Over the last two years Don Mc Cullin has travelled south from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to the valley of the Omo River leading down to the border with Sudan. There he has entered the tribal lands of the Surma, the Gheleb, the Bume, the Erbore, the Bene, the Bodi, the Karo, the Hamar & the Mursi. Extraordinary body paints decorate many of their bodies. Metalwork adorns their limbs, &, in the case of the Mursi, huge circular plates extend their lower lips & piercings open up large holes in their ear lobes. Ritualistic stick battles are enacted with ferocity. Rifles & machine guns are often cradled in the hands of warriors. The violence Mc Cullin witnessed was staged but real dangers were close. African tribespeople can present another face of the exotic to those of us in modern, developed cultures, especially if the photography recognises nothing of their dignity but all of their exoticism. Mc Cullin knows too much to fall into that trap. Mc Cullin`s subjects retain their dignity & also become heroic. We, the viewers, can be amazed by their strength & beauty, & all the more so because Mc Cullin`s compassionate photography enables us to understand their vulnerability. Mc Cullin`s photographs will be prefaced by extracts from his diaries. ...

Don Mc Cullin is one of the greatest photographers of conflict in our time. This book was conceived on a grand scale that does justice to his extraordinary life & the events he has witnessed. It forms one of the great documents of the latter part of the last century. The book begins & ends in the Somerset landscape that surrounds Mc Cullin's home, but the whole sequence of more than two hundred photographs encompasses a ravaged northern Engl&, war in Cyprus, Biafra, Vietnam, Cambodia, Beirut & riots in Derry. The climax of the book is among the cannibals & tribespeople deep in the jungles of Irian Jaya, where Mc Cullin focuses on humanity in an almost Stone Age condition. The introduction by Harold Evans, the acclaimed newspaper editor & authority on photojournalism, is drawn from his long experience of working with Mc Cullin. The distinguished novelist & essayist, Susan Sontag, has contributed an essay on Mc Cullin & the role of witness to conflict
- a subject of timely pertinence.
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The updated retrospective published for Mc Cullin`s 80th birthday. Contains 40 new unpublished photographs & a new introduction
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Widely regarded as the world`s first modern novel, & one of the funniest & most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote de La Mancha & his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. The book is simultaneously a work whose authentic subject is literature & a chronicle of a hard, sordid actuality, the declining Spain of 1605-15. Confronting the conventions of Spanish society at his time some four hundred years ago, Miguel De Cervantes wittily & funnily exposes the follies of the time through the adventures, stories & misfortunes of these knight & servant.” The Spanish Bible”, as Miguel de Unamuno called it, Don Quixote is Cervantes`s subtle critique of a realm that had given him only harsh measures in return for his own patriotic heroism. His magnificent knight`s quest has cosmological scope & reverberation, making it the greatest of all narratives. This new edition claims to present the definite translation. Edith Grossman`s quality of diction & extraordinary prose marvellously highlights the spiritual atmosphere of a Spain already in steep decline. Also worth mentioning is the wonderful illustration by Pablo Picasso on the front cover.” Somewhere in La Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance & ancient shield on a shelf & keeps a skinny nag & a greyhound for racing. [...] His fantasy filled with everything he had read in his books, enchantments as well as combats, battles, challenges, wounds, courtings, loves, torments, & other impossible foolishness, & he became so convinced in his imagination of the truth of all the countless grandiloquent & false inventions he read that for him no history in the world was truer.”
- Miguel De Cervantes
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Miguel de Cervantes`s mock-epic masterwork, ” Don Quixote” was voted the greatest book of all time by the Nobel Institute, & this ” Penguin Classics” edition is translated with an introduction & notes by John Rutherford. ” Don Quixote” has become so entranced by reading romances of chivalry that he determines to become a knight errant & pursue bold adventures, accompanied by his squire, the cunning Sancho Panza. As they roam the world together, the aging Quixote`s fancy leads them wildly astray, tilting at windmills, fighting with friars, & distorting the rural Spanish landscape into a fantasy of impenetrable fortresses & wicked sorcerers. At the same time the relationship between the two men grows in fascinating subtlety. Often considered to be the first modern novel, ” Don Quixote” is a wonderful burlesque of the popular literature its disordered protagonist is obsessed with. John Rutherford`s landmark translation does full justice to the energy & wit of Cervantes` prose, & this edition of ” Don Quixote” won the 2002 Premio Valle Inclan prize for translation. His introduction discusses the traditional works parodied in ” Don Quixote” & issues of literary translation. Miguel de Cervantes Saaverda`s (1547-1616) life was occupied with a struggle to earn a livelihood from literature & humble government employment. As well as ” Don Quixote”, he wrote a number of plays & a collection of highly accomplished short stories, ” Exemplary Tales” (1613). If you enjoyed ” Don Quixote”, you might like Homer`s ” Odyssey”, also available in ” Penguin Classics”. ” John Rutherford makes ” Don Quixote” funny & readable.. . His Quixote can be pompous, imposingly learned, secretly fearful, mad & touching”. (Colin Burrow, ” The Times Literary Supplement”). ...

A reimagining of Don Quixote that champions another innovative classic for a new generation. This handsome edition of ” Don Quixote” brings the wonderfully bonkers, truly innovative, & still very much culturally relevant Spanish classic to a modern, visually appreciative, literary & design audience, championing the book for its progressive meta-story narrative & celebrating it as a contemporary cultural object. Designed by the award-winning designer Fraser Muggeridge, this volume

Includes:: photographs by recent Royal College of Art graduate Jacob Robinson, specially commissioned to metaphorically trace & visually interpret the journey of Don Quixote in a fresh contemporary way through vibrant, expansive, & dynamic-in-scale landscapes. Bringing another entry point to the classic narrative, the photos also invite new interpretations, both romantic & realistic.

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The Vintage Classics Europeans series
- with covers provided by textile design firm Wallace Sewell, these are must-have editions
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When in 1987 Miranda France spent a year living in Madrid, the post-dictatorship ebullience was at its height. Pornography & soft drugs were legalised alongside more basic freedoms, such as divorce, party-affiliation & kissing in the street. In 1998 she returned to make a journey through the great cities & towns of central Spain
- Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca & others. With the new prosperity, much has changed. But much has also endured, as she learns from the people she meets, who include a private detective, a shepherd, various nuns, two belly dancers & a Castilian separatist. She also discovers that Cervantes` DON QUIXOTE` published in 1605 & the most translated book after the Bible
- is a work of genius which still helps to explain the Spanish character: today`s Spaniards still suffer from Don Quixote`s delusions, & are as stubborn, inflexible & unrealistic as they have always been.

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Don't forget your scroggin is a breath of fresh air. New Zealand's wilderness offers some of the most beautiful & diverse walking on Earth
- from the snowy peaks of the Southern Alps to the enchanting forest of Waikaremoana. Exploring this wonderland on foot is one of the most rewarding & uplifting activities you can do. Want to get out here but don't know how? We've packed up all the basics for you, & rolled them up together with some expert advice & a few ripping yarns. Whether you're starting out or getting ready for the next step, we want to share our experience with you, so your journey will be comfortable, safe & fun. Let us show you how you can enjoy it as much as we do. This highly approachable, informative & enjoyable guide is the perfect starting point for anyone who would like to give tramping a go.
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