Mark Smith is the Man in Seat Sixty-One. Although this might make him sound like a fictional spy, he is in fact the man behind the massively popular www.seat 61.com website, which offers invaluable advice on worldwide train travel. Following on from the success of The Man in Seat 61, which took travellers around Europe by train, this book covers international train travel around Africa, Asia, the Americas & Australasia. Focusing on affordable international travel by scheduled trains, not just deluxe tourist services, this books is packed with insider knowledge & top tips on the best routes & cheapest fares; travelling with children & changing trains; timetables & maps; essential items to travel with; & everything in between. More & more people are choosing to avoid air travel & seek alternatives, & this is the only book they need for environmentally friendly journeys around the world. ...

Outside a London theatre a throng of people wait expectantly for the last performance of a popular musical. But as the doors open at last, something spoils all thought of entertainment: a man in the queue is found murdered by the deadly thrust of a stiletto... ...

Outside a London theatre a throng of people wait expectantly for the last performance of a popular musical. But as the doors open at last, something spoils all thought of entertainment: a man in the queue is found murdered by the deadly thrust of a stiletto... ...

Written from the perspective of Filth's wife, Betty, this is a story which will make the reader weep for the missed opportunities, while laughing aloud for the joy & the wit.

Filth (Failed In London Try Hong Kong) is a successful lawyer when he marries Elisabeth in Hong Kong soon after the War. Reserved, immaculate & courteous, Filth finds it hard to demonstrate his emotions. But Elisabeth is different
- a free spirit. She was brought up in the Japanese Internment Camps, which killed both her parents, but left her with a lust for survival & an affinity with the Far East. No wonder she is attracted to Filth's hated rival at the Bar
- the brash, forceful Veneering. Veneering has a Chinese wife & an adored son
- & no difficulty whatsoever in demonstrating his emotions.. ..

How Elisabeth turns into Betty, & whether she remains loyal to stolid Filth or swept up by caddish Veneering, make for a page-turning plot, in a lovely novel which is full of surprises & revelations, as well as the humour & eccentricities for which Jane Gardam's writing is famous.






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Javier Mar-as' prize-winning novel follows the birth & death of a passion told in retrospect. A tenor known as 'the Lion of Naples' remembers a time when he travelled to Madrid to star in a production of Verdi's Otello. In the vibrant city his life is insular & routine, a daily cycle of rehearsals & hotel meals. That is, until he meets a strange trio & is incorporated into their group. Manur is a Flemish banker who employs a secretary, Dato, as a daily companion for his beautiful wife, Natalia. They begin to spend their days together, three inseparable friends, & yet as the friendship develops, Dato increasingly finds himself consumed by Natalia's unattainable beauty. & so passion & power frame this sophisticated, & at time perverse, comedy of manners. ...

Dozens of missions set out for the Arctic during the first half of the nineteenth century; all ended in failure & many in disaster, as men found themselves starving to death in the freezing wilderness, sometimes with nothing left to eat but their companions' remains. Anthony Brandt traces the complete history of this noble & foolhardy obsession, which originated during the sixteenth century, bringing vividly to life this record of courage & incompetence, privation & endurance, heroics & tragedy. Along the way he introduces us to an expansive cast of fascination characters: seamen & landlubbers, scientists & politicians, sceptics & tireless believers.

The Man Who Ate His Boots is a rich & engaging work of narrative history
- a multifaceted portrait of noble adventure & of imperialistic folly.


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31, 000 miles. 22, 840 feet high. 34 countries. 15 months. 2 amazing journeys.

In 2008, Mark Beaumont smashed the world

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On 15 February 2008, Mark Beaumont pedalled through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. 194 days & 17 hours previously, he had begun his attempt to circumnavigate the world in record time. Mark smashed the Guinness World Record by an astonishing 81 days. He had travelled more than 18, 000 miles on his own through some of the harshest conditions one man & his bicycle can endure, camping wild at night & suffering from constant ailments.

The Man Who Cycled the World is the story not just of that amazing achievement, but of the events that turned Mark Beaumont into the man he is today. From the early years of his free-spirited childhood in the Scottish countryside to present day, he has been equally determined not to settle for an average existence, but to break free & follow his dreams.

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On 15 February 2008, Mark Beaumont pedalled through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. 194 days & 17 hours previously, he had set off from Paris in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in record time. Mark smashed the Guinness World Record by an astonishing 81 days. He had travelled more than 18, 000 miles on his own through some of the harshest conditions one man & his bicycle can endure, camping wild at night & suffering from constant ailments.

The Man Who Cycled the World is the story not just of that amazing achievement, but of the events that turned Mark Beaumont into the man he is today. From the early years of his free-spirited childhood in the Scottish countryside, he had been determined to break records, cycling across Scotland & then from John O' Groats to Land's End by the age of fifteen, raising thousands of pounds for charity. After leaving university, he had been equally determined not to settle for an average existence, but to break free & see the world from a saddle, to follow his dreams.

This is the tale not just of one of the last great circumnavigation world records, & of the incredible endurance it took to accomplish it, but an insight into many of the world's cultures from a unique perspective. From Paris to Istanbul, through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India & south-east Asia to Singapore, then across Australia, New Zealand & the United States before the final legs in Europe, all at hundred miles a day, this is the story of a quite remarkable adventure, by a quite remarkable man.



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