` Riveting... Honnold is neither crazy nor reckless. Alone on the Wall reveals him to be an utterly unique & extremely appealing young man.` Jon Krakauer A twelve-year-old kid in the audience raised his hand & asked, ` Aren`t you afraid you`re gonna die?` Without missing a beat, Alex shot back, ` We`ve all gotta die sometimes. You might as well go big.` Alex Honnold is 28 years old, & perhaps the world`s best `free solo` climber, scaling impossible rock faces without ropes, pitons or & support of any kind. There is a purity to Alex`s climbs that is easy to comprehend, but impossible to fathom; in the last forty years, only a handful of climbers have pushed `free soloing` to the razor edge of risk. Half of them are dead. From Yosemite`s famous Half Dome to the frighteningly difficult El Sendero Luminoso in Mexico, Alone on the Wall is structured around Alex`s seven most extraordinary climbing achievements so far. These are tales to make your palms sweat & your feet curl with vertigo. Together, they get to the heart of how
- & why
- Alex does what he does. Exciting, uplifting & truly awe-inspiring, Alone on the Wall is a book about the essential truths of risk & reward, & the ability to maintain a singular focus, even in the face of extreme danger.

...

` Riveting... Honnold is neither crazy nor reckless. Alone on the Wall reveals him to be an utterly unique & extremely appealing young man.` Jon Krakauer A twelve-year-old kid in the audience raised his hand & asked, ` Aren`t you afraid you`re gonna die?` Without missing a beat, Alex shot back, ` We`ve all gotta die sometimes. You might as well go big.` Alex Honnold is 28 years old, & perhaps the world`s best `free solo` climber, scaling impossible rock faces without ropes, pitons or & support of any kind. There is a purity to Alex`s climbs that is easy to comprehend, but impossible to fathom; in the last forty years, only a handful of climbers have pushed `free soloing` to the razor edge of risk. Half of them are dead. From Yosemite`s famous Half Dome to the frighteningly difficult El Sendero Luminoso in Mexico, Alone on the Wall is structured around Alex`s seven most extraordinary climbing achievements so far. These are tales to make your palms sweat & your feet curl with vertigo. Together, they get to the heart of how
- & why
- Alex does what he does. Exciting, uplifting & truly awe-inspiring, Alone on the Wall is a book about the essential truths of risk & reward, & the ability to maintain a singular focus, even in the face of extreme danger.

...

Travelling with friends & family is usually thought of as a privilege. In theory, anyway. In practice, it`s more often about debating which sights to see, panicking over diminishing phone batteries & bickering over what to eat. Not much joy in that. But alone you can do as you please. You can wander markets, relish silence, go to a park. Go to Paris. Why not? In Alone Time, New York Times travel columnist Stephanie Rosenbloom travels alone in four seasons to four remarkable cities
- Paris, Istanbul, Florence & New York
- exploring the sensory experience of solitude. Along the way she illuminates the psychological arguments for alone time, revealing that whether you recognize it or not, it`s good to be alone now & then. This is a book about the pleasures & benefits of savouring the moment, examining things closely, using all your senses to take in your surroundings, whether travelling to faraway places or walking the streets of your own city. Through on-the-ground observations & anecdotes, & drawing on the thinking of artists, writers & innovators who have cherished solitude, Alone Time lays bare the magic of going solo.

...

In an absorbing work peopled with world leaders, generals & ordinary citizens who fought on both sides of the Second World War, Alone brings to resounding life perhaps the most critical year of twentieth-century history. May 1940 was a month like no other, as the German war machine blazed into France while the supposedly impregnable Maginot Line crumbled, & Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister in an astonishing political drama as Britain, isolated & alone, faced a triumphant Nazi Germany. Against this vast historical canvas, Michael Korda relates what happened & why, & also tells his own story, that of a six-year-old boy in a glamorous family who would himself be evacuated. Alone is a work that seamlessly weaves a family memoir into an unforgettable account of a political & military disaster redeemed by the evacuation of more than 300, 000 men in four days-surely one of the most heroic episodes of the war. ...

In April 2013 a global breaking-news story surfaced on social media & in the world press, & rapidly gathered momentum. A South African man had fallen overboard in the night during a storm in remote Indonesian waters, without anyone else on board realising. Eight hours later a frantic search was underway. The incident caught the world`s attention as readers were instantly transported into the terror of the moment
- imagine being left alone, 100 kilometres out to sea in the middle of a storm, watching your friends sail into the distance... Had he been dealt a fraction more bad luck, Brett would have died immediately. According to the experts, he should have died within 10 to 14 hours. But he chose not to die. Instead for 28-&-a-half hours Brett Archibald endured
- the ocean, the elements, the creatures of the deep, & his own inner demons. Alone: 28 Hours Alone in the Indian Oceanis the incredible but true story of what it takes to defy needle-in-a-haystack odds & survive what should have been certain death. Outdoor savvy, astonishing imagination, mental toughness, a refusal to give up hope & a canny rescuer with an unbelievable background ultimately saw him through. Most of all this is a story of the power of the human spirit that defies rational explanation.

...

Chris Townsend embarks on a 700-mile walk along the spine of Scotl&, the line of high ground where fallen rain runs either west to the Atlantic or east to the North Sea. Walking before the Independence Referendum of 2014, & writing after the EU Referendum of 2016, he reflects on: nature & history, conservation & rewilding, land use & literature, & change in a time of limitless potential for both better & worse. ...

Change is now coming to rural Romania, & William Blacker`s adventures will soon be part of its history. From his early carefree days tramping the hills of Transylvania, to the book`s poignant ending, Along the Enchanted Way transports us back to a magical country world most of us thought had vanished long ago. When William Blacker first crossed the snow-bound passes of northern Romania, he stumbled upon an almost medieval world. There, for many years he lived side by side with the country people, a life ruled by the slow cycle of the seasons, far away from the frantic rush of the modern world. In spring as the pear trees blossomed he ploughed with horses, in summer he scythed the hay meadows & in the freezing winters gathered wood by sleigh from the forest. From sheepfolds harried by wolves, to courting expeditions in the snow, he experienced the traditional way of life to the full, & became accepted into a community who treated him as one of their own. But Blacker was also intrigued by the Gypsies, those dark, foot-loose strangers of spell-binding allure who he saw passing through the village. Locals warned him to stay clear but he fell in love & there followed a bitter struggle. ...

The River Ganges has a thousand names. Hindu priests regard it as a sin to call her a river at all. She is a goddess, the source of the world, her waters holy & healing & still sold to Hindus all over the world. Ilija Trojanow travelled along the Ganges, from the source, where it breaks free from the eternal ice in the Himalayas, to the great cities, by boat, by bus, on overcrowded trains. He visited the great Hindu festivals & talked to those who warn of ecological disasters. His colourful report describes a country between ancient traditions & astonishing modernity & the holy river that crosses it for hundreds of miles. ...

The Casiquiare is unique. There is no other river like it on the planet. Somehow it manages to unite the two river systems of the Orinoco & the Amazon that should, by rights, be entirely separate, & the Casiquiare performs the astonishing feat of flowing up & over the watershed that divides them. Richard Starks & Miriam Murcutt travelled along the Casiquiare at the behest of the Royal Geographical Society
- & in the footsteps of exploring greats like Alexander von Humboldt & Aime Bonpland
- to gather information about the river & the fierce Yanomani tribe that still maintains its austere & primitive lifestyle in the region.

...

The River Severn is Britain`s longest river. The author of this book traces the river from its source to the sea, following the route taken by M. Lanchester in 1915, noting the changes made since his visit & describing his own journey. Another title from the Cotswold publisher, Reardon. ...