At the Edge tells the story of a 1500 kilometre walk from the southwest corner of Ireland to the northwest corner of Scotl&. By following the Atlantic coast all the way, Joseph links the most vibrant Gaelic communities. Reflections on identity, culture & sustainability make this a unique & memorable book. It will appeal particularly to those with Irish or Scottish heritage & no doubt some will want to do the journey themselves
- although perhaps not on foot.
...

The sweeping & compelling new novel from the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring. ` Dark, brutal, moving, powerful` Jane Harris `A wonderful book; rich, evocative, original. I loved it` Joanne Harris What happens when you can`t run any further from your past? Ohio, 1838. James & Sadie Goodenough have settled in the Black Swamp, planting apple trees to claim the land as their own. Life is harsh in the swamp, & as fever picks off their children, husband & wife take solace in separate comforts. James patiently grows his sweet-tasting `eaters` while Sadie gets drunk on applejack made fresh from `spitters`. Their fighting takes its toll on all of the Goodenoughs
- a battle that will resonate over the years & across America. Fifteen years later their youngest son, Robert, is drifting through Gold Rush California & haunted by the broken family he fled years earlier. Memories stick to him where mud once did. When he finds steady work for a plant collector, peace seems finally to be within reach. But the past is never really past, & one day Robert is forced to confront the brutal reason he left behind everything he loved. In this rich, powerful story, Tracy Chevalier is at her imaginative best, bringing to life the urge to wrestle with our roots, however deep & tangled they may be.
...

The sweeping & compelling new novel from the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring.` Dark, brutal, moving, powerful` Jane Harris`A wonderful book; rich, evocative, original. I loved it` Joanne Harris In 1830s Ohio, the Goodenough family barely scratch out a living in the inhospitable Black Swamp. Robert & his sister Martha must watch as their parents` marriage is torn apart by disputes over whether to grow sweet apples to eat or sour apples for cider & applejack. One particularly vicious fight sends Robert out alone across America, far from his sister, into a life dominated not by apple trees but by the mighty redwoods & sequoias of California. ...

The remarkable story of the French Foreign Legion, its dramatic rise throughout the nineteenth century, & its most committed champion, General Hubert Lyautey. An aura of mystery, romance, & danger surrounds the French Foreign Legion, the all-volunteer corps of the French Army, founded in 1831. Famous for its physically grueling training in harsh climates, the legion fought in French wars from Mexico to Madagascar, Southeast Asia to North Africa. To this day, despite its reputation for being assigned the riskiest missions in the roughest terrain, the mystique of the legion continues to attract men from every corner of the world. In At the Edge of the World, historian Jean-Vincent Blanchard follows the legion`s rise to fame during the nineteenth century--focusing on its campaigns in Indochina & especially in Africa--when the corps played a central role in expanding & protecting the French Empire. As France struggled to be a power capable of rivaling the British, the figure of the legionnaire--deadly, self-sacrificing, uncompromisingly efficient--came to represent the might & morale that would secure a greater, stronger nation. Drawing from rare, archival memoirs & testimonies of legionnaires from the period & tracing the fascinating career of Hubert Lyautey, France`s first resident-general in Morocco & a hero to many a legionnaire, At the Edge of the World chronicles the Foreign Legion at the height of its renown, when the corps & its archetypically handsome, moody, & marginalized recruits became both the symbols of a triumphant colonialism & the stuff of legend. ...

The cyclist is legendary for his You Tube viral videos like The Ridge, Cascadia & Imaginate: nerve-racking montages of stunts which scale everything from mountain peaks, rooftops, ghost towns & movie sets. It hasn`t been an easy ride. Doubt, stress & the `what if?` factor circle every trailblazing trick, which require imagination, fearlessness, groundbreaking techniques & an eye for a good camera angle. He has spent his life pushing the extremes; somehow, he`s still around to tell the tale. In this unflinching memoir of mayhem, Danny shares his anarchic childhood on the Isle of Skye & early days as a street trials rider, takes us behind the scenes of his training & videos, & reveals what it takes to go the next level
- both mentally & physically.
...

Paris, near the turn of 1932-3. Three young friends meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir & their friend Raymond Aron, who opens their eyes to a radical new way of thinking...” It`s not often that you miss your bus stop because you`re so engrossed in reading a book about existentialism, but I did exactly that... The story of Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Heidegger et al is strange, fun & compelling reading. If it doesn`t win awards, I will eat my copy”. (Independent on Sunday). ” Bakewell shows how fascinating were some of the existentialists` ideas & how fascinating, often frightful, were their lives. Vivid, humorous anecdotes are interwoven with a lucid & unpatronising exposition of their complex philosophy... Tender, incisive & fair”. (Daily Telegraph). ” Quirky, funny, clear & passionate... Few writers are as good as Bakewell at explaining complicated ideas in a way that makes them easy to understand”. (Mail on Sunday). ...

Paris, near the turn of 1933. Three young friends meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir & their friend Raymond Aron, who opens their eyes to a radical new way of thinking. Pointing to his drink, he says, ” You can make philosophy out of this cocktail!” From this moment of inspiration, Sartre will create his own extraordinary philosophy of real, experienced life
- of love & desire, of freedom & being, of cafes & waiters, of friendships & revolutionary fervour. It is a philosophy that will enthral Paris & sweep through the world, leaving its mark on post-war liberation movements, from the student uprisings of 1968 to civil rights pioneers. At the Existentialist Cafe tells the story of modern existentialism as one of passionate encounters between people, minds & ideas. From the `king & queen of existentialism`
- Sartre & de Beauvoir
- to their wider circle of friends & adversaries including Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty & Iris Murdoch, this book is an enjoyable & original journey through a captivating intellectual movement. Weaving biography & thought, Sarah Bakewell takes us to the heart of a philosophy about life that also changed lives, & that tackled the biggest questions of all: what we are & how we are to live.


...

? By tradition, Moscow is the easternmost bastion of western civilisation. Moscow has stood against invasion & war, pestilence & fire. It has been rejected by its own rulers, & its destruction has been planned by its dreamers & invaders alike. Yet it has survived. How this happened is the story of historical accident, the vagaries of geography & economicsand upon occasion, sheer human will & faith. Moscow is also the object of stereotype, from barbaric oriental capital to Holy city on the Hill. In its secular & religious manifestations it has been the goal of pilgrimage & a city of transcendent aspiration. In the twentieth century it was the headquarters of a class-based pogrom of appalling

Dimensions even as it was proclaimed the capital of global revolution. If Moscow has endured catastrophes barely imagined, it has also been the scene of creative brilliance. It holds a deep contradiction as being both the pilot-boat to hell, & a celestial city of the future. Moscow has bemused visitors, & even the most perceptive of them have fallen victim to their own preconceptions. This is a portrait of Moscow through time. It has one constant, the Kremlin, at once the supreme metaphor of state power but also a symbol of Russian national identity. The tension between Moscow as an urban community & the Moscow of empire & belief is fundamental to the citys narrative. Above it all stands the Kremlin, Moscows arbiter of history. This is also a historical case- study of the growth, development & near-death experiences of a single city to become a living monument to its own survival. It will be of interest to travellers, Urbanists & historians alike.

...

For many years Andrew Greig saw the poet Norman Mac Caig as a father figure. Months before his death, Mac Caig`s enigmatic final request to Greig was that he fish for him at the Loch of the Green Corrie; the location, even the real name of his destination was more mysterious still. His search took in days of outdoor living, meetings, & fishing with friends in the remote hill lochs of far North-West Scotl&. It led, finally, to the waters of the Green Corrie, which would come to reflect Greig`s own life, his thoughts on poetry, geology & land ownership in the Highlands & the ambiguous roles of whisky, love & male friendship. At the Loch of the Green Corrie is a richly atmospheric narrative, a celebration of losing & recovering oneself in a unique landscape, the consideration of a particular culture, & a homage to a remarkable poet & his world. ...

” The tale of Carl Wake & the hurricane that was waiting for him goes straight to the heart of the greatest sea stories: they are not about man against the sea, but man against himself. John Kretschmer`s book is as perfectly shaped & flawlessly written as such a story can be. In addition to being the best depiction I have ever read of what it is like to be inside a hurricane at sea, At the Mercy of the Sea is as moving a story of a man`s failure & redemption as can be found anywhere in the literature of the sea. This book is surely destined to become a classic.”--Peter Nichols, author of Sea Change & A Voyage for Madmen ” John Kretschmer has transformed this story of three men on a collision course with a hurricane into a modern seafaring classic.”--Peter Nielsen, editor of SAIL magazine ” With expert analysis & taut writing, he draws readers into that mad storm. You can`t turn away. You keep reading until it breaks your heart.”--Fred Grimm, columnist for the Miami Herald ” Once begun, his vivid & powerful narrative is impossible to put down.”--Derek Lundy, author of Godforsaken Sea & The Way of a Ship ”I felt I knew Carl Wake, because John Kretschmer found in him an archetype--an aging sailor with an age-old dream.”--Jim Carrier, transatlantic sailor & author of The Ship & the Storm: Hurricane Mitch & the Loss of the Fantome ”A remarkable book, impossible to put down.”--Herb Mc Cormick, sailing journalist ...