Which lines on the map matter most? It`s time to reimagine how life is organized on Earth. In Connectography, Parag Khanna guides us through the emerging global network civilization in which mega-cities compete over connectivity & borders are increasingly irrelevant. Travelling across the world, Khanna shows how twenty-first-century conflict is a tug-of-war over pipelines & Internet cables, advanced technologies & market access. Yet Connectography also offers a hopeful vision of the future
- beneath the chaos of a world that appears to be falling apart, a new foundation of connectivity is pulling it together.
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Rarely does a book so accuartely capture & reflect the qualities of a place; in its landscape, history & folklore, Connemara is a singular region: ill-defined geographically, & yet unmistakably a place apart from the rest of Irel&. Tim Robinson, who established himself as Ireland`s most brilliant living non-fiction writer with the two-volume Stones of Aran, moved from Aran to Connemara nearly twenty years ago. This book is the result of his extraordinary engagement with the mountains, bogs & shorelines of the region, & with its folklore & its often terrible history: a work as beautiful & surprising as the place it attempts to describe. ...

The second volume in Tim Robinson`s phenomenal ” Connemara” Trilogy. The first volume of Tim Robinson`s ” Connemara” trilogy, ” Listening to the Wind”, covered Robinson`s home territory of Roundstone & environs. ” The Last Pool of Darkness” moves into wilder territory: the fjords, cliffs, hills & islands of north-west Connemara, a place that Wittgenstein, who lived on his own in a cottage there for a time, called `the last pool of darkness in Europe`. Again combining his polymathic knowledge of Connemara`s natural history, human history, folklore & topography with his own unsurpassable artistry as a writer, Tim Robinson has produced another classic. A native of Yorkshire, Tim Robinson moved to the Aran Islands in 1972. His books include the celebrated two-volume ” Stones of Aran”. Since 1984 he has lived in Roundstone, Connemara. ” One of the most remarkable non-fiction projects undertaken in English”. (Robert Macfarlane, ” Observer”). ”A masterpiece of travel & topographical writing & a miraculous, vivid & engrossing meditation on landscape & history & the sacred mood of places”. (Colm Toibin, ” Irish Times”). ...

Connemara & Mayo form an area known for stunning scenery & this guidebook describes some of the region`s best & most spectacular ...

” Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom” is the triumphant conclusion to Tim Robinson`s extraordinary ” Connemara” trilogy, which Robert Macfarlane has called `one of the most remarkable non-fiction projects undertaken in English`. Robinson writes about the people, places & history of south Connemara
- one of Ireland`s last Gaelic-speaking enclaves
- with the encyclopaedic knowledge of a cartographer & the grace of a born writer. From the man who has been praised in the highest terms by Joseph O` Connor (` One of contemporary Ireland`s finest literary stylists`), John Burnside (`one of the finest of contemporary prose stylists`), Fintan O` Toole (` Simply one of the best non-fiction prose writers currently at work`) & Giles Foden (`an indubitable classic`), among many others, this is one of the publishing events of 2011 & the conclusion of one of the great literary projects of our time. ” He is that rarest of phenomena, a scientist & an artist, & his method is to combine scientific rigour with artistic reverie in a seamless blend that both informs & delights.” (John Banville, ” Guardian”).”A masterpiece of travel & topographical writing, & an incomparable & enthralling meditation on times past... This perfectly pitched work opens readers up to the world around them”. (” Sunday Times”).

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Connemara Mollie – An Irish Journey on Horseback by Hilary Bradt is the moving account written with a humorous style, of the author’s long-distance ride through western Ireland in 1984. Bradt treks through Ireland’s Counties Galway, Mayo, Clare & Kerry with her Connemara pony called Mollie, to fulfil a childhood dream of a long horseback journey. The story describes the bond between the author & her horse, the many challenges they face & the people they meet along the way. The dialogues that ensue reveal the rural Ireland before the ‘ Celtic Tiger’ era, the Irish hospitality, & the landscape with lush fields, orchards, gardens & breathtaking views. This a-thous&-mile journey is a charming & moving true story delivered with honesty & humour that will grip any horse & adventure lover. ...

The ferocious Taklamakan desert, the harshest on earth, is known by the Chinese as the `desert of death` or the `place of no return`
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Trevor Fishlock puts the reader before the mast, on the dusty road, on the sledge, in the stagecoach & the howdah & aboard the clanking pioneer steamer. It is a thrilling journey. Here are the men of the Arctic ice, the desert fire, the jungles & the seas. Here are the engineers who bridge the chasms, build the roads & railways, fashion the machines, lay the cables & string the telegraph wires. Here, too, are the doctors groping for answers to terrible diseases, surveyors & cartographers slowly making sense & shape of the world, the unsung armies of labourers, & the artists & photographers who bring the stories home. Through it all, the vital supporting cast in the saga of triumph & frequent failure, are the elephants, horses, mules, camels, bullocks & sledge dogs. Conquerors of Time celebrates the courage, energy, innovation, resourcefulness & grand ideas of these pioneers. It wonders at the imperatives, beliefs & sheer confidence that powered their extraordinary achievements. Packed with detail, it is a narrative both vivid & moving. ...

As remarkable as Columbus & the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten. But Portugal`s navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India & beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East
- then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire. In an astonishing blitz of thirty years, a handful of visionary & utterly ruthless empire builders, with few resources but breathtaking ambition, attempted to seize the Indian Ocean, destroy Islam & take control of world trade. Told with Roger Crowley`s customary skill & verve, this is narrative history at its most vivid
- an epic tale of navigation, trade & technology, money & religious zealotry, political diplomacy & espionage, sea battles & shipwrecks, endurance, courage & terrifying brutality. Drawing on extensive first-hand accounts, it brings to life the exploits of an extraordinary band of conquerors
- men such as Afonso de Albuquerque, the first European since Alexander the Great to found an Asian empire
- who set in motion five hundred years of European colonisation & unleashed the forces of globalisation.



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Author of the best-selling AGINCOURT, Juliet Barker now tells the equally remarkable, but largely forgotten, story of the dramatic years when England ruled France at the point of a sword. Henry V`s second invasion of France in 1417 launched a campaign that would put the crown of France on an English head. Only the miraculous appearance of a visionary peasant girl
- Joan of Arc
- would halt the English advance. Yet despite her victories, her influence was short-lived: Henry VI had his coronation in Paris six months after her death & his kingdom endured for another twenty years. When he came of age he was not the leader his father had been. It was the dauphin, whom Joan had crowned Charles VII, who would finally drive the English out of France. Supremely evocative & brilliantly told, this is narrative history at its most colourful & compelling
- the true story of those who fought for an English kingdom of France.


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