Drawing from official correspondence, merchant`s letters, ship`s logs, & graphic archival material, Kenneth Banks explores the failure of transatlantic communications in helping to develop & maintain French imperialism during the height of France`s first overseas empire in Quebec, New Orleans, & Saint Pierre, Martinique, in the eighteenth century. He provides historical context for the role of communications within the imperial nation-state, using a concept of communications that encompasses a range of human activity, from sailing routes, to mapping, to presses, to building roads & bridges. His comparative analysis integrates three areas usually studied separately
- the settlement colony, the tropical monoculture colony, & the early Enlightenment planned colony. ” Chasing Empire across the Sea” also challenges the very notion of a concrete ”empire” emerging by the first half of the eighteenth century.
...

Money as a weapon. Money as revenge. Money as a substitute for sex & love. Money as status. This travel book explores the uses of money & the attitudes of the wheelers & dealers in the international marketplace. Douglas Kennedy spent a year loitering with intent in six very disparate financial realms, including the Casablanca bourse (where stocks & bonds are listed on a blackboard), the squeaky-clean Singapore money markets, the Sydney futures market & the first Hungarian stock exchange to open since 1948. From the New Age City folk in London, unsure whether greed really is good for you, to the tireless toilers of Wall Street, Kennedy's encounters with money-makers around the globe offer a quirky journey through the modern cash nexus. ...

A blip of prosperity at the turn of the 20th century brought American trout to Patagonia, then for a half-century they were forgotten to fight wars & build a nation. Rediscovered by fishermen a half-century later, the fish had grown to epic proportions. In Chasing Rumor, Cameron Chambers chronicles his modern-day pilgrimage to the rivers of Patagonia in pursuit of these legendary 20-pound trout. What started as a trip focused on catching fish became a love affair with the Patagonian landscape, environment, &, mostly, the people. From a business mogul turned B&B owner to a kid determined to save a local trout population, Chasing Rumor is at times the story of a handful of fishermen, & at other times a tale of enormous trout. ...

Frederik Paulsen`s first great adventure involved taking the reins, at age thirty, of the Ferring pharmaceutical firm founded by his father. After he had transformed the company into a multinational corporation, Paulsen began to recall his childhood dream of discovering unknown lands, sparked by the Viking tales of his native Sweden. He therefore set off to explore realms of ice & snow. In the spring of 2000, he stood at the North Pole
- only to discover that the planet had several other extreme poles: the wandering magnetic pole, to which every compass points; the somewhat more stable geomagnetic pole; & the `pole of inaccessibility`. Since the earth has two hemispheres, these four northern poles have their southern counterparts in the Antarctic. Paulsen therefore set himself the challenge of being the first person to reach all eight poles. Charlie Buffet & Thierry Meyer recount Paulsen`s thirteen-year adventure in freezing, hostile regions that were once the site of historic exploits & are now a laboratory for scientists trying to decipher our planet`s future. The foreword is by Ellen Mac Arthur
...

For many years war made Sierra Leone & Liberia too dangerous for outsiders to travel through. Facing down demons from his time in Africa as a journalist, Tim Butcher heads deep into this combat zone, encountering the devastation wrought by lawless militia, child soldiers, brutal violence, blood diamonds & masked figures who guard the spiritual secrets of remote jungle communities. On an epic journey that demands courage, doggedness & sheer luck, Butcher treks for 350 blistering miles through rainforest & malarial swamps to gain an extraordinary ground-level view of an overlooked region on the cusp of a remarkable recovery. ...

Whisky is Scotland`s national drink & has been for over five hundred years, since then becoming a global phenomenon. It is a drink that is a profound & important part of Scottish life & culture but, unlike other countries & their national libations, it has hardly been used in food. Rachel Mc Cormack is going to change that with this book. Limiting whisky to a drink, she believes, is similar to the traditional Presbyterian attitude to sex; it should only be done with the lights off & in the missionary position. Rachel believes that there is an entire Karma Sutraof whisky use out there & she has put it in this book. Interspersing an engaging mix of anecdotes, history & information on distillers & recipes, this book will appeal to everyone from the cooking whisky connoisseur, to the novice whisky learner looking for some guidance on what to eat & cook. Rachel travels the length & breadth of Scotl&, discovering a myriad of unique & interesting people & facts about this remarkable drink, with interviews with the key people who create it around the country, as she visits the famous distilleries of her country, as well as the more home-grown variety. ...

Being in the right place at the right time is critical when Scottish Winter Climbing. This guide will help you make the right choices
-
...

Join renowned naturalist Peter Marren on an exciting quest to see every species of wild plant native to Britain. The mysterious Ghost Orchid blooms in near darkness among rotting leaves on the forest floor. It blends into the background to the point of invisibility, yet glows, pale & ghostly. The ultimate grail of flower hunters, it has been spotted only once in the past twenty-five years. Its few flowers have a deathly pallor & are said to smell of over-ripe bananas. Peter Marren has been a devoted flower finder all his life. While the Ghost Orchid offers the toughest challenge of any wild plant, there were fifty more British species Peter had yet to see, having ticked off the first 1, 400 rummaging in hedges, slipping down gullies & peering in peat bogs. But he set himself the goal of finding the remaining fifty in a single summer. As it turned out, the wettest summer in years. This expert & emotional journey takes Peter the length & the breadth of the British Isles, from the dripping ancient woods of the New Forest to the storm-lashed cliffs of Sutherl&. He paddles in lakes, clambers up cliffs in mist & rain, & walks several hundred miles, but does he manage to find them all? Partly about plants, partly autobiography, Chasing the Ghost is also a reminder that to engage with wild flowers, all we need to do is look around us & enjoy what we see. ...

A fictional recounting of the little-known true story of the first woman to ever set foot on Antarctica, & her extraordinary fight to get there. A fictional recounting of the little-known true story of the first woman to ever set foot on Antarctica, & her extraordinary fight to get there. It`s the early 1930s. Antarctic open-sea whaling is booming & a territorial race for the mysterious continent between Norwegian & British-Australian interests is in full swing. Aboard a ship setting sail from Cape Town carrying the Norwegian whaling magnate Lars Christensen are three women: Lillemor Rachlew, who tricked her way on to the ship & will stop at nothing to be the first woman to land on Antarctica; Mathilde Wegger, a grieving widow who`s been forced to join the trip by her calculating parents-in-law; & Lars`s wife, Ingrid Christensen, who has longed to travel to Antarctica since she was a girl & has made a daunting bargain with Lars to convince him to take her. Loyalties shift & melt & conflicts increase as they pass through the Southern Ocean & reach the whaling grounds. None of the women is prepared for the reality of meeting the whaling fleet & experiencing firsthand the brutality of the icy world. As they head for the continent itself, the race is on for the first woman to land on Antarctica. None of them expect the outcome & none of them know how they will be changed by their arrival. Based on the little-known true story of the first woman to ever set foot on Antarctica, Jesse Blackadder has captured the drama, danger & magnetic pull of exploring uncharted places in our world & our minds. ...

Chasing the Monsoon is a modern travel-pilgrimage through India. Alexander Frater follows the progress of the annual monsoon season, from the funnelling of the weather front in countries to the south of India to the downpour before his eyes, watching the life-shaping impact of the extraordinary phenomenon of the monsoon. On 20th May the Indian summer monsoon will begin to envelop the country in two great wet arms, one coming from the east, the other from the west. They are united over central India around 10th July, a date that can be calculated within seven or eight days. During the anxious period of waiting, the weather forecaster is king, consulted by pie-crested cockatoos, & a joyful period ensues: there is a period of promiscuity, & scandals proliferate. ...