In Deep Survival, Laurence Gonzales combines hard science & powerful storytelling to illuminate the mysteries of survival, whether in the wilderness or in meeting any of life`s great challenges. This gripping narrative, the first book to describe the art & science of survival, will change the way you see your world. ...

The information is presented in the full colour Rockfax photo-topo style &

Includes:: cruicial advice on when

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Covering a diving championship in Greece on a hot & sticky assignment for Outside magazine, James Nestor discovered free diving. He had stumbled on one of the most extreme sports in existence: a quest to extend the frontiers of human experience, in which divers descend without breathing equipment, for hundreds of feet below the water, for minutes after they should have died from lack of oxygen. Sometimes they emerge unconscious, or bleeding from the nose & ears, & sometimes they don`t come up at all. The free divers were Nestor`s way into an exhilarating & dangerous world of deep-sea pioneers, underwater athletes, scientists, spear fishermen, billionaires & ordinary men & women who are poised on the brink of some amazing discoveries about the ocean. Soon he was visiting the scientists who live 60ft underwater (and are permanently high on nitrous dioxide), swimming with the notorious man-eating sharks of Reunion & descending thousands of feet in a homemade submarine. And on the way down, he learnt about the amazing amphibious reflexes activated in the human body under deep-water conditions, why dolphins were injected with LSD in an attempt to teach them to talk, & why sharks like AC/DC. The sea covers seventy per cent of Earth`s surface, & still contains answers to questions about the world we are only beginning to ask: Deep blends science & adventure to uncover its amazing secrets. ...

This intriguing odyssey, set on the edges of time, encompasses biography, memoir, detective story, travelogue & history to tell a remarkable tale of East-West connections & a mysterious love. The author`s quest begins when the word `indigo` draws her to the illustrated journals, now in the British Library, of Victorian traveller Thomas Machell. She finds her life to have striking echoes of his, not least travels to & within India, a career in indigo, & a passion for journal writing. She is also intrigued by his aspiration to write `a novel in the form of an autobiography` & by his quirky watercolour sketches. Retracing his footsteps
- overland & by sea
- from his ancestral home in the hills & dales of northern England to remote parts of the Middle East & Asia, she is often in her own footsteps too. Machell of Crackenthorpe, born in 1824, first demonstrated his yearning for adventure when only twelve, & at sixteen left the family rectory to fulfil his childhood dream of travelling to the East. By chance, he witnessed many important historical events, including the infamous First Opium War & the Indian Mutiny that profoundly affected British-Indian relationships. Machell spent most of his adult life in India, `the land of my destiny` as he calls it; the author tracks him to the indigo & coffee plantations of rural Bengal & Kerala`s Malabar Hills, to little known regions of central India; to the China Seas & remote islands of Polynesia & through the deserts of Arabia. This spellbinding book brings to life Machell`s untold story, that of a spirited outsider at the time of the British Raj reaching into the future. Serendipity, intuition & an enchanting relationship, as well as the author`s quest to uncover the missing years of Machell`s life, give this book its magical extra dimension.

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Jenny set out on her own voyage, tracing his footsteps across oceans & continents for ten years, on a quest to discover & understand this extraordinary character. In 2010 she travelled alone to India on the last cargo ship to accept passengers. The journey was as treacherous as it had been in Thomas`s day & Jenny was advised to hide below deck & sleep with a knife by her bed & dollars sewn into her jacket. She narrowly escaped attack as naval ships intercepted a pirate `mothership` spotted off the Yemeni coast. Jenny`s journey ends as she finally discovers Thomas`s overgrown grave when travelling with herdaughter after over 15 years of searching. Through a combination of the author`s own memoirs, sketches & recollections of travels, entwined with Thomas Machell`s tales & intricate drawings, Deeper than Indigo offers a unique insight into the social history of British colonialism at its height, from the East India Company to the Raj, while telling the story of a forgotten pioneer, whose startling diaries shed a surprisingly progressive light on European colonialism. ...

The Deerslayer is the culmination of James Fenimore Cooper`s ` Leather-Stocking` novels, featuring Natty Bumppo (the deer-slaying young frontiersman) & the Mohican chief, Chingachgook. Cooper portrays the hubris of the conquest of a vast territory. The action takes place during the American wars of the 1740s. Natty & his friend Harry attempt to save a trapper & two young women, whose floating fort on Lake Glimmerglass is besieged by the ruthless Iroquois. The tension steadily increases to the point at which a cruel outcome seems inevitable. The exciting action, the romantic potentialities & the knowledgeable evocation of frontier life (with its moral & racial conflicts) have made this novel a perennial favourite. The courageous Natty, with his problematic values, has set the precedent for countless American heroes. Culturally, The Deerslayer has proved to be a powerfully influential work. ...

As the dreadful reality of the Coalition`s defeat in Iraq begins to sink in, one question dominates Washington & London: why? In this controversial new book, award-winning journalist Jonathan Steele provides a stark & arresting answer: Bush & Blair were defeated from the day they decided to occupy the country. Iraq had enough of foreign armies. Steele describes the memories of centuries of humiliations that have scarred the Iraqi national psyche, creating a powerful & deeply felt nationalism. Drawing his unique access to senior Western policymakers, Steele shows how the key players in the occupying coalition totally failed to inform themselves about this smouldering backhistory of resentment & suspicion. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with ordinary Iraqis, Steele shows for the first time how the staging posts of the conflict so familiar to Western newspaper readers were seen by the Iraqis themselves. Blending vivid reportage, informed analysis & sweeping historical narrative, ” Defeat” is the definitive anatomy of an historic catastrophe. ...

THE EXPLOSIVE NEW THRILLER FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LEAVING BERLIN. Some secrets should never be told. Moscow, 1961: With the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union`s international prestige is at an all-time high. & the most notorious of the defectors to the Soviet Union, former CIA agent Frank Weeks, is about to publish his memoirs. What he reveals will send shock waves through the West. Weeks` defection in the early 1950s shook Washington to its core
- & forced the resignation of his brother, Simon, from the State Department. Simon, now a publisher in New York, is given the opportunity to read & publish his brother`s memoir. He knows the US government will never approve the publication of what is clearly intended as KGB propaganda. Yet the offer is irresistible: it will finally give him the chance to learn why his brother chose to betray his country. But what he discovers in Moscow is far more shocking than he ever imagined.. .*** Readers & reviewers love Defectors & Joseph Kanon*** ` Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best of the current crop of spy thriller writers...he is the master of the shadows of the era... a frightening, convincing portrait of the state`s capacity to control every aspect of the lives of its subjects & even its visitors. Kanon writes beautifully, superbly conveying human sadness & regret` The Times on Defectors ` The critical stock of Joseph Kanon will add further lustre to his reputation... There are pleasing echoes here of the `entertainments` of Graham Greene` Guardian on Defectors ` Defectors [is] as readable & suspenseful as the fine espionage novels of Eric Ambler, Graham Greene, Charles Mc Carry, Robert Littell, Alan Furst & John Le Carre
- & its roller-coaster plot will keep you guessing until the final page` Washington Post` An excellent tale about secrets, loyalty & betrayal` Sun ` One of the most exciting books I`ve read in years` Alexander Mc Call Smith on Leaving Berlin ` Spectacular in every way` Lee Child on Stardust ` Tense & atmospheric, with sinister intrigue` Wall Street Journal on Istanbul Passage

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THE EXPLOSIVE NEW THRILLER FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LEAVING BERLIN Some secrets should never be told. Moscow, 1961: With the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union`s international prestige is at an all-time high. & the most notorious of the defectors to the Soviet Union, former CIA agent Frank Weeks, is about to publish his memoirs. What he reveals will send shock waves through the West. Weeks` defection in the early 1950s shook Washington to its core
- & forced the resignation of his brother, Simon, from the State Department. Simon, now a publisher in New York, is given the opportunity to read & publish his brother`s memoir. He knows the US government will never approve the publication of what is clearly intended as KGB propaganda. Yet the offer is irresistible: it will finally give him the chance to learn why his brother chose to betray his country. But what he discovers in Moscow is far more shocking than he ever imagined.. . ` One of the most exciting books I`ve read in years` Alexander Mc Call Smith on Leaving Berlin ` Spectacular in every way` Lee Child on Stardust ` Tense & atmospheric, with sinister intrigue` Wall Street Journal on Istanbul Passage
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Plucked from every background, & led by an N.K.V.D. Major, the new recruits who boarded a train in Moscow on 16th October 1941 to go to war had much in common with millions of others across the world. What made the 586th Fighter Regiment, the 587th Heavy-bomber Regiment & the 588th Regiment of light night-bombers unique was their gender: the Soviet Union was creating the first all-female active combat units in modern history. Drawing on original interviews with surviving airwomen, Lyuba Vinogradova weaves together the untold stories of the female Soviet fighter pilots of the Second World War. From that first train journey to the last tragic disappearance, Vinogradova`s panoramic account of these women`s lives follows them from society balls to unmarked graves, from landmark victories to the horrors of Stalingrad. Battling not just fearsome Aces of the Luftwaffe but also patronising prejudice from their own leaders, women such as Lilya Litvyak & Ekaterina Budanova are brought to life by the diaries & recollections of those who knew them, & who watched them live, love, fight & die. ...