Ngugi wa Thiong`o was born the fifth child of his father`s third wife, in a family that included twenty-four children born to four different mothers. He spent his 1930s childhood as the apple of his mother`s eye, before attending school to slake what was then considered a bizarre thirst for learning. As he grows up, the wider political & social changes occurring in Kenya at this time begin to impinge on the boy`s life in both inspiring & frightening ways. Through telling the story of his grandparents & parents, & of his brothers` involvement in the violent Mau Mau uprising, Ngugi deftly etches a tumultuous era, capturing the landscape, the people & their culture, & the social & political vicissitudes of life under colonialism & war. ...

” The pages of history recall scarcely any parallel episode at once so romantic in character & so extensive in scale.” --Winston S. Churchill In 1917, two empires that had dominated much of Europe & Asia teetered on the edge of the abyss, exhausted by the ruinous cost in blood & treasure of the First World War. As Imperial Russia & Habsburg-ruled Austria-Hungary began to succumb, a small group of Czech & Slovak combat veterans stranded in Siberia saw an opportunity to realize their long-held dream of independence. While their plan was audacious & complex, & involved moving their 50, 000-strong army by land & sea across three-quarters of the earth`s expanse, their commitment to fight for the Allies on the Western Front riveted the attention of Allied London, Paris, & Washington. On their journey across Siberia, a brawl erupted at a remote Trans-Siberian rail station that sparked a wholesale rebellion. The marauding Czecho-Slovak Legion seized control of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, & with it Siberia. In the end, this small band of POWs & deserters, whose strength was seen by Leon Trotsky as the chief threat to Soviet rule, helped destroy the Austro-Hungarian Empire & found Czecho-Slovakia. British prime minister David Lloyd George called their adventure ”one of the greatest epics of history, ” & former US president Teddy Roosevelt declared that their accomplishments were ”unparalleled, so far as I know, in ancient or modern warfare.” ...

For some time now, I have been plagued, perhaps blessed, by dreams of rivers & seas, dreams of water. Just days after controversial anthropologist Albert James writes these elusive lines to his son John, he is dead. Abandoning his girlfriend in London, John flies to Delhi to join his mother in mourning. But the nature of his father`s research & the circumstances of his death are far from clear &, on top of this, John must confront his mother`s coolness, & the strangeness of the cremation ceremony that she has organised for his father. No sooner is the body consigned to the flames than a journalist arrives, determined to write a biography of the dead man, & though his mother will have nothing to do with the project, she cannot keep away from the journalist. ...

This guidebook of selected climbs from the Swiss Alpine Club describes the most attractive 4c to 6b+ multi-pitch routes of Furka, Grimsel, Susten & Nufenen in the heart of the Swiss Alps. The routes are illustrated with many photos & detailed topographical sketches. This is a great opportunity to discover a beautiful corner of Switzerl&. The route introductions & descriptions are in English, French & German. ...

Set during the 1980s civil war in Lebanon, Dreams of Water is complusively readable, deceptively simple & overwhelmingly moving. ` If you could tell me just one thing about yourself, what would it be?` She begins, `I would say that I once lost a brother.` As a young man disappears, his family is left wondering, hoping, fearing for what may have become of him. It is only through his loss that they begin to truly understand the deep bond of love that ties their family together. Aneesa, his sister, feels the loss of her brother intensely &, unable to live in the vacuum left by his disappearance, she leaves her home & all she holds dear. She moves to London seeking a new life, new friends, & a release from her sorrow. There she meets an older man, another exile who reminds her of home. Brought together by their shared feeling for their homel&, they form an unlikely friendship. Yet, Aneesa finds she cannot mourn without knowing the truth about her brother`s death, she cannot get on with her life without some certainty. Meanwhile, back home, Aneesa`s mother is grieving for her son. Unable to cope with his loss, she resorts to her community`s traditional beliefs & imagines he has been reincarnated. Aneesa reluctantly returns home, determined to uncover the truth behind her brother`s disappearance, & rekindle the sense of belonging that she left behind. ` Dreams of Water` is a moving story of love, loss & family. Set against a backdrop of upheaval & violence, it reminds us of the importance of hope, of love, & of the strength of family. ...

Twenty years ago, Jacqueline Yallop was leading guided walks at Nenthead, one of a network of `model` villages which sprang up across Britain during the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries. A life-long fascination was born. From Scotland`s New Lanark Mills to the Arts & Crafts cottages of Port Sunlight, Yallop visits these utopian experiments to explore their rich histories. Looking at everything from sewage systems to sculpture, chocolate to coal, & free trade to electoral emancipation, this book is a personal exploration of why & how these village utopias came about, what they tell us about the past, & how they still resonate with us today. ...

Twenty years ago, Jacqueline Yallop began her working life leading guided walks at a small village high in the fells of the North Pennines. Built by philanthropic employers for families working the lead mines, the isolated settlement was one of a network of `model` villages which sprang up across Britain during the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries. In Dreamstreets, Yallop visits, & re-visits, some of these utopian experiments to explore their rich histories & to understand the social, political & cultural contexts from which they emerged. From Scotland`s New Lanark mills to the imposing market square at Tremadog in Wales & the Arts & Crafts cottages of Port Sunlight, she walks the avenues & terraces to examine what remains of the impulses & ideals which made these villages so fashionable. Mixing social & political history, art & architecture, travelogue, biography, aesthetics & philosophy with memoir & on-the-ground observation, Dreamstreets draws on Yallop`s experience as a novelist, bringing her scholarly research to life in an energetic account of the complex & contradictory factors which changed the British landscape. Looking at everything from sewage systems to sculpture, chocolate to coal, & free trade to electoral emancipation, this book is a personal exploration of why & how these village utopias came about, what they tell us about the past, & how they still resonate with us today. ...

” When night shadows fall, & the moonlight gleams, The dreamweaver comes with her sack full of dreams...” The dreamweaver collects her magical dreams & sprinkles dream-dust on all the sleepy baby jungle animals. An enchanting bedtime story & exciting new territory for Claire Freedman, author of the bestselling Aliens Love Underpants series. With stunning illustrations from debut artist, Carrie May. ...

Map No. 1136, Drei Schwestern, in the topographic survey of Switzerland at 1:25, 000 from Bundesamt für Landestopographie (swisstopo), covering the whole country on 247 small format sheets, with special larger maps published for popular regions including some titles now available in hiking versions. Highly regarded for their superb use of graphic relief & hill shading, the maps give an almost 3-D picture of Switzerland`s mountainous terrain. Contours are at 10 m intervals, with 20m intervals in the mountainous areas. All the maps have a 1-km grid for Swiss national coordinates (datum CH 1903). * Small format sheets (Nos. 1011
- 1374)* Map legend in the language of the area covered by the map. Additional margin ticks show latitude & longitude in steps of 2`. The area covered by each map is 17 x 12 km (11 x 7 miles approx). * Special larger sheets (Nos. from 2501 onwards) – STANDARD editions:* No map legend is included but a separate leaflet can be provided instead. The area covered by each map is 25 x 17 km (15 x 11 miles approx).* Special larger sheets (Nos. from 2501 onwards) – HIKING editions:* An overprint highlights hiking, mountain & alpine paths, including regional & national long-distance trails. The maps also show bus routes with bus stops, plus inns in remote locations. The area covered by each map is 25 x 17 km (15 x 11 miles approx).
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This handy ANWB map full of great cycling routes, spread across the province & neighboring regions. Each guide contains 14 separate routes, printed on a card in A4 format. The route map contains clear route descriptions, sights, current cycling junctions long-distance routes, street names & all ANWB Hospitable Points. There is also a sheet with ANWB Node Cards & a brochure with the user manual & tips for each route map. With a scale of 1: 100, 000 (1 cm = 1 km) the cards are very readable. The ANWB Fietsgids is available in a series of 11 parts, in which all provinces are described in detail. ...