For nearly 700 years debate has raged over the true nature of William Wallace & his role in Scotland`s turbulent history. Was he the ` Braveheart` of Blind Harry`s legendary account, the bold, but savage hero of the Scottish wars? Or, as some contemporary chroniclers attested, nothing but a villainous thief & vagrant fugitive? This book draws on a wide range of contemporary & modern sources to look behind the figure of legend to find Wallace`s true character. These superb photographs trace Wallace`s life from his modest upbringing in south-west Scotland to his remarkable victory as a `guerilla` leader & military commander at Stirling Bridge, & to his eventual betrayal, capture & painful execution seven years later. This is an essential travel companion for a journey through the landscapes & places associated with Wallace in Scotland & Northern Engl&, & a vibrant new insight into the reality of Scotland`s most famous battlefield hero. ...

The Maroons (escaped slaves) of Jamaica are famous. Not so the Maroons of another Caribbean island
- Dominica, also a former British
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Jacobs is considered one of the leading Hispanists of his generation. This is his meditation on Andalusia, its Islamic heritage & the romantic allure it has exercised on generations of Western travellers. Full of references to ancient & modern day travel writers the book takes us from Granada south, through Morocco to Timbuktu. Jacobs's book is an extraordinary mixture of fact & imagination that spreads new light on this fascinating part of Spanish & European & African history. ...

Set between Normandy & Arizona, In the Gold of Time is a seductive tale of silences & dark, half-revealed secrets, & a haunting elegy for innocence lost in a lost world. A young father holidays by the sea near Dieppe with his reproachfully perfect wife & their twin daughters. Returning from the local shop, he meets an eccentric old lady, Alice Berthier, who lives with he mute sister, Clemence. Their mysterious house is full of old photographs & strange objects
- sacred ceremonial masks once belonging to the Hopi, a tribe of Native Americans from Arizona. Haunted by memories of a tragic past, Alice takes comfort in her new companion, & he, in turn, is drawn into her mysterious world. As his family recedes into the background, her stirring tales of the Hopi & the Arizona desert become the only salve to his despondent soul.
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Afghanistan expert Seth G. Jones watched as American optimism evaporated after the Taliban defeat in 2001; by 2005, a new ”war of a thousand cuts” had brought Afghanistan to its knees. With new research on insurgencies & declassified US government documents, Jones shows how the siphoning of resources to Iraq left NATO forces in Afghanistan ineffectual & without support. Through interviews with prominent figures, including ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad & commander Karl Eikenberry, Jones explains how a growing sanctuary for insurgents in Pakistan & a collapsing government in Kabul were a catalyst for the Taliban resurgence. Examining what has & has not worked so far, Jones argues that the US must take a radically new approach to the war if it is to avoid the disastrous fate that has befallen every world power to enter the region. With a new afterword. ...

One of the most impressive of all Victorian scientists but also a marvelous writer, Bates' (1825-1892) account of his years in the upper reaches of the Amazon is almost too good to be true
- a great monument to human inquisitiveness as he battles great hoards of malevolent reptiles & insects in his quest for ever more obscure specimens on ever more narrow & creeper-choked tributaries. Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around the planet & back through the centuries
- but also back into ideas & worlds frightening, ruthless & cruel in different ways from our own. Few reading experiences can begin to match that of engaging with writers who saw astounding things: great civilizations, walls of ice, violent & implacable jungles, deserts & mountains, & multitudes of birds & flowers new to science. Reading these books is to see the world afresh, to rediscover a time when many cultures were quite strange to each other, where legends & stories were treated as facts & in which so much was still to be discovered.

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Stifled by the torpor of colonial South Africa & trapped in a web of reciprocal oppression, a lonely sheep farmer seeks comfort in the arms of a black concubine. But when his embittered spinster daughter Magda feels shamed, this lurch across the racial divide marks the end of a tenuous feudal peace. As she dreams madly of bloody revenge, Magda`s consciousness starts to drift & the line between fact & the workings of her excited imagination becomes blurred. What follows is the fable of a woman`s passionate, obsessed & violent response to an Africa that will not heed her. ...

H.E. Bates is a revered writer on the countryside; author of a wealth of books reflecting English life including, The Darling Buds of May. Beautifully illustrated with wood engravings by the renowned wildlife artist C.F. Tunnicliffe. The genius of H.E. Bates & C.F. Tunnicliffe was inspired by the beauty of the English countryside. This book is their tribute to its many faces: the magnificence of winter blizzards; the sudden sweet arrival of spring blossom; the heavy scent of an August garden; or the bronze glow of autumn light. Its pages are full of sharp observations which reveal the loveliness of everyday sights & fleeting moments, from the charm of butterflies & their names, to the behavior of animals & birds; the joys of gardening, the character of the people & their ever-changing landscape. ...

Nathaniel Philbrick tells the story of the sinking of the whale ship Essex by an enraged sperm whale & also describes in detail what happened to the twenty crew members who survived. Having escaped the whale attack they spent three months drifting in small boats before being rescued. Philbrick speculates about the tensions that must have existed between these men, especially when desperation forced them to eat each other in order to survive. This book is driven by the story of these men but also

Includes:: a fascinating history of the nineteenth century whaling industry & looks at the impact of this disaster on the people involved in it. This chilling history should appeal to fans of Dava Sobel's best selling Longitude as it's in a similar style.

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The epic true-life story of one of the most notorious maritime disasters of the nineteenth century
- & inspiration for ` Moby Dick`
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