Perpignan & its Environs in a series of detailed road maps at 1:80, 000 from the IGN, designed to highlight places of interest & recreational possibilities, with a city centre street plan & an enlargement of a selected hiking area. Cartography is an enlargement from 1:100, 000 to 1:80, 000 of the publisher’s highly popular TOP100 series, with very detailed presentation of the road network, including classification of local roads according to lanes, rest areas, access restrictions, etc. Railway lines are shown with stations. Topography is shown by relief shading, with spot heights & colouring for woodlands, vineyards, orchards, etc. Cycle tracks & long-distance GR routes are marked. A wide range of symbols indicate various places of interest & recreational facilities, historical & cultural sites, golf courses, rock climbing, nature reserves, etc. Refuges & gîtes d’etape are marked, but no campsites. The maps have no geographical coordinates for GPS. Each title has an index of communes. Map legend

Includes:: English.A special feature of this series is the inclusion of a large city centre street plan & an enlargement of a particularly interesting recreational area. Presentation of these features varies, so please check the individual descriptions for more information.* IN THIS TITLE: a large street plan of Perpignan’s city centre highlighting main traffic arteries & indicating one way streets. An additional panel presents an extract from IGN’s topographic coverage of the area around the Pic du Canigou in the Pyrenees in their TOP25 series but shown here at 1:30, 000. The extract highlights local hiking routes. The map also indicates how its whole area is covered by IGN’s topographic survey at 1:25, 000.

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Street plan of Perpignan at 1:10, 000 from the Institut Géographique National, the country’s national survey organization, with an enlargement showing the town centre in greater detail.IGN street plans include outer suburbs &, where appropriate, adjoining localities forming part of the urban agglomeration. The plans prominently highlight principal traffic arteries & show one way streets, car parks & pedestrian zones. Latest editions also indicate 24h petrol stations & streets with separate cycle paths. Many streets are annotated with selected house for easier identification of addresses. Important public buildings are named & symbols mark locations of tourist information centres & other facilities. Street index, arranged by an administrative area, is next to the map. Map legend

Includes:: English.PLEASE NOTE: to see the list of IGN street plans of French towns & cities please click on the series link – the series description also

Includes:: a comparison between IGN & Blay-Foldex street plans.



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Perry Barr in 1902 in a fascinating series of reproductions of old Ordnance Survey plans in the Alan Godfrey Editions, ideal for anyone interested in the history of their neighbourhood or family. The map covers the Perry Barr area of north Birmingham, still largely undeveloped in 1902. Features include a small section of the LNWR Grand Junction Line, with Perry Barr station, Wellhead Brewery, Perry Bridge, St John`s church, Perry village, Christ Church, Regina Lodge, Perry Villa, Holford Mills, Lion Ammunition Works (northern part), St Mary Magdalene church, Tame Valley Canal, Oldford Farm, etc. On the reverse are street directories for Aldridge Road, Aston Lane, Franchise Street & Wellington Road, plus a railway timetable for the Birningham-Walsall-Wolverhampton line in 1897. About the Alan Godfrey Editions of the 25” OS Series: Selected towns in Great Britain & Ireland are covered by maps showing the extent of urban development in the last decades of the 19th & early 20th century. The plans have been taken from the Ordnance Survey mapping & reprinted at about 15 inches to one mile (1:4, 340). On the reverse most maps have historical notes & many also include extracts from contemporary directories. Most maps cover about one mile (1.6kms) north/south, one & a half miles (2.4kms) across; adjoining sheets can be combined to provide wider coverage.FOR MORE INFORMATION & A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL AVAILABLE TITLES PLEASE CLICK ON THE SERIES LINK. ...

Wise, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, ” Persepolis” tells the story of Marjane Satrapi`s life in Tehran from the ages of six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah`s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution & the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent & outspoken child of radical Marxists, & the great-grandaughter of Iran`s last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. ” Persepolis” paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran & of the bewildering contradictions between home life & public life. Amidst the tragedy, Marjane`s child`s eye view adds immediacy & humour, & her story of a childhood at once outrageous & ordinary, beset by the unthinkable & yet buffered by an extraordinary & loving family, is immensely moving. It is also very beautiful; Satrapi`s drawings have the power of the very best woodcuts. ...

The Story of a Childhood & The Story of a Return The intelligent & outspoken child of radical Marxists, & the great-grandaughter of Iran`s last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran & of the bewildering contradictions between home life & public life. This is a beautiful & intimate story full of tragedy & humour
- raw, honest & incredibly illuminating.
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Written just after the Second World War, ” Perseus in the Wind” (named after the constellation) is perhaps the most personal, & haunting, of all Freya Stark`s writings. She muses on the seasons; the effect light has on a landscape at a particular time of day; the smell of the earth after rain; Muslim saints, Indian temples, war & old age. Each chapter is devoted to a particular theme: Happiness (simple pleasures, like her father`s passion for the view from his cabin in Canada); Education (to be able to command happiness, recognize beauty, value death, increase enjoyment); Beauty (incongruous, flighty & elusive
- a description of the stars, the burst of flowers in a park); Death (a childhood awareness of the finality of Time, the meaningfulness of the end); &, Memory (the jewelled quality of literature, pleasure, love, an echo or a scent when aged by the passage of time). For those who have loved her travel writing, ” Perseus in the Wind” illuminates the motivations behind her journeys & the woman behind the traveller.
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The land of the Iranians, known to European travelers for centuries as Persia, is a land riven by mountain-ranges, made inhospitable by deserts, yet rich in plains, forests & jewel-like gardens. Home to the most sublime architecture in the world, & a breeding ground for poets, Empires, Mystics & saints, it has an enduring & invincible fascination. David Blow enriches our understanding with his knowledgeable selection of the best of three thousand years of descriptive writing. He allows us to visit the courts of Cyrus & Xerxes, to ride out with the Parthians & Sassanians & to make a passing acquaintanceship with both the Shah & the late Ayatollah Khomeini, with Hafiz, & with Omar Khayyam. ...

Persian art & architecture have a rich heritage that stretches far beyond the borders of modern-day Iran, from the Abbasid monuments of Baghdad to the splendid Timurid buildings of Samarqand & Bukhara. This book follows a historical path across the Iranian world & examines the artistic legacies of great rulers & their dynasties, from the rebirth of Persian art under the Seljuqs to the magnificent structures built by Timur-i Lang in Samarqand & the cultural flowering that occurred under the Safavid dynasty & beyond. Palaces, mosques, madrasas & mausoleums display a mesmerizing decorative complexity, with form & ornament combining to create an indivisible whole. Spectacular polychrome tiles, intricate brickwork, curling arabesque motifs & calligraphic inscriptions attain a transcendent beauty, designed to reflect both the temporal power of the rulers who commissioned them & the heavenly glory of creation. ...

In 480 BC, Xerxes, the King of Persia, led an invasion of mainland Greece. Its success should have been a formality. For seventy years, victory
- rapid, spectacular victory
- had seemed the birthright of the Persian Empire. In the space of a single generation, they had swept across the Near East, shattering ancient kingdoms, storming famous cities, putting together an empire which stretched from India to the shores of the Aegean. As a result of those conquests, Xerxes ruled as the most powerful man on the planet. Yet somehow, astonishingly, against the largest expeditionary force ever assembled, the Greeks of the mainland managed to hold out. The Persians were turned back. Greece remained free. Had the Greeks been defeated at Salamis, not only would the West have lost its first struggle for independence & survival, but it is unlikely that there would ever have been such & entity as the West at all. Tom Holland`s brilliant new book describes the very first `clash of Empires` between East & West. Once again he has found extraordinary parallels between the ancient world & our own. There is no competing popular book describing these events.

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” Are we the same, I wonder, when all our surroundings, association, acquaintances are changed? I conclude that it is not the person who danced with you at Mansfield St who writes to you today from Persia. Yet there are dregs, English sediment at the bottom of my sherbet, & perhaps they flavour it more than I think. I write to you of Persia: I am not me, that is my only excuse. I am only I am merely pouring out for you some of what I have received in the last two months.” When Gertrude Bell`s uncle was appointed Minister in Tehran in 1891, she declared that the great ambition of her life was to visit Persia. Several months later, she did. & so began a lifetime of travel & a lifelong enchantment with what she saw as the romance of the East, which evolved into a deep understanding of its cultures & people. This vivid & impressionistic series of sketches, her first foray into writing, is an evocative meditation that moves between Persia`s heroic past & its long decline; the public face of Tehran & the otherworldly `secret, mysterious life of the East`, the lives of its women, its lush, enclosed gardens; from the bustling cities to the lonely wastelands of Khorasan. ...