` At the first mention of going to Roumania, a great many people, as I did myself, would take down their atlas & open the map. For Roumania, there can be no question, is among the lesser known lands of Europe.` So begins Sir Sacheverell Sitwell`s account of his Roumanian journey, made in the 1930s, when Bucharest was still eight days overland from London. His four-week trip brings him into contact with longhaired gypsies at country fairs as well as the aristocracy in their medieval castles. The natural richness & variety of the landscape-from Transylvania to the Wallachian plains, the Carpathian peaks to the Danube Delta-delight him, as does the diversity of humanity he encounters, while his deep knowledge of European art & architecture makes him the ideal guide to the paintings, frescos, & buildings of Roumania. It is impossible, of course, to read of Roumania in the 1930s without thinking of what lay ahead for that country, but the abiding impression left by the book is of the freshness of Sitwell`s perceptions & his unquenchable curiosity in everything he saw. ...

Patrick Leigh Fermor`s Mani compellingly revealed a hidden world of Southern Greece & its past. Its northern counterpart takes the reader among Sarakatsan shepherds, the monasteries of Meteora & the villages of Krakora, among itinerant pedlars & beggars, & even tracks down at Missolonghi a pair of Byron`s slippers. Roumeli is not on modern maps: it is the ancient name for the lands from the Bosphorus to the Adriatic & from Macedonia to the Gulf of Corinth. But it is the perfect, evocative name for the Greece that Fermor captures in writing that carries throughout his trademark vividness of description. But what is more, the pictures of people, traditions & landscapes that he creates on the page are imbued with an intimate understanding of Greece & its history. ...

For almost five hundred years, human beings have been finding ways to circle the Earth-by sail, steam, or liquid fuel; by cycling, driving, flying, going into orbit, even by using their own bodily power. The story begins with the first centuries of circumnavigation, when few survived the attempt. Starting with Ferdinand Magellan`s dangerous voyage, Joyce Chaplin takes us on a trip of our own as we travel with Francis Drake, William Dampier, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, & James Cook. As sea travel grew much safer & passengers came on board, circumnavigation became a fad, as captured in Jules Verne`s classic novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Newspapers sponsored racing contests, & people sought ways to distinguish themselves-by bicycling around the world, for instance, or by sailing solo. Finally humans took to the skies to circle the globe in airplanes. Not much later, Sputnik, Gagarin, & Glenn pioneered a new kind of circumnavigation-in orbit. Through it all, the desire to take on the planet has tested the courage & capacity of generations of bold men & women. Their exploits show us why we think of the Earth as home. Round About the Earth is itself a thrilling adventure. ...

This new title in the Amazing Baby Touch & Feel series, Round & Round the Garden, gives a favourite nursery rhyme a modern, interactive twist. Bright, bold graphics & texture patches on the cover & every interior spread will capture babies` attention, stimulating their senses of sight & touch. Textures include felt, holofoil & flannel. ...

` You`ve had some pretty crazy ideas in your life, Newby, but this is the craziest.` Grandmother Wanda Newby was exasperated after continuous rain, snow, & gales that knocked from her bike. Twice. To avoid other tourists, Eric Newby had decided that the depths of winter would be the very best time to explore Ireland by mountain bike. More astonishing still, he managed to persuade Wanda, his long-suffering wife & life-long co-traveller, to accompany him
- mainly, she admitted, to `keep him out of trouble`. Lashed by winter storms, fuelled by Guinness & warmed by thermal underwear, their panniers laden with antique books on Irel&, the elderly adventurers cycle the highways & byways, encountering hospitable locals, swaying saints & ferocious dogs. From the shores of Donegal to the holy mountains, Newby guides the reader on a tale of mishap & magic, all in his own peculiar style of humour & charm, relishing his never-ending curiosity of the world & his insatiable quest for adventure.
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Round Oak in 1901 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 a busy industrial area south-west of Dudley, including Round Oak, Woodside, Harts Hill, & Netherton Hill. Features include Round Oak Works with sidings, Brierleyhill Iron Works, Woodside Iron Works, Hartshill Iron Works, Woodside area, Dudley Canal with Two Locks Line & old canal route, GWR railway with Round Oak station, Harts Hill & Woodside station, tramways, several mineral railways, Level New Furnaces, Fens Pool, Hollyhall, Pensnett Canal, Netherton Old Furnaces, Netherton Hill area with St Andrew`s church, Netherton Old Collieries, old coal shafts, etc. On the reverse is an extract from a 1906 railway timetable for the London-Worcester-Wolverhampton line. 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. ...

I thought that the opportunity to backpack around the world had passed me by. I was mid-thirties with a mortgage & recently married. After 12 years with the same global organisation my career was finally moving in the right direction & I was not brave enough to give up a good job. Then came the shock news that the car plant was closing & I realised that my moment had come...' As The Clash once sang, ' Should I stay or should I go now?' These were the words reverberating through my head on the day that Vauxhall Motors announced it would close its Luton car plant. This was the moment of decision. Stay with the company in another factory or take the redundancy cheque & head for the hills? It was time for serious travel, not two weeks in Tenerife so we went to South America, Africa & Fiji before settling in Australia. In Ecuador we tried to save the Amazon & in Tanzania we tried saving ourselves from psychotic taxi drivers. In Zimbabwe we were chased by wildlife, in Zanzibar we were chasing sunsets. In Bolivia we searched for the remains of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid & ended our trip finding miners searching for silver deep underground. Getting lost in Stone Town & trekking through Peru was all part of the adventure. In Africa we slept under the Milky Way & had a wake up call on the Zambezi. In the South Pacific we slept metres from the beach &, after a night flight, we woke in Australia to start a new life. ...

When Tom Cutter hires Constantine Shaklin as an engineer in his air freight business, he little realises the extraordinary gifts of his new recruit. Shaklin possesses a religious power which inspires everyone he meets to a new faith & hope for humanity. As Cutter`s business grows across Asia, so does Shaklin`s fame, until he is widely regarded as a unifying deity. Though he struggles to believe Shaklin is indeed divine, the friendship will transform Cutter`s life. ...

If the weather outside is frightful, draw up a chair to the fire, get the chesnuts roasting, & find an echo to every mood in this collection of funny, surprising, moving & magical festive stories from some of our greatest authors. Including stories from Laurie Lee, Truman Capote, Kenneth Graham, John Cheever, Sue Towsend, Nancy Mitford, Dylan Thomas, Charles Dickens, John Julius Norwich, P.G. Wodehouse & Stella Gibbons, among many others. ...

Jean Cocteau retraces the most celebrated round-the-world voyage of all time: that of Jules Verne`s Phileas Fogg in 1873. Taking up an impulsive challenge from the editor of ” Paris-Soir, ” Cocteau sets off with his very own ` Passepartout` as companion on a picaresque voyage some sixty-three years after his fictional predecessor. He finds that the journey has lost none of its hazards & adventures as he races around the globe in tramp-ship, railway & ocean liner. Observing & recording the frenetic change of scenes from Athens & Alexandria to Bombay, Rangoon, & Yokohama & finally across the United States, Cocteau`s witty, subjective & sometimes outrageous narrative gives this unique travel-memoir a camp & stylish spin. ...