Sir Ernest Shackleton could never have imagined his name being closely associated with whisky, certainly not in the title of a book. Rarely did he consume strong drink. On his expeditions, he tolerated a `mild spree` at times of celebration. But that was all. Drinking to excess appalled him. From an early age, growing up in a teetotal home, he was wary of alcohol. How, then, must he have felt about signing an order for twenty-five cases of whisky -- 300 bottles -- for his 1907-09 British Antarctic Expedition? Shackleton`s Whisky follows the story of the Rare Old Highland Whisky taken south on his Nimrod expedition. It celebrates the extraordinary achievements of men exploring an extraordinary place. It dips into the human-interest stories of polar life in the `heroic era` of Antarctic exploration. Shackleton once wrote of his interest in documenting `the little incidents that go to make up the sum of the day`s work, the humour & the weariness, the inside view of men on an expedition`. Here is one such account, based largely on what he wrote & said about the expedition & also on what the members of his expedition wrote, for most participants kept a diary or journal. Antarctic exploration & whisky, in their own way, are both steeped in history, maturity, endurance, character, & technology. Both have a worldwide following, millions of fans. Their pathways coincided on the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-09. With the recovery 100 years later of three cases of Scotch from icy entombment under the hut at Cape Royds & the subsequent return of three bottles to Scotland for sampling, analysis & a near-magical replication, the relationship of whisky & Antarctic exploration came sharply into focus, making a unique odyssey to the end of the Earth & back. ...

Published for the first time in flipback
- the new, portable, stylish format that`s taken Europe by storm. Hundreds of years
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For 30 years Oscar Marzaroli strode across Scotland's rural & urban landscape, stills camera always ready. No corner of the l&, nor any activity on it, from the Out Skerries in the turbulent seas east of Shetland to the rolling hills of the Borders, escaped his eye. Fishermen & boatbuilders, farmers & weavers, oil workers & crofters, all were his subjects, & many became friends. ...

A powerful novel from Michael Morpurgo, the nation`s favourite storyteller... Never have Aman & his mother needed a friend more than when a Springer Spaniel appears
- thin & war-ravaged
- in the mouth of their Afghan cave. Nursed back to health by Aman, the dog becomes a constant companion, a shadow, & that`s what Aman decides to call her. But life in Afghanistan becomes more dangerous by the moment. Eventually, Aman, his mother & Shadow find the courage to embark upon the treacherous journey from war-torn Afghanistan to the safely of a relative`s home in Manchester, Engl&. But how far can Shadow lead them? & in this terrifying new world, is anywhere really safe...?

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Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter & notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself to his own violent end at the hands of his neighbours. His son Lucius investigates the killing which has come to obsess him. In this bold new rendering of the Watson trilogy Matthiessen has deepened the insights & motivations of his characters, consolidating his fictional masterwork into a poetic, compelling novel of a monumental scope & ambition, with breathtaking accomplishment. ...

'A web of laws had been spun to keep us apart'. So writes rising young Ray, public relations man for the Organisation, who is falling in love against all the taboos
- with Victor, the country's most popular deejay, on Radio Bantu. The setting is Johannesburg in the Sixties, where such a high profile 'dirty case' can only play into the hands of the powers that be. First published pseudonymously in 1972, Michael Power's frank, masterly exposure of the police-state brutality of that period may now appear without restriction both at home & abroad.
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M.M. Kaye, author of ” The Far Pavilions”, sweeps her readers back to the vast, glittering, sunbaked continent of India. ” Shadow of the Moon” is the story of Winter de Ballesteros, a beautiful English heiress who has come to India to be married. It is also the tale of Captain Alex Randall, her escort & protector, who knows that Winter`s husband to be has become a debauched wreck of a man. When India bursts into flaming hatreds & bitter bloodshed during the dark days of the Mutiny, Alex & Winter are thrown unwillingly together in the brutal & urgent struggle for survival. ...

One humid summer night in Gibraltar, lawyer Spike Sanguinetti arrives home to find an old friend, Solomon Hassan, waiting on his doorstep. Solomon is on the run, accused of a brutal murder in Tangiers. He has managed to skip across the Straits but the Moroccan authorities want him back. Spike travels to Tangiers to try to delay Solomon`s extradition, & there meets a beautiful Bedouin girl. Zahra is investigating the disappearance of her father, a trail which leads mysteriously back to Solomon. Questioning how well he really knows his friend, Spike finds himself drawn into a dangerous game of secrets, corruption & murderous lies. ...

The Shadow of the Silk Road records a journey by Colin Thubron along the greatest land route on Earth. Out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan & Uzbekistan), across northern Afghanistan & the plains of Iran & into Kurdish Turkey, Colin Thubron travels from the Tomb of the Yellow Emperor (the Mythic progenitor of the Chinese people) to the ancient Mediterranean port of Antioch, going by local bus, truck, car, donkey-cart, horse or camel. He covers 7, 000 miles in eight months
- in perhaps the most difficult & ambitious journey he has undertaken in 40 years of travel. The Silk Road is a huge network of arteries splitting & converging across the breath of Asia. To travel it is to trace the passage not only of trade & armies, but of ideas, religions & inventions. But alongside this rich & astonishing past, Shadow of the Silk Road is also about today: a continent in upheaval. One of the trademarks of Thubron`s travel writing is the beauty of his prose; another is his gift for talking to people & getting them to talk to him. The themes in Shadow of the Silk Road include different Islams (oppressed in China; fervent in Afghanistan & Iran; cautiously monitored in Uzbekistan); changes (how China was transformed since the Cultural Revolution); contrasts (no cities could be more different than ancient Samarkand & modern Teheran); false nationalisms & the world`s discontented margins, where the true boundaries are not political borders but the frontiers of tribe, ethnicity, language & religion.
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In the early hours of 15 April 1912, after the majestic liner Titanic had split apart & the 1, 500 men, women & children struggled to stay alive in the freezing Atlantic, the sea was alive with the sound of screaming. Then, as the ship sank to the ocean floor & the passengers slowly died from hypothermia, a deathly silence settled over the sea. Yet the echoes of that night reverberated through the lives of each of the 705 survivors. Shadow of the Titanictells the extraordinary stories of some of those who survived. Although we think we know the story of the Titanic
- the famously unsinkable ship that hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America in April 1912
- little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy. How did the loss of the ship shape the lives of the people who survived? How did those who were saved feel about those who perished? & how did they remember that terrible night, in effect a disaster that has been likened to the destruction of a small town? Timed to coincide with the 100thanniversary of the sinking, Shadow of the Titanicsheds new light on this enduringly fascinating story, by showing how the disaster continued to shape the lives of a cross-section of passengers who escaped the sinking ship.

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