The magnificent Danube both cuts across & connects central Europe, flowing through & alongside ten countries: Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria & Germany. Travelling its full length from east to west, against the river's flow, Nick Thorpe embarks on an inspiring year-long journey that leads to a new perspective on Europe today. Thorpe's account is personal, conversational, funny, immediate & uniquely observant
- everything a reader expects in the best travel writing. Immersing himself in the Danube's waters during daily morning swims, Thorpe likewise becomes immersed in the histories of the lands linked by the river. He observes the river's ecological conditions, some discouraging & others hopeful, & encounters archaeological remains that whisper of human communities sustained by the river over eight millennia. Most fascinating of all are the ordinary & extraordinary people along the way
- the ferrymen & fishermen, workers in the fields, shopkeepers, beekeepers, waitresses, smugglers & border policemen, legal & illegal immigrants, & many more. For readers who anticipate their own journeys on the Danube, as well as those who only dream of seeing the great river, this book will be a unique & treasured guide.

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The magnificent Danube both cuts across & connects central Europe, flowing through & alongside ten countries: Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria & Germany. Travelling its full length from east to west, against the river`s flow, Nick Thorpe embarks on an inspiring year-long journey that leads to a new perspective on Europe today. Thorpe`s account is personal, conversational, funny, immediate & uniquely observant
- everything a reader expects in the best travel writing. Immersing himself in the Danube`s waters during daily morning swims, Thorpe likewise becomes immersed in the histories of the lands linked by the river. He observes the river`s ecological conditions, some discouraging & others hopeful, & encounters archaeological remains that whisper of human communities sustained by the river over eight millennia. Most fascinating of all are the ordinary & extraordinary people along the way
- the ferrymen & fishermen, workers in the fields, shopkeepers, beekeepers, waitresses, smugglers & border policemen, legal & illegal immigrants, & many more. For readers who anticipate their own journeys on the Danube, as well as those who only dream of seeing the great river, this book will be a unique & treasured guide.

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The word Darien is a scar on the memory of the Scots, & the hurt is still felt even where the cause of the wound is dimly understood. Three hundred years ago the Parliament of Scotl&, in one of its last acts before the nation lost its political identity, defied the King & the persistent hostility of the English to establish a noble trading company, to settle a colony, & to recover its people from a century of despair, privation, famine & decay. The site of the colony, Darien on the Isthmus of Panama, was the enduring dream of William Paterson, the erratically brilliant Scot who had helped to found the Bank of Engl&. He called it `the door of the seas, & the key of the universe`, & believed that it would become a bridge between East & West, an entrepot through which would pass the richest trade in the world. The first attempt to make the Company a joint Scots & English venture was crushed by the English Parliament. The Scots created it by themselves, in a wave of almost hysterical enthusiasm, subscribing half of the nation`s capital. Three years later the `noble undertaking`, crippled by the quarrelsome stupidity of its leaders, deliberately obstructed by the English Government, & opposed in arms by Spain, had ended in stunning disaster. Nine fine ships owned by the Company had been sunk, burnt or abandoned. Over two thousand men, women & children who went to the fever-ridden colony never returned. It was a tragic curtain to the last act of Scotland`s independence. John Prebble`s book is the first detailed account of the Darien Settlement, drawn from original sources in the records of the Company, the journals, letters & memoirs of those who tried to turn William Paterson`s dream into reality. ...

An illustrated book, predominantly in black & white, on the UNESCO status Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), Darjeeling itself & the world famous tea, covering the historical & contemporary life of the railway route. Chapters look at the DHR from the 19th to the 21st century & the more technical aspects such as track, rolling stock & services, as well as providing a short history of & guide to Darjeeling & its tea for armchair enthusiasts & actual visitors. A chapter specifically looks at Calcutta as the gateway to Darjeeling & an overview tour up the line is described (with map), with DHR data & a chronology given. ...

Set in rural Irel&, John Mc Gahern`s second novel is about adolescence & a guilty, yet uncontrollable sexuality that is contorted & twisted by both puritanical state religion & a strange, powerful & ambiguous relationship between son & widower father. Against a background evoked with quiet, undemonstrative mastery, Mc Gahern explores with precision & tenderness a human situation, superficially very ordinary, but inwardly an agony of longing & despair. ...

This exquisite anthology collects together the very best fiction from across the Nordic region. Travelling from cosmopolitan Stockholm to the remote Faroe Islands, & from Denmark to Greenl&, this unique & compelling volume displays the thrilling diversity of writing from these northern nations. Selected & introduced by Sjon, The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat

Includes:: both notable authors & exciting new discoveries. As well as an essential selection of the best contemporary storytelling from the Nordic countries, it`s also a fascinating portrait of contemporary life across the region. The perfect book to curl up with on a cold winter`s evening. Naja Marie Aidt (Denmark), Per Olov Enquist (Sweden), Dorthe Nors (Denmark), Linda Bostrom Knausgard (Sweden), Madame Nielsen (Denmark), Rosa Liksom (Finland), Johan Bargum (Finland), Kristin Omarsdottir (Iceland), Kjell Askildsen (Norway), Ulla-Lena Lundberg (Finland/ Sweden), Hassan Blasim (Finland), Sorine Steenholdt (Greenl&, Gudbergur Bergsson (Iceland), Solrun Michelsen (Faroe Islands), Frode Grytten (Norway), Carl Johan Jensen (Faroe Islands), Niviaq Korneliussen (Greenland)

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` The best novel I`ve read in ages. Ferociously well written, & hugely entertaining` Sarah Waters Fran may be old but she`s not going without a fight. So she dyes her hair, enjoys every glass of red wine, drives around the country for her job with a housing charity & lives in an insalubrious tower block that her loved ones disapprove of. & as each of them
- her pampered ex Claude, old friend Jo, flamboyant son Christopher & earnest daughter Poppet
- seeks happiness in their own way, what will the last reckoning be? Will they be waving or drowning when the end comes? By turns joyous & profound, darkly sardonic & moving, The Dark Flood Rises questions what makes a good life, & a good death. This triumphant, bravura novel takes in love, death, sun-drenched islands, poetry, Maria Callas, tidal waves, surprise endings
- & new beginnings.


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Fran may be old but she`s not going without a fight. So she dyes her hair, enjoys every glass of red wine, drives restlessly around the country & lives in an insalubrious tower block that her loved ones disapprove of. & as each of them
- her pampered ex Claude, old friend Jo, flamboyant son Christopher & earnest daughter Poppet
- seeks happiness in their own way, what will the last reckoning be? Will they be waving or drowning when the end comes? By turns joyous & profound, darkly sardonic & moving, The Dark Flood Rises questions what makes a good life, & a good death.

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In 1999, Tobias Jones emigrated to Italy, expecting to discover the pastoral bliss described by centuries of foreign visitors. Instead, he discovered a very different country, besieged by unfathomable terrorism & deep-seated paranoia, where crime is scarcely ever met with punishment. The Dark Heart of Italy is Jones' account of his three-year voyage across the Italian peninsula. ...

This is an essential guide to the strange, sometimes sinister culture of contemporary Italy. When Tobias Jones first travelled to Italy, he expected to discover the pastoral bliss described by centuries of foreign visitors & famous writers. Instead, he discovered a very different country, besieged by unfathomable terrorism & deep-seated paranoia, where crime is scarcely ever met with punishment. Now, in this fascinating travelogue, Jones explores not just Italy`s familiar delights (art, climate, cuisine), but the livelier & stranger sides of the bel paese: language, football, Catholicism, cinema, television & terrorism. Why, he wonders, do bombs still explode every time politics start getting serious? Why does everyone urge him to go home as soon as possible, saying that Italy is a `brothel`? & why do people warn him that ` Clean Hands` only disguise ` Dirty Feet`? ...