This unique, stunningly illustrated journal is ideal to be used as a travelling notebook or sketchpad. Food lovers & travel enthusiasts will love exploring street food from all around the world through Sophia Augusta`s vibrant illustrations. There is something for everyone, from the instantly recognisable (Italian ice cream, American hot dogs & Belgian waffles) to more unusual delicacies such as starfish on sticks from China & `red red` stew from Ghana. It contains 128 blank pages & 26 colourful illustrations to inspire your notes & sketches. ...

A beautifully illustrated art history & cultural biography, The Street of Wonderful Possibilities focuses on one of the most influential artistic quarters in the late nineteenth & early twentieth centuries
- London`s Tite Street, where a staggering amount of talent thrived, including James Abbott Mc Neill Whistler, Oscar Wilde & John Singer Sargent. For Wilde, the street was full of `wonderful possibilities`, while for Whistler it was `the birthplace of art`, where a new brand of aestheticism was nurtured in his controversial White House. Modern masterpieces in art & literature flowed from the studios & houses of Tite Street, but this bohemian enclave had a dark side as well. Here Whistler was bankrupted, Frank Miles was sent to an asylum, Wilde was imprisoned, & Peter Warlock was gassed to death. Throughout its turbulent existence, Tite Street mirrored the world around it. From the Aesthetic movement & its challenge to Victorian values, through the Edwardian struggle for women`s suffrage, to the bombs of the Blitz in the 1940s, it remained home to innumerable artists & writers, socialites & suffragettes, musicians & madmen. The Street of Wonderful Possibilities reveals this complex history, tying together private & professional lives to form a colourful tapestry of art & intrigue, illuminating their relationships to each other, to Tite Street & to a rapidly modernising London at the fin de siecle.
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An elegant, powerful novel, set in Victorian Engl&, a time not so different from our own! perfect for fans of THE INTERPRETATION OF MURDER & THE SHADOW OF THE WIND Ambitious young journalist Thomas Kitson arrives at the battlefields of the Crimea as the London Courier`s man on the ground. It is a dangerous place, full of the worst horrors of war but Kitson is determined to make his mark. Under the tutelage of his hard-bitten Irish boss Cracknell, & assisted by artist Robert Styles, he sets about exposing the incompetence of the army generals. Two years later, as Sebastopol burns, Thomas returns to England under mysterious circumstances. Desperate to forget the atrocities of the Crimea, he takes a job as a `street philosopher`, a society writer reporting on the gossip of the day. But on the eve of the great Art Treasures Exhibition, as Manchester prepares to welcome Queen Victoria, Thomas`s past returns to haunt him in the most horrifying way! ...

The Street Philosopher & the Holy Fool presents the unexpected face of Syria. Based on five journeys, undertaken over as many years, Kociejowski`s book is entirely concerned with the slow journey towards friendship. So we learn nothing about coups or conspiracies, iconic monuments or historic travellers. Instead we meet a chance handful of Syrians, such as Myrna, a Christian faith-healing stigmatic, Yasser, a Palestinian refugee & political activist, Abu al-Tahib, a prince of fools, a modern desert father, Paolo Dall` Oglio, & the street philosopher & the holy fool of the book`s title. It was written during the era of conversation, before the use of mobiles, & long before the current civil war. Saluted as a travel classic on first publication (just 12 years ago) it is now in danger of becoming a testament to the last of the old Levant. ...

Based on his own visits to Syria, in The Street Philosopher & the Holy Fool, Marius Kociejowski presents a completely fresh & unexpected face to this mysterious country. The ancient land of Syria remains for many a sinister & forbidding destination, only recently opening up to foreign travellers, & Kociejowski describes a journey that brings him into contact with a host of colourful & unusual characters, each of whom is an outsider of sorts. Rich with humour & insight, it glows with the delights of the unexpected. It is beautifully written & provides a memorable account of the deeper purposes of travel: to absorb the spirit of a place, to meet people from a different sphere of life & to return changed. ...

In 1882, David Wildeblood, a 21-year-old from rural Norfolk, arrives in London to start work at the offices of a famous man. As an 'inspector' for Henry Marchmont's hugely successful weekly The Labouring Classes of London, his job is to investigate the notorious slum of Somers Town, near the new St Pancras Station, recording house by house the number of inhabitants, their occupations & standard of living. By mapping the streets in this way, Marchmont intends to show the world the stark realities of poverty in its greatest city. Befriended by Jo, a young coster, & his sister Roma, David comes to learn the slang of the hawkers & traders, sharpers & scavengers, magsmen & mobsmen, who throng the teeming byways of Somers Town. It is the place of a Darwinian struggle for survival. & the deeper he penetrates the everyday squalor & destitution the more appalled he is by mounting evidence that someone is making a profit from people's suffering. A dinner at the Kensington home of his godfather Sir Martin Elder introduces him to Kitty, Elder's only daughter, & to a cabal of prominent citizens who have been plotting a radical solution to the problem of London's poor. David belatedly realises that a conspiracy is afoot. Passionate but reckless in his urge to uncover it he finds his life in danger, sustained only by the faithfulness of a friend &, ultimately, the love of a woman. In The Streets Anthony Quinn reconstructs an unforgettable picture of Victorian London, encompassing the extremes of privilege & privation, from the baronial mansions of the rich to the 'whited tombs' of the slums. With shocking poignancy & pin-sharp detail he brings to life a world of terrible degradation, yet one redeemed by dark comedy, profound fellow-feeling & the enduring possibility of love. ...

For hundreds of years, the City of Light has set the stage for larger-than-life characters
- from medieval lovers Heloise & Abelard
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With their tidal imagination, the poems in this debut collection sweep between old worlds & new, seeking the lost & recovering the found among shipwrecks, underwater zoos & discovered lands. Emma Jones brings her inventive worlds dramatically to life in a series of vividly distilled meetings: of settlers & indigenous peoples, of seawaters & shore, of humanity & the wilds of nature. Here tigers stalk the captive & the free, while Death encounters his own double & Daphne tells of her new leaves, ` They sing, & make the world.` The same might be said of the poems themselves in this restless & memorable search for belonging. ...

My mum is the strongest mum in the world. Little Bear is sure that no-one is as strong as his mum. She can carry anything: his bike, Zebra’s shopping, Elephant’s carpet & even... Flamingo’s piano! & of course, there’s ALWAYS room in her handbag for Little Bear’s treasures. But even mums can get tired & need a helping hand sometimes, as Little Bear learns when Mum takes on one thing too many, with hilarious & heart-warming consequences. The Strongest Mum is a warm, funny & original story about a parent-child relationship, perfect for learning about helping each other out. Packed full of endearing animal characters, it is sure to delight young children. Nicola Kent’s bright, jewel-like colours & eye-catching illustrations make this a truly stunning picture book debut. ...

This is the first English translation of George Ingle Finch's Der Kampf um den Everest. Finch was a key member of the 1922 British Mount Everest Expedition, the world's first climbing foray above 8000m. He was President of the Alpine Club from 1959-61. Finch's approach to mountaineering was practical & systematic, & he was a pioneering advocate of the use of supplementary oxygen for climbing at extreme altitude & for the use of down clothing. However, neither he nor his contributions were appreciated by the British climbing establishment who found the Australian-born, Paris & Zurich educated chemist difficult. During the 1922 expedition, Finch & Geoffrey Bruce managed to attain an altitude (aided by supplementary oxygen) greater than any previous mountaineer had ever achieved. Der Kampf um den Everest was published in Germany in 1925, but never translated into English until now. In addition, select entries from the diary Finch kept during the 1922 Everest expedition have been added at appropriate locations in the text to support and/or enhance the story. Moreover, written material about Finch by British mountaineer Stephen Venables, & new material written just for this volume by George Rodway & John West MD, offers an introduction to, & attempts to provide context for, his life & times. The book is an important addition to the early Everest literature & a great compliment to the official expedition book by Charles Bruce, as well as those by expedition members Tom Longstaff, John Morris, John Noel, & T Howard Somervell. ...