Captain James Cook is probably the most famous explorer of all time, & not without good reason. The three Pacific voyages of discovery he made between 1768 & 1779 set new standards in navigation, surveying & shipboard health; & he discovered & charted numerous lands, resulting in lasting trade & the development of British interests abroad. The interest & influence of the Royal Society in the expeditions meant that a group of scientists & artists accompanied Cook & his crew to record the people & places that they encountered. In turn, the samples they collected & catalogued, & the paintings & drawings they made not only advanced the botanical & natural sciences, but left us with a vivid visual reminder of those voyages. Many books have been written on the subject of Cook`s voyages & his maritime career, but this is the first to approach them from the point of view of the reader with a healthy curiosity rather than a scholarly interest. Similarly, for someone who has been been inspired & intrigued by a visit to the Endeavour replica, or to one of the many museums devoted to Captain Cook, this is a concise & readable guide that pulls out the key questions & provides clear, engaging answers, detailing essential information on the many aspects of Cook`s voyages. The 101 Questions & Answers structure is an ideal format for dealing with such diverse yet frequently-asked questions as: How many ships took part in the voyages? What were their names? What is a collier? What were Cook`s secret instructions? Did Cook discover Antarctica? Who said ” Ne plus ultra”? Where did Cook learn his surveying techniques? What was the transit of Venus? How did they measure longitude? Which voyage did the artist William Hodges accompany Captain Cook on? What is breadfruit? All these questions & many more are answered simply & accurately, employing contemporary paintings, charts & other images to illustrate each point where necessary. ...

` Tim & I both understood we had done something really stupid. We had underestimated the danger involved in going out to sea. We had no radio, compass, life raft or flares. In other words, we were a couple of idiots.` This is the story of Shane & Timothy Spall & their Dutch barge The Princess Matilda. After a summer on the Thames they head out to sea with only a road atlas & a vast amount of ignorance
- & it is absolutely terrifying! On their travels, memories are triggered of childhood trips to the seaside, but also of more recent times. A decade before, Tim had been diagnosed with acute leukaemia & was given only days to live. Shocked at how life can pass you by they decided that when, & if, Tim got better, they would buy a boat. As Tim & Shane explore the coast from the Medway to Cornwall, eventually they start to wonder, could they make it out of England altogether? Could Matilda make it to... Wales? Taking over five years, ” The Voyages of The Princess Matilda” is a minor epic, charting a very personal, moving & uplifting story of an everyday couple`s adventure around their much loved homel&. It is a winner of the British Travel Press` Narrative Travel Book of the Year Award.
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On January 7, 1980, in the run-up to the publication of Thy Neighbor`s Wife, Gay Talese received an anonymous letter from a man in Colorado. ` Since learning of your long awaited study of coast-to-coast sex in America, ` the letter began, `I feel I have important information that I could contribute to its contents or to contents of a future book.` The man went on to tell Talese a remarkable, shocking secret, so compelling that Talese travelled to Colorado to verify it in person. But because the letter-writer insisted on remaining anonymous, Talese filed his reporting away, certain the story would remain untold. Over the next thirty-five years, the man occasionally reached out to Talese to fill him in on the latest developments in his life, but he continued to insist on anonymity. Finally, after thirty-five years, he`s ready to go public. In the tradition of Thy Neighbor`s Wife, Talese`s landmark, best-selling exploration of the sexual revolution in America, this will be a provocative, eye-opening & much-talked-about book. ...

True to the `positive eating, positive living` ethos of Wagamama`s idiosyncratic chain of noodle restaurants, this official collection of recipes shares the secret of the hallmark culinary minimalism that has won it instant cult status worldwide. The distinctive Wagamama flavour originates from the traditional 200-year-old ramen (noodle) shops of Japan which guarantee nourishment with ingredients that cleanse & nurture the mind & body. Suitable for meat-eaters, seafood lovers & vegetarians alike, the 120 recipes have been specially created by the people behind Wagamama`s unique house style & concentrate on cooking fresh, quality ingredients in a way that retains maximum flavour & nutrition. With mouth-watering recipes for appetisers & side dishes, hearty soups & stir-fries, & exotic sweet-rice desserts & juices, plus hints & tips on ingredients, equipment, cooking techniques & structuring a meal, this unique collection means that the stylish Wagamama experience is now yours to take home. Whether you want to impress the health-conscious dinner guest or simply feed family & friends good, wholesome meals, this book means that you can recreate the best of Japanese cooking with a selection of absolutely simply delicious, low-fat, one-pot meals which are easy on your time & budget as well as your waistline. ...

The Wainwright Companion is a fully illustrated collection of fascinating facts, statistics, trivia & opinion based on A Wainwright`s legendary guidebooks to the English Lake District. Which fell has most waterfalls? The longest ridges? The roughest ascent? The best views? The wettest path? The only ascent description that starts with a descent? & what did AW ever do for the Romans? All these questions & hundreds more are answered in this `book about the books`
- the seven Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells & their companion, The Outlying Fells of Lakel&.
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Alfred Wainwright, the legendary fell walker & author of the incomparable & unique Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells was also a fluent, eloquent & diligent correspondent. Writing to old friends & to the many new ones gained through his books, & to his love, & later second wife, Betty, his letters display a much warmer, more sensitive & emotional character than his gruff popular image would suggest. Hunter Davies, Wainwright's biographer, has here collected a selection of letters that range from his early years in Blackburn to his established position as Borough Treasurer in Kendal, & cover all aspects of his professional & personal life, as well as the voluminous correspondence that was a consequence of writing & publishing the Pictorial Guides. The latter vividly illuminate many aspects of that turbulent but ultimately triumphant process, while the former present a picture of a dedicated public servant whose personal life had been deeply unhappy until late in life he found unexpected but transcendent love & happiness. In turn business-like & comic, wonderfully well informed & remarkably innocent, deeply moving & yet tough-minded, the letters present a vivid & unforgettable picture of one of the great but eccentric creative geniuses of the twentieth century. ...

The Wainwrights Pocket Log is a very small & classy note book which has been customised for Lakeland Fell-Walkers. The texture of the cover & the gold trimmings give it a stylish retro feel. The contents are in black & white, with the fells arranged alphabetically within the seven sections of the 214 Wainwrights. Its size is its charm but also its advantage. Full size log books expect a lot more to be written than is helpful to most people, take up space & can`t be easily carried. Wall charts don`t allow for notes & aren`t mobile either. Smartphone apps are efficient but, well, we don`t think AW would have approved... So this is it! All you need to carry with you for the next week/year/retirement. ...

` As if The Remains of the Day had been written by Kingsley Amis... brilliantly exquisite... This book is a meal you won`t want to finish.` J. Ryan Stradal Welcome to The Hills, Oslo`s most esteemed restaurant, an institution stewed in tradition & clinging to the faded grandeur of old Europe. A neurotic waiter tends to the desires of his regular
- & irregular
- clientele. Aristocrats & artistes, wealthy widows & roguish entrepreneurs, he observes all their dramas with a wit as sharp as a filleting knife. At table ten sits the impeccable Mr Graham, the most demanding of them all, impatiently awaiting a special guest. When at last she arrives
- young, beautiful, mysterious
- she will prove a challenging new flavour, throwing into disarray our waiter`s nerves, & the delicately balanced ingredients of the room. Exquisitely observed & wickedly playful, The Waiter is a novel for lovers of food, wine, & of European sensibilities, but also for anyone who spends time in restaurants, on either side of the service.



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In ” The Waiting Land” (first published in 1967) Dervla Murphy affectionately portrays the people of Nepal`s different tribes, the customs of an ancient, complex civilization & the country`s natural grandeur & beauty. This is the third of Dervla Murphy`s early travel books: an exploration of Nepal by a feisty, generous-hearted young Irish woman. Yet it can also be seen as the completion of a trilogy of books concerned with her experience of self- sufficient mountain cultures, first tasted in crossing Persia & Afghanistan in ” Full Tilt”, & deepened with her experience of working with Tibetan refugees in the frontiers of Northern India, as told in ” Tibetan Foothold”. Having settled in a village in the Pokhara Valley to work at a Tibetan refugee camp, she makes her home in a tiny, vermin-infested room over a stall in the bazaar. In diary form, she describes her various journeys by air, by bicycle & on foot into the remote & mountainous Lantang region on the border of Tibet. Murphy`s charm & sensitivity as a writer & traveller reveal not only the vitality of an age-old civilization facing the challenge of Westernisation, but the wonder & excitement of her own remarkable adventures. ...

A field, a perfect morning, a family destroyed in a single moment. Every night, before he cuts the engine & lets the boat drift, Guy writes the diary of the man he should have been
- of a husband with his wife & their young daughter; of a new family that may not have been perfect but who were, at least, together. & every morning, as he`s rocked in his berth by the waves all around, he wakes to the memory of that fateful day & the knowledge that things can never be the same. Embarking on a moving & eventful journey from the calm estuaries of East Anglia to the southern states of America & the storm-filled waters of the North Sea, Guy meets Marta & her daughter Rhona, who are on a life-affirming journey of their own.
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