” The Weeping Goldsmith: Discoveries in the Secret Land of Myanmar” relates how W. John Kress came to appreciate the people & culture of Myanmar through an understanding of their plants, natural habitats, & human-dominated environments. Intertwined with descriptions of the author`s personal experiences & observations are notes on the history, culture, & modern society in Burma. Included are excerpts from his journals written while in the field, which serve as counterpoints to the accounts of earlier plant explorers who visited these places a century ago. ” The Weeping Goldsmith” is a delicate white & yellow-gold flower that defied replication even by an experienced goldsmith, according to legend. By the end of his journey the author grew to understand how politics could interfere with scientific research, leading the author to empathize with the sorrowful goldsmith. ...

If you are unable to protect yourself from a tyrant, how can you protect your family? & how does a proud man live with that knowledge? Reminiscent in part of ” Stasiland” & ” The Bookseller of Kabul”, this is the story of one family`s struggle to survive the iniquities of Saddam Hussein`s savage dictatorship. It is a career-defining book for Wendell Steavenson. In ” The Weight of a Mustard Seed”, Wendell Steavenson tells the story of General Kamel Sachet, a decorated hero of the long Iran-Iraq war & a favourite of Saddam Hussein`s. As Steavenson reveals the emotional & psychological scars the Sachet family suffer as a result of decades spent living with war & repression, she reaches towards the heart of a previously unspoken story of Iraq: a once prosperous nation, reduced by Hussein`s megalomania & paranoia to bankruptcy, corruption & impotence. The result is an intimate, startling & gripping account of the slow destruction of Sachet, his family & his country. ...

Armed with a suitcase & an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka & her mother head for Engl&. Life is lonely for Kasienka. At home her mother`s heart is breaking & at school friends are scarce. But when someone special swims into her life, Kasienka learns that there might be more than one way for her to stay afloat. The Weight of Water is a startlingly original piece of fiction; most simply a brilliant coming of age story, it also tackles the alienation experienced by many young immigrants. Moving, unsentimental & utterly page-turning, we meet & share the experiences of a remarkable girl who shows us how quiet courage prevails. ...

Listed by the Sunday Times as one of the five best political books of 2015. Welfare states have spread across the globe, transforming modern civilisation. But the take-over is often going badly. In Marseilles, armed drug gangs dominate the social housing estates. In America, an outstandingly rich country, 45 million people are dependent on food stamps. In Britain, the NHS has one of the worst records for cancer care in the advanced world. Many countries are raising more in taxes but nevertheless getting deeper into debt because of their burgeoning welfare states. All around the world, behaviour is being damaged by welfare state dependency while governments become more & more like Big Brother, telling us what we must do. James Bartholomew travelled around the world seeing how cultures & lives are being changed
- seeing what is going wrong but also looking for countries where they are making a better job of it. His book is an unparalleled investigation in which he tells the story of the people & places he visited. He takes the reader on a journey, which

Includes:: burnt-out cars in France, a tough-minded benefits office in Singapore & innovative hospitals in Spain. The narrative is supplemented with many photos & graphs that demonstrate & explain. The book is like a window on the modern world.


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From castles in the sand to castles on a cliff-top, the Welsh coast is as beautiful & dramatic as it is diverse. Photographer Peter Watson captures the visual delights of this twisting & endlessly varied coastline, starting at the northern tip, the birdwatcher`s paradise along the Dee Estuary, then heading west to the Isle of Anglesey, passing along the way the resorts of Rhyl, Colwyn Bay & LLandudno. The Lleyn Peninsula then leads to the expansive stretch of coastline from Tremadog all the way down to Cardigan Bay, & then to the renowned Pembrokeshire Coast National Park & the impressive Gower Peninsula. The coastal odyssey ends on a high note with an exploration of some of the beaches & bays which can be found hidden away between the bustling cities of Swansea & Cardiff. ...

In 1944, a German Jewish refugee is sent to Wales to interview Rudolf Hess; in Snowdonia, a seventeen-year-old girl, the daughter of a fiercely nationalistic shepherd, dreams of the bright lights of an English city; & in a nearby POW camp, a German soldier struggles to reconcile his surrender with his sense of honour. As their lives intersect, all three will come to question where they belong & where their loyalties lie. Peter Ho Davies`s thought-provoking & profoundly moving first novel traces a perilous wartime romance as it explores the bonds of love & duty that hold us to family, country, & ultimately our fellow man. Vividly rooted in history & landscape, THE WELSH GIRL reminds us anew of the pervasive presence of the past, & the startling intimacy of the foreign. ...

The tranquil borderland of the Marches, offers a varied landscape truncated by rivers meandering to lowland plains. Limestone to the west & north of the old red sandstone of the Hereford Plain has given rise to exceptionally attractive hilly country with delightful, narrow valleys. In these 40 walks Ben Giles explores all the best places to visit in this wonderful area of the country. ...

This is the 2012 edition of the most comprehensive guidebook to canoeing & kayaking the rivers of Wales. Nearly all the rivers of the principality are covered, mostly from navigable source to sea or confluence. From lazy gentle tours suitable for families, to raging torrents & waterfalls. There are over 180 rivers & two thousand kilometres of paddling. The book is simple to navigate with quick reference information, detailed descriptions & area maps of the river catchments. There are a great many more colour photographs in this new edition compared with the old. There`s also an eclectic mix of anecdotes for a perspective on the paddling scene in Wales, past & present
- but the best tales, yet to be told, are left for you to discover on the Welsh rivers. This is completely revised & updated since reprints of the first edition in 2003 & 2006. It has not been available since 2008 & there is no competitor or comparable book since the first edition.
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This is the 2010, 2nd edition of the full-colour handbook for walkers & runners in the Welsh 3000s traverse, the Paddy Buckley Round, The Snowdon Horseshoe, Snowdon Ascents & the Welsh 1000 metres race. Roy Clayton guides walkers through the route, while experienced fell runner, Ronald Turnbull, gives the necessary advice for runners, & for walkers who wish to step up the pace in the tradition of the greats like Joss Naylor, Eric Beard & Colin Donnelly. The original ” Welsh Three Thousand Foot Challenges” book has already been a success, with several reprints. This new edition

Includes:: up-to-date information with colour photographs & maps bringing the stunning mountain scenery to life. If you want to do the Welsh Three Thousands & you want to know how to train to do a fast time, or you just want to make sure you have a good chance of a successful completion, this book is the only choice.

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