It is the world`s longest railway line. But it is so much more than that, too. The Trans-Siberian stretches nearly 6, 000 miles between Moscow & Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast & was the most ambitious railway project in the nineteenth century. A journey on the railway evokes a romantic roam through the Russian steppes, but also reminds travellers of the vastness of our world & hints at the hardships that were endured in its construction. Christian Wolmar expertly tells the story of the Trans-Siberian railway from its conception & construction under Tsar Alexander III, to the northern extension ordered by Brezhnev & its current success as a vital artery. He also explores the crucial role the line played in both the Russian Civil War -Trotsky famously used an armoured carriage as his command post
- & the Second World War, during which the railway saved the country from certain defeat. Like the author`s previous railway histories, it focuses on the personalities, as well as the political & economic events, that lay behind one of the most extraordinary engineering triumphs of the nineteenth century.
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Christian Wolmar expertly tells the story of the Trans-Siberian railway from its conception & construction under Tsar Alexander III, to the northern extension ordered by Brezhnev & its current success as a vital artery. He also explores the crucial role the line played in both the Russian Civil War -Trotsky famously used an armoured carriage as his command post
- & the Second World War, during which the railway saved the country from certain defeat. Like the author`s previous railway histories, it focuses on the personalities, as well as the political & economic events, that lay behind one of the most extraordinary engineering triumphs of the nineteenth century.
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This is the gripping true story of how Briton Tom Avery led three men, one woman & sixteen dogs to the North Pole in just under thirty-seven days, in doing so breaking the world record & solving the greatest mystery of polar exploration. The electrifying true story of a race against time to solve the greatest mystery of polar exploration. Facing some of the most hostile terrain on the planet, how did Arctic pioneer Robert Peary travel 413km in just 37 days to reach the North Pole with only dogs & wooden sleds as his transportation? 100 years later, British explorer Tom Avery & his team set themselves against the elements to recreate Peary`s journey, risking their lives to break the record & rewrite history. ...

Ora, a middle-aged Israeli mother, is about to celebrate her son Ofer`s release from army service when he returns to the front for a major offensive. Instead of waiting at home for the `notifiers` who could arrive at any moment to tell her of her son`s fate, she sets off for a hike in Galilee, leaving no forwarding address. If a mother is not there to receive the news, a son cannot die, can he? Recently estranged from her husb&, Ora drags along an unlikely companion: their former best friend & her former lover Avram, the man who in fact turns out to be her son`s biological father. As they sleep out in the hills, ford rivers & cross valleys, Ora recounts, step by step & word by word, the story of her son`s birth, life & possible death, in one mother`s magical, passionate & heartbreaking attempt to keep her son safe from harm. ...

Renowned as one of the world`s foremost expedition photographers, Gordon Wiltsie has climbed Himalayan mountains, mushed dogs on the frozen Arctic Ocean, skied in Antarctica & hacked through the Amazon jungle to photograph the most remote reaches of the planet. For three decades he has accompanied many of the great explorers
- Alex Lowe, Conrad Anker, Will Steger, Jon Krakauer, David Breashears, Norman Vaughan
- on challenging climbs & epic adventures. Despite carrying his own share of the weight
- along with cameras, film & lenses
- he has matched these companions pitch for pitch & mile for mile, photographing them at every stage on the way. In this journey through ten of his most challenging & exhilarating expeditions, through stories & images Wiltsie illustrates the daily life of an explorer.



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Ranulph Fiennes has entered the public imagination as the intrepid explorer par excellance. Taunted by his wife over the challenge of the never-before attempted circumpolar navigation of the globe, he set off in 1979 on a gruelling 52, 000 mile adventure. Together with fellow members of 21 SAS regiment, Fiennes left from Greenwich, travelling over l&, passing through both ends of the polar axis. Completed over three years later, it was the first circumpolar navigation of the globe, & justifiably entered Fiennes into the record books. TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is the record of that journey. It captures the natural beauty of the landscapes they passed through, & the cameraderie that necessarily grows between men who had served in the British forces` elite regiment & were now throwing themselves into danger of a different sort. Time & again, the expedition found themselves in life-threatening situations, weaving through the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean or sharing a single sleeping bag to ward off the -40 degrees celsius Arctic night. The calm & measured approach which made Fiennes such a great expedition leader shines through TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, deftly recreating the last unexplored regions on earth. It is also a book which lays the foundations for what was to come for Fiennes, confirming a need to exist outside the comfortable norms the rest of us inhabit. As the expedition progresses, there is also a mounting sense of tension as attainment of the final goal also spells the end of the adventure. TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is a compelling account of one journey & Fiennes` drive to push himself to ever further extremes. ...

Two books in one volume, ” To the Ends of the Earth: Memoirs of a Pioneering Aviator” combines Sir Alan Cobham`s first-hand accounts of two of his most memorable journeys, round the Cape & to Australia & back. Undertaken in the 1920s, his memoirs of these fantastic adventures reveal the trials & tribulations of travelling to the farthest ad darkest corners of the globe in a de Havilland type 50 & a seaplane in a time when global travel was in its infancy. With its accessible style & irrepressible optimism, this book is a must for any lover of the travel writing genre. ...

Come on a new magical colouring adventure, from your home right the way to the ends of the earth! Colour your way through a riotous world of dragons, witches, lagoons, mountains & deserts, inspired by folk tales & landscapes from around the globe. With a beautiful scene that folds horizontally & stretches to an amazing 17 feet (5 metres), this is the longest colouring adventure in the world! ...

Part of his trilogy on Scottish history, T. M. Devine`s ” To the Ends of the Earth” is a compelling account of the Scots as a `global people`, charting their forgotten role in the building of the modern world. The Scots are one of the world`s greatest nations of emigrants. For centuries, untold numbers of men, women & children sought their fortunes in every part of the globe, from the British Empire to the United States, in cities & on prairie farms, as traders, bankers, missionaries, soldiers, politicians & engineers. With ” To the Ends of the Earth” T.M. Devine
- acclaimed author of ” The Scottish Nation” & ” Scotland`s Empire”
- puts this extraordinary epic centre stage in Scottish history, cutting through myth & sentiment surrounding stories such as the Highland Clearances & the Enlightenment to show the true impact of Scottish emigration on the world, & on the nation it left behind. ”A seminal work”. (Harry Mc Grath, ” Herald”). ” Devine`s final book in a remarkable trilogy.. .fascinating & far-reaching... His conclusions are.. .thoughtful & incisive”. (” Scottish Field”). ”[ This] rigorous & unsentimental history of Scotland`s global diaspora.. .explodes myths & foregrounds the prosaic realities of emigration.. .it has the fascinating charm of a detective story”. (” Guardian”). ” Presents a grand overview of Scottish emigration.. .very revealing”. (Tom Nairn, ” Scottish Review of Books”). ” Devine has brought a greater understanding to this fascinating subject & offers an intriguing perspective on a key component of our history & national identity”. (Alex Salmond, First Minister Of Scotl&, ” Herald”). T.M. Devine, OBE is University Research Professor & Director of the Research Institute of Irish & Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen. His other books include ” The Scottish Nation” & ” To the Ends of the Earth”.

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This fascinating social history of polar expeditions examines the cultural trends that produced these daring, even reckless journeys. From the late-17th to the early 20th century, intrepid explorers from America & Europe risked (and sometimes lost) their lives exploring the forbidding, uncharted landscapes of the Arctic & Antarctica. What drove these men to undertake these seemingly impossible journeys? In this deeply researched book, author John Dippel makes a convincing case that dozens of polar expeditions were motivated less by courageous idealism than personal ambition & national rivalries. The author traces the ways in which men of unbridled ambition responded to society`s need for heroes by masking their true intentions behind patriotic sentiments or noble claims about advancing science. In so doing they frequently put their own lives & those of the men in their command at enormous risk. At the same time, they projected an attitude of cultural superiority, looking down on indigenous arctic people. Their disrespect & ignorance of native means of transportation, diet, shelter, & knowledge of the terrain often led explorers into disaster, where men perished from starvation & exposure or nearly lost their minds. In the end, the failure of so many polar expeditions exposed the limits of humanity`s control of nature & helped to undermine faith in inevitable progress. Readers who have heard of the incredible exploits of such famous explorers as Robert F. Scott, Roald Amundsen, James Cook, & Robert Peary will find in this book an intriguing explanation for what impelled these men to endure unimaginable cold, near-starvation, & years of isolation at the ends of the earth. ...