When Isobel Dusi visited Italy with her Australian husband Lou, little did they imagine that life would change forever. But, utterly besotted with the fragrant warmth & good-natured conviviality of Southern Tuscany, they decided to sell up their lives in the big city & move thousands of miles to follow the dream of a life more in keeping with ancient rhythms & time-honoured traditions of the Mediterranean. After months of searching they settled upon Montalcino, an intriguing hilltop medieval village with a reputation for some of the finest wine in Italy. VANILLA BEANS & BRODO is an account of Isobel`s hard-won acceptance into this tempestuous, warm-hearted & proudly independent community, whose voluble passions for home grown wine & Tuscan cuisine, for football & ancient traditions & festivals, puts paid to the myth that life in rural Tuscany is tranquil. Isobel & Lou are gradually transformed into Isabella & Luigi in this charming account of Tuscan village life that really gets to the beating heart of an Italian community
- its joys, pleasures, anxieties, but above all, its absorbing eccentricities.
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Endorsed by Amnesty International. In this beautifully illustrated story, Bob Graham shows how all the creatures & the people of the world can be connected to each other in the most surprising ways. A wild, young sparrow rises from the dust outside an Indian food stall surrounded by swaying palms. The sparrow flies off just where he pleases, following the food. He journeys south through the lush rice paddies & across the rough sea & all the way into a bright new day where, just for a moment, the wild sparrow`s world collides with little Edie`s... ...

` One of the most original & vital voices in all of American crime fiction` Laura Lippman, author of Sunburn Virginia Barkeley is a nice, well brought-up girl. So what is she doing wandering through a snow storm in the middle of the night, blind drunk & covered in someone else`s blood? When Claude Margolis` body is found a quarter of a mile away with half-a-dozen stab wounds to the neck, suddenly Virginia doesn`t seem such a nice girl after all. Her only hope is Meecham, the cynical small-town lawyer hired as her defence. But how can he believe in Virginia`s innocence when even she can`t be sure what happened that night? & when the answer seems to fall into his lap, why won`t he just walk away? ...

The beautiful woman appears to be just another corpse in the morgue. But when medical examiner Maura Isles looks down at the body, she gets the fright of her life. The corpse opens its eyes. Now very much alive, the woman is rushed to the hospital, where she murders a security guard & seizes hostages, one of whom is the heavily pregnant homicide detective Jane Rizzoli. But who is this woman, & what does she want? Only Jane can solve the mystery
- if she survives the night.
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From Norman Davies, the acclaimed author of ” Europe: A History”, comes the magical history of Europe`s lost realms, selected as a Book of the Year by the ” Sunday Times”, ” Daily Telegraph”, ” New Statesman”, ” Independent”, ” Guardian” & ” Financial Times”. Europe`s history is littered with kingdoms, duchies, empires & republics which have now disappeared but which were once fixtures on the map of their age. What happened to the once-great Mediterranean ` Empire of Aragon`? Where did the half-forgotten kingdoms of Burgundy go? Which current nations will one day become a distant memory too? This original & enthralling book peers through the cracks of history to discover the stories of lost realms across the centuries. ” Dazzling, provocative & brilliant”. (Dominic Sandbrook, ” Sunday Times”, Books of the Year). ”A luminous account.. .there are few better ways of understanding the multilayered splendours & horrors of Europe`s past than through the pages of this wise, humane & unfailingly engaging book”. (John Adamson, ” Sunday Telegraph”). ”” Vanished Kingdoms” is great history & also great art. It is written with verve, passion & profound empathy”. (David Marqu&, ” New Statesman”, Books of the Year). ”A magnificent achievement. Brocaded with scholarship, the book is unlikely ever to be equalled”. (Ian Thomson, ” Independent”). ...

This book represents months of work of planning & in the field, but above all it is a tribute to the eternal beauty of Africa; the photographs & text 'steal' from the peoples of the Omo a fragment of their mystery & truth. But with delicacy & respect. By examining a small region in the heart of the continent, the books attempts to trace the roots of remotest Africa; the cradle of man, where ancestral bonds with nature still exist. It is a place where the link with the dark side of existence is not hidden, as happens in the West, but exhibited. By means of his camera & his pen, in this book the author has encapsulated long years of study of the most interesting peoples & ethnic groups in Africa. Centered around a series of extraordinary photographs, the book is a sort of reportage from the edge of the world, in search of vanishing Africa. ...

A mixture of travelogue & personal narrative, James Conaway`s smart, informative essays offer an insightful depiction of his journeys between Washington, D.C., & Big Sur, California, as he tries to understand what has become of the places, people, & traditions that were once so precious but have now been irreparably changed. Incorporating the voices of cowboys, real estate agents, activists, & many others, he raises vital questions about the merits of sprawling development & the ever-increasing use of resources in the name of ”progress.” He urges us to consider the value of preservation in our growth-driven culture, as well as the ramifications of prosperity on the places important to our national identity. ...

There was a smell in the air of tar & rope & rusted chain, a smell of tidal water. Down harbour, around the point, was the open sea. Here was the freedom I desired, long sought-for, not yet known. Freedom to write, to walk, to wander, freedom to climb hills, to pull a boat, to be alone.. .I for this, & this for me.' Daphne du Maurier lived in Cornwall for most of her life. Its rugged coastline, wild terrain & tumultuous weather inspired her imagination, & many of her works are set there, including Rebecca, Jamaica Inn & Frenchman's Creek. In Vanishing Cornwall she celebrates the land she loved, exploring its legends, its history & its people, eloquently making a powerful plea for Cornwall's preservation. ...

Vanishing Ireland is a unique collection of portrait interviews looking at the dying ways & traditions of Irish life & taking us back to an Ireland virtually unrecognisable to today`s post-boom generation. Illustrated with over a hundred evocative & stunning photographs, we meet the people & customs that shaped the cultural identity of the Irish nation. Through their own words & memories, sixty-four men & women transport us back to a time when people lived off the land & the sea, when music & storytelling were essential parts of life, when a person was defined by their trade. Divided into five parts
- Children of the Field, Children of the Music, Children of the Horse, Children of the Trade & Children of the Water
- Vanishing Ireland brings together the stories of those who lived through Ireland`s formative years. We hear of children harassed by the Black & Tans, of ceilis in kitchens, & the rigours of working in the fields, of the wonder of electricity & the devastation of emigration. From coalminers to saddlers, farmers to fishermen, along with horse dealers, publicans, housemaids & musicians
- these remarkably poignant interviews & photographs, in their simplicity & honesty, will make you laugh & cry but, above all, will provide a valuable chronicle that connects twenty-first century Ireland to a rapidly disappearing world.


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The ancient Namib is the only desert on Earth where a small population of desert-adapted lions occurs. Remarkably, these unique lions continued to survived along Namibia`s Skeleton Coast, but until 20 years ago were merely phantoms
- elusive & seldom seen
- & then believed to have become extinct. In 1997 scientist Dr. Philip Stander discovered a small pride of survivors in the heart of the desert & began to study the lions: work that has become a lifelong commitment. He has been able to unfold the secrets of these highly adaptive big cats, who seemed to thrive in this harsh environment.

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