Sir James Brooke was an extraordinary 'eminent' Victorian, whose life was the stuff of legend. His curious career began in 1841 when he was caught up in a war in Brunei which had started because a party of local Dayaks had refused to furl their umbrellas in the presence of the Sultan. Brooke was an opportunist who, with the Sultan's backing, made war on the Dayaks tribespeople & eventually found himself ruling over Sarawak
- a kingdom the size of England
- as a result. How he achieved it is a romantic, sometimes horrifying story. Brooke is someone that George Macdonald Fraser would scarcely dare to invent. Errol Flynn wanted to play him in a movie, 70 years after his death & his dynasty is remembered throughout South-East Asia. This is a wonderful piece of swashbuckling historical biography which recalls the best & the worst of the British Imperial character.

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Jamie Whittle, traveller & environmental lawyer, returns to his origins by the River Findhorn in Morayshire to make the journey from its mouth to its source on foot, & to return again by canoe. It is familiar ground, but made new after his many travels about the world. From the interaction of traveller & river there arises a new lyricism that speaks of energy, dangers, wild places, of bounty taken from hard landscapes, of beauty & risk. ...

This is a Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller. ” Other things in the world are white but for me porcelain comes first”. A handful of clay from a Chinese hillside carries a promise: that mixed with the right materials, it might survive the fire of the kiln, & fuse into porcelain
- translucent, luminous, white. Acclaimed writer & potter Edmund de Waal sets out on a quest
- a journey that begins in the dusty city of Jingdezhen in China & travels on to Venice, Versailles, Dublin, Dresden, the Appalachian Mountains of South Carolina & the hills of Cornwall to tell the history of porcelain. Along the way, he meets the witnesses to its creation; those who were inspired, made rich or heartsick by it, & the many whose livelihoods, minds & bodies were broken by this obsession. It spans a thousand years & reaches into some of the most tragic moments of recent times. In these intimate & compelling encounters with the people & landscapes who made porcelain, Edmund de Waal enriches his understanding of this rare material, the `white gold` he has worked with for decades. It was also the Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4.

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From the number one bestselling author of The Hare with Amber Eyes, acclaimed writer & potter Edmund de Waal sets out on a quest
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Shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year at the Edward Stanfords Travel Writing Awards 2016. From one of Britain`s most original writers, White Sands is a creative exploration of why we travel. Episodic, wide-ranging, funny & smart, the linked journeys recall the themes of Dyer`s Yoga for People Who Can`t Be Bothered to Do It
- albeit with the wisdom of (middle) age. From a trip to the Lightning Field in New Mexico, to chasing Gauguin`s ghost in French Polynesia, from falling for someone who may or may not be a tour guide in Beijing`s Forbidden City, to tracking down the house of an intellectual hero in Los Angeles, Dyer pursues all permutations of the peak experience including the trough experience. In his trademark style he blends travel writing, essay, criticism & fiction with a smart & cantankerous wit that is unmatched. This is a book for armchair travellers & procrastinating philosophers everywhere.
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This is a book about Polynesia after the cruise ship has left, the jet has flown off into the sunset, & the mai tai curtain has dropped on a dream that was more performance than reality. This first-hand narrative introduces the reader to the Cook Islands & an extraordinary array of their inhabitants: Susy No Pants who lives an uproarious life of pleasure, but never strays far from who she is or where she came from; a nuclear nomad from the Tuamotus who attempts suicide by ancient means in California`s Balboa Fun Zone, home of the chocolate-dipped banana; & French bureaucrats who concoct an elaborate charade to create an uplifting image of the Foreign Legion in Papeete, Tahiti. The author encounters missionaries, randy kings, dictators, sailors, drunk island tyrants & visionaries on remote isles where tourists seldom tread. Kernahan does not find paradise, although she admits to having looked for it. ...

The ideal desk accessory for anyone needing a bit of escapism without even having to leave your chair, the Insight Whites Sea 10cm (4) Globe is a compact yet remarkably detailed desktop globe mounted on an attractive & a curiously addictive swivel-&-tilt base. With high-quality metal globe construction, stylish & stable weighted base & clearly defined political cartography with up-to-date political boundaries & place names, this little marvel makes a perfect addition to any desk, whether used as an educational aid for children or as a stress-buster at work. ...

The White Sea 10cm (4) Globe from Insight Guides is the ideal desk accessory for anyone needing a bit of escapism, without having to leave the chair. This is a compact yet remarkably detailed desktop globe mounted on an attractive & a curiously addictive swivel-&-tilt base. It features high-quality construction, stylish & stable weighted base & clearly defined political cartography with up-to-date political boundaries & place names. This little marvel makes a perfect addition to any desk, whether used as an educational aid for children or as a stress-buster at work ...

The Quercy Blanc
- named for its white stone
- is a wild & sparsely populated area of rural France, squeezed between the great

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`A stunning, audacious new thriller... It will shock you, horrify you, unsettle you, & that`s exactly the point. As brave ...