Throughout his career, David Grossman has been a voice for peace & reconciliation in the Israeli-Palestinian divide. In this groundbreaking collection of essays on literature & politics, he addresses the conscience of present-day Israel, a country that has lost faith in its leaders & its ideals. Writing in the Dark ends with the speech in which Grossman famously attacked Israel`s disastrous Lebanon war that tragically took the life of his twenty-one-year-old son, Uri. Moving, brave & clear-sighted, these essays on literature, political ethics & the morality of the imagination are a cri de coeur from a calm voice of reason at a time of doubt & despair. ...

Writing London in a series of City Map/ Guides from Herb Lester Associates, a witty & imaginatively selected alternative to the usual lists of addresses where various writers lived in London. Some “so-&-so lived here” addresses are included but you will also find references to places where Homes first met Dr Watson, Bow Street Magistrates Court where Oscar Wilde was charged, or the location of John Le Carre’s Circus. Locations of the guide’s 70 entries are roughly indicated by drawings of the relevant buildings, etc. Maps in this series are an eclectic selection of quirky titles designed to illuminate particular aspects of a city or a district. Each title lists publishers’ recommendations, ranging from the already famous attractions to little gems known only to the well informed locals, all with brief descriptions &, where appropriate, contact details. Accompanying maps are designed to highlight the locations of the recommended places rather than to provide an accurate presentation of the street network. To see other titles in this series please click on the series link. ...

Powerful essays by such luminaries & literary giants as Daniel Day-Lewis & Martin Amis offer a compassionate look at the crises that most affect our world today. An important book for anyone interested in global issues, ” Writing on the Edge” features twelve essays that take the reader to countries in crisis. Award-winning writer Martin Amis experienced firsthand the problems of gang violence in Colombia, South America; ” New York Times” bestselling author Tracy Chevalier focuses on the abuse of women in Burundi, East Africa; Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis writes of meeting children raised in war-torn Palestine; Booker Prize-winning author DBC Pierre addresses the unusually high incidence of mental health issues in Armenia. Award-winning photographer Tom Craig was commissioned by the humanitarian charity Medecins Sans Frontieres/ Doctors without Borders to document the writers in these places in trouble. His striking photographs amplify the sense of compassion required while also demonstrating that beautiful humanity is the victim of tragedy. ...

This book is not just funny (or sad) stories of campervan trips in Scotland; it is not just ` Zen & the art of campervan maintenance` (with stories of sweetness & light that will entertain or make you cry); & it is not just nature writing (with observations of wildlife in the western Scottish Highlands). But if you enjoy reading about how books are written & about recovery stories from relationship breakdowns, & if you like reading about women travelling alone & all the things that can go wrong (and right), about strategies for facing fear, dealing with creepy crawlies & noises in the night, & about surviving all that life throws at you (especially when you are over a certain age), then you will probably enjoy this book. Writing on the Road is by Sue Reid Sexton, who, while writing two novels (Mavis`s Shoe & Rue End Street) over the past six years, needed to escape from her hectic household to create some space to write them. As the mother of two & a step-mum of four, Sue realised her only real option was to get into her campervan & have it function as a mobile office. Whether she camped by a beach overlooking the Atlantic in the Kintyre peninsula with buzzards, golden eagles, deer, seals, surfers, other campervanners & dead fish for company, or in the hills around Glasgow, or on Skye, Morvern, the Cowal peninsula or even in southern France, her main aim was to switch off her phone, get out her laptop & write. Sue has made countless journeys in campervans in the last few years & thanks to her practice of taking notes as she travels, we, too, can enjoy her campervan experiences. In Writing on the Road Sue also writes about the many & varied practical difficulties of campervan life that she has had to overcome. They include locking herself out of the campervan at night miles from home; coping with local byelaws & negative attitudes to campervans & to women travelling solo; driving a hundred miles with a window open before she could empty a cracked toilet; & finding out the wrong (and the right) way to buy a campervan. We hope this book will inspire anyone looking for encouragement in the expressive arts to get creative & persuade any would-be campervanners to get out there & enjoy the campervan life. ...

Thames aficionado Robert Gibbings once wrote that `the quiet of an age-old river is like the slow turning of the pages of a well-loved book`. Writing the Thames tells a much-loved river`s story through the remarkable prose, poetry & illustration that it has inspired. In eight themed chapters it features historical events such as Julius Caesar`s crossing in 55 BCE & Elizabeth I`s stand against the Spanish at Tilbury, explorations of topographers who mapped, drew & painted the river & the many congenial riverside retreats for authors ranging from Francis Bacon, Thomas More & Alexander Pope to Thomas Love Peacock, William Morris & Henry James. A chapter on messing about in boats tells the story of William Hogarth`s impulsive five-day river trip with four inebriated friends & features satirical novels making fun of frenetic rowers (Zuleika Dobson) & young London men-about-town on camping holidays (Three Men in a Boat). The river has also inspired some of the best children`s literature (The Wind in the Willows) & naturalists such as Richard Jeffries & C.J. Cornish (A Naturalist on the Thames) have recorded the richness of its wildlife. But there are also dark undercurrents: Charles Dickens`s use of its waters as a symbol of death, Sax Rohmer`s Limehouse villain Dr Fu Manchu, & the many fictional criminals who dispose of corpses in its sinister depths in detective novels ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Inspector Morse. Beautifully illustrated, this book celebrates the writers who have helped to make England`s greatest river an enduring legend. ...

` Man perishes; his corpse turns to dust; all his relatives pass away. But writings make him remembered` In ancient Egypt, words had magical power. Inscribed on tombs & temple walls, coffins & statues, or inked onto papyri, hieroglyphs give us a unique insight into the life of the Egyptian mind. For this remarkable new collection, Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson has freshly translated a rich & diverse range of ancient Egyptian writings into modern English, including tales of shipwreck & wonder, first-hand accounts of battles & natural disasters, obelisk inscriptions, mortuary spells, funeral hymns, songs, satires & advice on life from a pharaoh to his son. Spanning over two millennia, with many pieces appearing in a general anthology for the first time, this is the essential guide to a complex, sophisticated culture. Translated with an introduction by Toby Wilkinson ...

WRITTEN IN HISTORY celebrates the great letters of world history, creative culture & personal life. Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore selects over one hundred letters from ancient times to the twenty-first century: some are noble & inspiring, some despicable & unsettling; some are exquisite works of literature, others brutal, coarse & frankly outrageous; many are erotic, others heartbreaking. The writers vary from Elizabeth I, Rameses the Great & Leonard Cohen to Emmeline Pankhurst, Mandela, Stalin, Michelangelo, Suleiman the Magnificent & unknown people in extraordinary circumstances
- from love letters to calls for liberation, declarations of war to reflections on death. In the colourful, accessible style of a master storyteller, Montefiore shows why these letters are essential reading: how they enlighten our past, enrich the way we live now
- & illuminate tomorrow.

...

Published to coincide with World Book Day, & accompanied by stunning photographs & etchings, this anthology is a celebration ...

Wrockwardine Wood, Wombridge & St George`s in 1901 in a fascinating series of reproductions of old Ordnance Survey plans in the Alan Godfrey Editions, ideal for anyone interested in the history of their neighbourhood or family. The map covers the area from The Whitehorse Inn Public House & Teagues Bridge to Market Street & St George`s Church in the south, including the railway line & station, Newyard Engineering Works, Gas Works, St Mary & St Leonard`s Church, Wombridge Iron Works (disused) & Shropshire Iron Works. There are also numerous old coal shafts & quarries. On the reverse is an extract from a street directory. About the Alan Godfrey Editions of the 25” OS Series: Selected towns in Great Britain & Ireland are covered by maps showing the extent of urban development in the last decades of the 19th & early 20th century. The plans have been taken from the Ordnance Survey mapping & reprinted at about 15 inches to one mile (1:4, 340). On the reverse most maps have historical notes & many also include extracts from contemporary directories. Most maps cover about one mile (1.6kms) north/south, one & a half miles (2.4kms) across; adjoining sheets can be combined to provide wider coverage.FOR MORE INFORMATION & A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL AVAILABLE TITLES PLEASE CLICK ON THE SERIES LINK. ...

Wroclaw & its immediate environs at 1:20, 000 from Michal Kasprowski providing an excellent illustration how to present history & development of a city by overprinting an old (here a per-1945) map with current information. The base is a pre-1945 German map at 1:20, 000 of Breslau, as the city was then called, with showing the street network, railways, parks & woodlands, etc, & even the flight paths from the city’s airport, with street, district & other place names as they were at the time of publication. Added to it is finely presented overprint showing streets built in the suburbs in the post-war years with their current names. All suburb names are given in the pre-1945 & current versions plus, where appropriate, their old pre-1900 names. The map retains its old, simple & self-explanatory German legend. On the reverse are three index lists: German pre-1945 names with their current Polish equivalents, current Polish names with their old German versions, plus names of streets added since 1945. ...