A real-life adventure that inspired countless travellers in fact & fiction the Penguin Classics" edition of Robert Byrons " The Road to Oxiana"

Includes:: an introduction by Colin Thubron. In 1933 Robert Byron began a journey through the Middle East via Beirut Jerusalem Baghdad & Teheran to Oxiana
- the country of the Oxus the ancient name for the river Amu Darya which forms part of the border between Afghanistan & the Soviet Union. " The Road to Oxiana" offers not only a wonderful record of his adventures but also a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travelers. Robert Byron (1905-41) was born in 1905 & educated at Eton & Merton College Oxford. He died during the Second World War when the ship he was serving on was torpedoed by a U-Boat off Cape Wrath. Byrons " The Road to Oxiana" is considered by many modern travel writers to be the first example of great travel writing. If you enjoyed " The Road to Oxiana" you might like Charles Darwins " The Voyage of the Beagle" also available in " Penguin Classics". " The greatest of all pre-war travel books". (William Dalrymple). " What " Ulysses" is to the novel between the wars & what " The Waste Land" is to poetry " The Road to Oxiana" is to the travel book". (Paul Fussell). " In any list of the great travel books of the 20th century Robert Byrons account of his travels in Persia & Afghanistan " The Road to Oxiana" must be put somewhere near the very top". (" Telegraph")."


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Having survived the perils of a journey across half the world Romulus & Tarquinius are press-ganged into the legions which are under imminent threat of annihilation by the Egyptians. Meanwhile in Rome Romulus' twin sister Fabiola lives in fear for her life loved by Brutus but wooed by Marcus Antonius his deadly enemy. Soon after Romulus fights at Zela the vicious battle where Caesar famously said ' Veni vidi vici'. Tarquinius separated from Romulus in the chaos of war hides in Alexandria searching for guidance. But mortal danger awaits them both. From the battlefields of Asia Minor & North Africa to the lawless streets of Rome & the gladiator arena they face death daily until on the Ides of March the twins are reunited & must decide either to back or to betray Caesar on his day of destiny. ...

Having survived the perils of a journey across half the world Romulus & Tarquinius are press-ganged into the legions which are under imminent threat of annihilation by the Egyptians. Meanwhile in Rome Romulus twin sister Fabiola lives in fear for her life loved by Brutus but wooed by Marcus Antonius his deadly enemy. Soon after Romulus fights at Zela the vicious battle where Caesar famously said Veni vidi vici. Tarquinius separated from Romulus in the chaos of war hides in Alexandria searching for guidance. But mortal danger awaits them both. From the battlefields of Asia Minor & North Africa to the lawless streets of Rome & the gladiator arena they face death daily until on the Ides of March the twins are reunited & must decide either to back or to betray Caesar on his day of destiny. ...

Ben Hatch is on the road again. Commissioned to write a guidebook about France (despite not speaking any French) he sets off with visions of relaxing chateaux & refined dining. Ten thousand miles later his family's been attacked by a donkey had a run-in with a death-cult & after a near drowning & a calamitous wedding experience involving a British spy his own marriage is in jeopardy. A combination of obsessions about mosquitoes French gravel & vegetable theme parks mean it's a bumpy ride as Ben takes a stand against tyrannical French pool attendants finds himself running with the bulls in Pamplona & almost starring in a snuff movie after a near fatal decision to climb into a millionaire's Chevrolet Blazer. Funny & poignant Road to Rouen asks important questions about life marriage & whether it's ever acceptable to tape baguette to your children's legs to smuggle lunch into Disneyland Paris. ...

The Road to Serfdom remains one of the all-time classics of twentieth-century intellectual thought. For over half a century it has inspired politicians & thinkers around the world & has had a crucial impact on our political & cultural history. With trademark brilliance Hayek argues convincingly that while socialist ideals may be tempting they cannot be accomplished except by means that few would approve of. Addressing economics fascism history socialism & the Holocaust Hayek unwraps the trappings of socialist ideology. He reveals to the world that little can result from such ideas except oppression & tyranny. Today more than fifty years on Hayeks warnings are just as valid as when The Road to Serfdom was first published. ...

Road to Valour is the inspiring against-the-odds story of Gino Bartali the cyclist who made the greatest comeback in Tour de France history & continues to hold the record for the longest time-span between victories. Yet what ensured his permanent place in Italian hearts & minds were his actions in between when he secretly aided the Italian Resistance during World War II. Aili & Andres Mc Connon chronicle Bartalis journey starting in impoverished rural Tuscany where a scrawny mischievous boy painstakingly saves his money to buy a bicycle & before long is racking up wins throughout the country. At the age of 24 he stuns the world by winning the Tour de France becoming an international sports icon in the process. But Mussolinis Fascists hijack his victory for propaganda purposes derailing Bartalis career & as the Nazis occupy Italy Bartali undertakes dangerous missions to help those being targeted. He shelters a family of Jews in an apartment he financed with his cycling winnings & is able to smuggle counterfeit identity documents hidden in his bicycle past Nazi checkpoints under the guise of being a national hero in training. After the gruelling wartime years Bartali fights to rebuild his career as Italy emerges from the rubble. Despite numerous setbacks & a legendary snowstorm in the Alps the chain-smoking Chianti-loving 34-year-old underdog comes back & wins the most difficult endurance competition on earth
- the Tour de France. Bartalis inspiring performance helps unite his fractured homeland & restore pride & spirit to a country still reeling from war & despair. Based on nearly ten years of research in Italy France & Israel including interviews with Bartalis family former teammates a Holocaust survivor Bartali saved & many others this is the first book ever written about Bartali in English & the only book written in any language to fully explore the scope of Bartalis wartime work. Road to Valour is the breathtaking account of one mans unsung heroism & his resilience in the face of adversity. An epic tale of courage comeback & redemption it is the untold story of one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century.
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Another in our English Kitchen" series this traces the development of Anglo-Indian cookery in other words the curry in English & Scottish cookery books from its earliest appearance in the 18th century through to modern works by Camilla Punjabi & Marguerite Patten. It wanders the lanes & byways of the British occupation of India unearthing delightful accounts of Imperial eating & explaining how we have grown accustomed to the spice-box of the Raj. The broad intention is to reproduce early recipes for curry & accounts of Anglo-Indian food in their original words. The majority come from printed books but some are drawn from manuscripts. The narrative traces our enjoyment of Oriental flavours from the 17th century through to the first appearance of a recipe for curry in Hannah Glasse in 1747. Thereafter it looks at the various classes of cooks who produced popular & interesting recipes from the female cookbook authors of the 18th century to the club-cooks of Calcutta & London in the Regency to the crusty colonels of late Victorian England & the refined French-influenced chefs of the fin de siecle & pre-First World War days. By way of coda the authors consider modern recipes from authors such as Madhur Jaffrey & Sir Gulam Noons Chicken Tikka Masala Britains favourite dish. The whole is ornamented by tasty extracts from past literature on eating curries hither & beyond." ...

A searing account of George Orwell's observations of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire & Lancashire in the 1930s The Road to Wigan Pier" is a brilliant & bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over time. His graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice cramped slum housing dangerous mining conditions squalor hunger & growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty fury & great humanity. It crystallized the ideas that would be found in Orwell's later works & novels & remains a powerful portrait of poverty injustice & class divisions in Britain." ...

You think that the recession isnt biting? Look again. You think that the riots in August 2011 were unpredicted? Think again. 75 years after George Orwells classic expose on life in the North Stephen Armstrong returns to find that many things have changed but not always for the better. Here he finds how young girls go missing because of the intransigence of the benefits systems how fragile hope can be in the face of poverty & why the government stands in the way of a community helping itself. In his journey taking in Bradford Sheffield Liverpool & Wigan Armstrong reveals a society at the end of its tether abandoned by all those who speak in its name. ...

On the afternoon of August 15 1969 Richie Havens took the stage at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair welcoming a crowd of several hundred thousand to the green fields of Max Yasgurs farm. Havens was the first act
- the legendary festival years in the making was finally beginning. Nothing would be the same after. But the story of the legendary festival begins with Michael Lang a kid out of Bensonhurst Brooklyn who liked to smoke a joint & listen to jazz & who eventually found his way to Florida where he opened a head shop & produced his first festival
- Miami Pop featuring Jimi Hendrix Frank Zappa & others. In the late 60s after settling in Woodstock he began to envision a music & arts festival where folks could come & stay for a few days amid the rural beauty of upstate New York. The idea crystallized when Lang talked it over with Artie Kornfeld a songwriter & A & R man & with two other young men they formed Woodstock Ventures. They booked talent from Janis Joplin & the Who to the virtually unknown Santana & Crosby Stills & Nash; won over agents & promoters; brought in the Hog Farm commune to set up campgrounds; hired a peacekeeping force; took on fleets of volunteers; appeased the Yippies; & were run out of one town & found another site weeks before the festival. On the ground with the talent the townspeople & his handpicked crew Lang had a unique & panoramic perspective of the festival. Enhanced by interviews with others who were central to the making of the festival The Road to Woodstock" tells the story from inspiration to celebration capturing all the magic mayhem & mud in between."

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