Marco Polo (1254-1329) has achieved an almost archetypal status as a traveller & his Travels is one of the first great travel books of Western literature outside the ancient world. The Travels recounts Polos journey to the eastern court of Kublai Khan the chieftain of the Mongol empire which covered the Asian continent but which was almost unknown to Polos contemporaries. Encompassing a twenty-four year period from 1721 Polos account details his travels in the service of the empire from Beijing to northern India & ends with the remarkable story of Polos return voyage from the Chinese port of Amoy to the Persian Gulf. Alternately factual & fantastic Polos prose at once reveals the medieval imaginations limits & captures the wonder of subsequent travel writers when faced with the unfamiliar the exotic or the unknown. ...

The newest volume in Sterling Signatures successful Illustrated Edition" series takes readers on a fascinating journey into a world once unknown. Marco Polo almost single-handedly introduced fourteenth-century Europe to the civilizations of Central Asia & China. Now this stunningly illustrated volume edited by renowned historian Morris Rossabi offers the complete text of Polos travelogue (in the respected Yule-Cordier translation) enhanced with more than 200 images
- including illuminated manuscripts paintings photographs & maps. Sidebars & dozens of informative footnotes combine to present Polo & his travels in a captivating new light."
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In 1878 Robert Louis Stevenson was suffering from poor health struggling to survive on the income derived from his writings & tormented by his infatuation with Fanny Osbourne a married American woman. His response was to embark on a journey through the Cevennes with a donkey Modestine & a notebook which he later transformed into Travels with a Donkey. Just a few months after publication Stevenson was off again this time crossing the Atlantic & the breadth of America in the hope of being re-united with Fanny an experience he recorded in The Amateur Emigrant. Both pieces are classics of travel writings which reveal as much about Stevenson's character as the landscape he travels through. ...

Travels With Boogie" is the story of two city slickers
- one an unattractive but streetwise mongrel from Stockwell the other the
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In 1960 John Steinbeck set out to rediscover & document his native land; accompanied only by his dog he travelled all across the United States in a pick-up truck. This Penguin Classics" edition of " Travels with Charley"

Includes:: an introduction by Jay Parini. When he was almost sixty years old worried that he might have lost touch with the sights the sounds & the essence of America's people Steinbeck took note of his itchy feet & prepared to travel. He was accompanied by his French poodle Charley diplomat & watchdog across the states of America from Maine to California. Moving through the woods & deserts dirt tracks & highways to large cities & glorious wildernesses Steinbeck observed
- with remarkable honesty & insight with a humorous & sometimes sceptical eye
- America & the Americans who inhabited it. What he saw was a lonely generous nation too packed with individuals for single judgements; what he saw made him proud angry sympathetic & elated. His vision of how the world was changing still speaks to us prophetically through the decades. John Steinbeck (1902-68) winner of the Pulitzer Prize & the Nobel Prize for literature is remembered as one of the greatest & best-loved American writers of the twentieth century. During the Second World War Steinbeck served as a war correspondent his journalism later collected in " Once There Was a War" (1958) & he was awarded the Norwegian Cross of Freedom for his portrayal in " The Moon is Down" (1942) of Resistance efforts in northern Europe. His best-known works include the epics " The Grapes of Wrath" (1939) & " East of Eden" (1952) & his tragic novella " Of Mice & Men" (1937). John Steinbeck's complete works are published in " Penguin Modern Classics". If you enjoyed " Travels with Charley" you might like " Cannery Row" also available in " Penguin Modern Classics". " Pure delight a pungent potpourri of places & people". (" The New York Times Book Review")."



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After a thirty-year career as high profile vet columnist presenter & author Bruce Fogle
- the UKs bestselling cat & dog writer
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Henry Pulling a retired bank manager meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over fifty years at what he supposes to be his mothers funeral. Soon after she persuades Henry to abandon Southwood his dahlias & the Major next door to travel her way Brighton Paris Istanbul Paraguay. Through Aunt Augusta a veteran of Europes hotel bedrooms Henry joins a shiftless twilight society: mixing with hippies war criminals CIA men; smoking pot breaking all the currency regulations & eventually coming alive after a dull suburban life. In Travels with my Aunt Graham Greene not only gives us intoxicating entertainment but also confronts us with some of the most perplexing of human dilemmas. ...

Mary OHaras life story is something only the most inspired press agent could ever hope to concoct New York Times An aura of genius attends her something indefinable which goes straight to the heart Evening Press Dublin Mary OHara won global acclaim as a singer & harpist. Her recordings sold by their millions & in her concerts & television shows audiences worldwide were thrilled by the warmth of her personality. Yet behind this public success lay a personal tragedy. Born in the west of Ireland & educated in a convent school she became a singing star at the age of 16. She fell in love with a young America poet Richard Selig but their marriage only lasted 15 months before his tragic death. Overwhelmed by grief Mary continued to sing while searching for a convent in which to live the remainder of her life in prayer & silence. She found the answer at the strict Benedictine monastery of Stanbrook in the West Midlands. 12 years later spiritually enriched but fragile in health she emerged & restarted her career winning even wider praise on her worldwide tours. She had her own season at the London Palladium appeared on the Royal Variety Show sang at all the major concert halls in the English-speaking world & made frequent guest appearances on television chat shows. Her television shows Minstrel of the Dawn & Mary OHara & Friends drew viewers by the millions. Pressed to tell her story she wrote The Scent of the Roses (Michael Joseph 1980 Fontana paperback 1981) which quickly became a best seller. Travels with My Harp takes up the story with many amusing anecdotes from concert tours around the world but also sheds new light on her earlier years. In 1994 she decided it was time to retire from the stage. Two years later a new life of undreamed of adventure & unexpected challenges opened up when her husbands work (she remarried in 1985) took the couple first to Kenya & later Tanzania. The six years spent in Africa opened up a whole new world of rich rewarding experiences such as her work with children born with AIDS. She also discovered a new talent & the book is illustrated with a selection of her expressive sketches of African people she came to know. For over half a century Mary OHaras voice has delighted audiences all over the world & her recordings continue to sell. Her story is an inspiring tale of triumph over tragedy helped by her deep religious faith & many friendships with other performers recounted with warmth & humour in this updated version of her autobiography. Mary OHara now lives with her husband on the Aran Islands off the West coast of Ireland but still travels & lectures. ...

Covering the whole of the UK from Northern Scotland to the South Coast. The loss of many ships & men is detailed in Trawler Disasters. Fishing is Britains deadliest industry
- & many thousands have died in the pursuit of cod herring haddock mackerel & a host of other fish so that we can feast on them. Perhaps the most famous of recent disasters was the loss of the Gaul a Hull-based trawler which disappeared in the Arctic in February 1974. Its story has become one of conspiracy theory espionage & cover-up & it wasnt until the wreck was found & investigated that many of these theories were laid to rest. Patricia ODriscoll & John Nicklin tell the story of the tragic losses of a multitude of ships which were lost in the period from the end of the War until the Cod War a time when Britains bountiful seas were being opened to foreign competition after the nation joined the EEC. Fishing once employed over half a million people in the UK & its recent history is one of decline. It is still a story of tragedy as men still die & boats are still lost to the elements. Each tragedy hits a port hard with everyone feeling the loss of one of their own. From the East Coast to the West from Northern Scotland to Southern England no part of Britains coast has been immune to the loss of a fishing boat & its crew.
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TRAWLERMAN is the memoir of Jimmy Buchan
- skipper of the Amity II a fishing vessel based in Peterhead Europe's largest fishing
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