On November 12, 1912, a rescue team trekking across Antarctica`s Great Ice Barrier finally found what they sought
- the snow-covered
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` Oi, Hilda, the sign outside says you`re frying today but I ain`t seeing nothing done in ere!` The voice cut through my daydream, startling me into remembering where I was: standing in the fish-&-chip shop I worked in. We opened for business at 5 p.m. & already there was a queue of hungry customers on the cobbled street of London`s East End. In 1950s & 60s Bermondsey, the fish-&-chip shop was at the centre of the community. & at the heart of the chippy itself was ` Hooray` Hilda Kemp, a spirited matriarch who dispensed fish suppers & an abundance of sympathy to a now-vanished world of East Enders. For ` Hooray` Hilda knew all to well what it was like to feel real, aching hunger. Growing up in the slums of 1920s south-east London, the daughter of a violent alcoholic who drank away his wages rather than put food on the table, she could spot when a customer was in need & would sneak them an extra big portion of chips, on the house. As Hilda works in the chippy six days a week
- cutting the potatoes & frying the fish, yesterday`s rag becoming today`s dinner plate
- she hears all the gossip from the close-knit community. There are rumours that the gang wars are hotting up: the Richardsons & the Krays are playing out their fights across south-east London. & the industrial strike is carrying on for a painfully long time for the mothers with many mouths to feed. At home, Hilda`s children are latchkey kids, letting themselves in from school & helping themselves to whatever is in the larder until she gets in from her long, hard day at work. Despite tragedy striking her family, Hilda never complained of the loss of her daughter at a tragically young age, nor the tough upbringing she narrowly escaped. With a cast of colourful characters
- dirty ragamuffins, struggling housewives, rough-diamond gang members
- ` Hooray` Hilda`s story is one of grit, romance, nostalgia & British endurance. Told to her granddaughter Cathryn, this memoir is the uplifting sequel to `WE AIN`T GOT NO DRINK, PA` & is a testament to a woman who lived life to the full, who enjoyed laughter & loved fiercely
- even though her heart was broken many times over.




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Riding crop & fishing rod forever in h&, the author`s stories centre on the two great driving forces for renewal in his life: horses & fishing both of which, he says, are ”cheaper than seeing a shrink”. Thus we have two books in one: ” Seawitched” & ” Horse Medicine”, this author`s solution for surviving the modern world & his guide to healing oneself. The author was born & grew up in the Cape in South Africa, which made an indelible impression on him. & this is where his stories start, on the stunning beaches of his boyhood home. In 1980, Julian & his wife left South Africa for political reasons, so his story continues across the ocean in the cool, cathedral-like forests & heathery moors of Sussex in England (home of the fabled Winnie-the-Pooh). Later, further travels took him to California & the American Northwest. ”A Fisherman in the Saddle” celebrates life, love & family & the ties that bind us to nature & the world. It will teach you how to buy a horse, how not to buy a dog, how to catch a kabeljou, stay dry in the rain & avoid dangerous women. There is romance here as well as clear-eyed truth. ...

A recently discovered gem from the bestselling author of Somewhere Towards the End & Alive, Alive Oh!: the charming & vivacious diary of Diana Athill`s holiday to Florence in the late 1940s. In August 1947, Diana Athill travelled to Florence by the Golden Arrow train for a two-week holiday with her good friend Pen. In this playful diary of that trip, Athill recorded her observations & adventures
- eating with (and paid for by) the hopeful men they meet on their travels, admiring architectural sights, sampling delicious pastries, eking out their budget & getting into scrapes. Written with an arresting immediacy & infused with an exhilarating joie de vivre, A Florence Diary is a bright, colourful evocation of a time long lost, & a vibrant portrait of a city that will be deliciously familiar to any contemporary traveller.
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'I not only think about food all day, but I dream about it all night.' Henry Miller This is a book about food, & the food that's in books. Tucked away in many great literary works are some essential truths on the subject of consumption: that someone is always disappointed when a tart is halved; that roasted udder is best kept a once-in-a-lifetime experience; that oranges should always be eaten in private; that toast is criminally under-appreciated, though even James Bond can't get enough of it. Other less well-known truths include the fact that kippers can be cooked on an iron; gravy expectation is high amongst commercial gentlemen; & every child at some time sees their name written in treacle. These extracts
- some hilarious, some tragic, some downright bizarre
- demonstrate that food is one of the great overlooked themes of literature, & pursuing this theme is a good excuse to re-read some classics. Each of the"ations if fully references, so that the reader can 'source' the favoured titbits, & seek out further treats for themselves.

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We are a weird species. Like other species, we have a culture. But by comparison with other species, we are strangely unstable: human cultures self-transform, diverge, & multiply with bewildering speed. They vary, radically & rapidly, from time to time & place to place. & the way we live
- our manners, morals, habits, experiences, relationships, technology, values
- seems to be changing at an ever accelerating pace. The effects can be dislocating, baffling, sometimes terrifying. Why is this? In A Foot in the River, best-selling historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto sifts through the evidence & offers some radical answers to these very big questions about the human species & its history
- & speculates on what these answers might mean for our future. Combining insights from a huge range of disciplines, including history, biology, anthropology, archaeology, philosophy, sociology, ethology, zoology, primatology, psychology, linguistics, the cognitive sciences, & even business studies, he argues that culture is exempt from evolution. Ultimately, no environmental conditions, no genetic legacy, no predictable patterns, no scientific laws determine our behaviour. We can consequently make & remake our world in the freedom of unconstrained imaginations. A revolutionary book which challenges scientistic assumptions about culture & how & why cultural change happens, A Foot in the River comes to conclusions which readers may well find by turns both daunting & also potentially hugely liberating.


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A Football Fan’s Guide to Europe is a portable supporters’ guide, with clubs & cities chosen for their footballing ability & location’s visibility. The guide has been designed as a handy reference tool for the growing number of fans who travel to watch their team play in Europe & is a guide to not only the opposition but to making the most of your time in the host venue. A Football Fan’s Guide to Europe features 26 countries, 49 cities & 61 clubs from across the continent who frequently feature in the UEFA Champion’s & Europa leagues. Country profiles look at football culture & history, & feature mini guides to orientate you before arrival. City guides pin point places to dine & socialise, plus the three best tourist attractions on h&. Last but by no means least, the football club guides are full with information on teams, stadium, transport, recent year’s history, statistics, player profiles, archive facts & colour images. ...

` It is not enough merely to espouse a noble vision, the Dalai Lama tells us
- we need to move toward it. The Dalai Lama`s vision
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A riveting insider`s account of Dian Fossey`s mountain gorilla camp. In A Forest in the Clouds, John Fowler takes us into the world of Karisoke Research Center, the remote mountain gorilla camp of Dr. Dian Fossey, a few years prior to her gruesome murder. Drawn to the adventure & promise of learning the science of studying mountain gorillas amid the beauty of Central Africa`s cloud forest, Fowler soon learns the cold harsh realities of life inside Fossey`s enclave ten thousand feet up in the Virunga Volcanoes. Instead of the intrepid scientist he had admired in the pages of National Geographic, Fowler finds a chain-smoking, hard-drinking woman bullying her staff into submission. While pressures mount from powers beyond Karisoke in an effort to extricate Fossey from her domain of thirteen years, she brings new students in to serve her most pressing need to hang on to the remote research camp that has become her mountain home. Increasingly bizarre behaviour has targeted Fossey for extrication by an ever-growing group of detractors from conservation & research organisations to the Rwandan government. Amid the turmoil, Fowler must abandon his own research assignments to assuage the troubled Fossey as she orders him on illegal treks across the border into Zaire, over volcanoes, in search of missing gorillas, & to serve as surrogate parent to an orphaned baby ape in preparation for its traumatic re-introduction into a wild gorilla group. This riveting story is the only first-person account from inside Dian Fossey`s beleaguered camp. Fowler must come to grips with his own aspirations, career objectives & disappointments as he develops the physical endurance to keep up with mountain gorillas over volcanic terrain in icy downpours above ten thousand feet, only to be affronted by the frightening charges of indignant giant silverbacks or to be treed by aggressive forest buffalos. Back in camp, he must nurture the sensitivity & patience needed for the demands of rehabilitating an orphaned baby gorilla.A Forest in the Clouds takes the armchair adventurer on a journey into an extraordinary world that now only exists in the memories of the very few who knew it. ...

This unique collection of folktales, compiled by Rina Singh, encourages us to rethink our relationship with trees through the telling of fantastic tales filled with dancing palms, healing fig trees & magical cherry blossoms. Illustrated in radiant hues by artist Helen Cann & containing notes about the individual characteristics of each species, this vibrant collection will encourage children & adults alike to appreciate the essential place of trees in our lives, & help them to translate their appreciation into the desire to protect the trees of the world. ...