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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Author Cara Frost-Sharratt takes the reader on a gastronomic tour around London, searching out the best bakers, butchers, cheesemongers, chocolatiers, delicatessens, fishmongers, food halls, farmers` markets, grocers, wine merchants & world food stores, visiting famous names & uncovering hidden gems. Buying food from specialist shops makes the whole experience more meaningful. Good food shopping will nourish the body & good food shopping will nourish the soul. Maps at the beginning of every chapter will help you find your way to your chosen shop, market or experience, & there are stunning colour photographs of the food & the people involved. The book

Includes:: ` While you`re in the area` listings so you can really make a day of it & discover all the location has to offer. Whether you`re looking for freshly baked bread, exquisite chocolates or exotic fare from across the globe, London has it all, & this book presents the best of the delights on offer.

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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. ...

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. ...

Asia is a delicious & unique melting pot of flavors with the diverse cuisines reflecting the various cultural & ethnic groups that call it home. Award-winning writer John Krich has lived & traveled across Asia for the last decade as the food correspondent for the Asian Wall Street Journal. The 50 amazing food stories he shares in this book are organized around eight general themes & cover the following countries: China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Macau, Taiwan, The Philippines, Japan, Korea, Thail&, Laos, Vietnam. Drawing on his culinary adventures & knowledge, Krich discusses food, ingredients & eateries everything from strange & wacky dishes to comfort food & fine imperial dining. Foodies will appreciate his insights & even gourmands will enjoy a chuckle as they digest what is being served.” ...

This is Andre Brink`s story of a life lived in tumultuous times. He describes with searing honesty his conflicting experiences of growing up in a world where innocence was always surrounded by violence & storytelling was a means of reconciling the stark contrasts of his world. His time spent in Paris in the 1960s confirmed in him the desire to become a writer but his opposition to the apartheid establishment resulted in years of harassment by the South African secret police; it also led to extraordinary friendships with leaders of the ANC in exile. A Fork in the Road is Andre Brink`s love song to the country where he was born & where, despite recent tragedies, he still lives today. ...

Tales of food, pleasure & discovery on the road. Join us at the table for this 34-course banquet of original stories from food-obsessed writers & chefs sharing their life-changing food experiences. The dubious joy of a twinkie, the hunger-sauced rhapsody of fish heads, the grand celebration of an Indian Wedding feast; the things we eat & the people we eat with remain powerful signposts in our memories, long after the plates have been cleared. Tuck in, & bon appetit! ...