This is the story of how, over a period of one hundred & ninety-two days, I was torn away from the life I knew & loved, & dragged down to the depths of despair; of how I endured enforced isolation & near-starvation at the hands of Somali pirates; & of how I made a choice to survive by any & all means that I could muster. In September 2011 Judith Tebbutt & her husband David set out on an adventurous holiday to Kenya. A couple for thirty-three years, they had first met in Zambia: Africa had played a major part in their life together. After a joyous week on safari in the Masai Mara, they flew on to a beach resort forty kilometres south of Somalia. & there, in the early hours of 11 September, tragedy struck them. Judith was torn away from David by a band of armed pirates, dragged over sea & land to a village in the arid heart of lawless Somalia, & there held hostage in a squalid room, a ransom on her head. There, too, she learned the terrible truth that the responsibility of securing her release now rested with her son Ollie. Powerful, moving & at times quite devastating, this is Judith Tebbutt`s story in her own words. ...

Patronising advice by a doctor at a retirement course to `walk a couple of miles a day` challenges architect Sean Rothery to take a proper walk & so, at the age of sixty-five, he sets out to walk the GR5, the Grande Randonee Cinq. From the steely grey North Sea to the intense blue Mediterranean, Sean`s 2, 300km-long route follows a network of old trails, forest paths, canal banks, Alpine valleys & passes. Along the way, he recounts some of his youthful enterprises, including cycling from Dieppe to Rome in the ruins of post-war Europe & a climbing accident in 1967 that saw him challenge another doctor`s prognosis. Ghosts of the past are revisited, most poignantly in the Alps where two friends died in climbing accidents, but also alongside the ruins of First World War trenches. Sketchbook in h&, Sean savours the landscape, history & culture as he passes from one country to another. Every day he looks out for the distinctive red-&-white waymarks of the GR5
- not an easy task, especially when change in the name of progress has cleared swathes of trails. This enthralling diary of a long walk south will have the reader urging the author on to the last step of the way.
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A gripping tale of conflict & survival that has inspired millions of young readers & adults alike It`s 1985, & southern Sudan is ravaged by war. Eleven-year-old Salva is forced to flee on foot when his village is attacked. Braving every imaginable hardship
- including killer lions & hungry crocodiles
- Salva becomes one of the `lost boys` of Sudan, travelling the African continent on foot in search of his family & a safe place to stay. Years later, a girl named Nya walks for hours each day to fetch water for her family. The walk is gruelling & leaves no time for school. But there is unexpected hope, as Salva`s story goes on to intersect with Nya`s in an astonishing & moving way.

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In 1894, Martin Conway became the first man to walk the Alps `from end to end` when he completed a 1, 000-mile journey from the Col de Tende in Italy to the summit of the Ankogel in Austria. On a midsummer`s morning, nearly 120 years later, Simon Thompson followed in his footsteps, setting out to explore both the mountains & the man. A charming rogue who led a `fantastically eventful` life, according to The Times, Conway was a climber & pioneering explorer of the Himalaya, Spitsbergen, the Andes & Patagonia; a serial pursuer of American heiresses; an historian, collector & Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge; a company director & stock market promoter of dubious gold mines & non-existent rubber forests; the founder of the Imperial War Museum; the first foreigner to see the Russian crown jewels after the revolution; a successful journalist & author of over thirty books; a liberal politician; & a conservative MP. Shortly before he died, he was created 1st Baron Conway of Allington. Conway was a clubbable man who counted Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, J. P. Morgan, John Ruskin, Mark Twain & Edward Whymper among his many friends & acquaintances. An imperialist, a dreamer, a liar & a cheat, Conway `walked in sunshine all his life`, according to contemporaries, but he was also a restless, discontented man, constantly searching for meaning & purpose in his life. & that search that led him back, time & time again, to the Alps. In A Long Walk with Lord Conway, Simon Thompson retraces Conway`s long journey over the peaks, passes & glaciers of the Alps & rediscovers the life of a complex & remarkable English adventurer. ...

A Long Way Down
- Nick Hornby`s hilarious bestseller now a major motion picture starring Pierce Brosnan. ` Can I explain why I
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Irene Bobs loves fast driving. Her husband is the best car salesman in rural south eastern Australia. Together they embark upon the Redex Trial, a brutal car race around the continent, over roads no car can ever quite survive. Set during the 1950s in the dying embers of the British Empire, A Long Way from Home is a thrilling high-speed story, illuminating a country`s relationship with its own ancient culture, & the love made & hurt caused along the way. ...

Leah Chishugi grew up in eastern Congo but, aged seventeen, she moved to Kigali, the Rwandan capital, to work as a model. She married & had a son. Then in 1994 she was caught up in the horrific conflict, & escaped only after being left for dead under a pile of corpses. She fled with her son to Uganda, then South Africa where she was miraculously reunited with her husband whom she believed dead. Leah finally settled in the UK where she was granted asylum & became a nurse. After her mother died, Leah decided to set up a charity to help the women & children of eastern Congo
- victims of continuing war atrocities. A LONG WAY FROM PARADISE is a deeply courageous narrative of one woman`s survival of personal trauma & finding a greater purpose in life through devotion to the service of others.
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A Long Way Gone tells how, at the age of 12 years old, Ishmael Beah fled attacking rebels in his home country of Sierra Leone & wandered a land rendered unrecognisable by violence. At 13, he was picked up by the government army, & a gentle-hearted boy was forced to kill in the battles. At 26 & having moved to New York, the author wrote these riveting & heart-rending memoirs describing life as a child soldier, his journey through Sierra Leone, & how he survived. In a world with more than 50 conflicts, it is estimated there are some 300, 000 child soldiers. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, & novelists have tried to imagine their lives, but until now, there has not been a first-hand account from someone who came through this hell & survived. ...

Aged five, Saroo Brierley was separated from his older brother & ended up alone on the streets of Calcutta. After weeks surviving alone, he was taken into an orphanage & later adopted by an Australian couple. Although happy with his new family, Saroo couldn`t help but think about the family he`d lost. Years later, he swapped the map of India on his wall for Google Earth scouring it for landmarks he recognised from his childhood. One day, he saw something he recognised. & he set off on a journey to find his mother, half a world away... Saroo Brierley is an India born Australian businessman. He grew up with an adopted family in Tasmania, Australia. ...

The no. 1 bestseller from the author of Kolymsky Heights. ” As significant as.. .le Carre in bringing a gritty new realism to the thriller.” (Sunday Telegraph). An ancient scroll has been discovered in Israel. Caspar Laing, a young & brilliant professor, is asked to decipher it. It contains the directions to the secret location of a priceless artefact. As he makes the treacherous journey into the desert, he is joined by dangerous rivals determined to claim the prize. He must win the race at all costs. ” Ceaselessly gripping.. .A joy to devour.”. (The Times). ” Brilliantly entertaining.” (Sunday Express). ...