The Scilly Isles, one of the most remote parts of Engl&, are in crisis. With the small population constantly leaving the islands for the mainl&, those left behind are having to work harder & harder to make a living, & this summer is crunch time for many of them. Nigel Farrell is our guide through a community he has grown to know & love, filming the islanders over the last two years for the popular BBC2 series ` An Island Parish`. He introduces us to Father Guy, the new priest; another newcomer, Heike, the islands` German vet & Plymouth policewoman Nikki, who set some hearts aflutter on her summer placement last year. With a cast of fascinating characters & a beautiful setting, this is the story of the events of summer in an idiosyncratic world that is slipping away. Come August Bank Holiday, how will the islanders have fared? ...

With vivid colors, bold simplicity, & the use of stone, stucco, & tile, the Patmos house of renowned interior designer John Stefanidis is a source of inspiration for homeowners & decorators worldwide. John Stefanidis has created a quintessential island house in Patmos, Greece. Its bold use of Mediterranean colors, natural materials, & crisp, clean lines epitomize this comfortable yet sophisticated style, which is surprisingly easy to evoke at home. Sun-drenched rooms make use of such materials as tile, stone, & stucco. One of the hallmarks of the house is its emphasis on indoor/outdoor living: spaces such as the ”garden rooms” & the ”breakfast terrace” are outside, yet are thought of as parts of the house. The exquisite gardens are further evidence of a style that easily flows from the inside to the outside of this beautiful & inspiring home. In his own words, Stefanidis explains how the house has evolved over many years, reflecting the designer`s love for the isl&, his original use of vibrant color, his eclectic & cosmopolitan aesthetic, & a desire to combine comfort with style. With two hundred vibrant photographs, the book demonstrates how the picturesque scenery of an island retreat & its rich history & culture provide inspiration for present-day living. ...

For centuries following its reestablishment as Constantinople in AD 330, Istanbul served as the capital of three great empires: Roman, Byzantine, & Ottoman. The city`s maze-like streets & high balconies, its steep alleys, flower gardens, & forested hillsides remain soaked in the vestiges of that imperial past, & it is to that past & to Istanbul`s unearthly moods & waters that so many writers & diarists journeyed in search of escape, knowledge, happiness, or sheer wonderment. An Istanbul Anthology takes us on a nostalgic journey through the city with travelers` accounts of the sights, smells, & sounds of Istanbul`s bazaars & coffeehouses, its grand palaces & gardens, crumbling buildings, & ancient churches & mosques, & the waters that so haunt & define it. With writers such as Gustave Flaubert, Pierre Loti, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, & Andre Gide, we discover & rediscover the many delights of this great city of antiquity, meeting point of East & West, & gateway to peoples & civilizations. About the series: The elegant, pocket-sized volumes in the AUC Press Anthology series feature the writings & observations of travel writers & diarists through the centuries. Vivid & evocative travelers` accounts of some of the world`s great cities & regions are enhanced by the exquisite vintage design in small hardback format that make the books ideal gift books as well as perfect travel companions. Designed on cream paper stock & beautifully illustrated with line drawings & archival photographs.” ...

How does an Italian become Italian? Or an Englishman English, for that matter? Are foreigners born, or made? In ” Italian Education, the sequel to his bestselling ” Italian Neighbours”, Tim Parks focuses on his own young children in the small village near Verona where he lives, building a fascinating picture of the contemporary Italian family at school, at home, at work & at play. The result is a delight: at once a family book & a travel book, not quite enamoured with either children or Italy, but always affectionate, always amused & always amusing.” Tim Parks is Italian enough to understand the country, foreign enough to see its peculiarities & talented enough to make them funny without resorting to cliché”
- * Daily Express*
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Sunshine, warmth, lemon blossom... Springtime in glorious Southern Italy can go to your head. Especially if you are escaping an overbearing husb&, the embarrassingly public loss of your company, an interfering mother who still tries to run your life or the pain of a husband`s affair with a girl young enough to be his daughter. As the Italian sun ripens the lemons in the groves that tumble down the hillsides & the Mediterranean dazzles beneath them, assertive Angela, extrovert Sylvie, unconfident Claire & mousy Monica find burgeoning friendship & begin to blossom in quite unexpected ways. Packed with memorable characters
- from the acid-tongued Grand Old Man of Modern Art who lives next door
- to the aspiring gigolo who thinks nothing of a forty year age gap, Maeve Haran`s new novel is a witty & entertaining reminder of why going a little mad in the sun can sometimes be exactly what you need.

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We not only live in the air, we live because of it. At ground level air transforms miraculously; it wraps our planet in a blanket of warmth, while the outer layer of our atmosphere soaks up violent flares from the sun. In this fascinating celebration of the Earth`s fragile atmosphere, Gabrielle Walker traces a journey of groundbreaking scientific discovery from the first experiments in the Renaissance to recent findings in space. ...

Permanently crippled in a fall from a horse, Liz Fordred refused to accept the limitations assumed for her in the Rhodesia of the late 1970's. She met & eventually married an equally (if more quietly) determined accident survivor named Pete Fordred, & together they hatched an audacious plan: to build a boat & sail around the world. That they lived more than 1, 000 miles from the ocean & had never sailed before would not stop them. Neither would their lack of money or the fact that basic boat gear was impossible to obtain in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Fabricating metal parts, learning carpentry, & resolutely tackling one seemingly insoluble problem after another, they built their boat in three years, trucked it to the South African coast, rigged it, learned to sail, & ultimately sailed the boat to America. In building the boat, Liz & Pete built their marriage & rebuilt their lives. Fordred's tone is forthright, good-humored, warm, & engaging. The reader can't help but like her. She would be a delightful shipmate. Her matter-of-fact descriptions of their challenges on shore & at sea reveal seemingly inexhaustible reservoirs of fortitude & optimism. All sailors dread those trips to the foredeck to change headsails in a storm, but they'll gain a new perspective on it through the eyes of a paraplegic. Thirty-six hours on deck battling high wind & seas is a hardship under any circumstances, but how much more so unable to st&, with nonfunctional stomach & back muscles, with your legs in spasm, with no way to get down to the cabin to cook or go to the bathroom? With no electronic navigation equipment aboard, they depended on Liz's celestial navigation. Imagine taking a sun sight with a sextant & no leg support on a rolling deck. This inspiring tale of triumph against long odds, now available for the first time in paperback, features a new endorsement from Christopher Reeve. ...

Escape to the sunlight & colour of a wild island in the south Aegean. When Jennifer moves alone into the Honey Factory on a tiny Greek isl&, bringing a laptop, her hiking boots & plans for a peaceful life, she has no idea what surprises are in store. Diving into an exciting new life with a fisherman, she learns something every day. Joining the dancing at local festivals & helping at a cafe on the beach, surviving winter storms & finding a canine companion, she is faced with both challenges & rewards, & discovers that to become an island woman she must live small & think big. ...

January 1895. On a freezing morning in the heart of Paris, an army officer, Georges Picquart, witnesses a convicted spy, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, being publicly humiliated in front of twenty thousand spectators baying ` Death to the Jew!` The officer is rewarded with promotion: Picquart is made the French army`s youngest colonel & put in command of `the Statistical Section`
- the shadowy intelligence unit that tracked down Dreyfus. The spy, meanwhile, is given a punishment of medieval cruelty: Dreyfus is shipped off to a lifetime of solitary confinement on Devil`s Island
- unable to speak to anyone, not even his guards, his case seems closed forever. But gradually Picquart comes to believe there is something rotten at the heart of the Statistical Section. When he discovers another German spy operating on French soil, his superiors are oddly reluctant to pursue it. Despite official warnings, Picquart persists, & soon the officer & the spy are in the same predicament. Narrated by Picquart, An Officer & a Spy is a compelling recreation of a scandal that became the most famous miscarriage of justice in history. Compelling, too, are the echoes for our modern world: an intelligence agency gone rogue, justice corrupted in the name of national security, a newspaper witch-hunt of a persecuted minority, & the age-old instinct of those in power to cover-up their crimes.

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Storytelling kept alive the myths, legends & history of the Blasket Islands. In her old age, Peig Sayers, recounted her life to her son who recorded the tale in this book. She recalls the events of her life & her simple philosophy in a moving poetic style. Such everyday tasks as collecting turf for roots, catching & eating seals, & preparing for a wake are depicted alongside such momentous events as drownings at sea, pilgrimages, & the spread of the news of the Easter uprising in 1916. There were `clouds of sorrow`, but helping to lift them was the friendship she found in the community, which `was like a little rose in the wilderness`. The Blasket Islands are three miles off Irelands Dingle Peninsula. Until their evacuation just after the Second World War, the lives of the 150 or so Blasket Islanders had remained unchanged for centuries. A rich oral tradition of story-telling, poetry, & folktales kept alive the legends & history of the islands, & has made their literature famous throughout the world. The ”7 Blasket Island” books published by OUP contain memoirs & reminiscences from within this literary tradition, evoking a way of life which has now vanished. ...