In 1930...” Arabia`s Empty Quarter constituted the broadest expanse of unexplored territory outside the Antarctic continent...” The Explorers` Club Arabia`s vast Rub Al Khali desert is one of the world`s most extreme & inhospitable environments, & in 1930 the race was on to become the first European to cross what is the biggest sand desert on earth. The potential hardship was not to deter Bertram Thomas, the intrepid British explorer who set out to travel from south to north in the winter of 1930-31, guided by Omani Sheikh Saleh Bin Kalut al Rashidi al Kathiri. Challenged by the unknown, they walked for nearly 1, 000 kilometres from Salalah on the coast of Oman, through the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to Doha, the capital of Qatar; it was to be the first recorded crossing, dashing the hopes of Ibn Philby. Now, some 85 years later, another team of Omanis has taken on the challenge
- leading British explorer Mark Evans across the same stretch of desert. Crossing the Empty Quarter is a large format celebration of the journey in all its aspects. Combining extensive photography
- both archive & contemporary
- with an authoritative yet highly readable text, this book will be a unique exploration of the region as it was more than eighty years ago, & as it stands today.


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Some of the most beautiful views of London are those from the many bridges which span the River Thames. Millions of people cross over the Thames every day but most are too concerned with reaching their destination to notice the structures they use, let alone consider their history or the risks taken in building them. Triumphs of architecture & engineering, London's bridges have inspired artists as diverse as Dickens & Monet. From the elegant Richmond Bridge to the Gothic, quintessentially British Tower Bridge, they have formed the backdrop to battles, rebellions, pageantry & mysteries for two millennia. Crossing the River tells these stories, including the assassination of a dissident with a poisoned umbrella on Waterloo Bridge; the apparent suicide of ' God's banker', an Italian financier with links to the Vatican, the Masons & the Mafia; & the Marchioness tragedy & its controversial aftermath. Featuring illustrations & photographs old & new, this book will undoubtedly increase the reader's knowledge & appreciation of the bridges & the people who built them, & thereby enhance the pleasure of seeing them, whether at leisure or stuck in a traffic jam. ...

Thesiger is first of all a photographer & then a writer. He had to be convinced to write Arabian Sands by someone who had seen these photos. Extracts from this book accompany & comment the pictures. Thesiger has always regarded his five years with the Bedu in Arabia as the most important & rewarding years of his life. His portraits of his companions during the crossings of the Rub al Khali are as impressive as those of the landscape. ...

Award-winning journalist Wolfgang Bauer & photographer Stanislav Krupar were the first undercover reporters to document the journey of Syrian refugees from Egypt to Europe. Posing as English teachers in 2014, they were direct witnesses to the brutality of smuggler gangs, the processes of detainment & deportation, the dangers of sea-crossing on rickety boats, & the final furtive journey through Europe. Combining their own travels with other eyewitness accounts in the first book of reportage of its kind, Crossing the Sea brings to life both the systemic problems & the individual faces behind the crisis, & is a passionate appeal for more humanitarian refugee policies. ...

A new & indispensable companion for planning Thames Estuary passages. This set of tables enables navigators to select the best routes according to tide times. A set of tide tables, Imray charts, East Coast Pilot & now Crossing the Thames Estuary provide all the information that is needed to fully explore the estuary & coasts of Suffolk, Essex & Kent. Designed to help plan your journey across the complex waters of the Thames Estuary quickly, easily & accurately by using the tables provided. These tables are based on 32 routes with alternatives for Springs & Neaps & with a choice of speeds between three & seven knots. The time planning tables will answer questions such as: What is the preferred route? What time do I start to ensure sufficient water through swatchways or over banks? What is the best way to get the most help from the tide & still have sufficient water over the banks? The (South) East Coast of England captured Roger Gaspar's imagination back in 1959. Tiller Girl, built at Leigh-on-Sea in 1964, & now a West Mersea resident like Roger & his wife, has taken them safely & comfortably across the Estuary more than a few times. When you pass them (as surely you will) bear in mind that she was built for these waters & might not need as much water as you do! ...

A novel of the friendships & woes of two couples, which tells the story of their lives in lyrical, evocative prose by one of the finest American writers of the late 20th century. When two young couples meet for the first time during the Great Depression, they quickly find they have much in common: Charity Lang & Sally Morgan are both pregnant, while their husbands Sid & Larry both have jobs in the English department at the University of Wisconsin. Immediately a lifelong friendship is born, which becomes increasingly complex as they share decades of love, loyalty, vulnerability & conflict. Written from the perspective of the aging Larry Morgan, Crossing to Safety is a beautiful & deeply moving exploration of the struggle of four people to come to terms with the trials & tragedies of everyday life. With an introduction by Jane Smiley. Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) was the author of, among other novels, Remembering Laughter, 1937; A Shooting Star, 1961; Angle of Repose (Pulitzer Prize), 1971; The Spectator Bird (National Book award), 1977; Recapitulation, 1979. Three of his short stories have won O. Henry prizes, & in 1980 he received the Robert Kirsch award from the Los Angeles Times for his lifetime literary achievements. His collected stories were published in 1990. Jane Smiley is the author of many novels & works of non-fiction, including, most recently, ” Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel”, about the history & anatomy of the novel. Her most recent novel is ” Good Faith”. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for ”A Thousand Acres”, & was shortlisted for The Orange Prize in 2001 for Horse Heaven. ...

From the mid-fifteenth century to the close of the nineteenth, it is estimated that more than 12 million people from Africa were forced onto slave ships & transported to the Americas; at least 11 million survived the journey. Even after Britain banned the importation of African slaves in its colonies in 1807, & the U.S. followed suit in 1808, more than 3 million Africans made the terrible transit across the Atlantic. Slavery itself was not finally ended until Brazilian emancipation in 1888. Crossings explores the broad sweep of slavery across the Atlantic world, revealing the extraordinary efforts to end it as well as the remarkable degree to which slavery & the slave trade managed to survive, even to the present day. In the most authoritative history of the entire slave trade to date, James Walvin returns the emphasis of the story to its origins in Africa. It was here that the trade originated, here that the terrible ordeal of slaves began, & here that the scars remain today. Journeying across the ocean, Crossings also explores the history of Portugese, French & British colonies, as well as its development in the USA, & shows how Brazilian slavery was central to the development of the slave trade itself: that country tested techniques & methods for trading & slavery that were successfully exported to the Caribbean & the rest of the Americas in the following centuries. This book examines some vital unanswered questions, such as how did a system which the Western world had come to regard with distaste manage to survive for so long? & why were the British
- so fundamental in developing & perfecting the slave trade
- so prominent in its eradication? This groundbreaking study makes use of major new developments in research, rendering them available to a broad readership for the first time & offering a new understanding of one of the most important, & tragic, episodes in world history.

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Reinventing plant-based eating is what Tal Ronnen is all about. At his Los Angeles restaurant, Crossroads, vegans, vegetarians, & carnivores sit side by side & eat dishes that satisfy each of them. Ronnen`s cooking is Mediterranean first
- think warm bowls of tomato-sauced pappardelle, plates of spicy carrot salad, & crunchy flatbreads piled high with roasted vegetables
- & vegan second. Ronnen proves that the flavours we crave are easily replicated in dishes made without animal products. With accessible, unfussy recipes, Crossroads stresses simple preparations & fresh ingredients, & takes plant-based eating firmly out of the realm of hippie health food & into a cuisine that fits perfectly with today`s modern palate. After all, the backbones of Ronnen`s food-seasonal vegetables, beans, nuts, & grains-are what many of us are already eating daily. The recipes are photographed in sumptuous detail, & with more than 100 of them, this book is an indispensable resource for healthy, mindful eaters everywhere.

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This classic Reaktion title, now available in B-format, is a survey of crows, ravens, magpies & their relatives in myth, literature & life. It ranges from the raven sent out by Noah to the corvid deities of the Eskimo, to Taoist legends, Victorian novels & contemporary films. It will be of interest to anyone who has ever been intrigued, puzzled, annoyed or charmed by these wonderfully intelligent birds. ...

Shortlisted for the 2008 _ Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction_, ” Crow Country” is Mark Cocker`s brilliant description of his journeys in search of crows & ravens of Engl&, birds that obsessed him & changed his life for ever. Rooks & jackdaws are both members of the same bird family. To ornithologists the group is known as _the corvids_, to the layperson they are `crows`. But to the Mark Cocker these two species have become a fixation & a way of life. When he moved with his family to a rundown cottage in the Norfolk Broads he acquired first a naturalist`s perfect home in the countryside, then the keys to a secret landscape. Twice a day flight-lines of rooks & jackdaws passed over the house on their way to a roost in the Yare Valley. Following them down to the river one winter`s night, the author discovered a roiling, deafening flock of birds which rised at its peak to 40, 000. From the moment he watched the multitudes blossom as a mysterious dark flower above the night woods, these gloriously commonplace birds were unsheathed entirely from their ordinariness. Cocker goes in search of them, journeying from the cavernous, deadened heartland of South England to the hills of Dumfriesshire, experiencing spectacular failures alongside magical successes & epiphanies. Step by step he pieces together the complexities of the birds` inner lives, the historical depth of the British relationship with the rook & the unforeseen richness hidden in that sombre voice, a raucous crow song that he calls `our landscape made audible`.” Crow Country” is a prose poem in a long tradition of English pastoral writing. It is also a celebration of the Norfolk countryside, of its oceanic flatness, its immense skies & of the human intimacies which have shaped it from generation to generation. Yet, the book is also a powerful restatement of the central importance of nature in human affairs. It asks us to recall that ` Crow Country` is not `ours`. It`s a landscape which we cohabit with thousands of other species & is all the richer for these complex fellowships. ” Crow Country” is the perfect companion to the wonderful * Birds Britannica*.‘ Luminously beautiful & dartingly intelligent’ _ Richard Mabey_ ...