Take a three-generation family holiday in Cuba in the company of Dervla Murphy, her daughter & three young granddaughters & you have a Swallows & Amazon like adventure in the Caribean as they trek into the hills & along the coast as a family, camping out on empty beaches beneath the stars & relishing the ubiquitous Cuban hospitality. But this is no more than the joyful start of a fully-fledged quest to understand the unique society created by the Cuban Revolution. For Dervla returns alone to explore the mountains, coastal swamps & decaying cities, investigating the experience of modern Cuba with her particular, candid curiosity. Through her own research & through conversations with Fidelistas & their critics alike, The Island That Dared builds a complex picture of a people struggling to retain their identity in the face of insistent hostility of the government of the United States. ...

The creation myth of the US begins with the puritans of the Mayflower who went on to build the most powerful nation on earth. This is the story of the passengers aboard its sister ship, the Seaflower, who in 1630 founded a rival colony on an isolated Caribbean island called Providence. Their crops failed, slaves revolted, & as crisis loomed the settlers turned to piracy. After the colony was wiped out by the Spanish Providence was forgotten in Engl&, but the drama was re-played by those who settled the island 100 years later, now providing a fascinating microcosm of the Atlantic story. ...

London`s streets, built up over more than two thousand years, are a maze of history, cultures & stories. In his fantastically detailed maps of the city, Stephen Walter translates these elements into a tangle of insightful yet humorous words & symbols that make up a complex of hidden meanings & wider contradictions. Testament to Walter`s skill & importance as a cartographer, his groundbreaking, oversized map The Island was one of only two works by contemporary artists to feature in the seminal Magnificent Maps exhibition held at the British Library in 2010, the other by Grayson Perry & was exhibited together with some of the most important maps in history, such as Pierre Desceliers`s 1550 world map. The work, which reimagines London as an insular body of land surrounded by water, has now been reconfigured & turned into Walter`s own version of a London street atlas, with readers able to explore his unique vision of the city by flicking through the pages. A grid at the front of the book lets readers easily navigate their way through the map & the large-scale, detailed reproductions allow for close examination of his witty & inventive depictions. Walter`s cartographic renderings have a cult following & now a wider audience will be able to immerse themselves in his uniquely personal vision
- one that both celebrates the art of mapmaking & pokes intelligent fun at the city he calls home.
...

Based on Stephen Walter`s stunningly detailed map of London, The Isl&, this jigsaw puzzle offers a chance to explore the city in a whole new way. Walter converts the city`s densely packed streets into a tangle of insightful yet humorous words & symbols. This jigsaw puzzle has been designed to preserve its detail, with the puzzle pieces specially cut along geographical lines in the map. Over the years, Walter`s maps have gained a cult following & this puzzle will bring his wondrous creations to a wider audience, eager to discover more about London`s history & culture through this quirky, cartographic masterpiece. ...

Tomas O` Crohan was born on the Great Blasket Island in 1865 & died there in 1937, a great master of his native Irish. He shared to the full the perilous life of a primitive community, yet possessed a shrewd & humorous detachment that enabled him to observe & describe the world. His book is a valuable description of a new vanished way of life; his sole purpose in writing it was in his own words, `to set down the character of the people about me so that some record of us might live after us, for the like of us will never be again`. 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. ...

This volume of pen-&-ink drawings of Scottish mountain scenery by A. Wainwright
- author of the legendary Pictorial Guides to the
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Buenos Aires, 1992. Hacker Felipe Felix is summoned to the vertiginous twin towers of magnate Fausto Tamerlan & charged with finding the witnesses to a very public crime. Rejecting the mission is not an option. After a decade spent immersed in drugs & virtual realities, trying to forget the freezing trench in which he passed the Falklands War, Felix is forced to confront the city around him
- & realises to his shock that the war never really ended. A detective novel, a cyber-thriller, an inner-city road trip & a war memoir, The Islands is a hilarious, devastating & dizzyingly surreal account of a history that remains all too raw.
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The brand new & final novel from the magical pen of `the Godmother of Fantasy`, Diana Wynne Jones; co-authored with her sister Ursula Jones. Now in paperback. How are you supposed to turn into a Wise Woman if your powers just won`t show up? Aileen is convinced she`ll never become as magical as her Aunt Beck. Then one day her aunt is set a seemingly impossible mission. She must go to the island of Logra & rescue the kidnapped High Prince from the enemy, & Aileen must go with her. They set off along with Ivar, Aileen`s spoilt cousin, & Ogo his clophopping servant, recruiting on their way a huge & elusive cat, a monk with an uncannily wise parrot, & a boy inventor who keeps a pet lizard up his sleeve. But this is no band of mighty warriors, & the evil Lograns & their wizards have blocked their way with an invisible barrier in the sea. Aileen doubts that even with all the magic in the Islands of Chaldea, including Aunt Beck`s, they will be able to penetrate it. But Aileen is about to discover that she could be more important to the mission than she realises. Perhaps it is her, above all, who is being drawn to Logra, & for a very special purpose... ...

This guidebook describes 30 day walks on the islands of the Croatian Adriatic
- an outstandingly beautiful landscape incredibly
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Rebecca Seal & Steven Joyce have been travelling to the Greek Islands on holiday for years, drawn back time & again by the glorious weather & delicious cuisine. In The Islands of Greece, Rebecca shares her favourite recipes from their travels, celebrating Greece`s regional specialties. Simple yet delicious, she captures the very essence of the islands, using fresh produce & classic Greek flavours in remarkable combinations. Feast on classics like stuffed calamari or chargrilled aubergine salad, or experiment with a more modern pork souvlaki with apples & pancetta. For a sweet treat, Rebecca`s polenta cake with figs & pine nuts is impossible to resist. Beautiful photographs complement the recipes & capture the magic & glitz of these stunning islands, from Crete to Mykonos, Santorini to Rhodes. ...