` Dawn, & as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night on the plain outside Korem it lights up a biblical famine, now, in the Twentieth Century.` Those words opened Michael Buerk`s first report on the Ethiopian famine for the 6 o`clock news on October 24th 1984. His reports sent shock waves round the world. The Live Aid concert, a direct consequence of Bob Geldof watching that broadcast, was watched by half the planet. Michael Buerk has reported on some of the biggest stories in our lifetime: the Flixborough chemical plant fire, the Birmingham pub bombing, Lockerbie. He was in Buenos Aires at the start of the Falklands War; he reported the death throes of apartheid in South Africa. He was the face of the BBC flagship evening news for many years & has fronted everything from the popular BBC1 series 999 to the erudite Radio 4 programme ” The Moral Maze”. He has won every major award & is universally admired & respected for his intelligent & honest journalism. Here, he also reveals the private Michael Buerk, his bigamist father, his long & happy marriage to Christine & his delight at fatherhood. ...

The No. 1 New York Times bestseller on the secret to leading a good life We live in a Big Me culture: universities & businesses alike reward goal-oriented superstars & those who self-promote are most likely to thrive. But what does this say about us? David Brooks argues that our hunger for wealth & status is eroding our ability to create meaningful inner lives. To show us how to live better, he looks at people whose sense of humility was fundamental to their success. What they all understood was a simple but counterintuitive truth: in order to fulfil yourself, you must learn how to forget yourself. ...

Captured during the First World War, Lieutenant E.H. Jones (a Welsh officer in the Indian Army) & Lieutenant C.W. Hill (an Australian serving in the R.A.F.) were prisoners of war at the Yozgad prison camp in Turkey. To while away the time, the prisoners hit upon the idea of playing with a make-shift Ouija board to help keep themselves entertained. As it turned out, E.H. Jones had a knack for manipulation & soon had everyone believing his fake messages from the other side. It was then the bright idea came to him: if he could fool his comrades, to what extent could he fool his captors & turn this to his advantage
- ? With Lieutenant Hill his partner in crime (who is also an amateur magician), the two orchestrate an extraordinary plan to try to guarantee their release. As well as containing astonishing original materials including photographs, letters & postcards, the book contains a preface by the author`s grandson, as well as a foreword by Neil Gaiman who is linked to a film which is currently in pre-production. A FREE companion ebook will be available to download from the Hesperus website in February (www.hesperuspress.com/the-road-to-en-dor)rand will include back stories on the characters, maps, letters, coded messages & an exclusive short story written by E.H.
...

Davy David, an orphan, lives by his wits in the dead-end town of Brownvale. When a stray dog called George turns Davy`s life upside down just days before Christmas, he sets in motion a chain of events which forces them to flee. A mischievous wind blows the two of them to a boarded-up museum on the outskirts of town where they meet the elderly recluse, Miss Flint. She has planned one last adventure before her time is up & hires the reluctant Davy & George to escort her. A magical adventure about an unlikely friendship & an unforgettable journey. ...

Is the United Kingdom really as united as its name might suggest? For many people in the uk, increasing nationalism in Scotland raises serious questions about what the UK is, & where its future lies. In The Road to Independence?, now available in a revised & expanded Second Edition, Murray Pittock not only gives an account of modern Scottish nationalism, but explains what Scotland`s role in Britain has been historically & why it has changed radically in the last 50 years, with the debate about independence coming to the fore. The book now features a Foreword by First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, which describes the debate surrounding the Scottish referendum on independence from the uk, due to take place in September 2014. Pittock gives a lively account of the rise of modern Scottish nationalism & the reasons for it, the recent history & differing character of Scotland`s cities & cultural industries, the impact of multiculturalism on Scottish as distinct from British society, & the changes wrought by devolution, including the reasons for the election of Scotland`s first ever nationalist government in 2007. The Road to Independence? is the only history of Scotland available with a truly contemporary focus. In dealing with everything from political structures to modern painting it is remarkably comprehensive; in explaining the rise of modern nationalism it is of fundamental importance to policymakers & the wider public. It will be of interest to students of politics, history, law & social science, & to all who want to understand the rapidly changing face of the UK. ...

In the 1960s & `70s, the overland route from Europe to Asia became popular with disillusioned Westerners seeking what they saw as the paradise of the East. Their journeys are now the stuff of travel legend. Road to Katmandu is the story of Patrick Marnham`s own pilgrimage from Turkey to Nepal in 1968. He travelled over three thousand miles, passing through Ankara to Ararat, Tehran & Mashad, Herat, Kandahar & Kabul, Peshawar, Lahore & Varanasi...before finally reaching Katmandu. His journey is a kaleidoscopic blend of tortuous train journeys & lethal truck drives; wild deserts, mountains & isolated villages. At heart this is the story of a generation that was escaping from the routine of conventional life & of how it found
- or lost
- its way. It provides an alluring insight into the nature of the `hippie trail` & of those who forged it, before cheap air travel shrank the world. Road to Katmandu is an extraordinary testimony to the seductive beauty of the overland trail & a tribute to those who formed its ragamuffin cavalcade
- a travel classic.


...

This is not a book about French Gardens. It is the story of a man travelling round France visiting a few selected French gardens on the way. Owners, intrigues, affairs, marriages, feuds, thwarted ambitions & desires, the largely unnamed ordinary gardeners, wars, plots & natural disasters run through every garden older than a generation or two & fill every corner of the grander historical ones. Families marry. Gardeners are poached. Political allegiances forged & shattered. The human trail crosses from garden to garden. They sit in their surrounding landscape, not as isolated islands but attached umbilically to it, sharing the geology, the weather, food, climate, local folklore, accent & cultural identity. Wines must be drunk & food tasted. Recipes found & compared. The perfect tarte-tartin pursued. None of these things can be ignored or separated from the shape & size of parterre, fountain, herbaceous border or pottager. So this is a book filled with stories & information, some of it about French gardens & gardening, but most of it about what makes France unlike anywhere else. From historical gardens like Versailles, Vaux le Vicomte & Courances to the kitchen gardens of the Michelin chef Alain Passard. There are grand potagers like Villandry & La Prieure D` Orsan & allotments & back gardens spotted on the way. Monty celebrates the obvious French associations of food & wine & finds gardens dedicated to vegetables, herbs & fruit. It is a book that any visitor to France, whether gardeners or not, will want to read both as a guide & an inspiration. It is a portal to get under the French cultural skin & to understand the country, in all its huge variety & disparity, a little better. ...

Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green & kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Isl&, was taken to the nation`s heart & became the bestselling travel book ever, & was also voted in a BBC poll the book that best represents Britain. Now, to mark the twentieth anniversary of that modern classic, Bryson makes a br&-new journey round Britain to see what has changed. Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, by way of places that many people never get to at all, Bryson sets out to rediscover the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly unique country that he thought he knew but doesn`t altogether recognize any more. Yet, despite Britain`s occasional failings & more or less eternal bewilderments, Bill Bryson is still pleased to call our rainy island home. & not just because of the cream teas, a noble history, & an extra day off at Christmas. Once again, with his matchless homing instinct for the funniest & quirkiest, his unerring eye for the idiotic, the endearing, the ridiculous & the scandalous, Bryson gives us an acute & perceptive insight into all that is best & worst about Britain today. ...

Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green & kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Isl&, was taken to the nation`s heart & became the bestselling travel book ever, & was also voted in a BBC poll the book that best represents Britain. Now, to mark the twentieth anniversary of that modern classic, Bryson makes a br&-new journey round Britain to see what has changed. Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, by way of places that many people never get to at all, Bryson sets out to rediscover the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly unique country that he thought he knew but doesn`t altogether recognize any more. Yet, despite Britain`s occasional failings & more or less eternal bewilderments, Bill Bryson is still pleased to call our rainy island home. & not just because of the cream teas, a noble history, & an extra day off at Christmas. Once again, with his matchless homing instinct for the funniest & quirkiest, his unerring eye for the idiotic, the endearing, the ridiculous & the scandalous, Bryson gives us an acute & perceptive insight into all that is best & worst about Britain today. ...

Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green & kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Isl&, was taken to the nation`s heart & became the best-selling travel book ever, & was also voted in a BBC poll the book that best represents Britain. Now, to mark the twentieth anniversary of that modern classic, Bryson makes a br&-new journey around Britain to see what has changed. Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, by way of places that many people never get to at all, Bryson sets out to rediscover the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly unique country that he thought he knew but doesn`t altogether recognize any more. Yet, despite Britain`s occasional failings & more or less eternal bewilderments, Bill Bryson is still pleased to call our rainy island home. & not just because of the cream teas, a noble history, & an extra day off at Christmas. Once again, with his matchless homing instinct for the funniest & quirkiest, his unerring eye for the idiotic, the endearing, the ridiculous & the scandalous, Bryson gives us an acute & perceptive insight into all that is best & worst about Britain today. Music written & performed by Richard Digance, inspired by The Road to Little Dribbling ...