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. ...

The fifth in the Martin Bora WWII mystery series. In May 1941, Wehrmacht officer Bora is sent to Crete, recently occupied by the German army, & must investigate the brutal murder of a Red Cross representative befriended by SS-Chief Himmler. All the clues lead to a platoon of trigger-happy German paratroopers, but is this the truth? Bora takes to the mountains of Crete to solve the case, navigating his way between local bandits & foreign resistance fighters. With echoes of Claus von Stauffenberg, Bora is torn between his duty as an officer & his integrity as a human being. ...

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 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 ...

Setting off from Irel&, Pete Mc Carthy takes us on a wonderful journey around the weird & wonderful Irish communities of the world. In his own inimitable style, Pete recounts his adventures & escapades as, in Morocco he meets the head of Clan Mc Carthy, & then goes on to visit the renowned Irish peoples of New York. He journeys to the southern hemisphere & then back again to the United States before ending up in a small town called Mc Carthy in Alaska. Will he encounter enough Mc Carthy`s Bars, as he continues to obey the eighth rule of travel: `never pass a pub with your name on it`? This is a funny, affectionate look at the Irish communities of the world. ...

Beautifully written & full of wonderful descriptions & intriguing tales, In Patagonia is an account of Bruce Chatwin`s travels to a remote country in search of a strange beast & his encounters with the people whose fascinating stories delay him on the road. ...

A real-life adventure that inspired countless travellers in fact & fiction, the ” Penguin Classics” edition of Robert Byron`s ” The Road to Oxiana”

Includes:: an introduction by Colin Thubron. In 1933 Robert Byron began a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad, & Teheran to Oxiana
- the country of the Oxus, the ancient name for the river Amu Darya which forms part of the border between Afghanistan & the Soviet Union. ” The Road to Oxiana” offers not only a wonderful record of his adventures, but also a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travelers. Robert Byron (1905-41) was born in 1905, & educated at Eton & Merton College, Oxford. He died during the Second World War, when the ship he was serving on was torpedoed by a U-Boat off Cape Wrath. Byron`s ” The Road to Oxiana” is considered by many modern travel writers to be the first example of great travel writing. If you enjoyed ” The Road to Oxiana” you might like Charles Darwin`s ” The Voyage of the Beagle”, also available in ” Penguin Classics”. ” The greatest of all pre-war travel books”. (William Dalrymple).” What ” Ulysses” is to the novel between the wars, & what ” The Waste Land” is to poetry, ” The Road to Oxiana” is to the travel book”. (Paul Fussell). ” In any list of the great travel books of the 20th century, Robert Byron`s account of his travels in Persia & Afghanistan, ” The Road to Oxiana”, must be put somewhere near the very top”. (” Telegraph”).


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In 1933, the delightfully eccentric Robert Byron set out on a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad & Teheran to Oxiana
- the country of the Oxus, the ancient name for the river Amu Darya which forms part of the border between Afghanistan & the Soviet Union. His arrival at his destination, the legendary tower of Qabus, although a wonder in itself, is not nearly so amazing as the thoroughly captivating, at times zany, record of his adventures. In addition to its entertainment value, The Road to Oxiana also serves as a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travellers. Here, 'armchair travellers will find newspaper clippings, public signs & notices, official forms, letters, 'diary entries', essays on current politics, lyric passages, historical & archaeological dissertations, brief travel narratives (usually of comic-awful delays & disasters), &
- the triumph of the book
- at least twenty superb comic dialogues, some of them virtually playlets, complete with stage directions & 'musical' scoring.' Paul Fussell, from the Introduction to the OUP US paperback, 1982


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