Take your diving gear along to reach an underwater hotel; stay in a disused US Air Force radar tower in the heart of the equatorial rainforest; slide back the roof of your bedroom to gaze at the stars; sleep in the cabin of a dockside crane that you can rotate, or in chalets hidden in the forest, a survival pod from an oil rig platform, a giant shoe, a coffin, lighthouse, tree, plane, train, chapel, prison, igloo, or even a red cube lost in the countryside.. . All these strikingly unusual hotels have grown up around the world in the last decade or so. So that you`ll never get bored & spoil your holiday, we`ve taken great pleasure in tracking down & testing some exceptional places to stay that are really out of the ordinary. With prices ranging from 20 euros to over 1, 000 euros per night, we`ve selected 100 amazing hotels in 40 different countries. ...

UK & Ireland in the Unusual Hotels series by Jonglez is a mesmerizing showcase of unconventional accommodations for all budgets that will make your stay a truly memorable one. The selection presented in this guide ranges from enchanted manors, windmills & lighthouses, to a converted railway platform, royal palaces & castles, monuments & much more. The fully illustrated book offers & introduction to the place highlighting what is special about it & what not to miss. Price range & contact details are included as well as a few suggestions on what to do in the area, all accompanied by reference road maps. All budgets & styles are covered, from magical boutique retreats & extravagant & eclectic stays, to art themed B&B, restored VW camper vans for hire & amazing views from The House in the Clouds (a converted water tank). Colour photographs feature for each entry making this book not only an informative read, but also a great armchair journey around the UK & Ireland to discover the most unusual & amazing places. ...

Unusual Nights in Paris in the Jonglez series of guides; profiling a range of European cities as well as thematic titles & designed to explore the undiscovered & hidden attractions usually hidden from tourists. The ‘ Secret’ titles present a range of sites
- including gardens, museums, squares, churches, parks & distinctive architecture
- that are often not covered by other guides. Double page spreads have a description of the site & a glossy full length photograph opposite. Addresses, opening times, contact details & relevant transport information is also provided. Jonglez also publish a range of “ Unusual…” titles, with an emphasis on thematic experiences, including hotels & shopping, to a range of destinations. Each guide has a similar format to the ‘ Secret’ series, with individual recommendations & suggestions accompanied by colour photographs throughout the text.

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Life is so unfair, & it sends many things to try Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, author of Portuguese Irregular Verbs & pillar of the Institute of Romance Philology in the proud Bavarian city of Regensburg. There is the undeserved rise of his rival (and owner of a one-legged dachshund), Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer; the interminable ramblings of the librarian, Herr Huber; & the condescension of his colleagues with regard to his unmarried state. But when his friend Ophelia Prinzel takes it upon herself to match-make, & duly produces a cheerful heiress with her own Schloss, it appears that the professor`s true worth is about to be recognised. Maddening, idiotic & hugely entertaining, von Igelfeld is an inspired comic creation. ...

Volcanic vineyards listed as UNESCO World Heritage, a peace wine blending over 600 varieties from around the world, vines standing 15 metres tall in Italy & Portugal, ice wines from Quebec, a wine from the Gobi desert, Taiwan`s huge yields, harvesting on 31 December, classical music among the vines, a Bordeaux made with dry ice, a sparkling wine for disgorging at home. This book features the viticultural techniques of many countries; they are far enough off the radar to delight anyone who loves originality & hates standardization. The book covers eight topics: Climates, Terroirs, Grape varieties, Work in the vineyard, Winemaking, Colour, Ageing, Packaging. ...

From the bestselling author of ” The God Delusion”, Richard Dawkins` ” Unweaving the Rainbow” explores the most important & compelling topics in modern science, & our appetite for wonder. Keats accused Newton of destroying the poetry of the rainbow by explaining the origin of its colours, thus dispelling its mystery. In this illuminating & provocative book, Richard Dawkins argues that Keats could not have been more mistaken & shows how an understanding of science in fact inspires the human imagination & enhances our wonder of the world. ” Beautifully written & full of interesting, original ideas. Essential reading”. (” The Times”). ”A brilliant assertion of the wonder & excitement of real, tough, grown-up science”. (A.S. Byatt). ” The way Dawkins writes about science is not just a brain-tonic. It is more like an extended stay on a brain health-farm.. .you come out feeling lean, tuned & enormously more intelligent”. (” Sunday Times”). ” For Dawkins there is more poetry, not less, in the rainbow because of Newton.. .warming to his theme, he weaves rainbows of wonder from other provinces of science & then unleashes his fury on those who accuse scientists like him of being unimaginative for not believing in horoscopes, telepathy, ghosts & gods”. (Matt Ridley). ” Brilliantly entertaining & stimulating”. (” Observer”). Richard Dawkins is a Fellow of both the Royal Society & the Royal Society of Literature, & Vice President of the British Humanist Association. He was first catapulted to fame with The Selfish Gene, which he followed with a string of bestselling books: ” The Extended Phenotype”, ” The Blind Watchmaker”, ” River Out of Eden”, ” Unweaving the Rainbow”, & an impassioned defence of atheism, ” The God Delusion”. ...

Mariel Baxter, a famous American soprano, has suddenly cancelled all her recitals & flown to Vienna. In the 1980s she came to the city to study the art of lieder singing with the reclusive Ursule Kroll, one of the brightest stars of the Nazi era & a favourite of the Fuhrer himself. The two haven`t communicated since Mariel`s unexpected departure over twenty-five years ago. So why has Mariel come back? As they play a vicious cat-and mouse game, terrible revelations & recriminations about the past slowly begin to unfold & Mariel & Ursule soon discover that some secrets are better left buried. ...

A chance encounter while holidaying in Central America leads an American couple, the Slades, to befriend the charming, handsome Grove Soto & his young Cuban mistress. But as the Slades` trip becomes prolonged & they grow increasingly dependent on their new acquaintances, an undercurrent of cruelty begins to disturb the comfort & niceties to which they are accustomed. Up Above the World shows Paul Bowles to be a master of the tension & horror of rising viciousness. ...

Frank Mc Allister has long since dropped ” Retief” as his middle name, but the legacy of his family`s history proves harder to shake. His ancestor Piet Retief, leader of the South African Great Trek, was killed by Zulu king Dingane in the 1838 massacre, along with a hundred men, women, & children. Afrikaner legend paints Retief as a homegrown Moses, bringing his people to the Promised L&. But Frank believes something rotten lies at the core of this family myth. Frank spends his days in his London home with his new partner & her son & the products of his wealth. But the return of his daughter, Lucinda, from rehab in California brings him intense guilt: having sided with him during his divorce from her mother, she crumbled under the weight of the bitter separation. Lucinda has brought home with her a mysterious boy, & they will join the family trip to Frank`s beach house in South Africa--not far from the site of the 1838 massacre. In the lulls of their idyllic days, Frank unravels what really happened on that fateful day, & how it may connect to the violence of the apartheid years, & the violence encroaching on them even now.” Up Against the Night” is an enthralling tale of personal conflict & intrigue, set against the backdrop of South Africa`s tangled past & troubled present, & told with tremendous color & insight. Absolutely original & gripping, it is destined to be as influential as JM Coetzee`s ” Disgrace.” ...

At dusk on 24 September 1975, Doug Scott & Dougal Haston became the first Britons to reach the summit of Everest as lead climbers on Chris Bonington`s epic expedition to the mountain`s immense south-west face. As darkness fell, Scott & Haston scraped a small cave in the snow 100 metres below the summit & survived the highest bivouac ever
- without bottled oxygen, sleeping bags &, as it turned out, frostbite. For Doug Scott, it was the fulfilment of a fortune-teller`s prophecy given to his mother: that her eldest son would be in danger in a high place with the whole world watching. Scott & Haston returned home national heroes with their image splashed across the front pages. Scott went on to become one of Britain`s greatest ever mountaineers, pioneering new climbs in the remotest corners of the globe. His career spans the golden age of British climbing from the 1960s boom in outdoor adventure to the new wave of lightweight alpinism throughout the 1970s & 1980s. In Up & About, the first volume of his autobiography, Scott tells his story from his birth in Nottingham during the darkest days of war to the summit of the world. Surviving the unplanned bivouac without oxygen near the summit of Everest widened the range of what & how he would climb in the future. In fact, Scott established more climbs on the high mountains of the world after his ascent of Everest than before. Those climbs will be covered in the second volume of his life & times.
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