Over 100,000 miles to cover, one man, one bike and one hungry stomach. Having created his alter-ego, the Hungry Cyclist and with thousands of pedal-powered miles before him, Tom Kevill-Davies pushed off from New York City on one of the most ambitious gastronomic adventures ever undertaken. A ballsy travel memoir The Hungry Cyclist follows Tom's adventure into the hearts and minds of the people he meets. Revealing the diverse cultures of the Americas, Tom’s journey from over the Rockies to Baja California, through Central America down all the way to Brazil via Colombia, gives the real flavour of this truly extraordinary landmass. This is a tale of death-battles with squadrons of mosquitoes, malodorous public toilets, of galloping dysentery one day, to drowning your sorrows with cowboys and dining with beauty queens the next. But above all it is an ambitious story of getting to where you want to be - even if you have to endure cactus-induced punctures, unforgiving desert heat, uphill struggles through never-ending cocaine plantations, or artfully dodge hungry bears, neurotic RV-driving Americans, angry rabid dogs and run-ins with local law authorities in the process. An amazing tale of what can happen when you get on your bike and go.

A powerful and insightful narrative of a journey – once violently interrupted and here resumed – through one of the most compelling regions on earth. From Aqaba to Jerusalem and on into Palestine, veteran commentator on the Middle East, Charles Glass writes a thoughtful, inquisitive and dispassionate book on the politics and peoples of the region. He has traversed the Jordanian desert to the Iraqi border with Bedouin guides, explored modern Israel and revisited the scene of his captivity, confronting the men who kidnapped him. Written with elegance, flair and a wonderfully acute eye for the idiosyncrasies of the places through which he passes, this is a travel book full of enemies and friends both old and new: Arabs and Jews, soldiers and shopkeepers, Syrians and Israelis, the cowed and the vengeful, affording us an unprecedented and intimate portrait of these bruised and troubled lands.

Further adventures on life in a small French town from Susan Loomis, cookery book writer and author of ‘On Rue Tatin’. ‘On Rue Tatin’ was a delightful discovery, and every reader asked for more. The life on Rue Tatin seemed like a dream fulfilled. Now in ‘Tarte Tatin’, Susan Loomis shares with us how she, her husband and two children settled into life in a small French town, learnt about their neighbours and how to be accepted as inhabitants of the town. With her son going to a French school and her husband finding work in the town, Susan Loomis discovers the joys of the French lifestyle – the markets and the food in particular – but also some of the difficulties, particularly for those who are not born French. The creation of the long dreamt-of cookery school is a story of great appeal – everyone who has ever thought of starting their own small business will enjoy the ups and downs of their enterprise, and long to go to Rue Tatin.

Britain's best-loved comic genius Stephen Fry turns his celebrated wit and insight to unearthing the real America as he travels across the continent in his black taxicab. Stephen's account of his adventures is filled with his unique humour, insight and warmth in the fascinating book that orginally accompanied his journey for the BBC1 series. 'Stephen Fry is a treasure of the British Empire.' - The Guardian Stephen Fry has always loved America, in fact he came very close to being born there. Here, his fascination for the country and its people sees him embarking on an epic journey across America, visiting each of its 50 states to discover how such a huge diversity of people, cultures, languages, beliefs and landscapes combine to create such a remarkable nation. Starting on the eastern seaboard, Stephen zig-zags across the country in his London taxicab, talking to its hospitable citizens, listening to its music, visiting its landmarks, viewing small-town life and America's breath-taking landscapes - following wherever his curiosity leads him. Stephen meets a collection of remarkable individuals - American icons and unsung local heroes alike. Stephen starts his epic journey on the east coast and zig-zags across America, stopping in every state from Maine to Hawaii. En route he discovers the South Side of Chicago with blues legend Buddy Guy, catches up with Morgan Freeman in Mississippi, strides around with Ted Turner on his Montana ranch, marches with Zulus in New Orleans' Mardi Gras, and drums with the Sioux Nation in South Dakota; joins a Georgia family for thanksgiving, 'picks' with Bluegrass hillbillies, and finds himself in a Tennessee garden full of dead bodies. Whether in a club for failed gangsters (yes, those are real bullet holes) or celebrating Halloween in Salem (is there anywhere better?), Stephen is welcomed by the people of America - mayors, sheriffs, newspaper editors, park rangers, teachers and hobos, bringing to life the oddities and splendours of each locale. A celebration of the magnificent and the eccentric, the beautiful and the strange, Stephen Fry in America is our author's homage to this extraordinary country.

One man’s journey in the footsteps of a great explorer into the heart of Africa. As a young man, Warwick Cairns met the then elderly explorer Wilfred Thesiger and the two men struck up an unlikely friendship. Invited to visit him at his African home, Cairns decides to make a bit of an adventure of it and do some of the journey on foot. When he himself was a young man, Thesiger led an expedition to explore the course of the Awash river in Ethiopia. Every westerner that had gone before him had been killed by local tribesmen. Needless to say, he survived. Alternating chapters chart Warwick’s journey with that of Thesiger creating a captivating dual narrative that is part travel book, part biography, part autobiography, part history with fair doses of philosophy and humour thrown in for good measure. In Praise of Savagery is a highly original book that defies classification but is always effortlessly readable.

Mike Parker, bestselling author of Map Addict, offers a very full, intelligent and witty exploration into a glorious and passionate British subject - footpaths and the history of land ownership. Mike discovers how these paths have become part of our cultural landscape and why, at the tender age of 44, he suddenly finds himself at a crossroads. Provocative, funny and personal, this book celebrates Britain’s unique and extraordinary network of footpaths. It examines their chequered and surprisingly turbulent history, from the Enclosures Acts of the eighteenth century to the 1932 Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout in Derbyshire; and from the hard-won post-war establishment of great National Trails like the Pennine Way to the dramatic latter-day battles by the likes of Nicholas van Hoogstraten and Madonna to keep ramblers off their land. The story ranges far and wide, to all corners of the country and beyond, and is filled with the many characters that Mike engages with along the way - the poets and artists, farmers and ramblers, landowners and Rights of Way officers and campaigners, historians, archivists and anyone else who crosses his path (or even tries to block it).

Agatha Christie’s personal memoirs about her travels to Syria and Iraq in the 1930s with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan, where she worked on the digs and wrote some of her most evocative novels. Think you know Agatha Christie? Think again! To the world she was Agatha Christie, legendary author of bestselling whodunits. But in the 1930s she wore a different hat, travelling with her husband, renowned archaeologist Max Mallowan, as he investigated the buried ruins and ancient wonders of Syria and Iraq. When friends asked what this strange ‘other life’ was like, she decided to answer their questions by writing down her adventures in this eye-opening book. Described by the author as a ‘meandering chronicle of life on an archaeological dig’, Come, Tell Me How You Live is Agatha Christie's very personal memoir of her time spent in this breathtaking corner of the globe, living among the working men in tents in the desert where recorded human history began. Acclaimed as ‘a pure pleasure to read’, it is an altogether remarkable and increasingly poignant narrative, a fascinating, vibrant and vivid portrait of everyday life in a world now long since vanished.

A complete celebration of Britain’s favourite architectural show. Grand Designs is broadcast in over 130 countries and regularly gleans 5 million viewers in the UK. Its success, says Kevin, is due to 'good old-fashioned story telling; of joy and sorrow, torment and triumph, expressed tangibly in the making of a building'. To celebrate fourteen glorious years of film-making, 100 editions of Grand Designs Magazine, 100 separate programmes and ten years of hosting the Stirling Prize, Kevin now delves into the archives to highlight his favourite projects. The Best of Grand Designs charts where domestic architecture has come from, and is moving to, in the first decade or so of a new millennium. And it places people at the centre of the stories of these buildings. Each project is supported by beautiful photography, building plans and Kevin’s own personal analysis, together with commentary from his long-time collaborator, Isabel Allen. From the off-grid ecological approach of woodsman Ben Law in Sussex to the quirky experimentalism of Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till’s straw bale house in London, Kevin demonstrates how Grand Designs continues to contribute to television history and why it provides an important legacy for good house design.

Veteran travel writer Eric Newby has a massive following and is cherished as the forefather of the modern comic travel book. However, less known are his adventures during the years he spent as an apprentice and commercial buyer in the improbable trade of women's fashion. From his repatriation as a prisoner of war in 1945 to his writing of the bestselling ‘A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush’ in 1956, Eric Newby’s years as a commercial traveller in the world of haute couture were as full of adventure and oddity as any during his time as travel editor for the Observer. ‘Something Wholesale’ is Newby's hilarious and wonderfully chaotic tale of the disorder that was his life as an apprentice to the family garment firm of Lane and Newby, including hilariously recounted escapades with sudden-onset wool allergies, waist-deep predicaments in tissue paper and the soul-destroying task of matching buttons. In addition to the charming chaos of his work in the family business, it is also a warm and loving portrait of his father, a delightfully eccentric gentleman who managed to spend more energy avoiding and actively participating in disasters than he did in preserving his business. With its quick wit, self-deprecating charm and splendidly fascinating detail, this is vintage Newby - only with a garment bag in place of a well-worn suitcase.

This book is a lush and beautiful memoir of a very special house and a superb recreation of a bygone era. In 1967, veteran travel writer Eric Newby and his heroic wife Wanda fulfiled their dream of a return to life in the Italian hills where they first met during World War II. But this fulfilment would not come easy. The dream materialised in the form of I Castagni ('The Chestnuts'), a small, decrepit farmhouse with no roof, an abandoned septic tank and its own indigenous wildlife reluctant to give up their home. But in the foothills of the Apuan Alps on the border of Liguria and Northern Tuscany, this ramshackle house would soon become a hub of love, friendship and activity. Whether recounting dangerous expeditions through Afghanistan or everyday life in a country house, Newby's talent shines through as one of the foremost writers of the comic travel genre. Full of Newby's sharp wit and good humour, ‘A Small Place’ in Italy returns, twenty years later, to the life of Newby's much-cherished classic, Love and War in the Apennines. It lovingly recounts the quickly disappearing lifestyle of the idiosyncratic locals, and the enduring friendships they forge, whether sharing in growing their first wine harvest as novices or frying poisonous mushrooms for a feast.

Psychiatry has ignored the normal. The focus on defining abnormal behavior has obscured what turns out to be a more fundamental question how does the biology of the brain give rise to the mind, which in turn gives rise to everything we care about: thoughts, feelings, desires, and relationships In The Other Side of Normal , Harvard psychiatrist Jordan Smoller shows us that understanding what the mind was designed to do in the first place demystifies mental illness and builds a new foundation for defining psychiatric disorders from autism to depression. Smoller argues there are no bright lines between normal and abnormal. Psychiatric disorders are variations of the same brain systems that evolved to help us solve the challenges of everyday life. How do we become who we areSmoller explains where our personalities come from, and how the temperaments we had as infants actually stay with us into adulthood. Why do we choose to date, love, and marry the people we doWhy do some of us form healthy relationships while others form unstable onesOur relationships are shaped by the biology that drives two imperatives: maternal-child bonding and child-parent attachment. Along the way, Smoller tackles an even greater question what do we mean by "normal" as he explores the puzzles behind the epidemics of multiple personalities and koro, the shocking phobia that one's penis is shrinking. He also looks at the controversial history of psychiatric classification and the explosive debates over how much early experiences influence our minds and to what degree genetics affect our temperaments, personalities, and emotional lives. Throughout this examination, Smoller explores the hidden sides of such questions as: How are trust and love rooted in biologyHow much does sexual attraction stem from biology rather than cultureAnd what can the scientific study of normal behavior tell us about what it means to be human Based on the author's groundbreaking research and personal experiences treating psychological disorders, The Other Side of Normal changes the way we think about the human condition.

Celebrating its one-hundredth anniversary in February 2009, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has been the leading and best-known African American civil rights organization in the United States. It has played a major, and at times decisive, role in most of the important developments in the twentieth century civil rights struggle. Drawing on original and previously unpublished scholarship from leading researchers in the United States, Britain, and Europe, this important collection of sixteen original essays offers new and invaluable insights into the work and achievements of the association. The first part of the book offers challenging reappraisals of two of the NAACP's best-known national spokespersons, Walter White and Roy Wilkins. Other essays analyze the association's cultural initiatives and the key role played by its public-relations campaigns in the mid 1950s to counter segregationist propaganda and win over the hearts and minds of American public opinion in the wake of the NAACP's landmark legal victory in Brown v. Board of Education. Others provide thought-provoking accounts of the association's complex and difficult relationship with Martin Luther King, the post-World War II Civil Rights movement, and Black Power radicals of the 1960s. The second part of the collection focuses on the work of the NAACP at state, city, and local levels, examining its grassroots organization throughout the nation from Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit in the North, to California in the West, as well as states across the South including Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. Providing detailed and fascinating information on hitherto little explored aspects of the association's work, these studies complement the previous essays by demonstrating the impact national initiatives had on local activists and analyzing the often-strained relations between the NAACP national office in New York and its regional branches.

This book grew out of an exhibition about Dellinger's life and work that was curated by Bob Mainfort at the Old State House Museum in Little Rock. The book includes a detailed biography of Dellinger, as well as a discussion of his work, an overview of major collecting efforts in Arkansas by out-of-state institutions, and a history of the University of Arkansas Museum. Lavishly illustrated with over two hundred images of artifacts, this book will now permit archaeologists to see some of the pieces Dellinger's lifetime of work saved and preserved.

Seven decades after his death, German Jewish writer, philosopher, and literary critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) continues to fascinate and influence. Here Uwe Steiner offers a comprehensive and sophisticated introduction to the oeuvre of this intriguing theorist.Acknowledged only by a small circle of intellectuals during his lifetime, Benjamin is now a major figure whose work is essential to an understanding of modernity. Steiner traces the development of Benjamin's thought chronologically through his writings on philosophy, literature, history, politics, the media, art, photography, cinema, technology, and theology. Walter Benjamin reveals the essential coherence of its subject's thinking while also analyzing the controversial or puzzling facets of Benjamin's work. That coherence, Steiner contends, can best be appreciated by placing Benjamin in his proper context as a member of the German philosophical tradition and a participant in contemporary intellectual debates.As Benjamin's writing attracts more and more readers in the English-speaking world, Walter Benjamin will be a valuable guide to this fascinating body of work.

Serengeti National Park is one of the world's most diverse ecosystems, a natural laboratory for ecology, evolution, and conservation, with a history that dates back at least four million years to the beginnings of human evolution. The third book of a ground- breaking series, Serengeti III is the result of a long-term integrated research project that documents changes to this unique ecosystem every ten years.Bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines-ecologists, paleontologists, economists, social scientists, mathematicians, and disease specialists- this volume focuses on the interactions between the natural system and the human-dominated agricultural system. By examining how changes in rainfall, wildebeest numbers, commodity prices, and human populations have impacted the Serengeti ecosystem, the authors conclude that changes in the natural system have affected human welfare just as changes in the human system have impacted the natural world. To promote both the conservation of biota and the sustainability of human welfare, the authors recommend community-based conservation and protected-area conservation. Serengeti III presents a timely and provocative look at the conservation status of one of earth's most renowned ecosystems.

At the heart of The Republic of Love are the voices of three musicians-queer nightclub star Zeki Muren, arabesk originator Orhan Gencebay, and pop diva Sezen Aksu-who collectively have dominated mass media in Turkey since the early 1950s. Their fame and ubiquity have made them national icons-but, Martin Stokes here contends, they do not represent the official version of Turkish identity propagated by anthems or flags; instead they evoke a much more intimate and ambivalent conception of Turkishness.Using these three singers as a lens, Stokes examines Turkey's repressive politics and civil violence as well as its uncommonly vibrant public life in which music, art, literature, sports, and journalism have flourished. However, Stokes's primary concern is how Mren, Gencebay, and Aksu's music and careers can be understood in light of theories of cultural intimacy. In particular, he considers their contributions to the development of a Turkish concept of love, analyzing the ways these singers explore the private matters of intimacy, affection, and sentiment on the public stage.

As Washington elites drifted toward ideological poles over the past few decades, did ordinary Americans follow their leadIn The Partisan Sort, Matthew Levendusky reveals that we have responded to this trend-but not, for the most part, by becoming more extreme ourselves. While polarization has filtered down to a small minority of voters, it also has had the more significant effect of reconfiguring the way we sort ourselves into political parties.In a marked realignment since the 1970s-when partisan affiliation did not depend on ideology and both major parties had strong liberal and conservative factions-liberals today overwhelmingly identify with Democrats, as conservatives do with Republicans. This "e;sorting,"e; Levendusky contends, results directly from the increasingly polarized terms in which political leaders define their parties. Exploring its far-reaching implications for the American political landscape, he demonstrates that sorting makes voters more loyally partisan, allowing campaigns to focus more attention on mobilizing committed supporters. Ultimately, Levendusky concludes, this new link between party and ideology represents a sea change in American politics.

If you have ever wondered 'What is a Zen garden?' then this 50 page new publication for 2013 will tell you. Zen gardens are beautiful Japanese gardens steeped in history, religious meaning and a visual simplicity. There are many styles and many ingredients, Stones, Rocks, Moss, Sand, Gravel, Plants and Shrubs,Lanterns and Ornaments. Japanese Zen gardens is a book that introduces the reader to the subject and presents the options available for anyone wishing to build their own garden space at home - however large or small. Zen gardens are becoming more and more popular around the world and building one is not as difficult as you may think. With a little knowledge and following our step by step instructions with pictures you will discover how straight forward it is to build a Zen garden in your yard or garden. Japanese Zen gardens are serene havens of tranquil beauty and the perfect antidote to a stressful world. The author Russ Chard has written and published Japanese garden books, articles and videos for the past 10 years.

The essence of ‘Home Ground’ is a collection of twenty walks, ranging from about five to fifteen miles in length, situated in the North West of England. The criterion for selection is that each walk must be situated in whole or in part on Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 ‘Landranger’ map no. 103 (Blackburn and Burnley). This was the map used by the author when he first began to explore the area almost fifty years ago, and these long personal associations, heightened by a long absence from the area, make this truly his home ground. Within this relatively small area there is a rich variety of beautiful scenery, largely unsung, all lying within some twenty miles of industrial East Lancashire. From the suburbs of Blackburn to the fringe of the Yorkshire Dales, from the sweeping fells of the Forest of Bowland to the wooded valleys and heights of Calderdale, these walks have something to offer to walkers of practically all tastes. Both the Forest of Bowland and the Pennine Way feature strongly on the map and in the book, and extra sections discuss these features. Especially the Forest of Bowland, recognized as an area of outstanding national beauty but not a national park, is introduced in some detail as its charm and many opportunities for the walker and day visitor are still little known. The Pennine Way, which features in three of the walks, is mentioned more autobiographically as the author recalls his own experience of the Way and its wider relationship to Northern England. About the Author Andrew Stachulski was born in Blackburn in 1950, the son of a Polish father and English mother, and grew up in nearby Great Harwood. He was educated at Accrington Grammar School from 1961 to 1968, when he gained entrance to read Natural Sciences at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He graduated with firstclass honours in 1971 and, after winning a senior scholarship, he remained at the college to study for a Ph. D. under the supervision of Professor Alan (now Sir Alan) Battersby. Following the completion of his doctorate in 1974, he held postdoctoral fellowships with the Medical Research Council and at Jesus College, Oxford until 1978. There followed a long period of employment in the chemical industry, first with Beecham Pharmaceuticals (later SmithKline Beecham) and then Ultrafine Chemicals, Manchester. In 2001 he fulfilled a longheld ambition by returning to academic life at the University of Liverpool, becoming a senior lecturer in 2003. Recently (Jan., 2010) he moved to take up a senior research fellowship at the University of Oxford. Walking has always been a great love of his life, beginning in the Ribble Valley and Pendle country of his native Lancashire. In the mid 1970s he completed a number of Britain’s longdistance footpaths, the Pennine Way, Offa’s Dyke Path and Coast to Coast walk, accompanied by college friends. Subsequently he climbed all the principal fells of the Lake District, where he often returns, and from 1981 again with a college friend he began to climb in the Scottish Highlands. In 2003 he completed the circuit of all the ‘Munros’, the separate Scottish mountains of 3,000 ft. or greater height. His first walks were planned with the aid of the old one inch to one mile Ordnance Survey map of Blackburn and Burnley, and that is truly his home ground. It was particularly following his return to the North in 1991, then living in Greater Manchester, that this book came to be planned. Old walks familiar from childhood, in the Ribble and Hodder valleys, Pendle country, South Pennines and the Forest of Bowland were revisited and built on, and many new ones were added. From these the twenty walks featured in this book have been selected, walks which appeal personally to the author through their beauty or special associations, or which in his view speak most clearly of the characteristics of the area.

Japanese Gardens - Revealed and Explained is comprehensive and thorough in its coverage of the subject of Japanese gardens and provides the reader with a journey through their history, meaning and eye catching beauty. All aspects of Japanese gardens and gardening are covered from design to ingredients and it even covers subjects like pruning techniques as well as numerous suggestions of what to plant in a Japanese garden courtesy of Master gardener L.H. Bailey. Discover Zen gardens (sometimes known as Japanese Rock gardens) and the deliberate ease of their appearance on the eye,meaning and design.This book is suitable for beginners right the way through to more experienced enthusiasts of Japanese gardens. Lovingly put together by the author and editor Russ Chard - a Japanese garden enthusiast and writer for over 10 years.Weblinks are included to Youtube videos to see how the author built a small space Japanese Zen garden at his home. This book is not plumped up with photographs, just 70 pages of pure Japanese garden information. The subject is complicated but Japanese gardens - Revealed and Explained is in plain English and simplified and explained for ease of learning. Anyone with ambitions to create and build a Japanese garden or Zen garden would find this book a very useful companion to their dream and plans through to the finished garden.

If you have ever dreamed of having your own calm, tranquil and beautifully designed Japanese garden space at your home then '11 Simple Ways To Turn Your Garden Japanese' will give you some inspiring ideas that won't break the bank. From basic small space gardens to much larger Japanese style gardens this book explains the principles of Japanese garden design, shows you design plans, pictures, gives some very useful tips and all in plain English. Learn the methods of Japanese gardening that stretch back hundreds of years and how to use them with a more contemporary twist. Bridges, edging, Rocks, Stones, Moss, Dry water, Trees, Shrubs , Courtyard gardens are just some of the ways that you can add a touch of Japan to your garden space. Author Russ Chard is an expert on Japanese gardens and has published 3 books and has numerous websites on the subject as well as a weekly newsletter for lovers of Japanese gardens. Landscape designer Tim Sykes shares a full domestic Japanese themed garden design in the book as well.