First published in 1964, Modern Buildings in London is a celebration of the city’s post-war architecture by the famously untrained critic Ian Nairn. Written ‘by a layman for laymen’, Nairn’s take on 260 buildings that were instantly recognisable as ‘modern’ includes descriptions of classic designs such as the Barbican, the former BBC Television Centre, as well as schools, ambulance stations, car parks and even care homes.
Sauntering features sixty writers – classic and contemporary – who travel Europe by foot. We join Henriette D’Angeville climbing Mont Blanc; Nellie Bly roaming the trenches of war-torn Poland; Werner Herzog on a personal pilgrimage across Germany; Hans Christian Andersen in quarantine; Joseph Conrad in Cracow; and Robert Macfarlane dropping deep into underground Paris.
This unique travel book on Brazil by A. J. Lees tells the true Colonel Fawcett story. Colonel Percy Fawcett was a British explorer, who in 1925 had gone in search of the lost city of Z in the Amazon, but never returned. Part Amazon travelogue, part memoir, Lees paints a portrait of an elusive Brazil and a flawed explorer whose doomed mission ruined lives.
This unique travel book on Brazil by A. J. Lees tells the true Colonel Fawcett story. Colonel Percy Fawcett was a British explorer, who in 1925 had gone in search of the lost city of Z in the Amazon, but never returned. Part Amazon travelogue, part memoir, Lees paints a portrait of an elusive Brazil and a flawed explorer whose doomed mission ruined lives.
Walking and writing have always gone together. Think of the poets who walk out a rhythm for their lines and the novelists who put their characters on a path. But the best insights, the deepest and most joyous examinations of this simple activity are to be found in non-fiction – in essays, travelogues and memoir.
A delightful English/Japanese pocket-size guide to London’s most popular district. Through four walks London writer Julian Mash uncovers the history, culture and fascinating characters that have made Notting Hill so iconic. Beautifully laid out including several photographic images and four hand-drawn maps, the guide will appeal to both tourists and residents alike.
The Paradoxal Compass is both historical narrative and environmental manifesto. Morpurgo compares our own tipping point with the ‘great unsettling’ faced by the Elizabethans more than four centuries ago. As the modern world continues to plunder the ‘infinite store’ of the earth’s riches, Morpurgo explores how our abusive relationship with the natural world began. He asks what the Age of Discovery might have to teach us in the current environmental crisis, as we too reappraise our place in the world.
Out of print since 1968, this is a unique guidebook from the late, great architectural writer, Ian Nairn. Illustrated with the author’s black and white snaps of the city, Nairn gives his readers an idiosyncratic and unpretentious portrait of the ‘collective masterpiece’ that is Paris.
