English Pastoral: An Inheritance by James Rebanks

$35.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

The author of the beloved No.1 bestseller The Shepherd's Life returns with a stirring history of family, loss and the land over three generations on a Lake District farm 'A beautifully-written story of a family, a home and a changing landscape.' - Nigel Slater 'Just about perfect.' - Wendell Berry James Rebanks was taught by his grandfather to work the land the old way. Their family farm in the Lake District hills was part of an ancient agricultural landscape: a patchwork of crops and meadows, of pastures grazed with livestock, and hedgerows teeming with wildlife. And yet, by the time James inherited the farm, that landscape had profoundly changed. The men and women had vanished from the fields; the old stone barns had crumbled; the skies had emptied of birds and their wind-blown song. English Pastoral is the story of an inheritance: one that affects us all. It tells of how rural landscapes around the world were brought close to collapse, and how the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things were lost. But this elegy from the northern fells is also a song of hope: of how, guided by the past, one farmer began to salvage a tiny corner of England that was now his, doing his best to restore the life that had vanished and to leave a legacy for the future. This is a book about what it means to have love and pride in a place, and how, against the odds, it may still be possible to build a new pastoral: not a utopia, but somewhere decent for us all.   ...Show more

The Globetrotter's Guide to Happiness by Kate Morgan; Juliet Sulejmani (Illustrator)

$29.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

Sample ways to find happiness from around the world and discover tips on how to adopt these philosophies at home. Wherever we are in the world, as humans we're all striving for happiness--a feeling of wellbeing and calm amidst the everyday struggles and chaos. What differs is how we pursue that happines s, and there are a range of philosophies on offer around the globe. From searching for ikigai (the 'meaning of life') in Japan or taking a fika coffee break in Sweden, to heading for the hills to clear the mind in Norway or appreciating the art of gezellig ('coziness') in the Netherlands, the world is a tapestry of happiness philosophies we can sample and learn from.   This book features 20 philosophies together with gorgeous illustrations. Each chapter includes an overview of that philosophy, where it originates from, its meaning to that culture, and ways to implement the philosophy in your everyday life at home. There's also information on places you can travel to experience the philosophy a little deeper, and interviews with people who very much practice what they preach, all wrapped up in a beautiful package. ...Show more

The Virago Book of Women Travellers by Mary Morris

$35.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

'A volume in which rich and unexpected seams of precious materials await discovery' Guardian Three hundred years of wanderlust are captured in this collection as women travel for peril or pleasure, whether to gaze into Persian gardens or imbibe the French countryside, to challenge the fierce Sahara or c limb an impossible mountain. The extraordinary women in this collection are observers of the world in which they wander; their prose rich in description, remarkable in detail. Mary McCarthy conveys the vitality of Florence while Willa Cather's essay on Lavandou foreshadows her descriptions of the French countryside in later novels. Others are more active participants in the culture they are visiting, such as Leila Philip, as she harvests rice with Japanese women. Whether it is curiosity about the world, a thirst for adventure or escape from personal tragedy, all of these women are united in that they approached their journeys with wit, intelligence, compassion and empathy for the lives of those they encountered along the way. Also includes writing by Willa Cather, Joan Didion, Vita Sackville-West, M. F. K Fisher, Christina Dodwell and more. ...Show more

Far and Away by Adrian Gill

$32.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn

$35.00 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

Raynor Winn's magical and life-affirming new book, The Wild Silence - the follow-up to the uplifting, Sunday Times, internationally bestselling, Wainwright prize shortlisted, and Costa shortlisted, The Salt Path. In The Salt Path, Raynor and Moth go out to find the sea, the windswept and wild coastline, to find a way through homelessness, to find themselves again. Now, in The Wild Silence, they come back to what should be home, but four walls no longer feel that way. For Raynor, recovering self-esteem and trust in herself, and in others, is harder than she expected. She continues to face Moth's debilitating illness and struggles to find a way to adjust to a life in one place, unmoving. Until an incredible gesture by someone who read their story changes everything . . . Praise for The Salt Path: 'A beautiful book, it really lives up to the hype . . . an enjoyable, gentle yet moving read' Pandora Sykes on The High Low 'A beautiful, thoughtful, lyrical story of homelessness, human strength and endurance' Guardian 'Mesmerising. It is one of the most uplifting, inspiring books that I've ever read' i ...Show more

The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks

$24.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

A major new talent redefines the literature of rural life. Old world met new when a shepherd in the English Lake District impulsively started a Twitter account. A routine cell phone upgrade left author James Rebanks with a pretty decent camera and a pre-loaded Twitter app--the tools to share his way of life with the world. And what began as a tentative experiment became an international phenomenon.James has worked the land for years, as did his father, and his father before him. His family has lived and farmed in the Lake District of Northern England as long as there have been written records (since 1420) and possibly much longer. And while the land itself has inspired great poets and authors we have rarely heard from the people who tend it. One Twitter account has changed all that, and now James Rebanks has broken free of the 140-character limit and produced "the book I have wanted to write my whole life." The Shepherd's Life is a memoir about growing up amidst a magical, storied landscape, of coming of age in the 1980s and 1990s among hills that seem timeless, and yet suffused with history. Broken into the four seasons, the book chronicles the author's daily experiences at work with his flock and brings alive his family and their ancient way of life, which at times can seem irreconcilable with the modern world. An astonishing original work, The Shepherd's Life is an intimate look from inside a seemingly ordinary life, one that celebrates the meaning of place, the ties of family to the land around them, and the beauty of the past. It is the untold story of the Lake District, of a people who exist and endure out of sight in the midst of the most iconic literary landscape in the world.   From the Hardcover edition. ...Show more

A Beginner's Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations by Pico Iyer

$19.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

Winner of the Edward Stanford Travel Memoir of the Year 2020 How does a sushi bar explain a Japanese poem? Why do Japanese couples plan matching outfits for their honeymoon? Why are so many things in Japan the opposite of what we expect? After thirty-two years in Japan, Pico Iyer knows the country as fe w others can. In A Beginner's Guide to Japan, he dashes from baseball games to love-hotels and from shopping malls to zen temple gardens to find fresh ways of illuminating his adopted home. Playful and surreptitiously profound, this is a guidebook to a Japan few have ever seen before. 'Rarely in any writing on Japan is provocation so elegantly and surgically performed' Financial Times ...Show more

Impossible Owls - Essays from the Ends of the World by Brian Phillips

$24.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

From its opening journey into remote Alaska for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, IMPOSSIBLE OWLS leads us on a kaleidoscopic exploration of contemporary reality. Brian Phillips takes us to a sumo tournament in Japan, the jungle in India, the studio of a great Russian animator, a royal tour of the Yukon Terri tory with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and into the weird heart of America. This exhilarating debut visits borders both real and imagined, and asks what it means, in our age, to travel to the end of the map. ...Show more

Year in Provence (Popular Penguin) by Peter Mayle

$12.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing | Series: Popular Penguins

Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence is the much-loved account of an English couple living their dream abroad. When they buy a 200-year-old farmhouse in the South of France, Peter Mayle and his wife little expect the delights that await them - from six-course lunches and epic games of boule, to encounters w ith charming but unpredictable builders. Both witty and affectionate, this is an idyllic portrait of the pleasures of rural life. ...Show more

Down Under by Bill Bryson

$24.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing | Series: \

"It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life u a large portion of it quite deadly. In fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else. Ignoring suc h dangers u and yet curiously obsessed by them u Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging- their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water; the food is excellent; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. Life doesn't get much better than thisa" ...Show more

The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane

$24.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

The acclaimed author of The Wild Places examines the subtle ways we are shaped by the landscapes through which we move In this exquisitely written book, which folds together natural history, cartography, geology, and literature, Robert Macfarlane sets off to follow the ancient routes that crisscross bo th the landscape of the British Isles and its waters and territories beyond. The result is an immersive, enthralling exploration of the voices that haunt old paths and the stories our tracks tell. Macfarlane's journeys take him from the chalk downs of England to the bird islands of the Scottish northwest, from Palestine to the sacred landscapes of Spain and the Himalayas. He matches strides with the footprints made by a man five thousand years ago near Liverpool, sails an open boat far out into the Atlantic at night, and commingles with walkers of many kinds, discovering that paths offer a means not just of traversing space but also of feeling, knowing, and thinking. ...Show more

My Four Seasons in France : A Year of the Good Life by Janine Marsh

$22.99 AUD

Category: Travel Writing

A little more than 10 years ago, Janine Marsh and her husband Mark gave up their city jobs in London to chase the good life in the countryside of northern France. Having overcome the obstacles of starting to renovate her dream home--an ancient, dilapidated barn--and fitting in with the peculiarities of her new neighbors, Janine is now the go-to expat in the area for those seeking to get to grips with a very different way of life. In the Seven Valleys, each season brings new challenges as well as new delights. Freezing weather in February threaten the lives of some of the four-legged locals; snow in March results in a broken arm, which in turn leads to an etiquette lesson at the local hospital; and a dramatic hailstorm in July destroys cars and houses, ultimately bringing the villagers closer together. With warmth and humor, Janine showcases a uniquely French outlook as two eternally ambitious expats drag a neglected farmhouse to life and stumble across the hidden gems of this very special part of the world. ...Show more