Travel World guide

Full of practical advice. — Daily Telegraph, London, UK

No-nonsense advice…the A-Z of Japanese pop culture is particularly good. — The Times, London, UK –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

When to go

In an archipelago stretching over 3000km from north to south you’d expect the average temperature and weather patterns to vary greatly. The main influences on the climate on Honsh0 are the mountains and surrounding warm seas, bringing plenty of rain and snow. Winter weather differs greatly, however, between the western Sea of Japan and the Pacific coasts, the former suffering cold winds and heavy snow while the latter tends towards dry, clear winter days. Regular heavy snowfalls in the mountains provide ideal conditions for skiers.

Despite frequent showers, spring is one of the most pleasant times during which to visit Japan, when the weather reports chart the steady progress of the cherry blossom from warm Kyushu in March to colder Hokkaido around May. A rainy season (tsuyu) during June ushers in the swamp-like heat of summer; if you don’t like tropical conditions, head for the cooler hills or the northern reaches of the country. A bout of typhoons and more rain in September precede autumn, which lasts from October through to late November and is Japan’s most spectacular season, when the maple trees explode into a range of brilliant colours.

Also worth bearing in mind when planning your visit are Japan’s national holidays. During such periods as the days around New Year, the “Golden Week” break of April 28 to May 6 and the Obon holiday of mid-August, the nation is on the move making it difficult to secure last-minute transport and hotel bookings. Avoid travelling during these dates, or make your arrangements well in advance. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Rough Guide to Japan is the award-winning guidebook to this fascinating country. This new edition is published in Rough Guide”s colourful design, with 24 pages of colour photos and two-colour throughout. The introduction features the authors pick of the ”Things Not to Miss”, from skiing in Nagano to slurping noodles in the neon-dazzling nightlife of Shinjuku. The entire country is covered in detail with accounts of all the sights, from Tokyos uber-hip hotels to the picturesque villages of Central Honshu and the pristine beaches of Okinawa. There is practical advice on getting around the country by train, and tips on hiking, skiing and diving. The final chapter, Contexts, gives in-depth features on all things Japanese, from temple architecture to pop culture and the environment.

Full of practical advice. — Daily Telegraph, London, UK

No-nonsense advice…the A-Z of Japanese pop culture is particularly good. — The Times, London, UK –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Rough Guide to Japan, Third Edition

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Japan

‘A pleasurable read with ravishing photography plus maps and plans of supreme quality.’ The Observer –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

DK Eyewitness Travel’s full-color guidebooks to hundreds of destinations around the world truly show you what others only tell you. They have become renowned for their visual excellence, which includes unparalleled photography, 3-D mapping, and specially commissioned cutaway illustrations. DK Eyewitness Travel Guides are the only guides that work equally well for inspiration, as a planning tool, a practical resource while traveling, and a keepsake following any trip.

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Japan

Gilles Martin-Raget is a journalist and photographer with a special interest in sailing. After having raced for ten years in some of the greatest international sailing competitions, he became a regular contributor to numerous European sailing magazines. Franois Chevalier is a naval architect and widely published journalist.

Today, the resurgence of interest in classic yachts can be witnessed at international classic yacht regattas that occur throughout the summer months in the charming ports of Monaco, Porto Cervo and Cannes. The great wooden yachts — Pen Duick, Shenandoah, and Creole — proudly display their gleaming brass, honed teak decks, and brightly varnished hulls. The last remaining J-boats, the extraordinary racing 12-meter racing machines, compete once again under acres of canvas sails. Gilles Martin-Paget knows the vanishing world of the legendary yachts like no author or photographer. He has followed these regattas over a period of years and has supplemented his interior and exteriors photographs of these unique wooden racers and cruisers with aerial views and crisp explanatory drawings. Legendary Yachts will long be regarded as the definitive portrait of this most glorious age of sail.

Legendary Yachts

Wind and Water: Boating Photographs From Around The World

An award-winning nautical photographer and former yacht racer portrays the power of the ocean and the blowing wind in 114 awe-inspiring images. In one shot, the star-studded sail of Americas Cup champ Endeavour unfurls beautifully over the sea. In another, a Swan 77 “slams into a wave off Beavertail, Jamestown, Rhode Island.” Van der Wal also captures homey behind-the-scenes details, such as yellow raingear-clad sailors doing maintenance work on a schooner. And not all the images are of racing boatsamong the highlights are shots of a rustic fishing boat beached in Chile and a hand-built Kayuka. The authors respect for maritime history and tradition is evident, and his photos pay homage to the passions of boat-lovers around the world.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This dazzling book of photographs of sailboat cruising and racing by the premier sailing photographer and award-winner, Onne van der Wal. Onne van der Wal is a world-class maritime photographer whose original body of work is recognized and coveted by boat lovers worldwide. WIND AND WATER features a variety of photographs that will captivate everyone from the casual boating enthusiast to the experienced Grand Prix racer. What sets van der Wal’s work apart from the rest is its artistic style: whether he climbs atop a 75-foot mast for a bird’s-eye view of a sloop cutting through crystal-blue waters or crouches on the deck during a race for a brisk action shot, van der Wal delivers brilliant photographs that capture the harmonious experience of being on the water. The book contains exhilarating shots of intense yacht racing all over the world, from the America’s Cup to the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. It also features dramatic photographs of sailboats cruising in exotic destinations such as the Southern Ocean , the South Pacific, and the Arctic.

Wind and Water: Boating Photographs From Around The World

Based in Panama City, Mapi has been producing high quality maps of Panama since 2000. They concentrate on providing clear maps specifically for tourists. By virtue of their location and frequent printing, their titles are some of the most complete and up-to-date available. Beginning in 2008, they will release maps of additional Central American countries and cities.

Folded travel map/guide of Panama City. Legend includes bus stops, airports, marinas, information centers, hospitals, police stations, gas stations, hotels, important sites, consulates/embassies, banks, supermarkets. Extensive index of streets, key points, hotels, important places, consulates/embassies and banks. Guide part includes information on tours, malls, car rental places, internet and call centers, restaurants and Panama City Old Quarters.

Panama City Map/Guide by Mapi Panama (English and Spanish Edition)

Panama AdventureMap (Adventure Map (Numbered))

Founded in 1915 as the Cartographic Group, the first division of the National Geographic Society, National Geographic Maps has been responsible for illustrating the world around us through the art and science of mapmaking.

Today, National Geographic Maps continues this mission by creating the world s best wall maps, recreation maps, atlases, and globes which inspire people to care about and explore their world. All proceeds from the sale of National Geographic maps go to support the Society s non-profit mission to increase global understanding and promote conservation of our planet through exploration, research, and education.

National Geographic designed the waterproof Panama Adventure Map to be essential travel gear for the serious traveler and also your perfect trip-planning reference. It’s tear-resistant and incredibly durable; it won’t fray or disintegrate no matter what environment you take it into. It includes the most detailed and best road information available, letting you drive with confidence. Protected areas are designed to “pop” visually so it’s easy to locate them and refer to their boundaries as you get around the country. No other commercially-available travel map shows more clearly the locations of national parks, wildlife reserves, wetlands, and forest reserves. The stunning shaded relief you expect from National Geographic elevates this map into its own category. This map includes an inset map of downtown Panama City and one of Casco Viejo . There’s a detailed map of the Panama Canal area, showing the locks and the canal’s proximity to Panama City. The Panama Adventure Map is bilingual, in English and Spanish, emphasizing English with its numerous English-language descriptions of destinations. Main map scale is 1:475,000. GPS compatible. Full UTM grid.

Panama AdventureMap (National Geographic) (Adventure Map (Numbered))

Charles Houston, author of mountaineering classic K2: The Savage Mountain and now in his nineties, was plagued with feelings of failure even as he excelled in a number of daunting roles: medical doctor, university professor, Peace Corps director and legendary mountain climber. This novel-like biography explores the complicated man behind the myth, from his privileged upbringing through almost a century of adventure and achievement. A man of big ideas and big ambitions, Houston began experimenting in 1946 with altitude chambers, developing the first method for inoculating against hypoxia, in order to conquer Everest. Ten years later he was building, in his garage, the first “crude designs” for the artificial heart. There are fascinating asides into Houston’s “bouillabaisse” of careers, including work for the U.S. Army, medical practices in Exeter and Aspen, and his reluctant stint as a Peace Corps director in India, an eventful tenure. Author and climber McDonald (I’ll Call You in Kathmandu) deepens Houston’s legacy by providing a view of his inner struggles with depression, revealing this larger-than-life figure in very human terms, making Houston a pleasure to spend time with; as one of hiss fellow climbers would say of Houston, years later, “his accomplishments are nothing compared the greatness of his soul.”
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Charles Houston is a fascinating individual. Most people are considered accomplished if they excel in one aspect of life. Houstonmountain climber, physician, peace activist,researcher, and teacherexcelled in so many areas that it is hard to believe he is not a household name. He climbed in Alaska and India and scouted an approach to Everest, but gave up serious climbing when one member of their party died during an attempt to scale K2. During World War II, he combined his medical knowledge with his climbing expertiseto conductresearch for the army intopilots’ reactions to high altitudes. Houston was alsoa small-town doctor, an innovator in the making ofartificial hearts,director of the newly established Peace Corps operation in India, a teacher in medical school, and an ongoing researcher. His adventurous spirit and strong personality were bothassets andliabilities for most of his life as heserved as an inspiration and mentor to many. Despite McDonald’ssomewhat wooden writing style, thisbiography is a wonderfulintroduction to a many-talented mandeserving of attention. Hoover, Danise
Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved

It was a failed summit attempt and a failed rescue in the Himalaya that brought Charles Houston, M.D., fame and adulation in the mountaineering world. His leadership of the K2 expedition of 1953 is still celebrated as the embodiment of all that is right and good in the mountains.

In Brotherhood of the Rope, Bernadette McDonald traces the development of an American hero. Houston is a mountaineer whose groundbreaking medical experiments on altitude and the human body helped calibrate the nation’s WWII air-assault strategy and shorten the war. This is the man personally recruited by Sergeant Shriver to lead the first Peace Corps programs in India; the friend whom Bill Moyers credits with saving his life; the physician who built some of the first artificial-heart prototypes in his garage. Today, at age 93, Houston is still a leading authority in high-altitude medicine, and serves as a mentor for troubled teens. Includes DVD documentary–with historical film footage–of the epic American attempt of K2 in 1953, and the resulting rescue that remains one of mountaineering’s most harrowing stories

Brotherhood of the Rope: The Biography of Charles Houston with DVD (Legends and Lore)

Beyond the Mountain

“[Beyond the Mountain is] a rare and profoundly personal glimpse of the drive, dedication and focus behind today’s light-and-fast ascents.” –Michael Kennedy, editor-in-chief, Alpinist

House’s Beyond the Mountain is raw, funny, and tragic, but never forced. Above all else, this is a story of goals fueled by energy, rewards, and triumphs meshed with soul-baring confession. The Daily Camera

Winner of the 2009 Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain literature

Winner of the 2009 Banff Mountain Literature ” Best Book” Award

Winner ofthe 2009 Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain literature and the Banff Mountain Literature Award! What does it take to be one of the world’s best high-altitude mountain climbers? It takes raising funds for an expedition, negotiating some of the world’s most dangerous countries, suffering freezing-cold bivouacs and enduring the discomforts of high altitude. It also means learning the hard lessons the mountains teach. This book explores those lessons. He has been dubbed by Reinhold Messner as “the best high-altitude climber in the world today.” Steve House’s story chronicles his experiences in the worlds highest mountains, each chapter revealing a different aspect of mountaineering.

Beyond the Mountain

10 1.5-hour cassettes –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

ARABIA is the story of Jonathan Raban’s magic carpet ride through Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Yemen, Egypt and Jordan. Not only does it reveal the Arabs and their culture, it also introduces us to a series of memorable individuals.

Much of the book’s strength is the author’s gift for friendships. He brings us into markets and hotels to glamorous parties and seedy rooms, to a sheikh’s fortress and the home of a Bedu family. He opens up the world of the rich and the poor and gives us the feel, the smells, the sounds, the very texture of Arabia.

“Beautifully written, poignant, funny, ARABIA is more than travel book, it is a tale of the collision of cultures, observed at an historically crucial time.” (Publisher’s Source)

Arabia, a Journey Through the Labyrinth

Coasting: A Private Voyage

A lively, intensely personal recounting of a voyage into a gifted writer’s country and self. The New York Times Book Review

Coasting is a glorious book, written with energy, wit and a melancholy lyricism . . . There’s something wonderful on every page of this book. The Seattle Times Post-Intelligencer

Marvelously written and superbly constructed. . . . The sort of book you put among those favorite books you keep on your desk or table . . . the sort you wish you had written yourself. Beryl Bainbridge, The Spectator

Raban is . . . one of our most gifted observers. Newsday

Put Jonathan Raban on a boat and the results will be fascinating, and never more so than when hes sailing around the serpentine, 2,000-mile coast of his native England. In this acutely perceived and beautifully written book, the bestselling author of Bad Land turns that voyagewhich coincided with the Falklands war of 1982-into an occasion for meditations on his country, his childhood, and the elusive notion of home.

Whether hes chatting with bored tax exiles on the Isle of Man, wrestling down a mainsail during a titanic gale, or crashing a Scottish house party where the kilted guests turn out to be Americans, Raban is alert to the slightest nuance of meaning. One can read Coasting for his precise naturalistic descriptions or his mordant comments on the new England, where the principal industry seems to be the marketing of Englishness. But one always reads it with pleasure.

Coasting: A Private Voyage

Vermont native George Perkins Marsh was a significant member of the nineteenth–century conservation movement, and his Man and Nature (1864) has proven to be both prophetic and influential. His prose is rather dense and formal, however, so he has been overlooked of late. English professor and nature writer Elder sought to rectify that situation by following Marsh’s footsteps both in Vermont and Italy, where Marsh served as U.S. ambassador. Elder traveled to Italy with his wife and juxtaposes their modern tale of academic research and appreciation against Marsh’s experiences. Elder also mines the words of other early conservationists and traces the link between Marsh’s pioneering work and that of others, such as Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold. Elder’s avid appreciation for and analyses of the places Marsh loved reveal the heart of a man who proved that concern for the environment was alive and well under Lincoln. Recommended for those interested in conservation and ecology. Colleen Mondor
Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

“[O]ne of the smartest, soundest, deepest books about the relationship between people and nature that I’ve ever read.” — Bill McKibben –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

“Set aside your Bella Tuscanys and Year in Provences for a different kind of travel book. Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa puts a walking stick in your hand and Marsh’s Man and Nature in your knapsack, exploring how Italians have managed their natural and cultural heritage in ways that sustain both. John Elder’s poetic meditations on land and life demonstrate that only by searching beyond our familiar boundaries can we discover better ways of living back at home.” — Marcus Hall, author of Earth Repair: A Transatlantic History of Environmental Restoration

“This collaboration — between George Perkins Marsh and John Elder, between Vermont and Italy, between maple and olive — is one of the smartest, soundest, deepest books about the relationship between people and nature that I’ve ever read. It will be a classic.” — Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

“Elder’s impassioned pilgrimage shows us how to delight in messy wilderness, to secure a curative habitation of the world, and, with Marsh, to lend ecological nous to our gravest task: knowing ourselves and respecting one another. Let the maple seeds and olive stones of Elder’s visionary harvest restore to us a reflective and redemptory future.” — from the foreword by David Lowenthal

The pivotal figure in Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa is the nineteenth-century diplomat and writer George Perkins Marsh, generally regarded as America’s first environmentalist. Like Elder, Marsh was a Vermonter, and his diplomatic career took him for some years to Italy, where, witnessing the ecological devastation wrought upon the landscape by runaway deforestation and the plundering of other natural resources, he was moved to produce his famous manifesto, Man and Nature. Marsh drew parallels between the despoiled Italian environment and his home landscape of Vermont, warning that the latter was vulnerable to ecological woes of a similar magnitude if not carefully maintained and protected. In short, his was a prescient voice for stewardship.

Elder follows in Marsh’s footsteps along a trajectory running from Vermont to Italy, and at length fetches up at the managed forest of Vallombrosa. Punctuated throughout with learned and genial considerations of the poetry of Wordsworth, Basho, Dante, and Frost, Elder’s narrative takes up issues of sustainability as practiced locally, reports on family doings, and returns finally — as did Marsh’s — to Vermont, where he measures traditional stewardship values against more aggressive conservation-oriented measures such as the expansion of wilderness areas.

John Elder, Professor of English and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, is the author of Reading the Mountains of Home and The Frog Run.

Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism

“[O]ne of the smartest, soundest, deepest books about the relationship between people and nature that I’ve ever read.” — Bill McKibben –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa: From Vermont to Italy in the Footsteps of George Perkins Marsh (Under the Sign of Nature)

Reading the Mountains of Home

Late in life, the American novelist and conservationist Wallace Stegner left California, where he had lived for half a century, to move to Vermont. The reason, he said, was simple: there is more wilderness to be found in the pine forests of western New England than in the Far West. John Elder supports Stegner’s claim, writing in Reading the Mountains of Home that the abandoned farmsteads of so many of Robert Frost’s Vermont poems have now reverted to wild lands, dense with fallen logs and snags, full of bird and animal life.

A longtime resident of the state, Elder uses Frost’s great but little-known poem “Directive” as a touchstone by which to guide his discussion of how modern humans can truly inhabit a landscape–in this case, a landscape that had been developed for generations and then all but forgotten. In such places, Elder writes, the issue is not one of wilderness versus civilization, that old trope, but the wildness that endures at the edges of settled places, wildness that is accessible to people all around the world. His celebration of returning greenness, of the forest’s seasons, and of his own life in the woods makes for engaging reading indeed. –Gregory McNamee

Small farms once occupied the heights that John Elder calls home, but now only a few cellar holes and tumbled stone walls remain among the dense stands of maple, beech, and hemlocks on these Vermont hills. Reading the Mountains of Homeis a journey into these verdant reaches where in the last century humans tried their hand and where bear and moose now find shelter. As John Elder is our guide, so Robert Frost is Elder’s companion, his great poem “Directive” seeing us through a landscape in which nature and literature, loss and recovery, are inextricably joined.

Over the course of a year, Elder takes us on his hikes through the forested uplands between South Mountain and North Mountain, reflecting on the forces of nature, from the descent of the glaciers to the rush of the New Haven River, that shaped a plateau for his village of Bristol; and on the human will that denuded and farmed and abandoned the mountains so many years ago. His forays wind through the flinty relics of nineteenth-century homesteads and Abenaki settlements, leading to meditations on both human failure and the possibility for deeper communion with the land and others.

An exploration of the body and soul of a place, an interpretive map of its natural and literary life, Reading the Mountains of Home strikes a moving balance between the pressures of civilization and the attraction of wilderness. It is a beautiful work of nature writing in which human nature finds its place, where the reader is invited to follow the last line of Frost’s “Directive,” to “Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.”

Reading the Mountains of Home

These books contain vivid full-color photography by renowned professionals, enriched by extended interpretive captions. The adventure begins on the first page. Explore America’s panoramic beauty from the comfort of your home.

William Dengler was hired by the National Park Service as a seasonal interpreter at Grand Canyon in 1963 after completing study for his Master of Science degree in wildlife biology at Arizona State University. Bill has managed interpretive programs in three parks since 1970, and became Chief of Interpretation at Mount Rainer in 1981.

From the first moment of Mount Rainier’s fiery origin, water began its assault–and its caress–sculpting the mass of rock. As glaciers, water plucks and gouges rock from the mountainside. As floods, it rapidly rearranges large quantities of material. As streams, it methodically tumbles and wears down rock. Then, while it nurtures life on the mountain’s flanks, its quiet ponds reflect the beauty of its work.

Mount Rainier National Park, located in southwestern Washington, established in 1899, preserves the greatest single-peak glacial system in the contiguous United States.

in pictures Mount Rainier: The Continuing Story (English and German Edition)

in pictures Olympic: The Continuing Story

These books contain vivid full-color photography by renowned professionals, enriched by extended interpretive captions. The adventure begins on the first page. Explore America’s panoramic beauty from the comfort of your home.

Olympic is a giant patchwork of nature’s finest works of art–glaciers, mountains, meadows, lakes, rivers, forests, seashores, and all their inhabitants. Every component meshes with the next to form this biotic masterpiece called Olympic National Park.

Olympic National Park, located in northwestern Washington, was established in 1938 to preserve primeval forests, native Roosevelt elk, outstanding mountainous country, and rugged coastline.

in pictures Olympic: The Continuing Story (English and German Edition)

James Herriot grew up in Scotland and moved to Yorkshire after attending Glasgow Veterinary College. He was a practicing veterinarian in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, from 1940 until shortly before his death in 1995. All of James Herriot’s books have been international bestsellers, and were made into the immensely successful television series All Creatures Great and Small, as well as two-full length films. Despite his tremendous popularity, James Herriot remained an essentially private man and liked nothing more than to spend time with his family and dogs.

Derry Brabbs is an outstanding photographer whose first published works were used in James Herriot’s Yorkshire. He has written and supplied the photographs for several acclaimed books on the English countryside. He lives near Harrogate in North Yorkshire.

“The sun had broken through the clouds, bringing the green hillsides and the sparkling ridges of snow to vivid life, painting the rocky outcrops with gold. I wound down the window and breathed in the cold clean air drifting down, fresh and tangy from the moorland high above. A curlew cried, breaking the enveloping silence, and on the grassy bank by the roadside, I saw the first primroses of spring.”

“In my daily work I was always aware of the beauty around me and had never lost the sense of wonder which had filled me when I had had my first sight of Yorkshire … My eyes strayed again and again over the towering flanks of the fells, taking in the pattern of walled green fields won from the yellow moorland grass, and I gazed a the high tops with the thrill of excitement which always came down to me from that untrodden land.”

James Herriot lived and worked in North Yorkshire, England, for over fifty years, first and foremost as a vet, but in his later years as one of the world’s most successful authors. Twenty years ago, the bestselling book, James Herriot’s Yorkshire combined hundreds of color photos with a moving essay highlighting the places he loved so much – from the lush valley meadows in the springtime to the remote villages during the depths of winter. Now, two decades later, the Herriot estate has authorized the creation of a new book on Yorkshire that matches the original in both charm and grace. Complete with an introduction by James Herriot’s son, Jim Wight, James Herriot’s Yorkshire Revisited brings together never-before-seen photos with evocative excerpts from Herriot’s eight major works.

James Herriot’s Yorkshire Revisited

The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father

The name Alf Wight may not ring too many bells, but as James Herriot–the author who brought the British countryside into millions of homes–Wight certainly made an impressive mark. He grew up in Glasgow and enjoyed a boisterous childhood before deciding to embark on many years of training at the Glasgow Veterinary College. Wight finally qualified as a vet in 1939 and moved to the Yorkshire town of Thirsk to accept a position as assistant to Dr. Donald Sinclair–the man known to millions of readers as Siegfried Farnan.

The story of the young vet travelling to Thirsk (a.k.a. Darrowby) was immortalized in Herriot’s bestselling books. But The Real James Herriot, Jim Wight’s affectionate biography of his father, tells the story of the man behind the nom de plume, who worked in the same practice for over 50 years and was relatively untouched and unimpressed by his fame as an author. Wight the younger (who followed in his father’s footsteps and later joined the practice in Thirsk), is undoubtedly the best person to reveal the depths of a man whose public persona was as respected and trusted as the real man who tended to animals in and around the small Yorkshire village where he lived until the day he died. Written with a tenderness that does nothing to detract from the honesty of the book, The Real James Herriot is a fitting, poignant, and often gently humorous portrait of a man who brought so much pleasure through his writing while remaining consistently faithful to the profession that was, ultimately, his first and last love. –Susan Harrison, Amazon.co.uk –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

No one is better poised to write the biography of James Herriot than the son who worked alongside him in the Yorkshire veterinary practice when Herriot became an internationally bestselling author. Now, in this warm and poignant biography, Jim Wight ventures beyond his father’s life as a veterinarian to reveal the man behind the stories–the private individual who refused to allow fame and wealth to interfere with his practice or his family. With access to all of his father’s papers, correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs–and intimate recollections of the farmers, locals, and friends who populate the James Herriot books–only Jim Wight could write this definitive biography of the man who was not only his father but his best friend.

The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father

As a writer and as a traveler, Dalrymple treads the now-faint trail marked out by sixth-century monk John Moschos, who wandered the world of Eastern Byzantium, visiting the scattered Christian monasteries and hermitages and recording the rituals he saw and the preaching he heard in a book called The Spiritual Meadow. Unlike its predecessor, Dalrymple’s account of his journey through the same regions leads, not to meditations upon the eternal God, but, rather, to insights into a dying culture. For whether among Surianis in eastern Turkey, Armenians in Syria and Israel, or Coptics in Egypt, Dalrymple finds only remnants of the Christian culture from which Moschos drew inspiration. The author cannot stop the often-violent persecution or the steady immigration, which are pushing Christianity to extinction in the land of its birth. Yet he can preserve the voices of the steadfast souls who guard the last sparks of a besieged faith. Thus, this book stands–like the chapels, monasteries, and tombs visited during the journey–as a monument to what once was. But Dalrymple also points the way to a better future by repeatedly stressing the similarities in origin and practice linking Christianity and Islam and by documenting real (though all too rare) instances in which mutual respect and tolerance bring the Muslim and the Christian together in prayer. Travel literature of real substance. Bryce Christensen –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A memorable historical journey through the twilight of Eastern Christianity in the Middle East, heartfelt and beautifully told. Dalrymple (The City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi, 1994) has carved an unorthodox niche for an English travel writer: He is following in the 1,400-year-old path of an Orthodox monk. In 587, Friar John Moschos and a young student trekked across the Middle East, collecting precious relics and manuscripts from obscure monasteries, from present-day Turkey to Egypt. Dalrymples quest is similar; he is preserving the stories of the last generation of Orthodox Christians in the Middle East. Retracing Moschoss steps, Dalrymple finds once glorious Christian communities on the brink of extinction. One Turkish village that had 17 Syrian Orthodox churches now has only one [Christian] inhabitant, its elderly priest. In Turkey, Armenian Christianity has been more systematically erased, with cathedrals renovated into mosques, gravestones obliterated, and any mention of the Armenian presence in Turkey censored from publications, turning their existence into a historical myth. In one town, Dalrymple interviews a superannuated survivor of the Syrian Christian resistance of 1915, when Syrians witnessed the genocide of the Armenians and knew that they were next to be deported. Today, however, the descendants of Orthodox Christians in Turkey and elsewhere are emigrating as quickly as they can. Old churches stand abandoned or are employed for other purposesin Istanbul, for example, Dalrymple is denied entrance to a famous basilica because there is a Turkish beauty contest going on inside. Dalrymple is a talented writer, with a subtle wit, a keen eye for historical irony, and a relish for architectural detail. If his treatment of Eastern Orthodoxy is somewhat romantic, ignoring centuries of internecine conflict among various ethnic groups, it is understandable given his urgency to record the plight of this last generation of Orthodox practitioners in Muslim-dominated areas. An evensong for a dying civilization. (24 b&w and 8 color photos, not seen) — Copyright 1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

In 587 a.d., two monks set off on an extraordinary journey that would take them in an arc across the entire Byzantine world, from the shores of the Bosphorus to the sand dunes of Egypt. On the way John Moschos and his pupil Sophronius the Sophist stayed in caves, monasteries, and remote hermitages, collecting the wisdom of the stylites and the desert fathers before their fragile world finally shattered under the great eruption of Islam. More than a thousand years later, using Moschos’s writings as his guide, William Dalrymple sets off to retrace their footsteps and composes “an evensong for a dying civilization” –Kirkus Reviews, starred review

From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East

City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi

Delhi has a richly layered past, and Dalrymple (In Xanadu, McKay, 1990) deftly peels away each layer to reveal how the city came to be what it is today. Djinns are spirits said to be seen only after prolonged fasting and prayer; they too are integral to understanding the city. The author, a young Scot carrying on the fine British tradition of travel writing, has a knack for meeting fascinating people and capturing their most revealing remarks. He introduces us to dervishes, eunuchs, partridge fighting, weddings, and expatriates. His wife contributes sketches that nicely complement his text. Considering the importance of Delhi, the capital of the world’s second most populous nation, this book deserves to be in most public and academic libraries.
Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon State Coll. Lib., Ashland
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Sparkling with irrepressible wit, City of Djinns peels back the layers of Delhi’s centuries-old history, revealing an extraordinary array of characters along the way-from eunuchs to descendants of great Moguls. With refreshingly open-minded curiosity, William Dalrymple explores the seven “dead” cities of Delhi as well as the eighth city-today’s Delhi. Underlying his quest is the legend of the djinns, fire-formed spirits that are said to assure the city’s Phoenix-like regeneration no matter how many times it is destroyed. Entertaining, fascinating, and informative, City of Djinns is an irresistible blend of research and adventure.

City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi

Steve Scott started training in the sport of judo in 1965 and was introduced to sambo in 1976. He holds high rank in Kodokan Judo and Shingitai Jujitsu and is a member of the United States Sombo Association s Hall of Fame. Steve has personally coached 3 World Champions, 2 Pan American Games Champions and 58 National AAU Champions in the sport of sambo. He has also developed numerous judo champions at his Welcome Mat training center, including a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Judo Team. He has conducted training camps at the U.S. Olympic Training Centers as well as over 250 seminars in judo, sambo, jujitsu and submission grappling throughout the United States.

Learn to dominate opponents with the explosive throws, sweeps and takedowns of Sambo. Coach Steve Scott teaches 75 of the most effective ways to put your opponent on the mat and keep him there. Whether you compete in sambo, judo, jujitsu, submission grappling or MMA, the techniques Takedowns and Throws for Sambo, Judo, Jujitsu and Submission Grappling will arm you with an arsenal of explosive, functional throws and takedowns. Coach Scott starts you off with a thorough overview of the concepts and principles of throws and takedowns including technical execution, grip fighting, stance, posture, balance, defense, fitness and drill training. Building on these fundamentals, he teaches 75 takedowns, throws and sweeps including lifting throws, pick-ups, leg grabs, knee drop throws, body drop throws, over body throws, leg hooks and sweeps. Each technique is extensively illustrated with photos from key angles and Coach Scott’s straightforward explanations make it easy for you to put these techniques to work on the mat in your next training session. THROWS and TAKEDOWNS INCLUDED: The Buck ~ Inside Thigh Lift ~ Outer Thigh Sweep ~ Cuban Leg Grab ~ The Metz ~ Ankle Pick ~ Hand Wheel ~ 1-Arm Knee Drop ~ Cross Arm Knee Drop ~ Tight Waist Knee Drop ~ Fireman’s Carry ~ Cross Body Outer Hook ~ Sweeping Hip Throw ~ Inner Thigh Throw ~ Cross Grip Major Outer Hook ~ Front Kick Throw ~ Minor Inner Hook ~ Open Chest Body Drop ~ Side Body Drop ~ Knee Body Drop ~ Back Grip Hip Throw ~ Belly-to-Belly Throw

Throws and Takedowns for sambo, judo, jujitsu and submission grappling

Tap Out Textbook: The Ultimate Guide to Sumissions for Grappling

Groundfighting and submission techniques are considered by many to be the backbone of mixed martial arts. Being skillful as a groundfighter is vital to winning in this sport. I have yet to meet anyone in my work as an MMA television commentator who understands how to teach groundfighting better than Steve Scott. –Sean Wheelock, M-1 Commentator and Analyst

If you make your opponent tap out, he ll never forgive you and never forget you! Tap Out Textbook: The Ultimate Guide to Submissions for Grappling is packed with hundreds of armlocks, chokes and leglocks that you can use to make any opponent tap out. This book offers hardcore, serious and practical instruction on submitting your opponent in a wide variety of grappling and fi ghting situations. Whether you re a submission grappler, judo or jujitsu athlete or MMA fighter, this book will improve your armlocks, chokes and leglocks. Learn each submission technique from start to finish in both no gi and gi situations. Plus you’ll get variations, alternate finishes and escapes so no matter what your opponent throws at you, you ll be ready. Author Steve Scott has over 40 years experience as a coach and athlete in judo, sambo, sport jujitsu and submission grappling. In this comprehensive training guide, he shares the same training tips, technical expertise and tactical advice that he has used to train 3 World Sambo Champions and over 200 national and international champions in grappling sports. Written in clear, concise language with over a thousand photographs, Tap Out Textbook: The Ultimate Guide to Submissions for Grappling is like having your own world-class coach with you every time you step on the mat.

Tap Out Textbook: The Ultimate Guide to Sumissions for Grappling