In this sumptuous vision of Venice, Peter Ackroyd turns his unparalleled skill at evoking place from London and the River Thames, to Italy and the city of myth, mystery and beauty, set like a jewel in its glistening lagoon.His account is at once romantic and packed with facts, conjuring up the atmosphere of the canals, bridges and sunlit squares, the churches and the markets, the fiestas and the flowers.He leads us through the history of the city, from the first refugees arriving in the mists of the lagoon in the fourth century to the rise of a great mercantile state and a trading empire, the wars against Napoleon and the tourist invasions of today. Everything is here: the merchants on the Rialto and the Jews in the ghetto; the mosaics of St Mark's and the glass blowers of Murano; the carnival masks and the sad colonies of lepers; the doges and the destitute and the artists with their passion for colour and form - Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Tiepolo. There are wars and sieges, scandals and seductions, fountains playing in deserted squares and crowds thronging the markets.And there is a dark undertone too, of shadowy corners and dead ends, prisons and punishment. The language and way of thinking of the Venetians sets them aside from the rest of Italy. They are an island people, linked to the sea and to the tides rather than the land.'The moon rules Venice,' Ackroyd writes: 'It is built on ocean shells and ocean ground; it has the aspect of infinity.It is the floating world...changing and variable and accidental.'This book, like a magic gondola, transports its readers to thatsensual, surprising realm. We could have no better guide - reading Ackroyd's Venice is, in itself, a glorious journey and the perfect holiday.

London: The Autobiography tells the story of the world's greatest city through the people who were there. From Boudicca's savage raid on Roman London in 60AD to the bombing of 7/7, London speaks for itself. In London: The Autobiography the life of the capital is told, for the first time, by those who made it and saw it at first hand. From Roman times to the 21st century, Londoners and visitors to the city have recounted the extraordinary events, everyday life and character of this unique and influential city – from politics, culture, sport, religion, and reportage. This book brings to vivid life the human trial of the capital including invasions by the Vikings, the brutal execution of Sir Thomas More, the sight of a whale swimming up the Thames and the rebuilding of St Paul’s by Sir Christopher Wren, as well as the everyday life of the city. Includes contributions from George Orwell, Martin Amis, Dr Johnson, Karl Marx, Winston Churchill, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Virginia Woolfe, George Melly, Tacitus, Samuel Pepys and many others.

This book is the only guide you will need to explore all the most important historical sites on the planet. From Stonehenge to the Great Wall of China, from Sterkfontein Caves - the 'cradle of humanity' in South Africa to Checkpoint Charlie, Germany and everywhere inbetween. The book explores all the sites that bear significance to us today. Places where Kings and Queens were crowned, wars were won and lost, people worship are all featured here, as well as sites that saw great advancements in structural engineering. Some will be familiar to all, others are less well-known but informed, entertaining text and stunning photography will ensure the reader has immense satisfaction at the discovery of each and every one.

When Duncan Fallowell was left some money by a friend he decided to put into practice a long held idea – to travel as far as possible from home so that he need never travel again and could relax. For him this meant travelling to New Zealand, where another fantasy soon asserted itself – ‘to find the place of perfect exile’. Fallowell’s curiosity leads him onto the strangest paths and he found himself in pursuit of unknown painters and lost buildings and sex underground, of Karl Popper and a creature with the third eye and rosé wine, of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier who’d toured the country in the year of Fallowell’s birth, of suicidal writers and nuns and elusive answers to impossible questions. The faraway paradise gradually turns into a glittering stranger on the Pacific rim, filled with the uncertainties of our times - but also a wonderful place to breathe. The result is a moving encounter with the past, an anxious gaze into the future, but most of all a vivid voyage through the contemporary world, by turns profound, comical and erotic.

Whether you want to take a relaxing vacation in Asia, a backpacking journey in South America, a road trip in the USA, a cultural tour in Europe, or a safari in Africa, we've got the most inspiring and eclectic collection of hotels, guesthouses, boats, lodges, spas, and houseboats that you could ask for. Just flip through the pages of this new compilation of dreamy spots to plan your next holiday, wherever it may be. Highlights include: in Kerala, India, futuristic-looking, Star Wars-style houseboats made of bamboo poles, palm leaves, and coconut fibers; the best place for a delectable cup of joe: a luxury lodge and spa on a java plantation in (you guessed it) Java; an Ayurvedic spa in the Himalayas where nothing matters but peace and relaxation; a lush Kenyan open-walled hut fashioned from tree trunks and shielded from the sun by a sumptuous thatched roof; Gio Ponti's sleek blue and white hotel perched on the cliffs in Sorrento, Italy; an elegant auberge in Napa Valley, California where you can stay during your wine tasting tour; a historic ranch nestled in a Death Valley oasis; an adobe hotel in the Chilean desert; in Bolivia's Uyuni salt desert, a hotel built entirely of salt; and, an "ecolodge" on a natural reserve in the Amazon rain forest.

Paul Martin, presenter of the popular BBC2 "Flog It" series, has had the privilege of being allowed exceptional access to almost every town and city, where he has unlocked doors to reveal fascinating and unusual people, magnificent collections - many being seen in public for the first time - and quirky places. Paul's refreshingly informed perspective means it takes us beyond the tourist trail. At Highclere Castle, he didn't head straight for the Egyptian pyramid relics that have haunted the Caernarvon Earls but instead uncovered a beautiful wooden writing desk that had huge significance in European history and now lay ignored in the corner of a seldom-visited library. Recent discoveries have also included a brutal mouth harness designed to hold the tongues of gossiping Scots women; beautiful pewter bowls washed ashore from a shipwreck off the Scilly Isles, and a bizarre collection of commercial bakelite products including an indestructable coffin.

The name John Muir has come to stand for the protection of wild land and wilderness in both America and Britain. Born in Dunbar in 1838, Muir is famed as a pioneer of American conservation and his passion, discipline and vision still inspire. Combining acute observation with a sense of inner discovery, Muir's writings of his summer in what would become the great national park of Yosemite in California's Sierra valley raise a close awareness of nature to a spiritual dimension. His journal provides a unique marriage of natural history, lyrical prose and amusing anecdote, retaining a freshness, intensity and brutal honesty which will amaze the modern reader.

"In many ways I was like Alice," writes Alan Macfarlane on his first encounter with Japan, "that very assured and middle-class English girl, when she walked through the looking glass. I was full of certainty, confidence and unexamined assumptions about my categories. In this fascinating and endlessly surprising book he takes us with him on an exploration of every aspect of Japanese society from the most public to the most intimate.

In the summer of 1989, John Williams donned a baseball cap and took off for the States to search out the mythical America of modern crime fiction - to find James Ellroy's LA, Elmore Leonard's sleazy South Beach of Miami, Sara Paretsky's Chicago, and many others on an unnerving tour of the American underbelly. The result was "Into the Badlands", a riveting collection of interviews that introduced a generation of crime fans to now legendary writers. In 2005, Williams returned to discover that much had changed in the intervening years, both in crime writing and in America as a whole. As Williams crosses America in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he finds himself in a profoundly uneasy country. Whether their territory is inner-city DC, like George Pelecanos, or the rural white poverty of the Ozark Hills, like Daniel Woodrell, the best crime writers today are sending despatches from the edge. John Williams brings their visions together to construct a powerful, personal portrait of America today. This book also contains interviews with James Lee Burke, James Ellroy, James Crumley, Sara Paretsky, Eugene Izzi, Elmore Leonard, George V. Higgins, Vicki Hendricks, Kem Nunn, Kinky Friedman, Daniel Woodrell, and George P. Pelecanos.