Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Her

We once again delve into the Stanfords online Christmas store to reveal our top 10 Christmas gift ideas for her:

Postcards from Penguin

1. Postcards from Penguin

Penguin books have been around since the 30s; over the last 80 years the publisher has grown into a national institution and a name associated with some of Britain’s favourite reads: from crime to classics and award-winning novels to reference titles, all featuring the three iconic horizontal stripes. Now, 100 of Penguin’s most iconic book covers are immortalised (The Great Gatsby, The Case of the Dangerous Dowager and A Room of One’s Own to name but three) in postcard form; a celebration of a British design classic – one with so many memories among all generations. They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but if these postcards are anything to go by, you probably should.

> Buy Postcards from Penguin! Continue reading Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Her

Hand-Picked Christmas Gift Ideas From Stanfords Staff

Stanfords staff reveal what they’ll be buying for friends and family – and treating themselves to – this Christmas.

Intelliglobe

Intelliglobe – Talking Globe

Paul: “My little brother is beginning to show an interest in geography, so I think he’ll really like the Intelliglobe with its bright colours, raised relief and the fact it’s interactive. He’ll especially love the wireless pen and the world facts it brings to life.”

> Learn more about the Intelliglobe!

Continue reading Hand-Picked Christmas Gift Ideas From Stanfords Staff

Christmas Holiday Reading: Our Top 5 Tips

With holiday season fast approaching, we reveal our top five Christmas reading recommendations:

A Street Cat Named Bob1. A Street Cat Named Bob, James Bowen

Back in 2007, recovering drug addict James Bowen arrived at his Tottenham home to find a stray ginger cat on his doorstep. The author, who makes his living busking on the streets of Covent Garden and Islington, didn’t fancy looking after the ginger tom – by his own admission it was enough of a challenge looking after himself. But it soon became apparent that the moggie, which Bowen christened Bob, wasn’t any old cat – intelligent, loving and loyal, the pair quickly bonded and became inseparable. And rather than being a burden, Bob provided the encouragement and incentive James needed to stay clean.

A Street Cat Named Bob is Bowen’s heart-warming account of his five years and counting with Bob, who regularly accompanies him busking in central London and Angel. Not everything has been plain sailing for the pair – they’ve been separated twice and had to contend with yobbish drunks – but they’re now a regular sight on the streets of Covent Garden, with Bob – ever the crowd pleaser – providing the purrfect accompaniment to Bowen’s rock covers.

Above all, this is story of hope and a tribute to people’s bonds to their cats, even if this pair’s relationship doesn’t begin on the most conventional of footings.

> Buy A Street Cat Named Bob!

On The Map2. On The Map, Simon Garfield

Simon Garfield’s tribute to the map is one of the most lucid and accessible histories of cartography ever written, and almost certainly the most fun. He begins the journey in Egypt at the time of Claudius Ptolemy and his celebrated Geographia – a collection of what was known about the world’s geography in the second century, and a work that inspired generations of geographers and cartographers – before moving onto the discovery of the New World and the planet according to Gerardus Mercator, the Flemish cartographer whose 1569 projection of the planet is still widely used.

Garfield later brings the reader bang up to date with the development of the sat nav and the goings-on at California’s Googleplex, interspersed by visits to Hereford during the city’s Mappa Mundi crisis in the late 1980s, and a revealing insight into the life of Phyllis Pearsall, the woman responsible for the first London A-Z in the 1930s.

This breadth of cartographic history – and a visit or two to Stanfords’ Long Acre store – has allowed Garfield to take an objective view on the future of maps. Has the Apple Maps debacle encouraged a renewed appetite for paper maps? Or is it time for traditional cartographers to surrender to the digital mapping revolution?

> Buy On The Map!

Narcopolis3. Narcopolis, Jeet Thayil

Shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize, Jeet Thayil’s first novel is set in the squalor of 1970s Bombay – a city of gangsters, drug users and petty criminals. At the novel’s centre is Dimple, a eunuch who prepares pipes at Rashid’s, a notorious opium den. Her father figure is Mr Lee, a Chinese soldier who’s left the motherland in search of a better life. Thayil delves deep into the characters’ lives; his hallucinatory account of their personalities, ambitions and goals occasionally poetic. We’re also introduced to Rumi, an under-the-thumb husband with a penchant for drugs and violence, who’s forced to choose between rehab and prison – or in his words, “dying or death”.

All the while, Thayil uses his poetic proficiency to present a rich, vivid picture of Bombay’s underworld – a city that has since transformed into the subcontinent’s economic powerhouse. But in Narcopolis the gleaming high-rises are years away – instead the population have to contend with grinding poverty and the terrifying Pathar Maar, the stone killer, who ruthlessly slaughters his seemingly random victims under the cover of darkness.

Thayil certainly knows what he’s writing about – he’s quoted as saying that almost two decades of his life were lost to addiction. But his real-life experiences and poetic talent has resulted in arguably the most impressive debut novel of the year.

> Buy Narcopolis!

Into The Silence4. Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest, Wade Davis

In 1924, an expeditionary team headed by George Mallory attempted to climb Everest. Britain was reeling from the effects of the First World War, and there was a hope that scaling the world’s highest peak would hand a much-needed boost to the nation’s psyche.

It was to be the most challenging of expeditions – one in which the climbers suffered from frostbite and sunstroke at the same time, and in which the team’s Tibetan hosts couldn’t understand the point of climbing Everest for climbing’s sake – after all, the mountain was of huge spiritual significance and apparently capable of throwing them off the edge.

Sadly, it was to be a journey shrouded in mystery, for nobody knows if Mallory or Sandy Irvine, a fellow climber, made it. But rather than asking if Mallory and Irvine reached the summit, Into the Silence – the winner of this year’s Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction – contemplates what encouraged the pair to keep climbing on the day they lost their lives, when they must have known the perils that lay ahead.

Harking back to the Great War and its effects, Wade’s epic book – based on years of research – explains how Mallory and his disappearance became representative of the millions who died on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918, only a few years after Captain Scott and his companions lost their lives in the Antarctic.

> Buy Into the Silence!

The Casual Vacancy5. The Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling

Forget any links to Harry Potter – this is JK Rowling’s first novel for adults, complete with swearing, sex and drugs. The setting, too, couldn’t be further removed – wave goodbye to Hogwarts and say hello to the quaint town of Pagford’s hosting of a small-scale parish council election.

But behind Pagford’s prettiness – it’s home to an ancient abbey and a cobbled market square – is a population at war with itself: rich versus poor, wives versus husbands, pupils (who, incidentally, get up to things Harry and co wouldn’t have dreamed of) versus teachers and teenagers versus parents. Things are bubbling up, but a catalyst is needed to make things bubble over. Step forward Barry Fairbrother, the book’s hero, who suddenly drops dead in the golf club car park. His departure leaves a ‘casual vacancy’ on the parish council; one that threatens to be taken over by the forces of darkness.

Dark it may be, but The Casual Vacancy is also funny – particularly when the passionate election campaign begins in earnest.

> Buy the Casual Vacancy!

Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Him

With the festive shopping season in full swing, we delve into the Stanfords online Christmas store to reveal our top 10 Christmas gift ideas for him:

World Map Hip Flask

1. World Map Hip Flask

There comes a time in a man’s life when having a meaningful hip flask becomes important. Effectively a rite of passage, a well-made, attractive hip flask is something to be treasured, loved and utilised on brisk country walks, football away days or long train journeys – no matter the choice of tipple contained within. Few can compete with the attractiveness of the World Map Hip Flask and its colourful, postal-themed map of the world. Featuring a captive screw top, the flask is presented in an equally-appealing branded box: the perfect gift for the discerning gentleman this Christmas.

> Buy the World Map Hip Flask! Continue reading Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Him

The Samuel Johnson Prize: A Preview

The premier award for works of non-fiction, this year’s Samuel Johnson Prize will explore Mumbai’s notorious slums, Britain’s historic footpaths and the diminishing influence of violence on society.

With 2012’s shortlist announced early last month, it’s just six days until the winner is revealed on Monday (12th November) in a BBC-televised ceremony. There are six books in contention this year, and according to the Rt Hon David Willetts MP, the Samuel Johnson Prize chair of judges, each has the “ability to change our view of the world”. Here’s our guide to the shortlist: Continue reading The Samuel Johnson Prize: A Preview

Genie and Paul by Natasha Soobramanien: Review

Mauritius enthusiast Tim Cleary reviews Genie and Paul, Natasha Soobramanien’s reworking of the 18th century classic Paul et Virginie.

Genie and Paul
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Genie and Paul tackles the themes of memory, sibling relationships, self-imposed exile, lost innocence and the troubled – perhaps doomed – lives of three generations of one family caught between London, Mauritius and Rodrigues.

This wonderful novel needn’t be restricted to those interested in Mauritius and Mauritian immigrants living in London – it has actually holds universal appeal – although some knowledge of Mauritian culture is required to understand certain passages (even some knowledge of London’s geography and the British alternative music scene in the late 80s is necessary to understand the text).

A cannibalistic reworking

The novel is a loose reworking of Paul et Virginie, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s 18th century classic set on the tropical Indian Ocean island of Isle de France (now Mauritius). I have read this slightly-sickening tragic romance because it’s an important part of French (and Mauritian) literary heritage, but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Soobramanien’s more honest take on love, life and loss. Continue reading Genie and Paul by Natasha Soobramanien: Review