Book of the Month: Save Me from the Waves

Our Book of the Month for March 2024 is Save Me from the Waves by Jessica Hepburn.

An adventure story – with a difference. Jessica Hepburn is an unlikely athlete – she was labelled the ‘arty’ not the ‘sporty’ one in school. She hates exercise and believes the only reason to do it is for food, booze and box-sets on the sofa. However, in her forties, following a succession of hard and sad life experiences she started to try and exercise her way out of heartbreak.

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Book of the Month: Local

Our first Book of the Month for 2024 is Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness by the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award winning author Alastair Humphreys.

Escape into the overlooked adventures and insights from one man’s year of deeply exploring a 20km map of suburban England.

What surprises might you uncover in your own neighbourhood if you set aside assumptions and paid closer attention? After two decades of grand expeditions spanning the globe, Adventurer Alastair Humphreys embarked on a project to get to know his uninspiring corner of England through undertaking weekly microadventures within one local map. 

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Book of the Month: Elixir by Kapka Kassabova

Our Book of the Month for February 2023 is Elixir by the former Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards winning writer Kapka Kassabova.

An exceptional work of narrative non-fiction by a prizewinning writer, Elixir is an exploration of place, people, plants, and a urgent call to rethink how we live.  A search for a cure to what ails us in the Anthropocene, from the award-winning author of Border.

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Book of the Month: The Half Known Life by Pico Iyer

Our Book of the Month for January 2023 is The Half Known Life: Finding Paradise in a Divided World by the former Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award winner Pico Iyer.

One of the most perceptive travel writers embarks on an exploration of the world’s holiest places and where we might find paradise on Earth. 

“It’s so easy, I thought, to place Paradise in the past or the future – anywhere but here.” 

After half a century of travel, from Ethiopia to Tibet, from Belfast to Jerusalem, Pico Iyer asks himself what kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict. In a spectacular journey, both inward and outward, Iyer roams from crowded mosques in Iran to a film studio in North Korea, from a holy mountain in Japan to the sometimes spooky emptiness of the Australian outback. 

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Extract: Found in Translation

Our Book of the Month for December is Found in Translation: The Unexpected Origins of Place Names by Duncan Madden.  This book unravels the tangled threads of history and etymology to uncover the strange, intriguing and enlightening stories that have shaped the names of countries and places around the world.

In this extract we look at the etymology behind ‘Argentina’:

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Book of the Month: Found in Translation

Our Book of the Month for December 2022 is Found in Translation: The Unexpected Origins of Place Names by Duncan Madden.

An enlightening, etymological journey across continents, uncovering the history and origins of the places we live and travel to.

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Top 5 ways to explore the Lake District’s islands

Our Book of the Month is 36 Islands: In Search of the Hidden Wonders of the Lake District by Robert Twigger. Here Robert tells us the best ways to explore the Lake District’s islands:

1. Packraft or inflatable canoe

Some lakes are next to convenient roads but not all are. Many Scottish lochs with interesting islands and ruined castles are deep in the wilderness and you have no choice but to walk there. In the Lake District, where I searched out the 36 islands to be found on twelve of the lakes there, quite a few are not that easy to access. Take Devoke Water, far on the western side between Wast Water and Ennerdale- without a very transportable form of boat it would be impossible to reach the tiny island Watness Coy, which is to be found there. This island, called by Wordsworth a ‘bare rock’, is in fact a perfect place for a one person camp. It has a single tree and a gravel beach and can be reached after crossing 200 metres of lake. Providing you are able to carry your boat in. That’s where the inflatable packraft comes in. Made of super-light and super-strong materials and weighing between 1.5 and 2.5 Kg you slip this craft rolled up into your rucksack and walk happily over the worst terrain to get to your objective. With dismountable paddles and a lightweight lifejacket of the kind used by fisherman such remote islands are fairly easy to reach. The joy at approaching an uninhabited island which is rarely visited is a great experience and with a packraft or inflatable canoe you can easily carry enough gear to set up camp and have a wonderfully remote time ‘stealth camping’ ie. trespassing in the nicest possible way…

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Book of the Month: 36 Islands: In Search of the Hidden Wonders of the Lake District

Our Book of the Month for November 2022 is 36 Islands: In Search of the Hidden Wonders of the Lake District by Robert Twigger

A journey across the Lake District to discover the secrets of its 36 islands.

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Book of the Month: Atlas of Geographical Curiosities

Our Book of the Month for October 2022 is Atlas of Geographical Curiosities by Vitali Vitaliev.

Welcome to this compendium of interesting, unexpected and downright bizarre geographical anomalies that are guaranteed to delight and inspire. The world is full of little-known facts that have sometimes been a source of diplomatic or military struggle. Many still exist under the radar now to be revealed by this entertaining treasure trove. 

Where else can you discover:

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