<p>Helena Drysdale was just about to leave for Madagascar when family papers in a crumbling house in Devon revealed that her ancestors had traded there during the nineteenth century. Madagascar was not their only haunt: there was also Zanzibar and the Comoro Islands. Helena and her photographer husband, Richard Pomeroy, set off to follow in their wake and seek out any lingering family connections. On dhows, cargo boats, dug-out canoes, in lorries and on foot, their journey took them from old colonial Mombassa to the winding alleys of Zanzibar, from Moslem ceremonies in the Comoro Islands to ancestor-worship in Madagascar and annual exhumations of the dead. Dancing with the Dead is intensely romantic and utterly delightful. Helena Drysdale writes with a freshness and vigour which make every page of this unusual and engaging travel book sparkle with pleasure.</p>

Dancing with the Dead - A Journey Through Zanzibar and Madagascar

Travel

Drysdale, Helena

Africa

The Long Riders' Guild Press

William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle, was a man of great enthusiasms. A devoted Royalist and English Civil War General, his passions included women, music, writing, theatre and the finest horses.  He was a widely acknowledged expert in the art of the riding house, which laid the foundations for classical dressage, and was the mark of a graceful and accomplished gentleman amongst the European nobility of the seventeenth century.  Newcastle published two horsemanship manuals in 1658 and 1667, setting out his method for training the horse and, while he has been seen as a dilettante, his manuals reveal a level of dedication and precision which prove that to be untrue. In this first comprehensive study of Newcastle's manuals, Elaine Walker explores the insights they offer into his writing practice, personal philosophy and motivation, alongside their surprising relevance to the modern rider or any reader interested in the long history of human interaction with the horse. Through consideration of the manuals in their cultural context, Walker analyses Newcastle's contribution to the development of riding as an art and the way in which the texts were important to Newcastle himself during a turbulent life.

To Amaze the People with Pleasure and Delight: The Horsemanship Manuals of William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

WALKER, Elaine

Pets & Animal Care

The Paradise Factor: Healing an Addicted Society

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Patterson, Meg

Patterson, George N.

Addiction & Recovery

Can you be set free from addiction? What you need is power - power to break the habit, power to deal with the problems which drove you to them in the first place, power to heal the broken relationships with your family. This book is an attempt to make a wider contribution to the solutions in making, not just addicts, but a sick society, whole in mind, body and spirit.

The Power Factor: The key to conquering addiction

This is a fascinating look at America from a Pakistan's point of view - and an equally fascinating look at Pakistan from an American's point of view. The guiding insight of the soft-spoken Dr. Hussain's work is synthesizing the perspectives of the Pakistani and American ways of life. In "Treading a Fine Line," he draws a compelling social and political history against the background of our current age of economic globalization and fast high tech' communications.

Treading a Fine Line - A Collection of Op-Ed Columns with Readers

S. Amjad Hussain

History

In the Gypsy language, Lavengro means Master of Words. It was the pet name bestowed on George Borrow by his Gypsy friends for being such an outstanding linguist. Even so, this remarkable book is not about a teacher, but about a pupil. It describes the coming of age of an authentic genius, George Borrow himself, who by the end of his life mastered 60 languages, the mythology of a dozen nations and the literature of two thousand years. “Lavengro”, George Borrow himself maintained, “is a dream”. And so it is. Step by step it guides us through the enchanted landscapes of his childhood in the early 19th century. As a boy he wanders to every corner of the British Isles in the wake of his father’s regiment and roams freely over the windswept heath with his Gypsy friend Jasper Petulengro. We see him fail as an apprentice lawyer for being too restless and too kind-hearted. We see his stunning success as a budding linguist when taken in hand by the brilliant William Taylor. He goes to London to seek his fortune as a poet, but falls into the claws of an unscrupulous publisher, who squeezes him dry for every drop of talent. At last he escapes, and joins the road people, travelling with a cart and pony through the pristine land, living in the wilderness with Gypsies, pugilists, tinkers and postillions, horse thieves and horse dealers, and with one formidable young woman who can knock down a bull with one blow of her fist. cBy the time he reached manhood, George Borrow had become a dazzling Master of Words, not only as a linguist, but also as a writer. Lavengro itself proves the point. Woven from the strands of memory on a flawless loom of art, embroidered with the silken yarns of poetry, it possesses all the grace and beauty of a masterpiece. His descriptions of people and scenery are often unparalleled. The strength of the dialogues and the elegance of the thoughts expressed have few equals in the literature of the Victorian Age. It is, in fact, more than a dream. It is a revelation.

Lavengro

Literature & Fiction

Borrow, George

British & Irish

There was really nothing strange in being a Romany Rye back in the Victorian Age. First coined by George Borrow in the title of this book, the term means, in the Gypsy language, a "Gypsy Gentleman", an outsider of some means and education accepted and adopted by the vagrant road people of the 19th century English countryside. Between the Napoleonic Era and the First World War, there were many such men, artists, intellectuals and romantic adventurers, who joined Gypsy wagon trains and lived in their encampments out in the wild. But George Borrow, the unparalleled polyglot and author of extravagant bestsellers, was the first and foremost of them all. Sequel to Lavengro, his childhood memoirs, The Romany Rye tells the story of Borrow's own vagabond years in the 1820s, when he trekked along with the free spirits of the open roads. These were the pristine days before the railroads wiped out the travelling habits of ages; before harsher laws and constables put a stop to all vagrancy; before the repeal of the Corn Laws, the advent of the Empire and the machinery of the Industrial Revolution turned England into a wealthier but much bleaker place. Borrow's world was still scenic, peopled by proud Gypsy families in their carts and tents, by itinerant artisans settling on the outskirts of villages only as long as there was work; by horse dealers and horse-thieves; pugilists, hedge preachers, con men, circus artists, robust postillions and bizarre undercover Catholic missionaries. With all of these George Borrow rubbed shoulders and shared daily life. He learned how they journeyed, how they spoke and thought, loved and fought, struck up friendships and settled enmities, how they faced the law and were a law unto themselves. Only vaguely dramatised, Borrow's Romany Rye is an eyewitness report to a vanished world. It is therefore a unique document which does not have its equal in Victorian letters.

The Romany Rye

Europe

A much loved and frequently reissued classic, Wild Wales first appeared in 1862. It is George Borrow’s account of a family holiday spent in Llangollen, North Wales, to which are attached two strenuous walking tours in search of the homes and haunts and last resting places of the bards whom he loved. The first tour encompasses much of Snowdonia and Anglesey, and the second takes him the length of the country from Llangollen to Swansea and thence through South Wales to Chepstow. Traveller, linguist and author of The Bible in Spain, Lavengro, and Romany Rye, Borrow explores the often dramatic scenery of Wales, delving into its literary past, its history, myths and legends, and meeting its people along the way, conveying as he does so his enthusiasm for all things Celtic. Wild Wales is much more than a straightforward travel account. It is a book rich with characters, complete with princes, heroes, villains and rogues. In its pages we meet the delightful John Jones and the comical Tom Jenkins, we are introduced to Owain Glyndwr and his struggles against the English Crown. Great poets like Dafydd ap Gwilym share space with robbers like the Plant de Bat and the Robin Hood like Twm Shone Catti. Forbidding monsters, in imagination at least, inhabit the lakes, and the church cat slumbers peacefully in a cottage by the River Dee. Frequently biased and argumentative, Borrow is at all times energetic and readable and remains among the liveliest writers on Wales. His book is still one of the best introductions to the country. Frequently biased and argumentative, Borrow is at all times energetic and readable and remains among the liveliest writers on Wales. His book is still one of the best introductions to the country.

Wild Wales - Its People, Language and Scenery

Vladimir Littauer served in the Russian Imperial Cavalry from 1911 to 1920. This book recounts, with humour and modesty, his experiences as a cadet at the Nicholas Cavalry School in St. Petersburg, through the hair-raising struggles of the First World War and the trauma of the Russian Revolution, to his escape in 1920. By the time you turn the last page, you will feel as if you have galloped beside the author through the early years of his amazing life. As Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart writes in the Foreword, this is quite the best book on its subject ever written, and is essential reading for anyone with an interest in cavalry warfare, life under the Czar or European military history. Littauer arrived in the United States in 1921, and shortly thereafter founded the famous Boots and Saddles Riding School in New York. For the next sixty years he taught successive generations of riders and teachers, and revolutionised riding in the United States and overseas. He wrote ten books on equitation and training, all of which are full of long experience, a deep love of horses, and plenty of common sense.

Russian Hussar - A Story of the Imperial Cavalry, 1911-1920

Littauer, Vladimir

Military

<p>Nan Aspinwall led an extraordinary life as a sharp-shooter and trick-roper in Buffalo Bill¿s Wild West Show. According to legend, a dis agree ment between Cody and his rival showman, Pawnee Bill, led to the circum stances whereby Nan was challenged to undertake a solo trans continental ride. Could a woman ride from the Pacific to the Atlantic alone the showmen argued? Nan set off in September 1910 to prove it was possible. Mounting her mare, Lady Ellen, the Long Rider packed her pistol, picked up a letter from the Mayor of San Francisco addressed to his counter part, then set out to deliver it to New York. But after riding into the history books as the first woman to ride alone across America, Nan¿s amazing tale became lost due to a clerical error. Although researchers spent years trying to uncover what happened to this remarkable Long Rider, Nan¿s story was finally uncovered thanks to the diligent academic research of author, Mary C. Higginbotham. Thanks to her detective work Nan's extra ordinary story was discovered under her married name in an obscure file in the Midwest. Featuring a special Introduction by Dr. Juti Winchester, Curator of the Buffalo Bill Cody Historical Center, this is a fascinating story which is amply illustrated with never-before-seen photographs of Nan in the saddle and on the stage.</p>

In Genuine Cowgirl Fashion - The Life and Ride of "Two-Gun" Nan Aspinwall

Higginbotham, Mary

Winchester, Juti

Americas

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