Thorough. I haven’t found a better overview or introduction.

Iain

One of the finest books I’ve read. Faulks’s soldiers are vividly, and depressingly, dehumanised by the “war to end all wars.”

Iain

Iain

Journalism at its best. Lapierre and Collins so thoroughly take you from soon after the end of WWII to the assassination of Ghandi that the book outgrows its short timespan, and becomes reasonable introduction to India.

Iain

Endlessly inventive. Renewed, for a time, my ever-flagging faith in writing.

Iain

Glum, vague and often justifiably pessimistic. Erudite, poetic and and happily intimate. You’ll need to know something of India beforehand, and have a taste for the semicolon.

Iain

A vivid portrait of medieval Paris, treatise on architecture, and celebration of the printing press. Not a Disney movie!

Iain

Contentious, apparently, because it was written by a Jew. Hit and miss, with interesting tidbits: like a 17th century English traveller repeatedly woken too early by his escort, because the Ottomans did not, until much later, use clocks.

Iain

Iain

Gandhi’s reflections are simply written and sometimes bizarre. He remembers the Eiffel Tower being blamed on tobacco, for example. Gandhi works hard to be honest about the man before the Mahatma, and manages, weaving an interesting first hand history.

Iain

Island hopping in detail, with a comprehensive guide to Athens.

Iain

Iain

The weakest LP I’ve used. Use plain medicinal iodine drop to purify water when trekking, the pills are expensive. Lodges (off-season 2007) should cost NRp. 50 per room, and won’t charge for a shower. They will charge about NRp. 300 for dalbut. And Nepal’s busses are not THAT bad - crash spotting over the course of a week is hardly scientific.

Iain

Too much information! At least for our short visit. The tome went home with my mother and Willie, who had bag space I envied.

Iain

Iain

The most important of Hindu texts. Difficult to rate, more difficult to read.

Iain