Publication date: 2001-08-30
RRP: £17.99
Price: £5.80
Review The Heart Must Break: Burma - Democracy and Truth / Century:The Heart Must Break, James Mawdsley's keen account of his campaigning and imprisonment in Burma, bears out with grim conviction the adage that if you play with fire you are likely to get burnt. Combining aspects of Winston Smith from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (Orwell, incidentally, was a policeman in Burma) with 1970s TV sitcom anti-hero Citizen Smith, Mawdsley was arrested on three separate visits for distributing cassettes and leaflets in Rangoon protesting human rights abuse and political oppression. The first occasion was, by his own admission, inept, and he was quickly booted out. With the second protest, after which he was sentenced to five years in prison, things became more brutal, as he was tortured by Military Intelligence. Undaunted, his third arrest in August 1999, only three months after being released, brought international headlines and a 17-year sentence. The findings of a UN Working Group, on top of an international campaign of pressure by his patiently supportive family finally precipitated his release after 14 months in prison. As well as detailing his experiences, The Heart Must Break also provides a platform for Mawdsley's arguments, if any reader needs convincing. There are hints of a darker side to the author-his attempted suicide after dropping out of university, for example-but he describes his story in unadorned prose, concerned more with the notes than the tune. Rather than the malapropos humour and earnest tub-thumping, the most convincing passages describe his trekking through the villages of Thailand and Burma. God, he believes, helped him through his ordeals, and while this repeated assertion can wear thin for the less devout reader, the hardships he faced helped forge his identity as a modern missionary whose compassionate idealism and bravery are undeniable. [+]-I>David Vincent.
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2000-09-14
Dewey code: 796
RRP: £20.00
Price: £12.25
Review Endurance Illustrated: An Illustrated Account of Shackleton's Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic / Weidenfeld & Nicolson:When Alfred Lansing's Endurance was first published in 1959, few people in this country-or anywhere else for that matter-had heard of Shackleton or the Imperial Transantarctic Expedition of 1914. Britain's polar history had been rewritten with Shackleton airbrushed out and Captain Scott taking centre stage as the archetypal English hero who died on the Great Barrier on his long haul back from the South Pole. If Scott's deification was almost instantaneous, Shackleton's descent into obscurity was more of a slow fade than a sudden death. He achieved a certain amount of acclaim when South, his own account of the Expedition, was published, but his legend seemed to die with him when he suffered a fatal heart attack on another trip south in 1922. His memory deserved much better. Not only was he a far better explorer than Scott, both in terms of his technical and man management capabilities, but the story of the Transantarctic expedition read like an epic out of a Boys Own annual. With his boat crushed, he led his men across the pack-ice, sailed them in open boats to Elephant Island. Once he realised there was no chance of rescue, he and four crew mates sailed a further 600 miles across the southern ocean to South Georgia where they were shipwrecked. The five men then made the first crossing of the island to reach the whaling station at Stromness. Three attempts and three and a half months later, Shackleton returned to Elephant Island to pick up the remaining men. [+]Not a single member of either party was lost. So we have Lansing to largely thank for Shackleton's rehabilitation. But herein lies the problem. Shackleton's story has been now been so well told both in books-especially Roland Huntford's definitive biography, and in film and TV, that even though Lansing's thrilling account, making liberal use of the diaries of several expedition members, was the first to be published it now feels all terribly familiar and adds nothing to what we already know. Even Frank Hurley's exquisite photographs which illustrate the book now engender a slight feeling of déjà vu-not least because they have already been better reproduced in a single volume published by Bloomsbury. But Lansing deserves his day in the snow and no polar library would be complete without this book. And if, by any chance, you've never previously read a word about Shackleton, this is as good a place as any to start. -John Crace.
Publication date: 2007-02-22
RRP: £6.99
Price: £6.08
Review White on Black: An Orphan's Story / John Murray Publishers Ltd:
Creator: Charlotte Mouncey
Publication date: 2005-02
RRP: £14.99
Price: £9.98
Review London to Paris the Hard Way: Doing Big and Scary / Filament Publishing:
Edition: 1st
Publication date: 1997-12
Dewey code: 364.15520973
RRP: £19.99
Price: £21.98
Review Hijacked: The True Story of the Heroes of Flight 705 / William Morrow:
Publication date: 2008-05-01
RRP: £9.99
Price: £6.59
Review Sophie's Journey / HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd:
Edition: 1st
Publication date: 1997-12
Dewey code: 364.15520973
RRP: £19.99
Price: £21.98
Review Hijacked: The True Story of the Heroes of Flight 705 / William Morrow:
Authors
- Charlie Pearson
- Daniel Liebowitz
RRP: £17.99
Price: £1.95
Review The Last Expedition: Stanley's Fatal Journey Through the Congo / Portrait:
Publication date: 2001-07-01
Dewey code: 900
RRP: £10.00
Price: £6.60
Review Heroes and Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco and Vanzetti and the Revolutionary Struggle / AK Press:
Publication date: 2004-11-04
Dewey code: 910
Price: £18.99
Review The Explorer's Daughter: A Young Englishwoman Rediscovers Her Arctic Childhood / Viking:
Edition: New title
Publication date: 2006-04-01
Dewey code: 613.69097767
RRP: £16.99
Price: £11.21
Review Lost in the Wild: Danger and Survival in the North Woods / Minnesota Historical Society Press,U.S.:
Publication date: 2007-12-13
RRP: £19.99
Price: £21.98
Review Give Me Shelter / Folens Publishers:
Edition: New title
Publication date: 2006-01-16
RRP: £10.00
Price: £0.01
Review White on Black: A Boy's Story / John Murray Publishers Ltd:
Publication date: 2001-07-01
Dewey code: 900
RRP: £10.00
Price: £6.60
Review Heroes and Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco and Vanzetti and the Revolutionary Struggle / AK Press:
Publication date: 2001-08-30
RRP: £17.99
Price: £5.80
Review The Heart Must Break: Burma - Democracy and Truth / Century:The Heart Must Break, James Mawdsley's keen account of his campaigning and imprisonment in Burma, bears out with grim conviction the adage that if you play with fire you are likely to get burnt. Combining aspects of Winston Smith from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (Orwell, incidentally, was a policeman in Burma) with 1970s TV sitcom anti-hero Citizen Smith, Mawdsley was arrested on three separate visits for distributing cassettes and leaflets in Rangoon protesting human rights abuse and political oppression. The first occasion was, by his own admission, inept, and he was quickly booted out. With the second protest, after which he was sentenced to five years in prison, things became more brutal, as he was tortured by Military Intelligence. Undaunted, his third arrest in August 1999, only three months after being released, brought international headlines and a 17-year sentence. The findings of a UN Working Group, on top of an international campaign of pressure by his patiently supportive family finally precipitated his release after 14 months in prison. As well as detailing his experiences, The Heart Must Break also provides a platform for Mawdsley's arguments, if any reader needs convincing. There are hints of a darker side to the author-his attempted suicide after dropping out of university, for example-but he describes his story in unadorned prose, concerned more with the notes than the tune. Rather than the malapropos humour and earnest tub-thumping, the most convincing passages describe his trekking through the villages of Thailand and Burma. God, he believes, helped him through his ordeals, and while this repeated assertion can wear thin for the less devout reader, the hardships he faced helped forge his identity as a modern missionary whose compassionate idealism and bravery are undeniable. [+]-I>David Vincent.
Authors
- Howard Lutnick
- Thomas Barbash
Price: £18.99
Review On Top of the World: The Remarkable Story of How Cantor Fitzgerald Recovered from the Twin Towers Attack / Headline Book Publishing:
Creator: Bill Gutman
Publication date: 2005-08-01
Dewey code: 796.522
RRP: £18.95
Price: £1.99
Review The Greatest Climbing Stories Ever Told: Incredible Tales of Risk and Adventure / The Lyons Press:
Edition: New title
Publication date: 2006-01-16
RRP: £10.00
Price: £0.01
Review White on Black: A Boy's Story / John Murray Publishers Ltd:
Creator: F.Jack Hurley
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2002-08-01
Price: £7.99
Review South (Penguin Modern Classics) / Penguin Books Ltd:
Publication date: 2001-06-09
Price: £12.99
Review Cold Burial: A True Story of Endurance and Disaster in the Barren Grounds / Viking:
| Models & Brands:
The Heart Must Break: Burma - Democracy and Truth, Endurance Illustrated: An Illustrated Account of Shackleton's Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic, White on Black: An Orphan's Story, London to Paris the Hard Way: Doing Big and Scary, Hijacked: The True Story of the Heroes of Flight 705, Sophie's Journey, Hijacked: The True Story of the Heroes of Flight 705, The Last Expedition: Stanley's Fatal Journey Through the Congo, Heroes and Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco and Vanzetti and the Revolutionary Struggle, The Explorer's Daughter: A Young Englishwoman Rediscovers Her Arctic Childhood, Lost in the Wild: Danger and Survival in the North Woods, Give Me Shelter, White on Black: A Boy's Story, Heroes and Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco and Vanzetti and the Revolutionary Struggle, The Heart Must Break: Burma - Democracy and Truth, On Top of the World: The Remarkable Story of How Cantor Fitzgerald Recovered from the Twin Towers Attack, The Greatest Climbing Stories Ever Told: Incredible Tales of Risk and Adventure, White on Black: A Boy's Story, South (Penguin Modern Classics), Cold Burial: A True Story of Endurance and Disaster in the Barren Grounds |
