The Last Colonial by
Christopher Ondaatje $39.95 Hardback (Thames & Hudson)
It
is the curious encounters behind Ondaatje’s often precarious adventures that
make up The
Last Colonial. The stories tell of childhood days in Ceylon; a
lifelong pursuit of elusive leopards; early struggles in Canada; his fascination
with inexplicable events and local superstitions; and sometimes perilous travels
researching his biographies of Ernest Hemingway in Africa and Leonard Woolf in
Ceylon. His two books on Sir Richard Burton, Sindh
Revisited and Journey
to the Source of the Nile, are perhaps the best known of his
biographies, and in this new volume he turns to Burton in Syria. Complemented by
the artist Ana Maria Pacheco’s magical and sometimes disturbing, images, the
stories conjure up a truly unique portrait of a ‘colonial’ world that is
vanishing forever.
Paris by Janelle
McCulloch $49.99 Paperback (Plum)
Paris
begins with an atmospheric guide to the arrondissements, each with their
distinct personality, like the sophisticate 1st with its magnificent
architecture and perfectly clipped trees, or the hipster 3rd with its avant
garde artisans and cool cafes. Janelle meanders through each area, taking in
architectural and design features and discovering secret side streets,
tucked-away gardens and beautiful neighbourhood squares. In the second half of
the book she shares her very favourite places to visit in Paris, with over 150
reviews of the most incredible and unusual shops, museums, markets, cafes and
food stores. There's Laduree, the city's prettiest patisserie, along with a
whole raft of amazing ateliers, inspiring bookstores, secret design museums and
even fantastical shops filled with taxidermied animals.
Holidays in Heck by
PJ O’Rourke $29.99 Paperback (Grove)
O’Rouke
takes the reader on a globe-trotting journey to far-reaching places including
China, Afghanistan and the Galapagos Islands. This collection begins after the
Iraq War, when P.J. retired from being a war correspondent because he was
"too old to keep being scared stiff and too stiff to keep sleeping on the
ground." Instead he embarked on supposedly more comfortable and allegedly
less dangerous travels - often with family in tow - which mostly left him
wishing he were under artillery fire again. The result is a hilarious and
oftentimes moving portrait of life in the fast lane - only this time as a
husband and father of three.
Family
in Paris by Jane Paech Hardback $49.95 (Lantern)
Australian
Jane Paech moves to Paris with her family. Through a collection of sharp
observations, insightful travel articles and laugh-out-loud anecdotes, A
Family in Paris conveys the joys and difficulties of living in this most
famous of cities. It introduces us to the Parisians and their eccentricities,
explores the intricate rituals of daily life, and takes us beyond the
well-trodden tourist sites to the best eating spots, boutiques, museums and
markets that only a local could know about.