Here is a collection of joined-up stories for these disjointed times, for the exiled and the out-of-place. Letters from love poets and blood-stained dictators, memos from corrupt businessmen and out-of-touch courtiers. The action stretches from Chislehurst to the Chagos Islands, from bathos to Billericay.

In a Strange Land is a collection of joined-up stories for these disjointed times, for the exiled and the out-of-place. Have you ever felt you are not where you should be? Rome's favourite love poet does; he must now entertain a bunch of hairy barbarians. A blood-stained dictator finds himself making breakfast for his nine youngest children in a Novotel. On the Edgware Road a Syrian ophthalmologist tells his girlfriend about a sudden career change whilst, on the other side of the city, a s...

It is 1983 and we are in Beijing. China has just started to re-open to Western trade after the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. A young Englishman finds himself caught in a dilemma: will his desire for a Chinese girl make him willing to source forbidden technology for her father? And will their relationship be used to lure him into espionage? In this part-love story, part-thriller, Chris Ruffle reveals a China now vanished beneath the veneer of modernization.

When Yorkshireman Chris Ruffle decided to build a vineyard complete with a Scottish castle in the midst of the countryside in eastern China, he was expecting difficulties, but nothing on the scale he encountered. But build it he did, and the wine is now flowing. A Decent Bottle of Wine in China tells the unique story of an adventurer determined to make his dream come true regardless of what strange and formidable obstacles are placed in his path.

'From the helicopter I could see the property's waterholes surrounded by paperback trees, its red-stone cliffs lit by the rising sun. And grass, endless seas of grass. Here was the vision splendid: Nat Buchanan's grass castle. Gurindji country. And my country, Australia.'This is big country, the outback, home to the largest cattle and sheep stations in the world. Yet few of us know what goes on behind the farm gate. What's life really like when next door is 500 kilometres away, and ...

In Man Walks Into A Pub, Pete Brown takes us on a well-lubricated pub-crawl through the amazing story of beer, from the first sacred sip of ancient Egyptian bouza to the last pint of lager on a Friday night.It's an extraordinary tale of yeast-obsessed monks and teetotal prime ministers; of how pale ale fuelled an Empire and weak bitter won a world war; of exploding breweries, a bear in a yellow nylon jacket and a Canadian bloke who changed the drinking hab...

Canberra, Australia, is a city of orphans. People arrive temporarily for work, but stay when they discover the unanticipated promise and opportunity Canberra has to offer. An exploration of the city Australia loves to hate, this book shows that there is more to this capital than politics, geometrically designed roads, and mid-century architecture. From the lake and its forgotten suburbs—traces of which can still be found on Burley Griffin's banks—to the mountains that surround the city, th...

From the early invention of the boomerang as an effective hunting weapon to todays ground-breaking contributions to science and technology, Australians have always proven brilliantly adept at coming up with creative solutions to challenging problems. From manufacturing to agriculture, film to medicine, its likely that an Australian invention is making a valuable contribution to the way we live. AUSTRALIAS GREATEST INVENTIONS reveals how our industry and innovation have placed this country ...

The inspiring and entertaining story of a determined young woman alone, who overcame the isolation of her family farm to build a flourishing business. When Lisa Harper returned to her family’s farm at the head of remote Mahau Sound, in the Marlborough Sounds, after years overseas working as a scientist, she showed all the pluck and entrepreneurial streak of the earlier generations of women in her family. The isolation wasn’t going to deter her from starting a new business....

Meet Pete Brown: beer jounalist, beer drinker and author of an irreverent book about British beer, Man Walks Into A Pub. One day, Pete's world is rocked when he discovers several countries produce, consume and celebrate beer far more than we do. The Germans claim they make the best beer in the world, the Australians consider its consumption a patriotic duty, the Spanish regard lager as a trendy youth drink and the Japanese have built a skyscrapter in the shape of a foaming glass o...

Like his talk show, this autobiography delivers more than the everyday - it's honest, informative and insightful - and is in Leighton's trademark style.For nearly 30 years, one voice has dominated the airwaves of New Zealand morning radio, sometimes infuriating his audience but always challenging it to embrace the concepts of individual responsibility, high standards and opinion based on sound knowledge.Now, for the first time, the previously private Leighton Smith unveils the perso...

A classic book about the pleasures of wine by the editor of The Oxford Companion to WineEven the French admit that Jancis Robinson is the "undisputed mistress of the kingdom of wine" (Le Figaro) and her is vintage memoir of a life in wine. Internationally renowned for her work in both television and print, she is the editor of the bestselling Oxford Companion to Wine and has won more than two dozen major awards around the world. Tasti...