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READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Essential Reading

Item EXGBR484. Buy these 5 items as a set for $98 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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Seamanship, A Voyage along the Wild Coasts of the British Isles

Seamanship, A Voyage along the Wild Coasts of the British Isles

by Adam Nicolson

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 192 PAGES

Nicolson offers an engrossing account of a coastal voyage from Cornwall, along the western coast of Ireland, out to the Faeroes and to Orkney in this brief hymn to the sea. (GBR561, $13.95)

The Crofter and the Laird

The Crofter and the Laird

by John McPhee

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1978
  • PAPER
  • 159 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

McPhee packs up his family and returns for a year to his ancestral land on the Isle of Colonsay in this lyrical, appreciative portrait of place and traditional ways of life in the Hebrides. (SCT23, $16.00)

The British Isles, A History of Four Nations

The British Isles, A History of Four Nations

by Hugh Kearney

  • HISTORY
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 324 PAGES

The Celts, Romans, Vikings, Normans and modern immigrants all make an appearance in Kearney's elegant and revisionist history of not just the English but also of the Scots, Welsh and Irish. (GBR88, $39.99)

Wildlife of the North Atlantic, A Cruising Guide

Wildlife of the North Atlantic, A Cruising Guide

by Tony Soper | Dan Powell

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 176 PAGES

This compact, illustrated guide covers the many petrels, ducks, gulls, terns and other seabirds along with whales and dolphins of not just the British Isles but all the way across the Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. (ATL26, $25.99)

Great Britain and Ireland Map

Great Britain and Ireland Map

by HEMA Maps

  • MAP

A nicely detailed map showing both Great Britain and Ireland at a scale of 1:750,000. (GBR31, $10.95)

 
Celtic Prayers from Iona

Celtic Prayers from Iona


by J. Philip Newell

  • RELIGION
  • 1997
  • HARD COVER
  • 96 PAGES

Inspired by the Gaelic prayers and poems of the 19th-century Scotsman Alexander Carmichael, Newell and his wife developed this handsome hard cover book while wardens on the island. (SCT21, $14.95)

London Perceived

London Perceived


by Evelyn Hofer | V. S. Pritchett

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 214 PAGES

A classic, lyrical celebration of the palaces, parks, people and everyday experience of London. Pritchett's eloquent riffs on the character of the city are accompanied by evocative black-and-white photographs by the superb Evelyn Hofer. (GBR310, $19.95)

Scotland, A Concise History

Scotland, A Concise History


by Fitzroy MacLean | Magnus Linklater

  • HISTORY
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 248 PAGES

With 250 well-integrated illustrations, this lively and authoritative history covers the romantic figures and bloody battles from the early clans up to the present. (SCT15, $19.95)

The Celts: A Very Short Introduction

The Celts: A Very Short Introduction


by Barry W Cunliffe

  • HISTORY
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 161 PAGES

A concise, revealing social history of the Celts, by a reigning authority and popular writer. (CLT03, $11.95)

The Mother Tongue, English and How it Got That Way

The Mother Tongue, English and How it Got That Way


by Bill Bryson

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 270 PAGES

An indispensable guide to the language that divides us, this book is an informative linguistic history which showcases Bryson's wry wit. (GBR15, $14.99)

The Shetland Bus, A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival and Adventure

The Shetland Bus, A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival and Adventure


by David Howarth

  • HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 236 PAGES

The little-known story of a fleet of fishing boats that regularly journeyed across treacherous waters from the Shetland Islands to Norway, to bring relief and fortifications to Norwegians under Nazi attack. (NOR26, $16.95)

The Story of England

The Story of England


by Christopher Hibbert

  • HISTORY
  • 1992
  • PAPER
  • 224 PAGES

Beautifully illustrated with color pictures, chronological charts, royal genealogies and maps, this popular history of English politics, economics and culture from the Neolithic age to the 1990s is an excellent traveler's companion. (GBR02, $19.95)

Cathedrals and Castles, The Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages

Cathedrals and Castles, The Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages


by Alain Erlande-Brandenburg

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 175 PAGES

This pocket-size encyclopedia of the art, architecture and culture of the Middle Ages features hundreds of drawings, color illustrations and a brief chronology. (MED07, $15.95)

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides


by Samuel Johnson | James Boswell

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1984
  • PAPER
  • 429 PAGES

Written when Johnson was 63 and Boswell 32 in 1773 (when they had been friends for ten years), these travel journals were the result of a three-month trip to Scotland. Johnson observed Scotland, and Boswell observed Johnson. (SCT07, $18.00)

Kingdom by the Sea

Kingdom by the Sea


by Paul Theroux

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 361 PAGES

This time, the prolific writer recounts a coastal journey around the British Isles in 1982, displaying his occasional ill temper alongside his celebrated ability to combine social history with a good old-fashioned traveler's tale. (GBR09, $14.95)

Irish Fairy and Folk Tales

Irish Fairy and Folk Tales


by W.B. Yeats

  • LITERATURE
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 380 PAGES

Edited by the Nobel Prize-winning poet who spearheaded the Celtic Renaissance in the early 20th century, these enchanting stories introduce a cast of changelings, ghosts, mermaids, demons, saints, priests and fairies. (IRE04, $16.00)

Orkneyinga Saga, The History of the Earls of Orkney

Orkneyinga Saga, The History of the Earls of Orkney


by Hermann Palssom | Paul Edwards

  • LITERATURE
  • 1981
  • PAPER
  • 253 PAGES

A fusion of myth and legend, circa A.D. 1200, by an unnamed Icelandic author. The medieval chronicle has its center of action among the Orkney Islands, describing their conquest by Norwegian kings during the Viking expansion of the ninth century. (VIK07, $16.00)

Sun Dancing, A Vision of Medieval Ireland

Sun Dancing, A Vision of Medieval Ireland


by Geoffrey Moorhouse

  • LITERATURE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 280 PAGES

This wonderfully inspired combination of scholarship and historical fiction, set at the monastery on Skellig Michael, carries the reader back to Ireland's early monastic tradition. (IRE13, $22.95)

Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World

Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World


by Paul Schofield

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

This compact guide to those confounding tubenoses features 46 exquisite color plates by Derek Onley. (BRD50, $29.95)

Birds of Europe

Birds of Europe


by Lars Svensson

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

Featuring 3,500 glorious paintings by Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterstrom, the second revised edition of this exquisite guide has been brought up to date with revised text and maps. (FG47, $29.95)

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Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.