What makes the English English? Is it their eccentricity, their passionate love (or, indeed, hatred) of Marmite – or is it something less easily defined? Beginning at the top of a muddy Gloucestershire slope at the Coopers Hill cheese-rolling contest and traversing a landscape of lawns and queues, coastlines and sporting arenas, Ben Fogle takes us on a journey through the peculiarly English: a country of wax jackets, cricket, boat races and jellied eels, by way of national treasures such as the shipping forecast, fish and chips and the Wellington boot. Not to mention the Dunkirk spirit of relentless optimism in the face of adversity, be it the heroic failure of Captain Scott's doomed Antarctic expedition, or simply the perennial hope for better weather. The archetypal Englishman – lover of labradors and Land Rovers yet holder of two passports – Ben applauds all things quintessentially English while also paying tribute to the history, culture and ideas adopted with such gusto that... Views: 51
Fifty years ago Gavin Maxwell went to live in an abandoned house on a shingle beach on the west coast of Scotland. A haven for wildlife - he named his home Camusfearna and settled there with the otters Mij, Edal and Teko. Ring of Bright Water chronicles Gavin Maxwell's first ten years with the otters and touched the hearts of readers the world over, brilliantly evoking life with these playful animals in this natural paradise. Two further volumes followed bringing the story full circle telling of the difficult last years and the final abandonment of teh settlement. For the first time the entire trilogy is available in a single narrative in this beautifully presented book. Views: 45
From bestselling author Jon Krakauer, a stark, powerful, meticulously
reported narrative about a series of sexual assaults at the University
of Montana — stories that illuminate the human drama behind the
national plague of campus rape Missoula, Montana, is a
typical college town, with a highly regarded state university, bucolic
surroundings, a lively social scene, and an excellent football team — the Grizzlies — with a rabid fan base. The
Department of Justice investigated 350 sexual assaults reported to the
Missoula police between January 2008 and May 2012. Few of these assaults
were properly handled by either the university or local authorities. In
this, Missoula is also typical. A DOJ report released in
December of 2014 estimates 110,000 women between the ages of eighteen
and twenty-four are raped each year. Krakauer’s devastating narrative of
what happened in Missoula makes clear why rape is so prevalent on
American campuses, and why rape victims are so reluctant to report
assault. Acquaintance rape is a crime like no other. Unlike
burglary or embezzlement or any other felony, the victim often comes
under more suspicion than the alleged perpetrator. This is especially
true if the victim is sexually active; if she had been drinking prior to
the assault — and if the man she accuses plays on a popular sports
team. The vanishingly small but highly publicized incidents of false
accusations are often used to dismiss her claims in the press. If the
case goes to trial, the woman’s entire personal life becomes fair game
for defense attorneys. This brutal reality goes a long way
towards explaining why acquaintance rape is the most underreported crime
in America. In addition to physical trauma, its victims often suffer
devastating psychological damage that leads to feelings of shame,
emotional paralysis and stigmatization. PTSD rates for rape victims are
estimated to be 50%, higher than soldiers returning from war. In Missoula,
Krakauer chronicles the searing experiences of several women in
Missoula — the nights when they were raped; their fear and self-doubt in
the aftermath; the way they were treated by the police, prosecutors,
defense attorneys; the public vilification and private anguish; their
bravery in pushing forward and what it cost them. Some of them
went to the police. Some declined to go to the police, or to press
charges, but sought redress from the university, which has its own,
non-criminal judicial process when a student is accused of rape. In two
cases the police agreed to press charges and the district attorney
agreed to prosecute. One case led to a conviction; one to an acquittal.
Those women courageous enough to press charges or to speak publicly
about their experiences were attacked in the media, on Grizzly football
fan sites, and/or to their faces. The university expelled three of the
accused rapists, but one was reinstated by state officials in a secret
proceeding. One district attorney testified for an alleged rapist at his
university hearing. She later left the prosecutor’s office and
successfully defended the Grizzlies’ star quarterback in his rape trial.
The horror of being raped, in each woman’s case, was magnified by the
mechanics of the justice system and the reaction of the community. Krakauer’s
dispassionate, carefully documented account of what these women endured
cuts through the abstract ideological debate about campus rape.
College-age women are not raped because they are promiscuous, or drunk,
or send mixed signals, or feel guilty about casual sex, or seek
attention. They are the victims of a terrible crime and deserving of
compassion from society and fairness from a justice system that is
clearly broken. Views: 41
A riveting mystery wrapped in a disturbing family, Ada Unraveled is the first of the Quilted Mystery novels. Central to the story is the Stowall family, headed by a simple father obsessed with the fear that his branch of a mountain clan would bring dishonor to them all.But first we are introduced to an enigmatic being with the words, "His mom brought him a friend. He was astonished, frozen on his bed. He couldn't even remember what his tongue and lips were for. He watched his mom leave them alone, sneaking upstairs with a smile on her old face. What was she thinking? He couldn't have guests. He was in a prison, a cage...."Rachel and her Marine husband Matt had arrive on the west coast after early retirement from their respective careers. They establish a private investigations business and ply their trade successfully. Growing restless in the mostly male, home-based business, Rachel searches for female friends through her hobbies, one of them being hand quilting. So she shouldn't... Views: 39
The gripping articles in Classic Krakauer, originally published in periodicals such as The New Yorker, Outside, and Smithsonian, display the singular investigative reporting that made Jon Krakauer famous—and show why he is considered a standard-bearer of modern journalism. Spanning an extraordinary range of subjects and locations, these articles take us from a horrifying avalanche on Mt. Everest to a volcano poised to obliterate a big chunk of greater Seattle at any moment; from a wilderness teen-therapy program run by apparent sadists to an otherwordly cave in New Mexico, studied by NASA to better understand Mars; from the notebook of one Fred Beckey, who catalogued the greatest unclimbed mountaineering routes on the planet, to the last days of legendary surfer Mark Foo. Rigorously researched and vividly written, marked by an unerring instinct for storytelling and scoop, the pieces in Classic Krakauer are unified by the author's ambivalent... Views: 19
