TRV010000 Archives - Duckworth Books

The Untold Railway Stories

A compendium of fascinating and evocative new writing on railway travel and history. Telling of little known journeys and uncovered histories on railway routes around the world – from the UK, Europe and Africa to North America, the Middle East and Asia.

From Myanmar’s highlands to the British Pennines, from slow travel between coffee plantations in Borneo to a cross-continent odyssey on African railways, from the pioneers of the American West to European trains in war, this is a new prism through which to explore human lives, and global landscapes, politics and history.

The Untold Railway Stories is a testament to both the joy and impact of train travel – to the ambition and ingenuity, and also to destruction and sacrifice within its history – and is published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of first passenger railway line.

A Ride Across America

‘Parker magnificently chronicles the America he encounters, a divided, disfranchised collection of states he fears for but comes to love for their generosity, community spirit and sense of hope’ Ben East, Observer

Frustrated by the shallow headlines focusing only on Trump, borders and division, award-winning travel writer Simon Parker decided that to better understand today’s USA he would have to travel across it, slowly.

Did the America of his teenage dreams really exist? And was it really as fractured as the headlines suggest? On his journey to find out, Simon cycled 4,373 miles through eleven states and numerous extreme weather events, via mountains and prairie lands, forests and freeways. Along the way he visited homes, schools, churches and rodeos, meeting hundreds of (extra)ordinary Americans behind the clickbait news posts to discover a nation whose portrayal has become vastly oversimplified.

In Green

‘A classic adventure narrative in the vein of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Robert Louis Stevenson… life-changing’ CAL FLYN, author of Islands of Abandonment

In his mid-twenties, city-bound and restless, Louis D. Hall found himself uncertain. How to create a life he wanted to lead? Inspired by Don Quixote, he decided to fulfil a childhood dream – to make an uncharted journey on horseback.

After finding his horse, Sasha, in Italy’s Apennine Mountains, Louis set off and headed west. His destination: Cape Finisterre, ‘the end of the land’. For three weeks Louis and Sasha survived storms, snow, wolves and the untrodden partisan paths of the Ligurian Alps. But then a young woman arrived with her horse, Istia, and their solitary world was broken. Kiki, adrift with the death of her sibling, joined the journey, and the duo continued together.

With every step and every fall, the pair are forced to unfold and trust in their horses and, eventually, each other. Using old and forgotten routes, guided by strangers and nature’s clues, the travellers unravel into a wilder way of life; united by the mysteries of the horse, enticed by the illusions of adventure.

Bread and War

‘Stories of kindness, bravery and love shine from these pages’ Nigel Slater

‘A brave, necessary account of resilience and skill and the power of bread and connection’ Olia Hercules

How do you source, cook and take joy in food in the midst of war and loss?

Food is a weapon, a lifeline, a means of survival. Ukrainian food is also a powerful symbol of national identity and independence. This is a journey through mine-ridden, wrecked villages, repeatedly bombed cities, family kitchens and precarious small bakeries and cafes. Along the way news journalist and food writer Felicity Spector shares meals with soldiers, travels supply lines with volunteers and is fed incredible food by army cooks, fine bakers and home-cooking heroes.

The extraordinary stories of just some of those people – refugees and restaurateurs – trying to rebuild lives and kitchens after years of bombing, shows a very Ukrainian determination to provide good food for a besieged people.

Played in Germany

Beyond the booze and the bratwurst: what football really tells us about Germany

Germany is one of the world’s great footballing powers. Four-time World Cup winners, Euro 2024 hosts and home to clubs like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, the country’s notorious winning mentality and vibrant fan culture are as famous as its beer and its cars. But if you look closer, what does the beautiful game really tell us about German history, culture and society?

Played in Germany takes us on a journey through modern Germany’s football heartlands in search of the issues that define it. Through the songs, stadiums and simmering resentments of football, Kit Holden sheds light on a nation so diverse and divided that the only thing that really unites it is the game itself.

From the author of Sports Book Awards-shortlisted Scheisse! We’re Going Up!

The Shadowy Third

Uncovering the hidden love triangle between novelist Elizabeth Bowen and the author’s grandparents – the critically acclaimed biography with never-before-seen letters detailing the affair.

For readers who were swept up in Laura Cumming’s On Chapel Sands, Daniel Mendelsohn’s An Odyssey and Francesca Wade’s Square Haunting.

A death in the family delivers Julia Parry a box of letters. Dusty with age, they reveal a secret love affair between the celebrated novelist Elizabeth Bowen and the academic Humphry House – Julia’s grandfather.

So begins a life-changing quest to understand the affair, which had profound repercussions for Julia’s family, not least her grandmother, Madeline. Julia traces these three very different characters through 1930s Oxford and Ireland, Texas, Calcutta in the last days of Empire, and on into World War II. With a supporting cast that includes Isaiah Berlin and Virginia Woolf, The Shadowy Third opens up a world with complex attitudes to love and sex, duty and ambition, and to writing itself.

Everyman’s England

A classic travelogue that brilliantly conjures 1930s Britain.

In this series of pen-portraits of England from the 1930s, Victor Canning ‘evocatively captures the pattern and colour of English life’ (The Bookseller), from Cumbria to Cornwall. Canning’s heart-warming and humorous observations of sleepy villages, pastoral scenes and busy industries are a delightful time capsule into life in England during the interwar years.

‘What does the word England mean to you? To all of us England means something different, and yet I think there is for every man and woman some little corner which is more England than anywhere else…’

Georgia in the Mountains of Poetry

Peter Nasmyth has lived in and travelled extensively throughout Georgia for the last 32 years. Georgia in the Mountains of Poetry is his fascinating account of this historically rich and drama loving country, based on his travels and hundreds of wide-ranging interviews. Reprinted numerous times, it remains the only comprehensive book on Georgia’s history and culture written for the general reader, now substantially revised and expanded for this new edition.

Georgia – no larger than Ireland – is the most geographical diverse country in the world for its size. It borders on the Black Sea and contains the heart of the Caucasus mountains, as well as subtropical wetlands and semi-arid regions. Stone towers attest to its 3,000-year-old history, which has witnessed the thousand-year reign of the Bagratuni monarchy, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, a bitter civil war, the celebration of its independence in 1991 and the arrival of full democracy in 2012. Yet little is known about this remarkable nation outside its borders. Georgia in the Mountains of Poetry is the first book to provide its full inner story and remains essential reading for anyone interested in this fascinating region set on the historic far borders of Europe and Asia.

One Kiss or Two?

Every encounter begins with a greeting. Be it a quick ‘Hello!’ or the somewhat longer and gracious ‘Sula manchwanta galunga omugobe!’ shaking hands or shaking, well, rather more private parts of our anatomy, we have been doing it many times daily for thousands of years. It should be the most straightforward thing in the world, but this apparently simple act is fraught with complications, leading to awkward misunderstandings and occasionally even outright violence.

In the illuminating and entertaining One Kiss or Two? Andy Scott goes down the rabbit hole to take a closer look at what greetings are all about. In looking at how they have developed, he discovers a kaleidoscopic world of etiquette, body-language, evolution, neuroscience, anthropology and history. Through in-depth research and his personal experiences, and with the help of experts, Scott takes us on a captivating journey through a subject far richer than we might have expected.

Flirting with French

William Alexander is not just a Francophile, he wants to be French. It’s not enough to explore the country, to enjoy the food and revel in the ambiance, he wants to feel French from the inside. Among the things that stand in his way is the fact that he can’t actually speak the language.

Setting out to conquer the language he loves (but which, amusingly, does not seem to love him back), Alexander devotes himself to learning French, going beyond grammar lessons and memory techniques to delve into the history of the language, the science of linguistics, and the art of translation. Along the way, during his travels in France or following his passion at home, he discovers that not learning a language may be its own reward.

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