In The Boiler Room Boys: An Underground Story of Science, Religion, and the Faith that Fuels Both, Tim Smith describes how from too-young an age he followed two seemingly alternate paths, religion and science, only to find that they are not alternate at all. His so-called "yellow brick road" began with a group of boys meeting independently in his grade school's boiler room. Conflicting teaching by religious and scientific fundamentalists led him toward a PhD in biomathematics and toward at...

Shifting Baselines explores the real-world implications of a groundbreaking idea: we must understand the oceans of the past to protect the oceans of the future. In 1995, acclaimed marine biologist Daniel Pauly coined the term "shifting baselines" to describe a phenomenon of lowered expectations, in which each generation regards a progressively poorer natural world as normal. This seminal volume expands on Pauly's work, showing how skewed visions of the past have led to disastrous ...

A riveting, comprehensive history of the Arab peoples and tribes that explores the role of language as a cultural touchstoneThis kaleidoscopic book covers almost 3,000 years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances. Tracing this process to the origins of the Arabic language, rather than the advent of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith begins his narrative...

A riveting, comprehensive history of the Arab peoples and tribes that explores the role of language as a cultural touchstone This kaleidoscopic book covers almost three thousand years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances. Tracing this process to the origins of the Arabic language, rather than the advent of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith begins his narrati...

Ibn Battutah set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on the pilgrimage to Mecca. By the time he returned twenty-nine years later, he had visited most of the known world, travelling three times the distance Marco Polo covered. Spiritual backpacker, social climber, temporary hermit and failed ambassador, he braved brigands, blisters and his own prejudices. The outcome was a monumental travel classic.Captivated by this indefatigable man, award-winning travel writer Tim Mackintosh-Smit...

Two Arabic Travel Books combines two exceptional exemplars of Arabic travel writing, penned in the same era but chronicling wildly divergent experiences. Accounts of China and India is a compilation of reports and anecdotes on the lands and peoples of the Indian Ocean, from the Somali headlands to China and Korea. The early centuries of the Abbasid era witnessed a substantial network of maritime trade—the real-life background to the Sindbad tales. In this account, we firs...

Darren ‘Daz’ Longbottom was born to surf. The son of surfing pioneer and board-maker Rossco, and brother to legendary big-wave specialist Dylan, Daz paddled out with world champions from a young age. He was one of the overexcited ‘access all areas’ grommets behind the rope when the World Tour rolled into Australia.After the Longbottom brothers' first surf experiences in Cronulla, where they belonged in the waves alongside the very best in surfing, Dylan went on the road as a ‘free ...

All the best armchair travellers are sceptics. Those of the fourteenth century were no exception: for them, there were lies, damned lies, and Ibn Battutah's India.Born in 1304, Ibn Battutah left his native Tangier as a young scholar of law; over the course of the thirty years that followed he visited most of the known world between Morocco and China. Here Tim Mackintosh-Smith retraces one leg of the Moroccan's journey - the dizzy ladders and terrifying snakes of his Indian career a...

A memoir of theatrical life and much more by Tim Pigott-Smith, one of the best known and most prodigiously talented actors of his generation.From his appearance as Ronald Merrick in the television adaptation of The Jewel in the Crown to his recent role in the hit play King Charles III, Tim Pigott-Smith has been recognised as one of Britain's most loved contemporary actors. On stage his work encompassed the Bristol Old Vic, Royal Shakespeare Compan...

Here are more than sixty eyewitness accounts from history. Many are notable events: the Battle of Thermopylae, the Black Death in 1341, the Great Fire of London, the execution of Louis XVI, the Death of Nelson and the American Civil War and the bombing of Hiroshima. But there are also snapshots of more ordinary life no less memorable for that including working conditions during the Industrial Revolution, views of slave owners and slaves, Paul Gaugin choosing a bride on Tahiti and the arres...

Arguably the most fascinating but least known country in the Arab world, Yemen has a way of attracting comment that ranges from the superficial to the wildly fictitious.In Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, Tim Mackintosh-Smith writes with an intimacy and depth of knowledge gained through over twenty years among the Yemenis. He is a travelling companion of the best sort - erudite, witty and eccentric. Crossing mountain, desert, ocean and three millennia of history, he port...

Scott Burke and Lisa Berger were high school sweethearts once upon a time, but that was fifteen years ago. Sparks were rekindled one year ago, when Lisa found herself stranded in Scott’s hometown on Christmas Eve and they realized they never should have parted. Now they’re planning their first Christmas together as a couple, but a little thing called life keeps getting in the way. Both of their careers keep them busy, especially Lisa’s, and Scott begins to feel like the odd man out in the ...