Expeditions & Discoveries

In 1840 Heinrich Barth joined a small British expedition into unexplored regions of Islamic North and Central Africa. One by one his companions died, but he carried on alone, eventually reaching the fabled city of gold, Timbuktu. His...

In 1940 Steinbeck sailed in a sardine boat with his great friend the marine biologist, Ed Ricketts, to collect marine invertebrates from the beaches of the Gulf of California. The expedition was described by the two men in SEA OF CORTEZ, published in...

'It is a story full of drama, with the Nile, the pyramids and the Valley of the Kings as backdrop. That A World Beneath the Sands is also a subtle and stimulating study of the paradoxes of 19th-century colonialism is a bonus indeed.' - Tom Holland,...

On 1 September 1909, American explorer Frederick Cook caused one of the biggest sensations in exploration history when, after a year with no word from him, news arrived that he had not only survived his Arctic expedition but had become the first person...

A Waterstones Best Book of 2020 The theory of evolution by natural selection did not spring fully formed and unprecedented from the brain of Charles Darwin. Rather it has been examined and debated by philosophers the world over for thousands...

Enter a world of ancient secrets, old money, new ambitions and the discovery of priceless treasure in this revelatory new biography. Between November 1922 and spring 1923, a door to the ancient Egyptian world was...

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In 1322 Sir John Mandeville left England on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Thirty-four years later, he returned, claiming to have visited not only Jerusalem, but India, China, Java, Sumatra and Borneo as well.His book about that voyage, THE TRAVELS, was...

Mailer's superb account, written as it was happening, of the first attempt to land men on the moon'Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.'A Fire on the Moon tells the scarcely credible story of the Apollo 11 mission. It is suffused with...

'Historical fiction at its very best' ELLY GRIFFITHS. A Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month. They will see me hang for this. London, 1855. In the grey mist of the early morning a body is dumped on the shore of the Thames by a boatman in...

Enter a world of ancient secrets, old money, new ambitions and the discovery of priceless treasure in this revelatory new biography. Between November 1922 and spring 1923, a door to the ancient Egyptian world was...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780345523204Author Jim DavidsonFormat PaperbackPage Count 304Imprint Ballantine Books Inc.Publisher Random House USA IncWeight(grams) 255gDimensions(mm)...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781800752634Author Candice MillardFormat PaperbackPage Count 368Imprint Swift PressPublisher Swift Press

From longtime Rolling Stone contributing editor and journalist Randall Sullivan, The Curse of Oak Island explores the curious history of Oak Island and the generations of individuals who have tried and failed to unlock its secrets. An investigation...

A New Scientist Book of the Year Prehistory is all around us. We just need to know where to look. Juan Jose Millas has always felt like he doesn't quite fit into human society. Sometimes he wonders if he is even a Homo sapiens at all. Perhaps he is a...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781911547099Author Jamaica KincaidFormat PaperbackPage Count 100Imprint Daunt BooksPublisher Daunt BooksWeight(grams) 130g

Bartolome de Las Casas was the first and fiercest critic of Spanish colonialism in the New World. An early traveller to the Americas who sailed on one of Columbus's voyages, Las Casas was so horrified by the wholesale massacre he witnessed that he...

In 922 AD, an Arab envoy from Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan encountered a party of Viking traders on the upper reaches of the Volga River. In his subsequent report on his mission he gave a meticulous and astonishingly objective description of Viking customs,...

In April 1586, Queen Elizabeth I acquired a new and exotic title. A tribe of North American Indians had made her their weroanza - 'big chief'.The news was received with great joy, both by the Queen and her favourite, Sir Walter Ralegh. His first American...

'Thrilling ... High-definition history: tight, thrilling and beautifully researched' SUNDAY TIMES 'This book is a triumph' DAN SNOW 9.07 a.m., April 12, 1961. A...

Curious to find out what it means to be an Anglo-Indian? Join Andrea Malam BEM as she shares the story of her journey from Bombay to London, and the search for her ancestry and identity. Along with her contributors, Andrea reveals the...

A ground-breaking collection of stories, poems and articles about Nepal covering the length and breadth of this enchanting nation and its people. 'If you want a book in English that tells you about Nepalese thinking, and gives a taste of the country's...

Hans Sloane was the greatest collector of his time, and one of the greatest of all time. His name is familiar today through the London streets and squares named after him, but the man himself, and his achievements, are almost forgotten.Born in the north...

'The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus'A selection of Darwin's extraordinary adventures during the voyage of the Beagle Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate...

'The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus'A selection of Darwin's extraordinary adventures during the voyage of the Beagle Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate...

In the summer of 1876, Berlin anxiously awaited the arrival of what was billed as "the most gigantic ape known to zoology." Described by European explorers only a few decades earlier, gorillas had rarely been seen outside of Africa, and emerging theories...

This stunning and powerfully relevant book tells the history of Antarctica through 100 varied and fascinating objects drawn from collections around the world. Retracing the history of Antarctica through 100 varied and fascinating objects drawn from...

From romantic ruined castles to mysterious stone circles, from frivolous follies to crumbling towers by the sea, there is something about ruins that excites our imagination - and the National Trust has many of the best examples in Britain. This is a...

Footsteps in the Snow recounts a life shaped and dominated by Antarctica, a multi-facetted account of a life dedicated to Antarctic science, policy and governance. It is also the story of growth from callow youth to Antarctic professional in the most...

In the tradition of Dava Sobel's 'Longitude' comes sailing expert David Barrie's compelling and dramatic tale of invention and discovery - an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and the daring mariners who...

This is an extraordinary and little-known story of emigration fromScotland. Caithness and Patagonia are literally a world apart, yet in the late19th and early 20th centuries a number of Caithness men and women took on thechallenge of this wild, open and...

John Creedon has always been fascinated by place names, from growing up in Cork City as a young boy to travelling around Ireland making his popular television show. In this brilliant new book, he peels back the layers of meaning of familiar place names...

'A roaring tale ... remains as vivid and exciting today as it was on publication in 1697' GuardianThe pirate and adventurer William Dampier circumnavigated the globe three times, and took notes wherever he went. This is his frank, vivid account of his...

Foreword by Levison Wood, presenter of Walking the Americas. A comprehensive, fascinating and inspiring gallery of the great adventures that changed our world. Throughout history there have been brave men and women who dared to go where few...

The acclaimed author of Conquistador and Labyrinth of Ice charts one of history's greatest expeditions, a legendary 16th-century adventurer's death-defying navigation of the Amazon River. In 1541, Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and his lieutenant...

In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West, from Lewis and Clark's expedition in the early 19th century to the closing of the frontier by the early 20th. He introduces us to explorers,...

'Hugely readable and entertaining' JIM AL-KHALILI 'An accessible and crystal-clear portrait of this discipline's breadth, largely told through its history' PHIL BALL, PHYSICS WORLD Einstein's Fridge tells...

'Hugely readable and entertaining' JIM AL-KHALILI 'An accessible and crystal-clear portrait of this discipline's breadth, largely told through its history' PHIL BALL, PHYSICS WORLD Einstein's Fridge tells...

A fascinating life of Sir Joseph Banks which restores him to his proper place in history as a leading scientific figure of the English Enlightenment"An extensive, admiring account of his subject's circuitous route to fame and power."-Wall Street...

UPDATED WITH NEW MATERIAL FROM THE AUTHOR In The Curse of Oak Island, longtime Rolling Stone contributing editor and journalist Randall Sullivan explored the curious history of Oak Island and the generations of people who tried and failed to unlock...