Eland Publishing Ltd – serie

Takes the reader on an odyssey across West Africa, in the company of one of the great black ballet stars of 1930's Paris. It is a devastating critique of colonial rule, which is seen to be destroying African society while Christian missionaries undermine indigenous morality. Africa Dances captures the rich physical and psychological detail of African village life - from food and architecture to witch doctors, dance and magic. Gorer witnesses men diving for three-quarters of an hour without coming up for breath, witch-doctors conjuring thunderstorms out of clear blue skies and chameleon fetishists whose skin changes from a dirty white to almost black. It takes us back to a place where if you believed you could.

An extraordinary collection of interviews with lighthouse keepers and their families, in their own words – a record of a vanished profession and avanished Britain of the 1970s. Described by William Golding as "one of the mostfascinating social documents I have ever read". It captures the delights and downfalls of isolation, the mindgames it plays on ordinary people and theromance of the outer reaches of Britain.

"Walled Gardens" is a brilliant portrait of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, struggling through the post-war depression aided by drink, horse-racing and religion, and their own idiosyncratic adaptations to modern life. Seen from the troubled perspective of the daughter of an aristocratic family in decline, we watch the disintegration of a marriage in elegant but emotionally chilled surroundings, and the struggle to keep up appearances, and a collapsing roof, in front of the neighbours. By turns sad, absured and funny, the story is ultimately liberating as failure leads to freedom.

Through a dialogue between two lovers, a young physicist in England and an anthropologist in Germany, Nicholas Mosely retells the history of Europe of the twenties and thirties. The destructive power and attraction of fascism and communism is unveiled and set against the changing relationship between man and science in the time of atomic power. Their story weaves together disparate strands of landscape to take the reader on a journey through Spain, London, Soviet Russia, North Africa and middle Europe. Simultaneously taking us through a new intellectual landscape from the new scenes of physics, biology, anthropology and psychology. 'A novel of enormous ambition, a book that takes on just about every social movement, every significant political event of our time - a virtual intellectual anthology of the 20th century, in fictional form' - Daniel Stern, "New York Times" Book Review.