Literary Guides for Travellers – serie

A reader's journey along the French Riviera, from Hyeres and Saint-Tropez to the Italian border, introducing the lives and work of writers who passed this way.The sunlight and calm of the French Riviera have been a magnet for writers since the fourteenth century. The Cote d'Azur has provided the inspiration and setting for some of the greatest literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.From distinguished Nobel laureates to new authors who found their voices there, Ted Jones's encyclopaedic work covers them all: writers such as Graham Greene and W. Somerset Maugham, who spent much of their lives there; F. Scott Fitzgerald and Guy de Maupassant, whose work it dominates.The book also includes the countless writers who simply lingered there, including Louisa M. Alcott, Hans Christian Anderson, J.G. Ballard, Samuel Beckett, Arnold Bennett, William Boyd, Bertholt Brecht, Anthony Burgess, Albert Camus, Bruce Chatwin, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Ian Fleming, Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence, A.A. Milne, Vladimir Nabokov, Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, Jean-Paul Sartre, George Bernard Shaw, Robert Louis Stevenson, Anton Tchekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Evelyn Waugh, H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, P.G. Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf and W.B. Yeats - and many others.

"Berlin is a city forever in the process of becoming, never being, and so it lives more powerfully in the imagination." Rory Maclean, 'Berlin - Imagine a City'.Located at the epicentre of some of modern Europe's most significant and turbulent events, Berlin has long held a magnetic attraction for writers. From 19th century authors recording the city's dramatic transition from Prussian Hauptstadt to German capital after 1871 and the modernist intellectuals of the Weimar period, to the resistance writers brave enough to write during the dark years of the Nazi era and those who captured life on both sides of the divided city, a body of literature has emerged that reveals Berlin's ever-shifting identity.Since 1989, Berlin has yet again become a crucible of creativity, serving as both muse and sanctuary for a new generation of writers who regularly claim it as one of the most exciting cities in the world. This unique and engaging book functions as an introduction to some of the finest writing in and about the city, as well as a guide to some of its best sights and vibrant neighbourhoods. Spanning more than 200 years of local life and literature, it features German authors as diverse as E.T. A. Hoffmann, Joseph Roth, Jorg Fauser, and Christa Wolf, as well as a slew of famous international names such as Mark Twain, Philip Hensher and Chloe Aridjis.

Though small, Ireland has one of the richest literary cultures on the globe. Tourism is the most important factor in the economies of the North and the South, and the vast majority of visitors are attracted to Ireland by three things: landscapes/townscapes; culture; history. The literature of the island informs and is informed by all three and this book will fill an enormous gap in the market of travel guides; nothing like it is presently available. It will provide readers with a fabric of stories of how writers and their work are bound into the infrastructure of the island's cities, towns, architecture, countryside, and most significantly its often turbulent history and sense of itself. In the travel shelves of standard bookshops and their airport counterparts it will grab the attention of readers as an alternative to the general guides, given that an interest in Ireland incorporates a fascination with its cultural and literary heritage.

A guide to Iceland's rich literary heritage - from Norse witches to contemporary crime fiction.Iceland is an island of multiple identities in constant flux, just like its unruly, volcanic ground. Shaped as much by storytelling as it is by tectonic activity, Iceland’s literary heritage is one of Europe’s richest – and most ancient.Iceland: A Literary Guide for Travellers takes the literary-minded traveller (either in person or in an armchair) on a vivid and illuminating journey. It follows Iceland's many stories that have been passed down through the generations: told and retold by sheep farmers, psalm-writers, travelling reverends, independence fighters, scholars and hedonists.From the captivating Norse myths, which continue to inspire contemporary authors such as A. S. Byatt, to gripping Scandinavian crime fiction and Game of Thrones, via Jules Verne and J. R. R. Tolkien, W. H. Auden and Seamus Heaney, Iceland’s influence has spread far beyond its frozen shores. Peopled by Norse maidens and witches, elves and outlaws, and taking the reader and traveller from Reykjavik and the Bay of Smokes to the remote Westfjords and desolate highlands, this is an enthralling portrait of the Land of Ice and Fire.

An edge city, poised at the northernmost tip of Africa but just nine miles from Europe, Tangier is more than a destination, it is an escape. The Interzone, as William Burroughs called it, has attracted spies, outlaws, outcasts and writers for centuries – men and women breaking through artistic borders. The results were some of the most incendiary and influential books of our time and the list of outlaw originals is long, stretching from Ibn Battuta and Alexandre Dumas to Twain and Wharton and from the darkly brilliant Beats of Bowles, Kerouac, Gysin and Ginsberg to the great Moroccan novelists: Mohamed Choukri, Mohammed Mrabet and Tahar Ben Jelloun.

A literary guide to one of the most fascinating countries in the world.With its flamboyant style and rich culture, Cuba has provided the inspiration and setting for literature for decades. It has always been one of the most compelling places in the world, though perhaps never more so than now.Following Raúl Castro’s resignation as President in 2018, the era of Castroism has come to an end, and the US-Cuba rapprochement has opened the country to a generation of Americans whose only previous exposure was through film and literature. The coming years will undoubtedly bring significant changes to a country that has in many ways been frozen in time.Cuba: A Literary Guide for Travellers takes the literary-minded traveller (either in person or in an armchair) on a vivid and illuminating journey, retracing the footsteps of writers and artists who have lived and worked in, or been inspired by, the history and landscape of Cuba. This literary guide challenges some firmly-held Western assumptions about the country, and shines a light on one of the richest and most deeply embedded literary cultures in the world.

A unique and captivating guide to the literary heritage of Venice.Venice, La Serenissima, is one of the most breath-taking cities in the world. From its earliest beginnings in the 7th century, Venice has been a magnetic centre of trade and culture, wealth and power and has acted as a crossroads for an array of religious pilgrims and refugees, diplomats, crusading armies and merchants. The city is a floating labyrinth; the world's greatest museum, frozen in time; a cultural jewel, slowly sinking into the lagoon from which it rose; tourist-trap, irresistible muse. Later, Venice's fabled beauty and reputation as a haven for freedom of expression seduced some of the most celebrated figures in history: artists such as Durer, Bellini and Turner; writers Dickens, Byron, Kafka, Poe, Rousseau, Thomas Mann, Ruskin and Ezra Pound and composers Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Stravinsky.In this guide to literary Venice, the author uncovers the city's myriad of secrets, revealing how every floating palace, gilded church and bustling square is imbued with the lives and creations of those who were inspired by the city, which still echoes with their voices.

This compelling guide uncovers Sicily's multi-faceted personality through famous literary figures.Rising up from the heart of the Mediterranean, Sicily has a rich and ancient history spanning over 2,000 years. A bounty prized by invaders from the Greeks, Romans and Vandals to the Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, Sicily's beautiful landscapes are haunted by a vibrant mix of cultures and her soil has always been fertile ground for the literary and artistic imagination. This compelling guide uncovers the influence of those literary figures who have managed to get under the island's skin - from Pindar, Cicero and Aeschylus to Shakespeare and Cervantes; DH Lawrence, Coleridge and Oscar Wilde to Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Ezra Pound and Lawrence Durrell; as well as local writers who have defined the modern Italian novel - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and Leonardo Sciascia.Through their words and lives, we witness the beauty, pain and power of the Sicilian cultural landscape and discover how the potent mix of influences on the island's society has been preserved forever in literature.