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Books still make thoughtful presents that will last a lifetime and we’ve got some gems here that are sure to be appreciated. Scroll and click to read more about the book and writer…
In recent decades Turkish women have risen to extraordinary prominence in a literary culture once dominated by men. Contemporary Turkish Women Poets is the first comprehensive survey of these startling, vibrant developments. In his landmark anthology, poet-translator George Messo gathers twenty-two of Turkey’s leading, award-winning poets, writing at the very height of their creative powers. Collectively, they represent more than half a century of innovation and change, embodying one of the most sustained and compelling re-visionings of contemporary poetry for many years. With an introduction by the translator-scholar Saliha Paker, Contemporary Turkish Women Poets offers a uniquely challenging and irresistible encounter with some of the most dynamic poets writing today. From Saliha Paker’s Introduction: In Sennur Sezer’s ‘documentary narrative’ Mihrî Hatun, a Turkish Sappho the author reconstructs the life and times of Mihrî (c.1460- 1506), an Ottoman woman who achieved unusual recognition as a poet in the late fifteenth century, but who was only brought to the modern reader’s attention within the last few decades. In The Age of Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early-Modern Ottoman and European Culture and Society (2005) Walter Andrews and Mehmet Kalpaklı too discuss Mihrî, focusing on ‘the problem that the woman poet presents…
The Secret Domain sequence reads like an extended minimalist monologue, in which the poet induces rather than works the language, inscribing the physical limits of the page while summoning and invoking imaginative space beyond it. Turan speaks of, and out of, the profoundest silence – what Harold Bloom called the ‘dumbfounding abyss between ourselves and the object.’ The frequent dichotomy of being and non-being, signaling presence and absence, belays the intricate metaphysics, the flowing of becoming and disappearance, union and separation that give definition to Turan’s unique place in contemporary Turkish verse. BUY NOW
Scott Andrew Christensen’s debut collection the boundaries of return is a compelling exploration of passage in and through the natural world. Richly symbolic and formally experimental, Christensen’s poems create worlds at once uniquely perceptive and recognisable, in patterns of verbal play that are distinctive and memorable. ‘Scott Andrew Christensen’s poetry haunts the borders between the physically detailed and the metaphysically mysterious, or between Nature – in its beautiful particulars – and the Spirit, what is ineffable… Although the boundaries of return represents a debut, Christensen is already preternaturally skilled in edging toward Wisdom or Faith via witnessing everyday doings and the beings of persons, creatures, and things. Welcome – with joy – the boundaries of return.’ GEORGE ELLIOT CLARKE BUY NOW
First published in 2000, From the Pine Observatory introduces a poet of seductive range and power, carefully observing stillness, yet urging something to stir. Seldom far from the natural world, these are poems in which transformation and metamorphosis recur as central themes, and hint toward the mysterious, in a voice as authentic as it is startlingly fresh. This third edition of Messo’s rarely seen debut collection rescues the work of a fascinating but overlooked contemporary British poet.
Angling Sketches was first published in 1891. It rapidly went out of print and into a second edition. Lang added a new chapter for an 1895 edition called ‘The Complete Bungler’, a comic micro-drama between two fly-fishermen, one from Scotland and one from England. In miniature the two protagonists enact the single most pressing debate to ripple through the fly-fishing community in the last decades of the nineteenth century, and through much of the twentieth: of ‘dry fly’ versus ‘wet fly’, of ‘upstream’ versus ‘downstream’. Lang belonged decidedly to the North and his little book of tales can be read as his defence of the northern, ‘north-country’ wet-fly tradition. But it is, of course, so much more. By his own testimony Andrew Lang was not a great fisherman. A reader approaching his Angling Sketches in the hope of finding snippets of fishing insight will be disappointed. Its inspiration lies elsewhere, for Lang was a consummate storyteller, and Angling Sketches is as much about spinning yarns as it is about spinning reels. Lang’s insatiable narrative drive enlivens these delightful tales of adventure. In essence fly-fishing has changed very little over the years. Angling Sketches, with its rich and intimate evocation of…
It has always seemed to me that the Grayling is entitled to a better place in the estimation of anglers than the one usually accorded him….The trout is the angler’s fish of spring and early summer, when every soft breeze is laden with a perfumed invitation to see Nature at her best; the Grayling is a fish of the year’s old age: of that time when the morning silver of early winter mingles with the russet and amber of the woods, that want but the midday light of the Enchanter to blossom into gold…’ So begins this absolutely wonderful fly-fishing book that changed the world of angling forever. T. E. Pritt’s timeless classic The Book of the Grayling has inspired generations of fly-fishers. First published in 1888, it was long considered the definitive book on the subject of grayling. Pritt drew from a long and rich Northern English tradition of fly-fishing in the limestone rivers and streams of Yorkshire. Many of the methods and techniques he describes are still to be found in use today. This new edition of The Book of the Grayling makes Pritt’s eloquent prose available to fly-fishers and armchair adventurers the world over. BUY NOW
For generations of outdoor enthusiasts E.H. Kreps was a trusted authority on wilderness camping and survival. Woodcraft, as well as defining what we now call bushcraft, remains to this day an essential guide to living and travelling in the remote forests of Northern Europe and North America The first camp I remember making, or remodeling, was an old lumber camp, one side of which I partitioned off and floored. It was clean and neat appearing…but that was not really a wilderness camp, and while I realize that in many of the trapping districts where it is necessary to camp, there are often these deserted buildings to be found, those who trap or hunt in such places are not the ones who must solve the real problems of camp building. It is something altogether different when we get far into the deep, silent forest…. So begins E H Krepps’ classic account of Woodcraft which has led to a whole modern industry of the Ray Mears and Bear Grylls type outdoor adventure. What is interesting about Krepps’ writing is that he of course is writing before many of the modern comforts, materials and techniques had made any sort of appearance and for…
H.V. Hart-Davis’s Chats on Angling offers timeless advice on the art of fly-fishing for Salmon, trout, sea-trout, and grayling. Whether dry-fly fishing for plump chalk stream trout of the Test and Itchen, or on one of England’s most exclusive fishing waters, the Driffield Beck in Yorkshire, or salmon fishing the big waters of Scotland and Ireland, Chats on Angling remains the classic, indispensable guide. As Mr Hart-Davis begins his book, many fishermen will agree…..‘To those who love angling, with all its associations and surroundings, no apology may be needed for inflicting on them in book form certain short articles which have mainly appeared in the columns of the Field. They are ‘Chats’ rather than didactic deliverances, and are offered in the belief that much will be forgiven to a brother angler, since all that pertains to the beloved pastime has some interest, and the experiences of the poorest writer that ever recorded his views and fancies may haply strike some responsive note. BUY NOW
Letters & Sounds is a multi-voiced selection of some of İlhan Berk’s finest love poems, elegies and lyric prose. Brought into English by poet-translator George Messo, these poems dance and sing with the energy and experimental daring of their dazzling Turkish originals. ‘Poets of our time in any language ignore Berk’s poem—its treasure trove—at their own peril.’ MURAT NEMET-NEJAT ‘One of Turkish poetry’s most distinctive and necessary voices.’ WORLD LITERATURE TODAY BUY NOW
In Mesopotamia is the graphic account of Martin Swayne’s experiences as a medical officer during the First World War while on active service in Iraq and Kuwait. Swayne’s beautifully crisp prose draws a compelling and unflinching portrait of modern warfare. First published in 1917, In Mesopotamia speaks directly of the harrowing consequences of the West’s obsessive quest for influence over the Middle East. BUY NOW
Eothen (“From the East”) recaptures a bold young Englishman’s exploits in the Middle East during the 1830s. Alexander William Kinglake recounts his rambles through the Balkans, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt in a style radically different from other travel books of his era. Rather than dwelling on art or monuments, Kinglake’s captivating narrative focuses on the natives and their cities. His adventures ― populated by Bedouins, pashas, slave-traders, monks, pilgrims, and other colorfully drawn personalities ― include crossing the desolate Sinai with a four-camel caravan and a sojourn in plague-ridden Cairo. Victorian readers were captivated by Kinglake’s chatty tone and his uncompromising honesty, and two centuries later this remarkable travelogue remains funny, fresh, and original. Presented here in a modern, up-to-date font, with an informative introduction by Simon C Drew. “My favorite travel book. Sparkling, ironic, and terrific fun.” — Jan Morris BUY NOW
First published in Norwegian in 1894, Pan tells the story of Lieutenant Thomas Glahn’s life and adventures in a remote township in northern Norway, a scene described by Richard Eccles in his poignant introduction as ‘that remote, exotic, romantic, difficult landscape of extreme and epic beauty at the top of the world…’ This stunning new edition restores translator W. Worster’s powerful recreation of Hamsun’s enigmatic original and includes an informative introduction and notes by Richard Eccles. ‘The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun.’ Isaac Bashevis Singer BUY NOW
