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A Single Swallow: Following An Epic Journey From South Africa To South Wales
Horatio Clare
€ 14.99
€ 11.57
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Description for A Single Swallow: Following An Epic Journey From South Africa To South Wales
Paperback. From the slums of Cape Town to the palaces of Algiers, to the Gulf of Guinea where the sea blazes with oil flares, across two continents and fourteen countries - this epic journey is nothing to swallows. This work follows the swallows from reed beds in South Africa, where millions roost in February, to a barn in Wales, where a pair nest in May. Num Pages: 336 pages, maps. BIC Classification: WNCB; WTL. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 158 x 21. Weight in Grams: 240.
From the slums of Cape Town to the palaces of Algiers, through Pygmy villages where pineapples grow wild, to the Gulf of Guinea where the sea blazes with oil flares, across two continents and fourteen countries - this epic journey is nothing to swallows, they do it twice a year. But for Horatio Clare, writer and birdwatcher, it is the expedition of a lifetime.
Along the way he discovers old empires and modern tribes, a witch-doctor's recipe for stewed swallow, explains how to travel without money or a passport, and describes a terrifying incident involving three Spanish soldiers and a tiny orange dog. By trains, motorbikes, canoes, one camel and three ships, Clare follows the swallows from reed beds in South Africa, where millions roost in February, to a barn in Wales, where a pair nest in May.
Product Details
Publisher
Vintage Publishing
Number of pages
336
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2010
Condition
New
Number of Pages
336
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9780099526315
SKU
V9780099526315
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-99
About Horatio Clare
Horatio Clare is the bestselling author of numerous books including the memoirs Running for the Hills and Truant and the travel books A Single Swallow, Down to the Sea in Ships, Orison for a Curlew, Icebreaker and The Light in the Dark. His books for children include Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot and Aubrey and the Terrible Ladybirds. Horatio's essays and reviews appear on BBC radio and in the Financial Times, the Observer and the Spectator, among other publications. He lives with his family in West Yorkshire.
Reviews for A Single Swallow: Following An Epic Journey From South Africa To South Wales
Clare's extraordinary and mesmerising odyssey following the migration of the swallow from South Africa to South Wales
Annabel Goldie
Herald
A gifted and lyrical travel writer
Financial Times
The author deploys some fine lyrical writing and a gift for inventive, unexpected metaphor ... Clare's other great asset is his brave, modern, multicultural and open-hearted approach to travel itself
Mark Cocker
Guardian
Fizzingly entertaining. His own prose has something of their flight: daring, sharp-edged, fast-moving, graceful, full of surprises. This is a great adventure, thrillingly realised
Tom Fort
Literary Review
Remarkably insightful and entertaining, with Clare proving himself to be the most enthusiastic, open-minded, intelligent and incorrigibly romantic of travellers
Mail on Sunday
Clare has produced an enthusiastic, often elegiac, chronicle of his encounters with the swallows
Brian Schofield
The Sunday Times
His eye for detail and his elegant pen give flavour of each country he crosses: great veldt and high plateaux, Congo's "green vastness", the "sandy seas" of the Sahel and, finally, the fertile plain of the north African coast
The Economist
The resulting book, travel writing at its very best, is enthralling, passionate, hair-raising, quirky, hilarious, informative, occasionally mad and utterly, utterly brilliant... irresistible stuff.
Val Hennessy
Daily Mail
Horatio Clare pays tribute to the extraordinary migratory journeys of the swallow...a book that combines travel with natural history
Metro
It's graphically done, making me feel I was with him all the way
The Sunday Telegraph, Seven Magazine
Annabel Goldie
Herald
A gifted and lyrical travel writer
Financial Times
The author deploys some fine lyrical writing and a gift for inventive, unexpected metaphor ... Clare's other great asset is his brave, modern, multicultural and open-hearted approach to travel itself
Mark Cocker
Guardian
Fizzingly entertaining. His own prose has something of their flight: daring, sharp-edged, fast-moving, graceful, full of surprises. This is a great adventure, thrillingly realised
Tom Fort
Literary Review
Remarkably insightful and entertaining, with Clare proving himself to be the most enthusiastic, open-minded, intelligent and incorrigibly romantic of travellers
Mail on Sunday
Clare has produced an enthusiastic, often elegiac, chronicle of his encounters with the swallows
Brian Schofield
The Sunday Times
His eye for detail and his elegant pen give flavour of each country he crosses: great veldt and high plateaux, Congo's "green vastness", the "sandy seas" of the Sahel and, finally, the fertile plain of the north African coast
The Economist
The resulting book, travel writing at its very best, is enthralling, passionate, hair-raising, quirky, hilarious, informative, occasionally mad and utterly, utterly brilliant... irresistible stuff.
Val Hennessy
Daily Mail
Horatio Clare pays tribute to the extraordinary migratory journeys of the swallow...a book that combines travel with natural history
Metro
It's graphically done, making me feel I was with him all the way
The Sunday Telegraph, Seven Magazine