Search results

INTRODUCED BY WILLIAM ATKINS, author of The Immeasurable World 'I am merely an eccentric, a dreamer who wishes to live far from the civilized world, as a free nomad.'Isabelle Eberhardt's writing chronicles, in passionate prose, her travels in French colonial North Africa at the turn of the 20th century. Often dressed in male clothing and assuming a man's name, she worked as a war correspondent, married a Muslim non-commissioned officer, converted to Islam and survived an assassination attempt, a...

Ancient Egypt. Thirteen-year-old Shahira lives with her adoptive mother, Halima and Meret, Halima's jealous daughter. Shahira is wrongly accused of stealing and suspects that Meret has set her up. Shahira is sent to work in Commander Nebamon's house. One day in the herb garden a cobra is about to strike, but Shahira sings to the snake and sends it away. She remembers a similar occurrence when she was a child and is mystified by the power she seems to have over snakes. There is also the strange...

Nicknamed 'the rose among the palms', the thousand-year-old city of Marrakesh is characterised by its pink-coloured pise architecture and its deeply rooted tradition for gardens and green spaces. The majority of historic sites are inextricable from their gardens - or indeed are historic green spaces: the huge royal orchard pleasure-gardens of the Agdal were described by Monty Don as "of international cultural importance on a par with Versailles or Villa d'Este." Scores of traditional riads and h...