English publisher Eland Books specializes in keeping the classics of travel literature in print. Eland's aim is "to open out our understanding of other cultures, interpret the unknown, reveal different environments as well as celebrating the humour and occasional horrors of travel."
Eland is owned by three travel writers: Rose Baring, John Hatt and Barnaby Rogerson.
Barnaby Rogerson will be known to regular readers of The View from Fez as a contributor. He has travelled extensively in North Africa and the Sahara.He has written guidebooks to Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus and Istanbul, which were followed by A Traveller's History of North Africa ,The Prophet Muhammad, Heirs of the Prophet Muhammad, and most recently, The Last Crusaders: East, West, and the Battle for the Center of the World. His collected travel journalism and book reviews can be found at www.barnabyrogerson.com
To see the wide range of books published by Eland, go HERE
To purchase any of the books below, simply click on the title.
ISBN 978-1-906011-28-4
The Berber tribes of the mountains of Morocco are one of the great and inspiring survival stories of our times. They have occupied their mountain homelands since before the dawn of history, and travel- lers have long marvelled at how their music, dance, rock carvings, jewellery, tattoos, pottery, embroideries and carpets are all impregnated with the wild soul of their landscape. Never before have their traditional odes – which open up a precious window into a Homeric society and spiritualized landscape – been translated into English. Michael Peyron, who has taught, explored and researched the history of the Berbers for the last fifty years, has an exceptional understanding of this region and a unique archive of oral transmissions from some of the last bards untouched by the modern world. This collection is both a gift to travellers and a priceless legacy.
ISBN: 978 1906011 06 2
Until 1912 Morocco had never suffered foreign domination, and its mountainous interior was as closed to foreigners as Tibet. Walter Harris was the exception. He lived in the country for more than 35 years, and as The Times correspondent he observed every aspect of its life. He describes the unfettered Sultanate in all its dark, melo- dramatic splendour. Harris was an intimate of at least three of the ruling Sultans and a man capable even of befriending his kidnapper. It is said that only three Christians had ever visited the walled city of Chechaouen: one was poisoned, one stayed for an hour disguised as a rabbi ... the other was Walter Harris.
ISBN: 978 0 907871 34 7
This magical story, written for teenagers but enjoyed by all ages, tells the story of the young bard Mid-e-Mid, famed throughout the vast grazing lands of his Tuareg tribe for his mellifluous voice and quick-witted lyrics. A coming-of-age novel in the tradition of The Catcher in the Rye, it follows Mid-e-Mid in his bid to find his own route to manhood in true Tuareg style. Overcoming poverty to win camels of his own, he avenges the death of his father and wins the heart of his beloved, only to find that the solitary life of the wander- ing minstrel is his destiny. Written by Herbert Kaufmann, a German journalist who lived in Africa in the 1950s and ’60s, Red Moon & High Summer is a fast- paced adventure story saturated in Tuareg lore. Though fiction, it gives a truer and more vibrant picture of these mysterious, nomadic people than many an academic volume. ‘This deeply satisfying novel, written as it is with a profound understanding of the subject, reveals the joy, the desert and its enigmatic inhabitants, the Tuareg.’ chris stewart, author of driving over lemons Barnaby Rogerson
ISBN: 978 0 907871 14 9
Set in the medieval city of Marrakesh and the majestic kasbahs of the High Atlas mountains, Lords of the Atlas tells the extraordinary story of Madani and T’hami el Glaoui, warlord brothers who carved out a feudal fiefdom in southern Morocco in the early twentieth- centur y. Quislings of the French colonial administration, they combined the aggression of gangland mobsters with the opulence of heredi- tary Indian princes, and ruled with a mixture of flamboyance and terror. On returning from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, T’hami ordered the severed heads of his enemies to be mounted on his gates. Yet in 1956, when the French left Morocco, the Glaoua regime toppled like a pack of cards. ‘one of the great adventure stories of the twentieth century.’ richard ford ‘His best book.’
ISBN: 978 0 907871 08 8
Having learned to appreciate Muslim life while living in Pakistan, Peter Mayne settled down to live in the back streets of Marrakesh in the 1950s. Rather than watch from the shelter of the hotel terrace, he rented rooms, learned the language, made friends and became embroiled in conspiratorial picnics, hashish-laced dinners and in the enchantments and misunderstandings of the street, with its festivals, love affairs, potions and gossip. By turns used, abused and cherished by his neighbours, Mayne wrote their letters for them and captured the essence of their lives in this affectionate and hilarious account. ‘Few writers have evoked the spirit of place as brilliantly as Peter Mayne, who was to Morocco what Norman Douglas was to Capri and Lawrence Durrell to Greece.’ tatler ‘Captures the very essence of the place with an easy, natural style that makes it completely compelling.’ yorkshire post
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1 comment:
A Year in Marrakesh is a joyous read, and I'm in the middle of Morocco That Was, which seems equally as good from an earlier era.
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