{"title":"Travel","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"germania-simon-winder","title":"Germania | Simon Winder","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere are many reasons to be fascinated by Germany: forests, architecture and fairy tales, not to mention its history and inhabitants' penchant for very peculiar food. Our distant and often maligned cousin, this is a place in which innumerable strange characters have held power, in which a chaotic jigsaw of borders have moved about seemingly at random, and which at the dark heart of the 20th century fell into the hands of truly terrible forces. And now Simon Winder is here to tell us everything else there is to know about this mesmerizing, tortured and endlessly fascinating country.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGermania is also a personal guide to the Germany that Simon Winder loves. In this startlingly vibrant account, Winder describes Germany's past afresh, starting with the shaggy world of the ancient forests, all the way up to the present day - and in doing so, he sees and begins to understand a country much like our own: Protestant, aggressive and committed to betterment. 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Fewer still come back wanting to be a Member of the European Parliament.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2016 Ben Aitken moved to Poland while he still could. It wasn't love that took him but curiosity: he wanted to know what the Poles in the UK had left behind. He flew to a place he'd never heard of and then accepted a job in a chip shop on the minimum wage.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen he wasn't peeling potatoes he was on the road scratching the country's surface: he milked cows with a Eurosceptic farmer; missed the bus to Auschwitz; spent Christmas with complete strangers and went to Gdansk to learn how communism got the chop. By the year's end he had a better sense of what the Poles had turned their backs on - southern mountains, northern beaches, dumplings! - and an uncanny ability to bone cod. 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Six times over.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGood value aside, what Ben was really after was the company of his elders - those with more chapters under their belt, with the wisdom granted by experience, the candour gifted by time, and the hard-earned ability to live each day like it's nearly their last. A series of coach holidays ensued - from Scarborough to St Ives, Killarney to Lake Como - during which Ben attempts to shake off his thirty-something blues by getting old as soon as possible.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pigeon Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":32473424920650,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0249\/3828\/3082\/products\/image_67907dc7-a751-4a1b-9f59-70aaef8ad2bf.jpg?v=1627991761"},{"product_id":"dear-bill-bryson-ben-aitken","title":"Dear Bill Bryson | Ben Aitken","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e'It would be wrong to view this book as just a highly accomplished homage to a personal hero. Aitken's politics, as much as his humour, are firmly in the spotlight, and Dear Bill Bryson achieves more than its title (possibly even its author) intended.' Manchester ReviewIn 2013, travel writer Ben Aitken decided to follow in the footsteps of his hero - literally - and started a journey around the UK, tracing the trip taken by Bill Bryson in his classic tribute to the British Isles, Notes from a Small Island. Staying at the same hotels, ordering the same food, and even spending the same amount of time in the bath, Aitken's homage - updated and with a new preface for 2022 - is filled with wit, insight and humour.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pigeon Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39672777998410,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0249\/3828\/3082\/products\/image_e2740b85-36b9-46a5-a2bb-b3b151c8371b.jpg?v=1646317635"},{"product_id":"the-half-bird-susan-smillie","title":"The Half Bird | Susan Smillie","description":"","brand":"Pigeon Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40881975885898,"sku":"","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0249\/3828\/3082\/files\/590DBD30-D109-4261-9425-408824D86451.jpg?v=1711016712"}],"url":"https:\/\/pigeonbooks.pro\/collections\/travel.oembed","provider":"Pigeon Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}