In 1992 Ian, a native New Zealander, was living in London and was seized with the idea of travelling across Mongolia. Despite opposition from friends and family, he went on to become the first Westerner to cross Mongolia alone on horseback. This is his fascinating, sometimes frightening and often hilarious story.

This is a dictionary of Bole, a little documented language of the Chadic family, spoken in northeastern Nigeria. This is one of the most comprehensive dictionaries of any Chadic language other than Hausa. All entries for Bole are fully marked for tone and vowel length. The Bole-English-Hausa section has full definitions and explanations of meaning in English with numerous examples of use. Each entry has a Hausa gloss. The English-Bole section is intended mainly as an index to the Bole-English-Hausa section. There are appendices of flora and fauna terms, cultural terms, pronouns, and comprehensive paradigms of verb forms.

Mongolia, a landlocked country in East Asia, is one of the largest countries in the world, as well as one of the most sparsely populated. Mongolia is known as the home of Genghis Khan, who ruled over nomadic horsemen and founded the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century, and the nation's people are still largely nomadic. This book takes readers on a journey through Mongolia, exploring its geography, history, culture, and people. Special sidebars, vivid photographs, and maps accompany this informative text.

Third edition revised and enlarged.

Sunday Times History Book of the Year 2015 Currently filming for BBC programme Full Steam Ahead Britain's railways have been a vital part of national life for nearly 200 years. Transforming lives and landscapes, they have left their mark on everything from timekeeping to tourism. As a self-contained world governed by distinctive rules and traditions, the network also exerts a fascination all its own. From the classical grandeur of Newcastle station to the ceaseless traffic of Clapham Junction, from the mysteries of Brunel's atmospheric railway to the lost routines of the great marshalling yards, Simon Bradley explores the world of Britain's railways, the evolution of the trains, and the changing experiences of passengers and workers. The Victorians' private compartments, railway rugs and footwarmers have made way for air-conditioned carriages with airline-type seating, but the railways remain a giant and diverse anthology of structures from every period, and parts of the system are the oldest in the world. Using fresh research, keen observation and a wealth of cultural references, Bradley weaves from this network a remarkable story of technological achievement, of architecture and engineering, of shifting social classes and gender relations, of safety and crime, of tourism and the changing world of work. The Railways shows us that to travel through Britain by train is to journey through time as well as space.

Talk Nigeria was created to help those that often travel to and from Nigeria and would like a more efficient way of communicating with the majority of Nigerians. This handbook will enable foreign-born Nigerians and their families to teach their native language to their children. Talk Nigeria makes it possible for them to not only learn the languages, but also to assist them with phonetic pronunciation of the words in their native languages. This is not just another boring language guide that is only based upon endless repetitions of language drills. It is a handbook that promotes quick and effective communication with Nigerians in the three major languages. It includes • easy-to-read translations from English into the three main languages spoken in Nigeria—Yoruba, Ibo, and Hausa, • all translations include the phonetic pronunciation for each word and phrase; • translations for greetings, everyday phrases, and a reference dictionary. An innovative way to learn to speak a very common African language, this handbook is an indispensable guide to speaking the Nigerian languages correctly and effectively.

A curious scheme is afoot in Blighty. Attempting to tackle spiralling levels of crime and anti-social behaviour, the government has a new solution: to dye offenders purple. For once, even journalist Eve Baxter is shocked – she’s spent years gathering the world’s weird and wacky news, but has never seen anything as loopy as this. Learning of these shamed ‘bruises on society’, the nation is agog – and divided. There’s anger and agreement, protest and debate. Oh, green and pleasant and now purple land... But still, there’s a mystery to be solved: just how do the transformations to Purpleness occur? Transfixed by clues and conspiracies, Eve wonders if this could be her route into real news. And when her friends and family are affected by the Purple scheme, she begins to investigate...