Birthplace Of The Winds by Ted Bank

Birthplace Of The Winds by Ted Bank lands on the shelves of my shop.

Robert Hale, 1957, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Black & White Drawings; Maps;

FROM THE COVER: YOUNG TED BANK returned to the windswept, sea-circled island chain of the Aleutians, where he had been stationed during the war, to explore. He wanted to investigate the ancient buried caves and to study plant life, to discover what uses the Aleuts had made of plants in earlier days and what nutritive value such plants might have in case of shipwreck or plane crash.

Important as were his discoveries in the botanical field, he made others which will be even more interesting to the reader. One of the highlights of his story is the exciting discovery of thousand-year-old mummies in the burial caves only partially explored by Hrdlicka in an earlier expedition. But he also became immensely sympathetic to the Aleut people, studied their language, and made friends with them. When they came to trust him they had in the past grown wary of white men they told him their legends and described their ancient way of life. Theirs is a vanishing civilization; the Aleut population has dropped from about twenty thousand in 1741 to fewer than a thousand today. Decimated by the cruelty and greed of the Russians in the eighteenth century, ravaged by disease, and with their problems largely ignored by the American Government, few Aleuts will be alive to tell their story to future generations of anthropologists. Mr. Banks account of their life and culture, today and yesterday, may well prove unique.

Photographs, drawings and maps add further interest to a fresh and fascinating story of science and adventure.

Very Good in Good Dust Wrapper. Unlaminated dust wrapper a little edgeworn and faded with a short, closed, tear to the head of the upper panel with further nicks, chips and fraying to the spine ends. Price Clipped. Pages lightly age-tanned.

Blue boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. [XIV] 274 pages. 8¾” x 5¾”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!

Traveller’s History of Britain and Ireland by Richard Muir

Traveller’s History of Britain and Ireland by Richard Muir lands on the shelves of my shop.

Bloomsbury Books, 1992, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Colour Photographs; Maps; Plans;

From the cover: The 54 sites include the Avebury Complex in Wiltshire; the Pictish Stones of north-east Scotland; Offas Dyke in Wales; the Sedgemoor battlefield in Somerset; Bunratty Folk Park in Ireland; the West Yorkshire Wool Complex.

The book also has entries on scores of nearby places of interest, enabling the touring visitor to plan a fascinating itinerary.

A unique feature of this book is the Phototips section after each chapter, in which the author shows how the amateur photographer can obtain more original results.

Very Good in Good+ Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper, nearly fraying at the corners of the upper panel. Previous owners’ inscription to the first blank. Text complete, clean and tight otherwise.

Matching Pictorial boards. 304 pages. Index. 10¼” x 8¾”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!

Once Upon a Far Hillside: The Life and Times of An Indian Village by Brenda Kidman

Once Upon a Far Hillside: The Life and Times of An Indian Village by Brenda Kidman lands on the shelves of my shop.

Century, 1985, Hardback in dust wrapper.

Illustrated by way of: Black & White Photographs; Maps [1];

From the cover: The Indian village of Borli Panchatan lies on a tree-clad hillside overlooking the Arabian Sea. The people who live there are a mixture of Muslim and Hindu, each with a distinct and colourful way of life but bonded together by a single vital factor: survival.

By tracing the inception of this village from its medieval origins to the present day, the author paints a unique portrait of the life and times of those who inhabit this remote and beautiful comer of the Indian sub-continent, not only from personal observations and historical facts, but through the recollections of the citizens of Borli in particular one remarkable Muslim woman called Jainub Undre.

Better known to her village neighbours as Ummie, during the Second World War, after an early life of comparative comfort, Jainub travelled from Cape Town with her Indian husband and eight children, to spend a holiday in Borli Panchatan. She arrived in 1942 when the little peninsula of Jungira was still an autonomous principality ruled over by a Muslim Nawab and the only access to the village was by a rough road through virgin jungle.

When a series of misfortunes stranded Jainub and her children, this young Afrikaans mother had to find the courage and determination to survive in a community where poverty was as much an integral ingredient of daily life as the age-old traditions and religious beliefs woven into the very fabric of an existence lived close to nature.

As her story unfolds, Ummies charm and character provide the reader with a vivid understanding of everyday life in a far-off comer of India before it was exposed to the momentous changes taking place beyond the mountain ranges which separate Borli Panchatan Place of the Five Holy Graves from the interior.

But today the cherished traditions of this hillside village are fast being eroded by outside pressures as India hurries to catch up with the rest of the developed world. This book encapsulates a slice of social history which represents a community now balanced on the edge of cultural extinction.

Very Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper. A little rubbing to the edges of the dust wrapper. Price Clipped. Previous owners’ inscription to the first blank. Text complete, clean and tight otherwise.

Burgundy boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 215 pages. 8¾” x 5½”.

Of course, if you don’t like this one there are plenty more available here!