{"title":"Jonathan Raban","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the captivating world of travel and adventure through the eloquent prose of \u003cem\u003eJonathan Raban\u003c\/em\u003e, a masterful author renowned for his keen observations and rich storytelling. With a collection of works that invites readers to journey to far-off places and delve into the intricacies of cultural landscapes, Raban's books are a testament to the transformative power of travel writing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eArabia through the Looking Glass\u003c\/em\u003e, Raban provides a reflective and insightful exploration of the Middle Eastern terrain, capturing both the beauty and complexity of the region. Meanwhile, \u003cem\u003eCoasting\u003c\/em\u003e offers an intimate portrayal of Britain’s coastline, blending travel narrative with social commentary as Raban circumnavigates through rich historical and geographical narratives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEothen\u003c\/em\u003e, another gem in Raban's collection, takes readers on a journey through the heart of the Orient, chronicling encounters with cultures and landscapes through vivid and engaging storytelling. \u003cem\u003eFor Love or Money\u003c\/em\u003e showcases Raban’s versatility as he delves into the world of personal essays, offering witty insights into both writing and travel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFinally, in \u003cem\u003eOld Glory\u003c\/em\u003e, Raban embarks on an extraordinary expedition along the Mississippi River, capturing the essence of American life and demonstrating his unparalleled ability to intertwine personal reflection with the spirit of adventure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJonathan Raban's works are perfect for readers seeking to be transported across continents and into the soul of the places he masterfully depicts, making them essential reading for any travel and adventure enthusiast.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"arabia-through-the-looking-glass-by-jonathan-raban-9781780601397","title":"Arabia through the Looking Glass","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOf all his generation's travellers, Jonathan Raban is the most sophisticated, writing with a subtle and imaginative brilliance.\u003c\/em\u003e — Colin Thubron\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne of the most humane and visionary of all travel writers.\u003c\/em\u003e — Jeremy Seal\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInto Jonathan Raban's familiar Earls Court neighbourhood after the 1970s oil boom came new visitors from the Arab world, dressed in floor-length robes and yashmaks. A people apart, little known, Raban wanted to get behind the myth and the rumour to discover the reality of their lives and world. His journey took him through Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Yemen, Egypt and Jordan. What he discovered was a far cry from the camel, tent and sand dune archetypes of early European explorers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOil wealth had seeped into almost every corner, and Bedouin encampments had been replaced by cosmopolitan boomtowns, camels by Range Rovers. The sons of Bedouin nomads were now studying medicine in Europe and engineering in New York. Yet in this fast-moving world, old certainties remained, and cultural innovation lagged miles behind economic change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRaban's gift for friendship introduces us to a series of memorable individuals, rich and poor, set against the feel, the smells, the sounds and the nuances of Arabia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47072127418604,"sku":"9781780601397","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/26800383482821.jpg?v=1765079293"},{"product_id":"coasting-by-jonathan-raban-9781780601380","title":"Coasting","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA valuable book and a necessary one. One of the funniest and cleverest voyages on record.\u003c\/em\u003e — Christopher Hitchens, \u003cem\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe finest writer afloat since Conrad.\u003c\/em\u003e — Geoffrey Moorhouse, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eUnfailingly witty and entertaining.\u003c\/em\u003e — Salman Rushdie\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCoasting\u003c\/em\u003e around Britain single-handed in an antique two-masted sailing boat, Jonathan Raban conducts a masterly exploration of England and the English at the time of Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands War. He moves seamlessly between awkward memories of childhood as the son of a vicar, a vivid chronicle of the shape-shifting sea, and incisive descriptions of the people and communities he encounters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs he faces his terror of racing water, eddies, offshore sandbars, and ferries on a collision course, so he navigates the complex and turbulent waters of his own middle age. \u003cem\u003eCoasting\u003c\/em\u003e is a fearless attempt to discover the meaning of belonging and of his English homeland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47072162939116,"sku":"9781780601380","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/26800213482821.jpg?v=1765082744"},{"product_id":"eothen-by-jonathan-raban-9781780601427","title":"Eothen","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eEothen\u003c\/i\u003e, which means 'news from the east', started out as a few notes scribbled on the back of a map, to amuse a friend who wanted some advice for his own youthful 'year off' travels, but it became one of the most influential, witty and idiosyncratic of travel books. It took Kinglake seven years before he had finished crafting this 'lively, brilliant and rather insolent' tale.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe physical details of the journey, undertaken in 1834 across the Balkan frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, through Constantinople, Smyrna, Cyprus into the Near Eastern cities of Jerusalem, Cairo, and Damascus, are never as significant as the conversations, chance encounters, and attitudes of the author. Packed full of an infectious charm and a youthful delight at the world, it is above all things funny as it lampoons the pomposity of earnest, middle-aged travellers seeking to establish themselves as professional authorities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'One of the most deliciously nasty books in English literature.' - Jonathan Raban\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'One of the most original, graceful and creative of all travel books... sparkling, ironic and terrific fun.' - Jan Morris\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47072215662828,"sku":"9781780601427","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/26800683482821.jpg?v=1765086307"},{"product_id":"for-love-or-money-by-jonathan-raban-9781780601403","title":"For Love or Money","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eJonathan Raban is the only person I listen to in matters of travel and books and writing in general. Reading him, talking to him as I have over fifty years, he has made my work better and me happier.\u003c\/em\u003e - Paul Theroux\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFor Love and Money\u003c\/em\u003e is as good a book as there is about the writing life. Delighted that it will be safeguarded in print by Eland. - Tim Hannigan\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis collection of writing undertaken for love and money is about books and travel, and makes for an engrossing and candid exploration of what it means to live from writing. Jonathan Raban weighs up the advantages of maintaining an independent spirit against problems of insolvency and self-worth, confesses to travel as an escape from the blank page, ponders the true art of the book review, admires the role of the literary editor, and remembers with affection and hilarity events from his eccentric life at the heart of literary London. Reading it is like embarking on a humane, rigorous, and witty conversation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47072259932396,"sku":"9781780601403","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/26800443482821.jpg?v=1765089395"},{"product_id":"old-glory-by-jonathan-raban-9781780601366","title":"Old Glory","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eJonathan Raban is one of the world's greatest living travel writers.\u003c\/em\u003e – William Dalrymple\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe best book of travel ever written by an Englishman about the United States.\u003c\/em\u003e – Jan Morris, \u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNavigating the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to New Orleans, Raban opens himself to experience the river in all her turbulent and unpredictable old glory. Going wherever the current takes him, he joins a coon-hunt in Savana, falls for a girl in St Louis, worships with black Baptists in Memphis, hangs out with the housewives of Pemiscot, and the hog-king of Dubuque. Through tears of laughter, we are led into the heartland of America with its hunger and hospitality, its inventive energy, and its charming lethargy, coming to know something of its soul.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe journey is as much the story of Raban as it is of the Mississippi. Navigating the dangerous, ever-changing waters in an unsuitably fragile aluminium skiff, he immerses himself with an irresistible emotional intensity as he tries to give shape to the river and the story, finding himself by turns vulnerable, curious, angry and, like all of us, sometimes foolishly in love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47072348668140,"sku":"9781780601366","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/26800073482821.jpg?v=1765095383"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/jonathan-raban.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}