Graham Earnshaw

"There never was anybody," wrote the Spectator, "who had adventures as well as Miss Bird." In Among the Tibetans you can see why, as Isabella Lucy Bird writes of her journey through the Himalayas on horseback and of her four months of living with "the pleasantest of people." She offers evocative and colourful descriptions of Tibetan rituals and culture, along with vivid descriptions of its villages, monasteries, temples and palaces."Up to Kargil the scenery, though growing more Tibetan with every march, had exhibited at intervals some traces of natural verdure; but beyond, after leaving the Suru, there is not a green thing, and on the next march the road crosses a lofty, sandy plateau, on which the heat was terrible - blazing gravel and a blazing heaven, then fiery cliffs and scorched hillsides, then a deep ravine and the large village of Paskim (dominated by a fort-crowned rock), and some planted and irrigated acres; then a narrow ravine and magnificent scenery flaming with colour, which opens out after some miles on a burning chaos of rocks and sand, mountain-girdled, and on some remarkable dwellings on a steep slope, with religious buildings singularly painted. This is Shergol, the first village of Buddhists, and there I was 'among the Tibetans.'"

"The old Shanghai was a rich and cosmopolitan mixture of East and West that exuded luxury, style and excitement. Yet, at the same time, it was ridden with an underworld full of opium dens and brothels that earned the city its eponymous nickname "Whore of the Orient." Collecting together all the juicy tidbits, this unique account offers a first hand peek into that world with a smattering of the most interesting photos, newspaper clippings, cartoons and writings to bring back to life those far-off days."--Publisher's description.

"Isabella Bird, an Englishwoman whose extensive travels and writings earned her the first female membership of the Royal Geographical Society, visited Malaya, Singapore, Indo-China and Hong Kong in 1879. She wrote 23 letters describing her adventures to her sister Hennie in Scotland, and named the collection The Golden Chersonese after the ancient name given to the Malay Peninsula by the Greek scholar, Ptolemy. Her detailed descriptions of the Malay Peninsula in the 1870s are in startling contrast to present-day Malaysia and Singapore, and provide a fascinating account of many aspects of the region, including the people, culture, landscapes, and wildlife, all described with the Victorian stiff upper lip typical of her time."--Publisher's description.