Andrew Eames Books

A photo essay on London's culture, leisure, shopping, architecture, rural areas and the river. The book includes images of public landmarks -- Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace -- and of hidden corners closed to all but a few locals -- a Buddhist temple in Wimbledon, the Farringdon gathering place of England's oldest debating society, a management meeting at Lloyd's. Oliver Benn provides glimpses of grand historic interiors and creative hideaways. Celebrating the city's multicultural energy, he highlights London's famous street life, including markets at Brixton and Camden Lock. These neighbourhood centres contrast with the fashionable shopping arcades and department stores -- Harrods, Simpsons, Liberty -- which attract an international clientele. Benn shows the reader what makes London London: sedate art auctions, relaxed riverside living, fast-paced international trading in the City, traditional and innovative concert and theatre venues. Andrew Eames's text provides historical anecdotes woven together with telling observations about how the city works today.

Andrew Eames, an adventurous and sympathetic observer; sets out to travel from London to Baghdad by train, following the route of the old Orient Express and an identical journey made by Agatha Christie in 1928. Agatha's journey was to change her life completely and led to her spending thirty seasons on archaeological digs in the deserts of Syria and Iraq. Eames's own journey reveals fascinating details of this little-known but exotic chapter in the life of the world's most widely-read author.The journey from London to Baghdad by train today is far harder than it was in Agatha's day. Many of the countries from the Balkans to the Middle East have been deeply troubled in recent years. Eventually Eames arrives at the Iraqi border at the same time as the UN weapons inspectors, and the shadow of war looms increasingly large.

The river Danube flows through more countries than any other river on earth. It runs like an artery from the heart of Europe in the Black Forest to Europe's furthest flung fringes, where it joins the Black Sea in the Danube Delta in Romania. This book explores how much we really know about the New Europe.

In 1928, Agatha Christie, the world's most widely read author, was a thirty-something single mother.