Böcker utgivna av Blacksmith Books

For the privileged a cosmopolitan pleasure ground; For the desperate a port of last resort. A pot of gold at the end of an Oriental rainbow; A thick slice of hell denounced from the pulpit. The start of a journey for many; The end of the road for some. A place to find fame, or to seek anonymity; Rogues, chancers, showgirls, criminals... For so many people from so many lands, there was one phrase that sent a tingle of hope or a shiver of anticipation down every spine: "e;DESTINATION SHANGHAI"e;

Viviamo in un tempo di grandi sconvolgimenti, un tempo in cui dobbiamo affrontare una pandemia, guerre, crisi energetiche. Ci sembra di non aver vissuto mai tempi così difficili e cerchiamo di immaginare il futuro cercando di non cedere alla disperazione e al pessimismo sistematico. Previsioni nefaste si affacciano sulle colonne dei giornali, che adombrano la possibilità di una guerra nucleare che renderebbe la distruzione dell'umanità una prospettiva del tutto realistica; dall'altro lato, l'estinzione dell'umanità a causa del mutamento del clima è prospettata da alcuni come un'ipotesi non irrealistica.In un contesto globale come quello che stiamo vivendo, la domanda sulla sensatezza di alcuni argomenti di riflessione è sicuramente non priva di sue ragioni. A che cosa serve, in un mondo frammentato e disperato, ragionare sull'arte, sulla letteratura, sulla musica? E quale sensatezza può avere presentare uno studio sulla musica sacra cattolica, che costituisce un aspetto della pratica musicale che riguarda una minoranza sempre più esigua di persone, quelli che ancora frequentano la chiesa, e in realtà una minoranza di questa minoranza? Non si tratta di un argomento irrilevante, sia nel contesto della cultura generale, sia all'interno di un mondo cattolico che sembra sempre più affaccendato negli interessi di tipo sociale, umanitario, lasciando al margine il contenuto della Rivelazione e quindi necessariamente la liturgia, che della dimensione propriamente religiosa è espressione diretta, e quindi la musica sacra, che rappresenta a sua volta l'espressione della liturgia. Sembra, in sostanza, che ci siano cose più importanti di cui occuparci, anche all'interno dello stesso mondo cattolico.In realtà l'importanza della musica sacra, che non appare a prima vista, è assai notevole e può svolgere un ruolo quasi rivelatorio nell'attuale situazione culturale e religiosa dell'Occidente (ex)-cattolico.

Everyone loves dinosaurs, but so many other wonderfully weird (and often giant) animals used to roam the Earth too - they just never had as good a publicist. The planet has seen tons of bizarre-looking mammals, which were closer to us both in biology and in time. What if they took a holiday from being extinct? Take a trip around the globe with these outlandish time tourists as they visit the modern-day places they once called home!

When Scottish footballer Derek Currie received an offer to move to Hong Kong to play against the one sportsman he had dreamed of meeting on the field, he couldn't say no. From playing football against Pelé in the Far East, to singing with Stevie Wonder and shadow-boxing with Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Currie enjoyed a magical life as one of the first three European professional footballers in Asia. He was quickly nicknamed 'Jesus' by local fans.

Benjamin Couch "BC" Henry was a missionary in Hong Kong and southern China in the late 19th century. Yet he was also a keen observer, a skilled naturalist and an intrepid explorer. The bulk of his career was spent in what was then known as "Ling-nam", the Pearl River Delta and environs of Guangzhou (Canton). These excerpts of Henry's travelogue LING-NAM, published in 1886, contain one of the most detailed walking tours of Guangzhou that has survived.

Victorian traveler Constance Gordon-Cumming roamed far and wide, from the Scottish Highlands to the American West, the islands of Hawaii to southern China. Her trip to Hong Kong was momentous: she arrived just before Christmas 1878 to inadvertently witness the terrible "Great Fire". She moved on to explore the streets, temples and Chinese New Year festivities in Guangzhou. She is that rare travel writer who, while plunging into the crowds, manages to observe the minutiae of life around her.

As a young American, Harry Hervey dreamt of traveling to Asia. In 1923, he arrived to see Hong Kong, Macao and Guangzhou. His impressions of southern China are lyrical and detailed, atmospheric and informative. From the basement "dives" of Kennedy Town to the private dining rooms of Queen's Road, Macao's Praia Grande to its fan-tan houses, Hervey is a fascinating flaneur. So too in Guangzhou, where Hervey encounters those fleeing warlord violence and receives an audience with Sun Yat-sen.

Tigers came to Hong Kong. They preyed on pigs, chickens, cattle and deer. They sometimes killed people. They came most years through to the end of the 1950s. As long as there were South China tigers in the wild, Hong Kong saw some of them. They stopped coming when they were on their way to extinction in China. Not many people know this, but it's true. And this is the first history of the Hong Kong tiger.

New York Times bestselling author Paul French (Midnight in Peking) returns to the Chinese capital to tell 18 true stories of fascinating people - many Americans among them - who visited the city in the first half of the 20th century. From the ultra-wealthy Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton and her husband the Prince Mdivani, to the poor "e;American girl"e; Mona Monteith, who worked in the city as a prostitute; from socialite Wallis Simpson and novelist JP Marquand, who held court on the rooftop of the Grand Hotel de Pekin, to Hollywood screenwriter Harry Hervey, who sought inspiration walking atop the Tartar Wall; from Edgar and Helen Foster Snow - Peking's 'It' couple of 1935 - to Martha Sawyers, who did so much to aid China against Japan in World War II; Destination Peking brings a lost pre-communist era back to life.

Asia, 1996. What do you do when you have failed to find the meaning of life in India, your money has run out, your girlfriend has gone, and prospects at home are limited? Go further east, young man! Meet Joe Walsh, a backpacker who is determined to put a wayward life behind him and make it big in Hong Kong, where fortune still favours the British and opportunities are there for the taking. In the final full year of British-ruled Hong Kong, tourists and hordes of transient workers are exploiting the economy as well as the occasion.Arriving almost penniless, with issues in love and life, Joe decides to make the most of this opportunity: he discovers one of the world's most exciting cities, finds challenging new jobs, makes friends with an extraordinary cast of characters, and dates local women. He finds himself absorbed into a vibrant social scene through the communal existence of a travellers' hostel, where drink, drugs and casual sex are a way of life. A stint selling sandwiches gives way to an English-teaching job, where he can at last start to live out his ambitions. But an already stressful existence worsens after a night out goes wrong. As personal relationships sour and the pressures of long hours, minimum pay, classroom clashes and abject living conditions mount, Joe is forced to confront people he wishes he'd never met, face hazards that are not signposted, and answer important questions that cannot be put off a moment longer.

"We had no jurisdiction outside Hong Kong waters. But we could see their vessels sinking in heavy seas. It was life or death. We just went." Former Marine Police officer Les Bird tells of the harrowing journey to Hong Kong made by tens of thousands of refugees in the years following the Vietnam War. He photographed their makeshift boats and his pictures tell the stories of these desperate refugees searching for a new life.

Sex, drugs, gambling, ghosts, drinking, rugby - and even some police work. Hong Kong on the edge of empire was teeming with triads, smugglers, Chinese immigrants and Vietnamese refugees. Simon's memoir of his time in the Hong Kong police - from the 1970s until after the handover - is a fast-paced tale. From the murky back streets of Kowloon to the open seas, his shocking and hilarious story shows what life was like on the Hong Kong beat.

Maggie loves hanging out with her best friends Methuselah (her talkative parrot) and Edmund (the richest boy in Hong Kong), but loathes attending boring parties with her mum and dad! Little does she know that a Family Fun Day will trigger a thrilling adventure involving one of Hong Kong's greatest mysteries. A funny, exciting story for pre-teens set in one of the world's most exotic cities, where cultures meet and risks are for the taking!

Imagine a high-rise mini-city that people built with their own hands. This city took up only the size of a sports stadium, but it was home to sixty thousand people! What would it be like to live in the most tightly packed place on Earth? Fiona wanted to find out, so she went there to paint, draw and meet the people of the Kowloon Walled City. A true story about a unique place that no longer exists.

Imagine an illegally built mini-city taking up only the area of a sports stadium but home to 60,000 people. What was it like living in the most densely populated place on Earth? 22-year-old artist Fiona Hawthorne spent three months inside the notorious Walled City of Kowloon, an apparent no-go area in the heart of Hong Kong. This book reveals the artworks she created there. It is a unique record of a place that no longer exists.

What kind of people would you meet if you decided to walk across the world's most populous country? The Great Walk of China is a journey into China's heartland, away from its surging coastal cities. Through surprisingly frank conversations with the people he meets along the way, the Chinese-speaking author paints a portrait of a nation struggling to come to terms with its newfound identity and its place in the world.

Jack Leblanc shares the lessons he has learnt in 20 years of doing business in China. His career has included stints as a salesman, dotcom entrepreneur, venture capital broker, business consultant, and finally cross-cultural troubleshooter, solving problems between foreign investors and their Chinese counterparts. Each chapter is written in story form and covers a situation that investors are likely to face: for instance, disputes over intellectual property, staffing, or localized corruption. Practical and entertaining.