{"title":"Shelby Tucker","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"among-insurgents-book-shelby-tucker-9780007127054","title":"Among Insurgents","description":"An adventure story of real risk-taking and the heroic age of travel.             Ten years ago, at the age of 53, Shelby Tucker set out to cross Burma on foot from China to India when land access to Burma was forbidden. Tucker had a rucksack, a diary and some inaccurate maps. He recruited a 6ft 4in Swede, Mats, whom he had met on the train to Beijing.             Near the beginning of their walk through the jungle they encountered a group of naked boys bathing – they realized too late that their Chinese Army uniforms were on the banks. With typical sangfroid, Tucker leapt in to join them, shouting incomprehensible English greetings… Before long they were in the hands of the Kachin Independence Army and managed to survive many near misses with the Burmese Army. Despite pain and constant danger, Tucker recorded each day the vivid beauty of the country, and the courtesy and hospitality of the Kachins (the most important of Burma's hidden colonies, about whom very little has been written).             Among Insurgents was Colin Thubron's Book of the Year, The Guardian's number 1 travel hardback and the Sunday Times' number 2. It recevied warm acclaim from Anthony Sattin ('packed with insights into tribal identity and the opium trade'), Robert Carver ('outstandingly well written in the insouciant Peter Fleming tradition'), Sara Wheeler ('a thrilling book') and it must surely be shortlised for the Thomas Cook Award.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49526337208593,"sku":"GOR003160320","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49664135758097,"sku":"GOR004081850","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50341998461201,"sku":"CIN0007127057G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50342011076881,"sku":"CIN0007127057VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50657863631121,"sku":"GOR003181398","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50998726263057,"sku":"NIN9780007127054","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52630125117713,"sku":"NLS9780007127054","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0007127057.jpg?v=1751289527"},{"product_id":"burma-book-shelby-tucker-9780745315416","title":"Burma","description":"This book is an overview and understanding of Burma's tragic armed conflict in the twentieth century. Examining the 'causes' of the war, Shelby Tucker traces the political development of the country from the occupations by the British and Japanese and eventual independence in 1942, through the army coup of 1962 led by Ne Win, which established an authoritarian state, to the pro-democracy movement of the late 1980s.     Tucker examines Burma's drug trade; scrutinises Burma's civil rights record; examines the role of the Nationalist leader Aung Seng, who attempted to unite the various sections of the population; the impact of Seng's assassination and subsequent power struggles; and considers the future for a government faced with armed opposition from separatist movements among the ethnic minorities of Burma's regions.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49535921651985,"sku":"GOR002460290","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50363463303441,"sku":"CIN0745315410G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52405119942929,"sku":"NLS9780745315416","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53055352766737,"sku":"CIN0745315410VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0745315410.jpg?v=1751361578"},{"product_id":"client-service-book-shelby-tucker-9781906768928","title":"Client Service","description":"World of Finance, a massive investment company, is teetering on the point of implosion. Controlled by the elusive, brooding Baroque, it is irrevocably unraveling. But not before it can suck in the naive and amoral and destroy them. Set in the sixties, this mordant satire of international investment draws on Shelby Tucker's brief experience of Bernie Cornfeld's Investment Overseas Services, a lucrative financial confidence game, which, like WoF collapsed catastrophically. 'Client Service' could not be more entertaining or more apposite.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49563216183569,"sku":"GOR013096885","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50401497678097,"sku":"CIN1906768927VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1906768927.jpg?v=1750931366"},{"product_id":"last-banana-book-shelby-tucker-9781906768966","title":"The Last Banana","description":"The Last Banana began when the author visited his university friend Marios Ghikas, whose family farmed in Tanzania. Anticipating nationalization, Marios invited Tucker to visit again to help him spend 'the last banana' of his 'unremittable fortune', and Tucker returned in 1972. These were the first of 16 African trips spanning 43 years. There were 180 Greeks in Chaggaland, but Nyerere's policy of returning land to the watu people destroyed this community. Three stayed on; Marios was one. In this absorbing and elegantly written book, Tucker recalls conditions in equatorial Africa before the European scramble for colonies. He reminds us of Livingstone's vision of ending the slave trade by bringing 'the 3 Cs' (Commerce, Christianity and Civilization) to the interior of Africa and suggests that Greek settlement in Africa was an important, part of fulfilling this vision - a story previously untold in English. Tucker contrasts the moral force and fruits of the pioneer missionaries and explorers who brought Christianity to Africa with the triviality of modern travel and the surrealism of democracy and freedom expounded in Africa today.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49587630244113,"sku":"GOR004675874","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/190676896X.jpg?v=1750931367"},{"product_id":"among-insurgents-book-shelby-tucker-9781860645297","title":"Among Insurgents","description":"Among Insurgents describes a remarkable and perilous journey.  The author entered Burma through a border area of China closed to foreigners, crossed the Shan and Kachin States, and left Burma via an area of India closed to foreigners.  En route, he was detained by Communist insurgents, handed over to Kachin insurgents and arrested by the Indian Army.  But Among Insurgents is not only the story of a journey into a terra incognita; it examines the symbiotic relationship between the civil war in Burma and the international drugs trade. The author interviewed growers of opium poppies and leaders on both sides of the narcotics divide, while his report to the US National Security Council may have contributed to Washington’s changed perception of the Burmese Army as the main player in the trade. As well as offering a brief and readable analysis of the Burmese civil war, including the drugs trade and ethnic and religious dimensions, the book also describes the Kachins, the most important of Burma’s ‘hidden colonies’, of whom almost nothing has been written.  'Every few years there comes along a book by an unknown author that makes you want to stand up and applaud.  This is such a book… This is a story of real, risk-taking, old-fashioned travel, not pre-paid by a publishers or faked by a television company.  Beautifully written and illustrated with colour photos and maps, it deserves to become a classic.' - Maggie Gee\tDaily Telegraph - May 2000  This is a fascinating insight into Burma, and essential reading for anyone interested in the rich past and uncertain future of this astonishingly beautiful and tormented place. - Denise Heywood\tTraveller - August 2000","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49631518556433,"sku":"GOR007537270","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49657857245457,"sku":"GOR004444002","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49680646111505,"sku":"GOR001925539","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1860645291.jpg?v=1750768652"},{"product_id":"last-banana-book-shelby-tucker-9781906768218","title":"The Last Banana","description":"The Last Banana began when the author visited his university friend Marios Ghikas, whose family farmed in Tanzania. Anticipating nationalization, Marios invited Tucker to visit again to help him spend 'the last banana' of his 'unremittable fortune', and Tucker returned in 1972. These were the first of 16 African trips spanning 43 years. There were 180 Greeks in Chaggaland, but Nyerere's policy of returning land to the watu people destroyed this community. Three stayed on; Marios was one. In this absorbing and elegantly written book, Tucker recalls conditions in equatorial Africa before the European scramble for colonies. He reminds us of Livingstone's vision of ending the slave trade by bringing 'the 3 Cs' (Commerce, Christianity and Civilization) to the interior of Africa and suggests that Greek settlement in Africa was an important, part of fulfilling this vision - a story previously untold in English. Tucker contrasts the moral force and fruits of the pioneer missionaries and explorers who brought Christianity to Africa with the triviality of modern travel and the surrealism of democracy and freedom expounded in Africa today.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49652600373521,"sku":"GOR002782965","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50487602938129,"sku":"GOR013967288","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50573986464017,"sku":"GOR014002416","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1906768218.jpg?v=1750726123"},{"product_id":"the-last-banana-dancing-with-the-watu-rare-book-shelby-tucker-1724831048mep","title":"The Last Banana: Dancing With the Watu","description":"2010. No edition remarks. 373 pages. Signed by the author. 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