The author of this book spent a year travelling round Mexico with a circus - big top, clowns, elephants and all. She and her husband, photographer Tom Owen-Edmunds, lived with the circus - riding the elephants and playing clowns as part of the show. Further afield they tracked down the remains of ancient Mayan civilizations and hunted down the last, dying members of Pancho Villa's famous outlaw army. This travel book records the sights seen on their travels as well as featuring the people and characters of the circus and those they met en-route. By the author of "Dreams of the Peaceful Dragon" and "The Quetzal Summer".

A Trip Through the Light Fantastic

HICKMAN, KATIE

Humor & Entertainment

HarperCollins Publishers, Ltd

Index, notes, bibliography, photos.

Daughters of Britannia: the lives and times of diplomatic wives

Biographies & Memoirs

Harpercollins

Katie Hickman went to Mexico looking for magic. She found it in the circus - Big Top, clowns, elephants and all - where cheap, torn materials and tarnished sequins are transformed into nights of glittering illusion. Gradually adjusting to the harsh ways of the circus's nomadic lifestyle she soon became absorbed into this hypnotic new world, at first as a foreigner, but later as 'La Gringa Estrella', a performer in her own right.Hickman's unforgettable account of her epic year-long journey through an extraordinary and bizarrely beautiful country has all the power and richness of a novel.

A Trip to the Light Fantastic: Travels With a Mexican Circus

An authoritative and entertaining account by one of our most talented writers of the courageous and unusual women who have been the backbone of the British Empire and foreign service. 'English ambassadresses are usually on the dotty side and leaving their embassies drives them completely off their rockers' -- Nancy Mitford From the first exploratory expeditions into foreign lands, through the heyday of the British Empire and still today, the foreign service has been shaped and run behind the scenes by the wives of ambassadors and minor civil servants. Accompanying their spouses in the most extraordinary, tough, sometimes terrifying circumstances, they have struggled to bring their civilization with them. Their stories -- from ambassadresses downwards -- never before told, are a feast of eccentricity, genuine hardship and genuine heroism, and make for a hilarious, compelling and fascinating book.

Daughters of Britannia: The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives

History

Europe

Flamingo

Physical description: xix, 363 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), ports. (some col.) ; 25 cm. Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. SubjectS: Baddeley, Sophia 1745?-1786. Fox, Elizabeth 1750-1842. Wilson, Harriette 1786-1846. Pearl, Cora 1837-1886. Walters, Catherine 1839-1920. Courtesans - Great Britain - Biography.

Courtesans

World

‘Irresistible…history at its most human. Elegant and addictively readable.’ William Dalrymple
During the course of the 18th- and 19th-century a small group of women rose from impoverished obscurity to positions of great power, independence and wealth. In doing so they took control of their lives – and those of other people – and made the world do their will.
Men ruined themselves in desperate attempts to gain and retain a courtesan's favours, but she was always courted for far more than sex. In an age in which women were generally not well educated she was often unusually literate and literary, courted for her conversation as well as her physical company. Courtesans were extremely accomplished, and exerted a powerful influence as leaders of fashion and society. They were not received at Court, but inhabited their own parallel world – the demi-monde – complete with its own hierarchies, etiquette and protocol. They were queens of fashion, linguists, musicians, accomplished at political intrigue and, of course, possessors of great erotic gifts. Even to be seen in public with one of the great courtesans was a much-envied achievement.
In ‘Courtesans’ Katie Hickman, author of the bestselling ‘Daughters of Britannia’, focuses on the exceptional stories of five outstanding women. Sophia Baddeley, Elizabeth Armistead, Harriette Wilson, Cora Pearl and Catherine Walters may have had very different personalities and talents, but their lives exemplify the dazzling existence of the courtesan.

Harper-perennial

Light wear to cover. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Daughters of Brittania

Flamingo for the Book People

Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century

William Morrow Paperbacks

In an absorbing mixture of poignant biography and wonderfully entertaining social history, Daughters of Britannia offers the story of diplomatic life as it has never been told before. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Vita Sackville-West and Lady Diana Cooper are among the wellknown wives of diplomats who represented Britain in the far-flung corners of the globe. Yet, despite serving such crucial roles, the vast majority of these women are entirely unknown to history. Who was Mrs Vigor, gossiping from St Petersburg in the 1730s about the intrigues of the imperial court, or Miss Tully, incarcerated in the British consulate in famine-torn Tripoli on the eve of the French Revolution? Drawing on letters, private journals and memoirs, as well as contemporary oral history, Katie Hickman explores not only the public pomp and glamour of diplomatic life, but also the most intimate, private face of this most fascinating and rays mysterious world. Far from leading pampered lives of luxury and privilege, many women endured harsh, isolated circumstances that they continuously met with remarkable resourcefulness and strength: journeys could take many months to complete, medical facilities were often primitive or nonexistent and young children frequently died due to the conditions, not to mention wars, kidnappings and assassination attempts. Katie Hickman balances stories of high drama with detailed recollections of domestic life in which women faced such daily challenges as getting their husbands' shirt fronts suitably boiled and starched in the wilds of Xinkiang or finding the right size bulletproof vest in which to do the gardening in Beirut. Touching on the lives of nearly a hundred diplomatic wives (as well as sisters and daughters), Daughters of Britannia is a brilliant and compelling account of more than three centuries of British diplomacy as seen through the eyes of some of its most intrepid but least heralded participants.

Community & Culture

William Morrow

In an absorbing mixture of poignant biography and wonderfully entertaining social history, Daughters of Britannia offers the story of diplomatic life as it has never been told before. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Vita Sackville-West, and Lady Diana Cooper are among the well-known wives of diplomats who represented Britain in the far-flung corners of the globe. Yet, despite serving such crucial roles, the vast majority of these women are entirely unknown to history. Drawing on letters, private journals, and memoirs, as well as contemporary oral history, Katie Hickman explores not only the public pomp and glamour of diplomatic life but also the most intimate, private face of this most fascinating and mysterious world. Touching on the lives of nearly 100 diplomatic wives (as well as sisters and daughters), Daughters of Britannia is a brilliant and compelling account of more than three centuries of British diplomacy as seen through the eyes of some of its most intrepid but least heralded participants.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by HICKMAN, KATIE. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by HICKMAN, KATIE

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by HICKMAN, KATIE. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Trip Through the Light Fantastic

Daughters of Britannia: the lives and times of diplomatic wives

A Trip to the Light Fantastic: Travels With a Mexican Circus

Daughters of Britannia: The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives

Courtesans

Courtesans

Daughters of Brittania

Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century

Daughters of Britannia: The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives

Daughters of Britannia: The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives