When Polly Evans read a survey claiming that the last bastion of masculinity, the real Kiwi bloke, was about to breathe his last, she was seized by a sense of foreboding. Abandoning the London winter she took off on a motorbike for the windswept beaches and golden plains of New Zealand, hoping to root out some examples of this endangered species for posterity. But her challenges didn't stop at the men. Just weeks after passing her test, Polly rode from Auckland's glitzy Viaduct Basin to the vineyards of Hawkes Bay and on to the Southern Alps. She found wild kiwis in the dead of night, kayaked among dolphins at dawn, and spent an evening on a remote hillside with a sheep-shearing gang. As she travelled, Polly reflected on the Maori warriors who carved their enemies' bones into cutlery, the pioneer family who lived in a tree, and the flamboyant gold miners who lit their pipes with five-pound notes, and wondered how their descendents have become pathologically obsessed with helpfulness and Coronation Street. The author of the highly acclaimed It's Not About the Tapas reaches some unexpected conclusions about the new New Zealand man - and finds that evolution has taken some unlikely twists.

Kiwis Might Fly: Around New Zealand on Two Big Wheels

Polly Evans

Bantam]

<p>When she learnt that the Chinese had built enough new roads to circle the equator sixteen times, Polly Evans decided to go and witness for herself the way this vast nation was hurtling into the technological age. But on arriving in China she found the building work wasn't quite finished. Squeezed up against Buddhist monks, squawking chickens and on one happy occasion a soldier named Hero, Polly clattered along potholed tracks from the snow-capped mountains of Shangri-La to the bear-infested jungles of the south. She braved encounters with a sadistic masseur, a ridiculously flexible kung-fu teacher, and a terrified child who screamed at the sight of her. In quieter moments, Polly contemplated China's long and colourful history - the seven-foot-tall eunuch commander who sailed the globe in search of treasure; the empress that chopped off her rivals' hands and feet and boiled them to make soup - and pondered the bizarre traits of the modern mandarins. And, as she travelled, she attempted to solve the ultimate gastronomic conundrum: just how does one eat a soft-fried egg with chopsticks?</p>

Fried Eggs with Chopsticks

Travel

Asia

BANTAM BOOKS

On a Hoof and a Prayer : Around Argentina at a Gallop

South America

Delta/Bantam

Mad Dogs And An Englishwoman

Bantam Books Ltd

On a Hoof and a Prayer: Around Argentina at a Gallop

The northern lights are one of the major tourist draws of the Arctic and sub-Arctic winter. This book covers information on everything from how to photograph the aurora, to what to wear, to how the forecast works. It offers advice on the best European countries in which to see them, and why, and provides information on tour operators offering northern lights packages. Bradt's "Northern Lights" is the only guidebook on the market that caters to the large number of people whose dream is to see the aurora borealis.

Northern Lights: A Practical Travel Guide (Bradt Travel Guides (Other Guides))

Craenen Bvba

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Books by Polly Evans