A
Fund-raising Event and Book Signing for BookPower: 13 September
2010 at 7 p.m. at the Royal Geographical Society, Kensington Gore,
London
SW7 2AR
Tim Mackintosh-Smith
on Ibn Battutah:
a 14th Century Moroccan traveller who rivalled Marco Polo
Seven centuries on, Tim’s passionate pursuit
of Ibn Battutah takes him to landfalls in remote tropical islands,
torrid Indian ocean ports and dusty towns on the shores of the
Saharan sand-sea.
Tim
Mackintosh-Smith’s first book, Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land,
won the 1998 Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award
and is now regarded as a classic of Arabian description. His two
books on Ibn Battutah’s adventures in the old Islamic world and
in India, Travels
with a Tangerine and The Hall of a Thousand Columns,
were received to huge critical acclaim. His journeys in search of
Ibn Battutah have also been turned into a major BBC television series
that has fascinated viewers round the globe. For the past twenty-five
years his home has been the Yemeni capital San’a, where he lives
in a tower-house on top of the ancient Sabaean city and next door
to the modern donkey market.
Photo by Jamie Wightman
Ibn
Battutahout-travelled
Marco Polo by a factor of three, exploring the known world to its limits.
He spent his days with saints and
sultans and his nights with an intercontinental string of slave-concubines,
Landfalls,
Tim’s third and final book on ‘IB’s travels, follows him on a zigzag itinerary across time and space
leading from Zanzibar to the Alhambra (via the Maldives,
Sri Lanka,
China, Mauritania
and Guinea)
and to a climactic conclusion.
Tim's own journey is a search for
survivals from IB's world - material, human, spiritual, edible
- however, when your fellow traveller has a 700-year head start,
familiar notions don't always work …
This
illustrated talk at the RGS coincides with the publication of
Landfalls. Signed
copies will be on sale there at a discount on the published price.
Entry £20.00 (Ticket £5.00; Donation
to BookPower £15.00)
Please
send cheques, saes and Gift Aid forms
to: BookPower 120 Pentonville Road London
N1 9JN
The
Great Big small Charity Car Draw helps small charities across the
UK raise funds and build better communities. Organised by the FSI,
the
draw helps us to deliver our services and gives you a chance to
win a
brand new Mini First. Kindly provided by Zurich
BOOKPOWER
SUPPORTS HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD THROUGH:
•
targeted, affordable textbooks for low-income countries.
•
support for local booksellers.
Well-educated
future professionals work towards sustainable development.
We
are delighted to announce that Lord Wright of Richmond has recently
agreed to become one of BookPower’s patrons.
Lord Wright
has been a crossbench member of the House of Lords since 1994. An
Honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, he had a highly distinguished
career in the Foreign Service from 1955 to 1991, spending his last
five years as Permanent Under Secretary and Head of the Diplomatic
Service.
After his retirement he was on the Boards of Barclays, British Airports
Authority, BP, DeLaRue and Unilever. He is Honorary President of
Home-Start International.
Lord
Wright says: “I am delighted to have been asked to join
the very distinguished group of Patrons for BookPower. It is a
real privilege to become associated in this way with the wonderful
work which BookPower does in making books available to those who
desperately need them round the world.
It is also a great pleasure to be associated again with Valerie
Teague, since we worked together in Syria many years ago, when
I was British Ambassador and she was with the British Council
- an organisation with which I had a close association throughout
my diplomatic career, and on whose Board I sat for five years
during my time as Head of the Diplomatic Service.
We
very much look forward to working with Lord Wright
On
Sunday 14 June Tristan Rodgers not only won the title of
Ironman, but covered the gruelling course in 5 hours and
43 minutes – well below both the official 10.5 hour
time limit and his personal goal of under 6 hours.
Tristan
says:
The
race was supposed to start at 6am but because of heavy mist
on the lake we didn’t set off until after 7am.
There
were over 1000 spectators, all elbowing and kicking for
position and water was absolutely freezing, so it was a
relief to finally get going.
After
the first 200m the field started to thin out - quite a relief
as it was difficult to get into any sort of rhythm in the
crush at the start. 1.2km later I arrived on terra firma.
I
had been warned that the 56-mile bike stage was very tough
so I took the first lap relatively easily. On the second
lap, having seen what I had to do and thinking I was still
relatively fresh, I made the error of stepping up the
pace.
This
seemed a good idea as I whizzed past the other competitors
- until I reached the last 5km when my legs stopped working
and my back was killing me …
Three
painkillers later and having lost most of the advantage
I’d gained, I coasted into the transition area for
my second and final time.
I
munched my way through a whole packet of jelly babies
and must have been close to a record for the longest transition
before I moved on to the next stage …
There
were 3 laps on the 13.1 mile run, the first of which was
incredibly slow, but as my legs loosened up I managed to
speed up and finished the run in 1h42m. I
completed the course in 182nd place with a time of 5h42m.
I was
delighted as I had beaten my target of 6 hours.
Looking
back on it I thoroughly enjoyed the event, although it was
one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. I’d
thought of doing a full Ironman next year, but in retrospect
I’m sure my limbs would appreciate an extra year’s
rest before I put them through double the distance!
Thank
you to BookPower and everyone else for all your support
- I couldn’t have done it without you!
(Tristan’s
titanic effort has raised £500 for BookPower –
enough to support the production of 333 books which will
be used by at least 1,000 deserving students. A big thank
you to all our supporters!)
If you’d still like to support BookPower’s work
please see our Donate page
On
2 July the distinguished Foreign Correspondent
Christina Lamb, in conversation with the veteran broadcaster
Sue McGregor, spoke about ‘Afghanistan from
the Inside’ to an enthusiastic audience at the
Royal Geographical Society.
(Due
to work commitments George Alagiah had to withdraw
from the event, for which he apologised profusely)
This
was the fourth annual talk and book signing which
BookPower has organised at the RGS and one of its
most successful events.
A
big ‘thank you’ to the wonderful volunteers
who helped us ensure that the evening ran smoothly.
The
vote of thanks was given by Lord Wright of Richmond.
We
are delighted to announce that he has just agreed
to become one of BookPower’s Patrons.
(See the news item above about Lord Wright)
To receive information on our future events,
email us at info@bookpower.org
and ask to be added to our mailing list.
(Friends of BookPower gain half price entry).
To
support BookPower’s work now you could
become a Friend of BookPower
or make a donation
(see our Donate page for
information)
BookPower
begins the new year with a new Chairman: Clive Bradley CBE
- a barrister, broadcaster and journalist with many years
of experience in the publishing and information industries
both as senior manager and writer.
Clive
dates his interest in the international provision of high
quality books to his twenty-one years as Chief Executive
of the Publishers Association (1976-1997). A vigorous campaigner
and spokesman for the development, growth and quality of
all media, he has been the convenor since its formation
of the Confederation of Information Communication Industries,
a grouping of the creative industries established in 1984
on the initiative of the Cabinet Office to provide a forum
for discussion with ministers and others on the digital
revolution in the media. Clive is also the Chairman of Richmond
upon Thames Arts Council and a former Chairman of Age Concern
Richmond upon Thames.
The
previous BookPower Chairman, Sonny Leong, will continue
to serve as a trustee and to maintain the charity’s
connections with other organizations such as the Council
for Education in the Commonwealth.
You can now support Bookpower at no cost
to yourselves by shopping online at easyfundraising.org.uk/bookpower
and/or searching the web via bookpower.easysearch.org.uk/
(easyfundraising
is an organisational member of the Institute of Fundraising)
BookPower
celebrated its tenth anniversary in
2006 with a number of events:
17-20 June 2006
Cape
Town Book Fair: BookPower exhibited a selection of titles,
catalogues and information leaflets on the UK Publishers Association
stand at the Cape Town Book Fair. This provided a good opportunity
for interested African booksellers and librarians to learn more
about the scheme and see at first hand the quality of the books
included.
9
April: at 7.55 am &
9.26 pm 13 April: at 3.27 pm -
Radio 4 Appeal presented by George Alagiah, FM and LW
22
March: 7 p.m. -
The
Pen is Mightier than the Rucksack:
a fundraising lecture by Michael Palin at the Royal Geographical
Society, Kensington Gore, London .
This very successful
evening was attended by 760 people. Michael Palin explored the umbilical
link between travel and the written word. "From notebooks to
guide-books to personal accounts: why do travellers feel the need
to write it all down?" For
details of the books he quoted click here. The lecture
was followed by a book signing.
6
March: 3.30 - 5 p.m
Seminar
on Books for Developing Countries in the Platinum Suite, ExCeL London
Around forty
members of the booktrade in Africa and the Caribbean discussed the
current provision of tertiary education resources in developing
countries, how they could be improved and the relationship between
international and locally-published textbooks. It was generally
agreed that at present the number of locally-published textbooks
is very small and until it increases substantially the BookPower
scheme provides valuable, affordable access to international scholarship.
In comparison to cheap editions imported from India, BookPower titles
are carefully-chosen and of higher quality. Prices cannot be unreasonably
marked up as they are printed on each book and are an important
factor used by local distributors to promote the scheme.
Participants called for more UK Higher Education publishers to participate
in the BookPower scheme.
Help
us to help thousands of students in low-income countries by becoming
a Friend of BookPower, for only £50 a year.
You
will receive an annual newsletter, priority information on any
fundraising events and an invitation to one high profile social
event a year - in addition to helping countries towards self-sufficiency
by supporting the education of their future professionals.
return
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On
Sunday 14 June Tristan Rodgers not only won the title of
Ironman, but covered the gruelling course in 5 hours and
43 minutes – well below both the official 10.5 hour
time limit and his personal goal of under 6 hours.
I
had been warned that the 56-mile bike stage was very tough
so I took the first lap relatively easily. On the second
lap, having seen what I had to do and thinking I was still
relatively fresh, I made the error of stepping up the
pace. 
