The Atlas of Geographical Curiosities – a glorious celebration of an unusual world. Welcome to this compendium of interesting, unexpected and downright bizarre geographical anomalies that are guaranteed to delight and inspire. The world is full of little-known facts that have sometimes been a source of diplomatic or military struggle. Many still exist under the… Continue reading Atlas of Geographical Curiosities
Category: Bibliography
The Bumper Book of Vitali’s Travels
As travel remains impossible for many of us because of the coronavirus pandemic, The Bumper Book of Vitali’s Travels allows us to travel vicariously, to explore virtually, to follow along as Vitali delves into places both well-known and entirely obscure, some of which Vitali himself was the first to discover – from his first trip outside the USSR, when he took a train from Moscow to Britain, to a final journey to a Slovenian/Italian town just as lockdown started to shutter Europe in March 2020.
Out of the blu
Viktor and Katherine Petroff return from a short holiday in Majorca to find somebody is in their house. Meanwhile, Victor and Catherine Petrov return from a short holiday in Majorca and on the way home suffer a minor traffic collision. At the same time, Victor and Katherine Petrovas are involved in a major car crash… Continue reading Out of the blu
Granny Yaga
“Granny Yaga’ follows the switchback adventures of a boy called Danya (Danny), born in Eastern Europe, but now living in north London where the local she-dragons are notorious fighters, and any alert passer-by can spot Granny herself flying low over the British Museum. Danny becomes Granny’s aide-de-camp in a life-or-death duel with the demon Koshchei,… Continue reading Granny Yaga
Life as a Literary Device
A Memoir of survival Vitali Vitaliev is used to journeys and in this book he takes us as a companion on a journey of time and space- dozens of countries over two decades- and a journey of the mind. He is a great companion. By turns wry, tragic, and laugh-out-loud funny, in the end he… Continue reading Life as a Literary Device
Passport to Enclavia
Travels in search of a European identity What does it mean to be European? The answer lies not in Brussels, but in Europe’s forgotten enclaves – tiny fragments of one country cut off and completely surrounded by another. Stuck for centuries between two different cultures, currencies and (at times) languages, each is resplendent with idiosyncrasies.… Continue reading Passport to Enclavia
Vitali’s Ireland
The famous guidebook writer and publisher, Karl Baedeker, never visited Ireland. But many of his contemporaries did. Using a selection of these old books, Vitaliev retraces their steps and reports on twenty-first century Ireland, in the age of the Celtic Tiger, contrasted with the island a century ago. Vitali Vitaliev is a vastly experienced travel… Continue reading Vitali’s Ireland
Border’s Up!
Eastern Europe Through the Bottom of a Glass One Could assume that with the collapse of Communism, Eastern Europeans would drink less than before. Surely democracy can offer many more means of escape than alcohol? After all there are high quality consumer goods, a free press, foreign travel … even the spice Girls? The reality… Continue reading Border’s Up!
Dreams on Hitler’s couch
Vitali Vitaliev was hounded out of the USSR by the KGB in the early 1990s and here he describes coming to terms with life outside the Soviet Union. It is a witty account of how he deals with Soho night-life, Tazmanian elections, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and buying a Western suit.
Little is the light
Nostalgic travels in the mini-states of Europe Four years after his escape from the Soviet Union in 1990, award-winning journalist and author Vitali Vitaliev went in search of surviving pockets of freedom, autonomy and self-government. He found eleven countries, each with a population of less than half a million, each one of them beautiful and… Continue reading Little is the light