Books published by Signal Books Ltd

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, anarchy in Italy led to the capital of the Christian world being moved from Romefor the first and only time in history. It was a critical moment, and it resulted in seven successive popes remaining in exile for the next seventy years. The city chosen to replace Rome was Avignon.

The world's media has chronicled Haiti's long history of political instability and social unrest. But perhaps more importantly, Haitians themselves reacted to the cycle of hope and despair in the form of hundreds of spontaneous street murals. Mostly in the capial, Port-au-Prince, these colorful and expressive paintings both recorded key events and articulated the hopes and fears of their creators. Tragically, many of these paintings were among the casualties of the earthquake that struck the island in early 2010.

A visual record of a stay in Signy Island, Antarctica, containing sketches, photographs and a written journal. "Due South" is published to coincide with exhibitions at the Natural History Museum and Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum.

From its obscure origins as a fishing village along a marshy estuary, Tokyo grew into one of the world s largest and most culturally vibrant metropolises. For all its modernity and craving for the new, it is a city impregnated with the past. In the backstreets of districts that have inspired the setting for science fiction novels are wooden temples, fox shrines, mouldering steles and statues of Bodhisattvas that evoke a different age. The point where time past, present and future coexist, Tokyo s thirst for the contemporary is moderated by nostalgia for the past. As an urban laboratory where the cultures of the East and West are remixed into perceptibly Japanese forms, Tokyo embraces sudden transitions, constant flux and transformation. The courtesans of its pleasure quarters inspired Edo-period woodblock artists, novelists and poets. In a later age, its experimental artists, feminist writers and Modern Girls of 1920s Ginza both shocked and electrified the capital. Stephen Mansfield explores a city rich in diversity, tracing its evolution from the founding of its massive stone citadel through rise of a merchant class whose wealth transformed Edo into a home for artists, writers and performers. In contemporary Tokyo he explores the unique crossbred cultures of taste that make the giant conurbation one of the most exciting and creative cities in the world. * City of Literature, Theatre and Art: The print masters Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro; the Kabuki theatre; authors Nagai Kafu, Tanizaki Junichiro, Mishima Yukio, Murukami Haruki; foreign writers Angela Carter, William Gibson and Donald Richie. * City of Architecture: From the fortifications of Edo Castle, great temples and shrines, via the western hybrids of the Meiji era to the post-modernist skyscrapers, giant neon screens and digitalized surfaces of today s city. * City of Calamities: The great fires of the Edo period; floods, famines and typhoons; the 1923 Earthquake, coups and rising militarism in the 1930s; the fire bombings of the Second World War; the 1995 subway gas attack by members of a death cult and the fatalism of residents living on one of the earth s largest fault lines.

This book tells the story of how a group of distinctly average cricketers became unlikely sporting ambassadors and, quite by accident, helped re-introduce an island to its forgotten past.

From border garrison of the Roman Empire to magnificent Baroque seat of the Habsburgs, Vienna's fortunes have swung between survival and expansion. This book looks at everything from the Baroque architecture to the contemporary slow food scene.

The Andes form the backbone of South America. The mountain range was home to an extraordinary theocratic empire and civilisation, the Incas, who built stone temples, roads, palaces and forts.

Sir Learie Constantine was an extraordinary figure by any yardstick. One of the greatest and most popular of all West Indian cricketers, he left the game to become, among other things, a barrister, cabinet minister, diplomat, broadcaster, author and journalist.

Presents a cultural history of Catalonia, exploring the distinctive nature of Catalan identity through the perspectives of political struggle, a vibrant literary tradition and world-famous innovations in architecture and the visual arts.

Argentine by birth, Ernesto Che Guevara came to embody the spirit of the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro. Guevara spent two years fighting in the sierras of Cuba, and after the revolutionaries victory became one of the most important members of the government as well as one of Castros closest and most controversial associates.

Forever linked in the public mind with the Pol Pot tyranny, Phnom Penh only became Cambodia's permanent capital in 1866. This book presents the cultural and literary history of Cambodia's capital, exploring its colonial past, the long reign of King Sihanouk and the horror of the Pol Pot regime.

For more than fifty years prior to the Second World War, Budapest was one of the outstanding cultural capitals of Central Europe, on a par with, and in some ways in advance of Vienna and Prague. This book presents its rich and often turbulent history, its unique thermal baths, its excellent public transport system, its street cafes, and more.

This title is a new, revised edition of Jonathan Boardman's cultural and literary history of Rome.

The fabled city on the banks of the River Nile, once home to pharaohs and emperors, now forms a focal point of the Islamic faith and of the Arab world.

A cultural and literary history of New Orleans, covering the city's Creole traditions and reputation for gastronomy and festivities.

Presents a cultural history of the Alps, tracing the mountain range's development from a remote, impoverished wilderness to today's tourist playground. This book examines the myths and legends attached to the Alps, as well as their enduring appeal to ideologists, artists and writers.

An edited anthology of Charles Dickens' varied writings on France, exploring the writer's fascination with French culture and history. This book brings together short stories and extracts, from novels and travel writing. Among its journalistic highlights, are accounts of a train journey from London to Paris; a rough Channel crossing; and others.

An account of what Justin Wintle found in post-war Vietnam, and how for three months he played cat and mouse, with those charged with keeping him in line, while developing a profound love for more ordinary Vietnamese and the astonishing landscapes they inhabit. This book describes a heaven and hell country, full of the pain of war.

Following in the footsteps of historic figures and writers who have lived in Oxford, David Horan reveals the many dimensions, social and cultural, of a city where tradition and modernity interconnect. He explores both the historic and contemporary faces of Oxford.