I’ve read three of Che Guevara’s other books, the theory on guerrilla warfare and the diaries of his campaigning in the revolutions of Cuba and Bolivia. The Motorcycle Diaries precede these other critical works and document Che’s travels across Latin America as a young man, accompanied by his close Argentinian…
I am an ayahuasquero and regard myself as a shaman. This book is a study on Ayahuasca, the Amazonian ‘Vine of the Soul’ and one of the most ancient medicines known to man. The authors enthusiastically explore the history and tradition of this potent hallucinogenic plant brew, looking at traditions…
View More Review: When Plants Dream – Ayahuasca, Amazonian Shamanism, And the Global Psychedelic Renaissance – by Daniel Pinchbeck and Sophia Rokhlin
Joey is a teacher of mine at MLANG in Cardiff University. This is his first book. It explores prison writing in Latin America and looks at abolitionism of the penal system and draws on some really rather delicate themes that expose the dark brutality of prisons in a developing continent…
View More Review: Prison Writing of Latin America by Joey Whitfield
This is my first venture into respected leftist author, Eric Hobsbawm’s work. The book was compiled after the author’s death in 2012 and is a collection of his writings on Latin America after he spent over forty years passionately exploring the continent. The essays have a deep focus on the…
View More Review: Viva La Revolución by Eric Hobsbawm
When you see the title ‘The Cartel’ you might immediately imagine a book about Colombian or Mexican drug lords. Yet, this book covers a 30 year history of a homegrown cartel, based in Liverpool. Back in the 1970s a pioneering Fred the Rat grouped together his criminal comrades and they…
View More Review: The Cartel – The Inside Story of Britain’s Biggest Drugs Gang – by Graham Johnson
Romantic Revolutionary: Simon Bolivar and the Struggle for Independence in Latin America by Robert Harvey My rating: 4 of 5 stars Simon Bolivar was one of history’s great characters. His revolutions across South America overthrew Spanish rule in six countries. His empire extended across the continent and was as large…
View More Review: Romantic Revolutionary: Simon Bolivar and the Struggle for Independence in Latin America – by Robert Harvey
Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl My rating: 5 of 5 stars I’ve been to Polynesia, and stood out on a deserted beach, staring out at the vastness of the Pacific, it is only natural to imagine how these people first arrived in such a remote location. Thor Heyerdahl, in living memory,…
View More Review: Kon-Tiki
Ibiza has for long been engrained on the roadmap for travelling clubbers across the globe. In Privelege it has the largest nightclub on the planet. All the top DJs fare their way on the White Isle every summer and the closing parties have become part of nightlife’s folklore. Goa, on…
View More Punta Del Este