The Siege of Somerstown Part III

The Siege of Somerstown: Being a Portion of the Records of a General of the Fifth Hants Involuntary Air Rifles Concerning an Infantry Sortie on Behalf of the Crown and Portsmouth City Council’s Department of Colonial Warfare

After leading an infantry charge against the recalcitrant subjects of the Empire’s outer reach – or Somerstown to use the native designation – General Sir Eugene Nicks finds himself detained by the infamous headman known only as Kev. To survive he must depend on his wits, his courage and his enormous regulation moustache. Read it here.

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Brand New Ivory Coast YouTube Channel

We have a new, currently small but ever growing YouTube channel of never-before-seen videos from our research trip to Ivory Coast last summer. Click here for chickens escaping the jaws of crocodiles, wild monkeys jumping from roof to roof and some high-energy dancing during the animist Generations Festival.

Bradt Guide Review in Travel Africa Magazine

My deepest thanks to Travel Africa Magazine for this generous review of The Bradt Guide to Ivory Coast:

‘With this guidebook, the author puts the largely unexplored Côte d’Ivoire back on the map, following a period of instability. As well as being a celebration of the country, the book also offers a lot of practical information and background that any potential traveller will find invaluable. Personal stories and anecdotes are intertwined throughout, which add some fascinating texture and observations.’

Island Cities, Coasts of Teeth Event

18th November 2016

6pm-7.30pm

Blackwell’s in Portsmouth, Cambridge Road, Portsmouth, PO1 2EF

A heady gala of both travel writing about Portsmouth and Portsmouth-based travel writers who have gone elsewhere in search of inspiration. As part of the event, Tom Sykes and Alexander Sebley will be doing a local launch of their new book Ivory Coast: The Bradt Guide. Expect tales of animist rituals, Rastafarian communes, disabled artisans’ cooperatives and risky expeditions with Ghanaian migrant fishermen.

Other performers include Sarah Cheverton (Star & Crescent, Huffington Post) and Gareth Rees (reading from his latest book Read Rees). More TBA.

Facebook group here.

Interview with bradtguides.com

Just two weeks to go before the Ivory Coast book comes out and here’s me chatting about it alongside pictures by Mr Alexander Sebley.

Quoted in Digital Books Article

Nice to see I’ve been quoted in this perceptive article by Piet van Niekerk about the future of travel guide publishing

New story on Duterte in Private Eye

My ‘Letter from Manila’ about Duterte, vigilante crime fighting and spectacularly un-PC jokes is in the next edition of Private Eye, if anyone’s remotely interested.

Eden’s Thrill Ride

My travelogue for of the delightful Pagsanjan Falls in the Philippines is right here, right now on the Selamta site:

http://www.selamtamagazine.com/stories/edens-thrill-ride

New Statesman story now online

My story for New Statesman about Ivorian Rastafarians’ struggle for survival in the face of bigotry, violence and persecution is now free to view here.

 

 

 

 

S&C: Onward and Upward

We are thrilled down to our toenails that Star & Crescent has been selected as one of ten hyperlocal news sites to be awarded funding from Nesta (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) to be part of their Destination Local research project on Audience Analytics.

As if this wasn’t exciting enough, from TOMORROW we’ll be publishing 3-4 times a week, so get in touch with us about the local burning issues you think we should cover and add us to favourite news sites.

Tom and Sarah