Contains 47 detailed maps, including a full-colour state map; the pick of accommodation options, from Margaret River chalets to Outback camp sites; hot spots for surfing, diving, climbing, hiking and cycling; a new wine and wineries guide; and a detailed coloured wildflower section.
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From the World Cup-winning days of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters to highly acclaimed modern-day heroes such as Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe, West Ham United supporters have always had the greatest affection for homegrown Hammers. Since the 1960s, talents such as Trevor Brooking, Tony Cottee, Paul Ince and Rio Ferdinand (who has twice hit the headlines as the world's most expensive defender following his move to Leeds and Manchester United) have been nurtured and brought through the club's ranks, ensuring the Hammers can rightly lay claim to having one of the country's most fruitful youth policies.
In this revised and fully updated paperback edition, Claret and Blue Blood brings together all these characters and others for the very first time, including new chapters on Anton Ferdinand, Stephen Bywater and Kevin Horlock. Using exclusive new interviews, the authors present biographical pieces that collectively tell the story of West Ham United's evolution over the last half-century. Focusing on each player's roots, development and personal achievements, Claret and Blue Blood is a unique book that features key characters, candid conversations, successes, failures and controversies as it explores the very essence of West Ham United.
"...sparkling quotes and candid conversations" Shoot Monthly "A must for any Hammers fans with even a passing interest in the history and evolution of West Ham United" Hammers News Magazine
Kirk Blows is a successful journalist and the author of three highly acclaimed books on West Ham United. Ben Sharratt is a freelance writer and the former assistant editor of Hammers News, West Ham's official monthly magazine.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
By Kristian Valdini
If ever I required someone to give serious granulation on the history of West Ham...Ben Sharrat seems to be the man.
Ben ensures maximum buy-in from the reader with some superb strategisation simply squaring the circle that is West Ham.
I eagerly await Ben's next book, having heard through the grapevine that it will focus on the key metrics and standardisation of herding cats. Lets hope he runs this idea up the flagpole to see who salutes it before coming to a landing on it, as there is sure to be much knitting of fog before he sees blue skies.
Great Stuff Ben.
Experience the best of West Africa with Lonely Planet. With our 7th edition you'll discover the varied landscape of this fascinating region - take a slow boat to Timbuktu, camp under the Sahara's starry skies, hike through ancient Dogon Country, discover Cote d'Ivoire's cosmopolitan Abidjan and kick-back on Ghana's palm-fringed beaches.
Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.
In This Guide:
Essential safety information provided throughout
Unrivalled activities and courses information for the whole region
Green Index to make your travels ecofriendly
…Lonely Planet, the intrepid traveler's bible...' --Los Angeles Times, April 2005
Who We Are
At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travellers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.
What We Do
* We offer travellers the world's richest travel advice, informed by the collective wisdom of over 350 Lonely Planet authors living in 37 countries and fluent in 70 languages.
* We are relentless in finding the special, the unique and the different for travellers wherever they are.
* When we update our guidebooks, we check every listing, in person, every time.
* We always offer the trusted filter for those who are curious, open minded and independent.
* We challenge our growing community of travellers; leading debate and discussion about travel and the world.
* We tell it like it is without fear or favor in service of the travellers; not clouded by any other motive.
What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.
LONELY PLANET aims to cater for every independent traveller, whatever the destination, whatever the style of travel and whatever the phase of the journey.
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43 of 44 people found the following review helpful.
By Jason Chance
This book is practically the bible for W. Africa travel. I lived and worked in W. Africa for 3 years (2 years as a Peace Corps volunteer) and I never went anywhere without consulting LP. The information is as accurate as anything out there. It offers you suggested itineraries and "off the beaten path" suggestions as well as the traditionally touristy destinations. Many parts are less objective than other parts and the writers tend to harp on corruption. But W. Africa is a pretty corrupt place in general. If you don't like the editorial sections, skip 'em, the info you need is still there.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
By James S. Dodds
This is an adequate guide, but was disappointing in a few areas. Firstly, it is not geared to someone making a comprehensive West Africa trip but rather reads like a collection of individual country guides. It's OK if you are going to just fly in a hang out in a single country, but information about planning cross border itineraries is very thin. There could be better integration for the area.
Secondly, using the maps and references to them is a bit taxing. Place names that would likely be obsure to the reader are presented in the text without specifying country or area; the only way to figure out where or how is to scan maps randomly for some idea of specifically where they are talking about. Place names are often referred to with different spellings, or more colloquially, in the text than on the maps, making finding them once again a tiring guessing game. There is a lack of consistency. Beyond that, the maps are small and lacking in detail. In other words, you can sort it all out, but this guide makes you work harder than you should have to. You get the feeling that it was written by people who assume you already know the area well, and that it needed to be proofed once more.
I agree with the accusations of ethnocentrism mentioned previously, but I've grown used to it in LP guides, and in a way appreciate seeing the author's predjudices up front.
Use this guide and you'll have a fine trip, I think, but you'll spend too many hours wrestling logistic details from the text when you could be perusing the fun stuff.
I use LP, Rough Guide, and Moon guides alternately when I travel. Actually, I usually buy all three, study them all before departure, and take the one I think is most useful. I have not found any one brand to be consistently better or worse, it varies by area and author. In this case I think the Rough Guide is much better. It very neatly addresses all my reservations above, and with a better layout.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
By A Customer
I spent several weeks travelling through Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire and Senegal in late 1999. it was the first time i had ever travelled alone and this book served as my primary companion. although i didn't always agree with the ratings of particular establishments (especially in Cote D'Ivoire), I found it to be very well researched and handy to have both for its quick maps and background information on the countries. I also purchased the Rough Guide to West Africa, b/c I am a big fan of their series, but the Lonely Planet guide was by far the best for this region. Keep in mind that the political situations in these countries change so abruptly that you still need to be prepared for anything. For example, there was a coup d'etat in Cote D'Ivoire while i was there. I still had a tremendous time on my trip, and i know that lonely planet deserves some of the credit.
