Tower and Town, September 2023 (view the full edition)Tom Parfitt - High CaucasusHigh Caucasus is a beautifully written and absorbing account of Tom Parfitt's walk from Sochi on the Black Sea to Derbent on the Caspian Sea, a journey he undertook to try to process his experiences reporting on the Beslan school massacre in southern Russia in 2004. It's a journey not just through the landscape of the region, but also through its turbulent and traumatic history, told in recollections of his work as a journalist in the region and through the stories of the people he encounters along the way and their forebears. It's a fascinating book, humanely told in exceptionally good prose, and paints a vivid picture of the resilience of the human spirit in the face of extreme adversity. This is a tale of landscape, history, loss, courage and survival that I highly recommend. Be transported to the Caucasus with Tom Parfitt in the White Horse Bookshop at 4pm on Sunday 1 October.  Louise Spencely |