Home > History & Humanities > History > General & world history > Jewels: A Secret History
28%
Jewels: A Secret History

Jewels: A Secret History

4.7       |  7 Reviews 
5
4
3
2
1

Available


Premium quality
Premium quality
Bookswagon upholds the quality by delivering untarnished books. Quality, services and satisfaction are everything for us!
Easy Return
Easy return
Not satisfied with this product! Keep it in original condition and packaging to avail easy return policy.
Certified product
Certified product
First impression is the last impression! Address the book’s certification page, ISBN, publisher’s name, copyright page and print quality.
Secure Checkout
Secure checkout
Security at its finest! Login, browse, purchase and pay, every step is safe and secured.
Money back guarantee
Money-back guarantee:
It’s all about customers! For any kind of bad experience with the product, get your actual amount back after returning the product.
On time delivery
On-time delivery
At your doorstep on time! Get this book delivered without any delay.
Add to Wishlist

About the Book

Throughout history, precious stones have inspired passions and poetry, quests and curses, sacred writings and unsacred actions. In this scintillating book, journalist Victoria Finlay embarks on her own globe-circling search for the real stories behind some of the gems we prize most. Blending adventure travel, geology, exciting new research, and her own irresistible charm, Finlay has fashioned a treasure hunt for some of the most valuable, glamorous, and mysterious substances on earth.

With the same intense curiosity and narrative flair she displayed in her widely-praised book Color, Finlay journeys from the underground opal churches of outback Australia to the once pearl-rich rivers of Scotland; from the peridot mines on an Apache reservation in Arizona to the remote ruby mines in the mountains of northern Burma. She risks confronting scorpions to crawl through Cleopatra's long-deserted emerald mines, tries her hand at gem cutting in the dusty Sri Lankan city where Marco Polo bartered for sapphires, and investigates a rumor that fifty years ago most of the world's amber was mined by prisoners in a Soviet gulag.

Jewels is a unique and often exhilarating voyage through history, across cultures, deep into the earth's mantle, and up to the glittering heights of fame, power, and wealth. From the fabled curse of the Hope Diamond, to the disturbing truths about how pearls are cultured, to the peasants who were once executed for carrying amber to the centuries-old quest by magicians and scientists to make a perfect diamond, Jewels tells dazzling stories with a wonderment and brilliance truly worthy of its subjects.
About the Author: Victoria Finlay studied social anthropology at the University of St. Andrews and the College of William & Mary, Virginia, before working for Reuters in London and Scandinavia. She spent twelve years as a journalist in Hong Kong, five of them as arts editor of The South China Morning Post, where she also presented a weekly radio program. She now lives in Somerset in southwest England, and divides her time between researching her next book and working for an international environmental charity, www.arcworld.org. Jewels is her third book.


Best Sellers


Product Details
  • ISBN-13: 9780345466952
  • Publisher: Random House Trade
  • Publisher Imprint: Random House Trade
  • Depth: 25
  • Height: 209 mm
  • No of Pages: 496
  • Series Title: English
  • Sub Title: A Secret History
  • Width: 141 mm
  • ISBN-10: 0345466950
  • Publisher Date: 14 Aug 2007
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Edition: Reprint
  • Language: English
  • Returnable: Y
  • Spine Width: 27 mm
  • Weight: 439 gr


Similar Products

How would you rate your experience shopping for books on Bookswagon?

Add Photo
Add Photo

Customer Reviews

4.7       |  7 Reviews 
out of (%) reviewers recommend this product
Top Reviews
Rating Snapshot
Select a row below to filter reviews.
5
4
3
2
1
Average Customer Ratings
4.7       |  7 Reviews 
00 of 0 Reviews
Sort by :
Active Filters

00 of 0 Reviews
SEARCH RESULTS
1–2 of 2 Reviews
    BoxerLover2 - 5 Days ago
    A Thrilling But Totally Believable Murder Mystery

    Read this in one evening. I had planned to do other things with my day, but it was impossible to put down. Every time I tried, I was drawn back to it in less than 5 minutes. I sobbed my eyes out the entire last 100 pages. Highly recommend!

    BoxerLover2 - 5 Days ago
    A Thrilling But Totally Believable Murder Mystery

    Read this in one evening. I had planned to do other things with my day, but it was impossible to put down. Every time I tried, I was drawn back to it in less than 5 minutes. I sobbed my eyes out the entire last 100 pages. Highly recommend!


Sample text
Photo of
    Media Viewer

    Sample text
    Reviews
    Reader Type:
    BoxerLover2
    00 of 0 review

    Your review was submitted!
    Jewels: A Secret History
    Random House Trade -
    Jewels: A Secret History
    Writing guidlines
    We want to publish your review, so please:
    • keep your review on the product. Review's that defame author's character will be rejected.
    • Keep your review focused on the product.
    • Avoid writing about customer service. contact us instead if you have issue requiring immediate attention.
    • Refrain from mentioning competitors or the specific price you paid for the product.
    • Do not include any personally identifiable information, such as full names.

    Jewels: A Secret History

    Required fields are marked with *

    Review Title*
    Review
      Add Photo Add up to 6 photos
      Would you recommend this product to a friend?
      Tag this Book
      Read more
      Does your review contain spoilers?
      What type of reader best describes you?
      I agree to the terms & conditions
      You may receive emails regarding this submission. Any emails will include the ability to opt-out of future communications.

      CUSTOMER RATINGS AND REVIEWS AND QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TERMS OF USE

      These Terms of Use govern your conduct associated with the Customer Ratings and Reviews and/or Questions and Answers service offered by Bookswagon (the "CRR Service").


      By submitting any content to Bookswagon, you guarantee that:
      • You are the sole author and owner of the intellectual property rights in the content;
      • All "moral rights" that you may have in such content have been voluntarily waived by you;
      • All content that you post is accurate;
      • You are at least 13 years old;
      • Use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity.
      You further agree that you may not submit any content:
      • That is known by you to be false, inaccurate or misleading;
      • That infringes any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy;
      • That violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising);
      • That is, or may reasonably be considered to be, defamatory, libelous, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing to any individual, partnership or corporation;
      • For which you were compensated or granted any consideration by any unapproved third party;
      • That includes any information that references other websites, addresses, email addresses, contact information or phone numbers;
      • That contains any computer viruses, worms or other potentially damaging computer programs or files.
      You agree to indemnify and hold Bookswagon (and its officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures, employees and third-party service providers, including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc.), harmless from all claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of a breach of your representations and warranties set forth above, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.


      For any content that you submit, you grant Bookswagon a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable right and license to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell, transfer, and/or distribute such content and/or incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology throughout the world without compensation to you. Additionally,  Bookswagon may transfer or share any personal information that you submit with its third-party service providers, including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc. in accordance with  Privacy Policy


      All content that you submit may be used at Bookswagon's sole discretion. Bookswagon reserves the right to change, condense, withhold publication, remove or delete any content on Bookswagon's website that Bookswagon deems, in its sole discretion, to violate the content guidelines or any other provision of these Terms of Use.  Bookswagon does not guarantee that you will have any recourse through Bookswagon to edit or delete any content you have submitted. Ratings and written comments are generally posted within two to four business days. However, Bookswagon reserves the right to remove or to refuse to post any submission to the extent authorized by law. You acknowledge that you, not Bookswagon, are responsible for the contents of your submission. None of the content that you submit shall be subject to any obligation of confidence on the part of Bookswagon, its agents, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners or third party service providers (including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc.)and their respective directors, officers and employees.

      Accept

      New Arrivals

      Inspired by your browsing history


      Your review has been submitted!

      You've already reviewed this product!