From one of the UK`s most beloved & iconic brands, Cath Kidston, here are some travel themed playing cards. Ideal for long journeys. Cath Kidston is one of the UK`s leading designers. From one small shop in West London in 1992, the brand has grown from a simple idea
- to create beautiful, practical products- into a worldwide success story. Cath Kidston kickstarted the trend for modern vintage & her must-have prints adorn everything from wellington boots tobabygros to lunch boxes.
...

* An innovative stationery range from one of the UK`s most beloved & iconic brands, Cath Kidston* New products with a travel theme: playing cards for long journeys, a travel journal for jotting down thoughts & plans, with pockets for storing tickets & mementoes* With over 2 million stationery items & 1.5 million books sold to date, Cath Kidston is one of the UK`s leading designers. From one small shop in West London in 1992, the brand has grown from a simple idea
- to create beautiful, practical productsinto a worldwide success story, with over 160 stores.* Cath Kidston kickstarted the trend for modern vintage & her must-have prints adorn everything from wellington boots tobabygros to lunch boxes.
...

How a world was lost. In this compelling historical novel, set in the Languedoc at the end of the 13th century, Francois de Beaufort, a knight & a Cathar, loves three women
- Blanche, Sybille & Beatrice. He is Cathar by birth, & ultimately by conviction, despite the unrelenting efforts of the Inquisition to stamp out this heresy through war, torture & the stake. After surviving two sieges Francois is sentenced to a pilgrimage of penance to Compostela, & ends up in the Cathar village of Montaillou. & then the Inquisition strikes again.
...

Walks in the Cathar Region is Alan Mattingly’s Cicerone guides to the walking possibilities in this historic & beautiful corner of France. The guide covers walks throughout the Cathar region, from Carcassonne to the foothills of the eastern Pyrenees & the shores of the Mediterranean. The area is best known for the series of Cathar ‘heresies’ in the 13th century, from the massacre at Beziers & the last stand at Montsegur where over 200 Cathars were burned at the stake. The author’s selection of walks helps the readers explore more of this fascinating landscape. The guide is organised into 16 sections, each of which

Includes:: short & longer walks that visit a castle or monument associated with the Cathars & describes its specific place in the Cathar History. The sequence of walks covered in the book starts in Beziers & proceeds in an anti-clockwise direction to Villerouge-Termenes, a little way north of Perpignan. A detailed introduction provides practical advice on getting to the region & around, accommodation, the relevant maps, weather & equipment & waymarked walking routes. There is also a short introduction to Languedoc, the Cathar castles & the Pays Cathare. Detailed route descriptions are accompanied by colour sketch diagrams mapping the route ahead in addition to colour photographs illustrating some of the historic sites of interest throughout the Cathar region.

...

The Cathar Way is Alan Mattingly’s Cicerone guide to the popular trail that links some of the most famous Cathar castles of southern France, associated with the 13th century Cathar ‘heretics’. The 250km trail runs from the Mediterranean coast westward to the historic town of Foix, traversing the dramatic foothills of the Pyrenees & can completed in two weeks by anyone well equipped & moderately fit. The famous castles of Queribus, Peyrepertuse & Montsegur are also included. The guide is organized into 12 sections describing a different stage of the walk, allowing walkers to choose indivudal routes or to walk the entire length in one attempt. Each walk has a general overview of the route as well as an information box detailing distance, walking time, altitude, ascent & descent & the relevant IGN map. There is also a short note on navigation to help walkers find their way. A comprehensive introduction explores the history of the Cathars & their culture & series of castles as well as practical advice on getting there & around, accommodation, equipment & planning a trek using the Cathar Way. Detailed route descriptions are accompanied by colour sketch diagrams mapping the route ahead as well as colour photographs illustrating some of the historic points of interest along the route. ...

Raymond Carver said it was possible `to write about commonplace things & objects using commonplace but precise language & endow these things
- a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman`s earring
- with immense, even startling power`. Nowhere is this alchemy more striking than in the title story of Cathedral in which a blind man guides the hand of a sighted man as together they draw the cathedral the blind man can never see. Many view this story, & indeed this collection, as a watershed in the maturing of Carver`s work to a more confidently poetic style.

...

The English medieval cathedrals are one of the wonders of the world. But who made them, & why? This fascinating new history of England's cathedrals explores a previously unconsidered view of these extraordinary creations: as constantly-changing structures created by a rich brew of ancient rituals, beliefs, personalities & politics
- a living window on to the past. Incorporating the latest historical research, Jon Cannon presents a picture of the English cathedrals as above all products of their time, not just great architectural monuments. These were buildings brought alive by the messages encoded in their sculpture
- & the miraculous events that were believed to occur within them. Full of personalities, ideas, stories & novel interpretations, here are the cathedrals of England as you may never have considered them before. Handsomely illustrated with specially commissioned photographs & diagrams, including thematic chapters on key aspects & separate essays on every medieval cathedral in Engl&, this magnificent volume is indispensable to every lover of history & architecture.

...

The American Henry James' descriptions of the countryside, monuments, universities, cathedrals, castles, customs & manners of the English are filled with elegant charm & good humour. Here he delights in the hidden corners of ancient Chester streets, marvels at the drunken jollity of Epsom Derby day & savours the calm shadows of Glastonbury abbey, in a hymn to stained-glass windows, crumbling cottages, Norman towers, weather-beaten gables & the English genius. Generations of inhabitants have helped shape the English countryside
- but it has profoundly shaped us too. It has provoked a huge variety of responses from artists, writers, musicians & people who live & work on the land
- as well as those who are travelling through it. English Journeys celebrates this long tradition with a series of twenty books on all aspects of the countryside, from stargazey pie & country churches, to man's relationship with nature & songs celebrating the patterns of the countryside (as well as ghosts & love-struck soldiers).

...

Cathedrals are awe-inspiring buildings. Most are grand medieval structures, while others appear simple & unpretentious
- yet all
...

** Pointing persistently to heaven: A guide to UK cathedrals** Power, glory, bloodshed, prayer: cathedrals in the UK are as much about human drama as spiritual sanctuary, as much about political wrangling as religious fervour. From Christian beginnings in the Middle Ages through Reformation, Renaissance & Modernity, the great cathedrals of Britain have been both battleground & place of quiet reflection; created for the glory of God for sure, but also for the glory of men. There`s a litany of great deeds & a list of secrets tied up in our national cathedrals & all are revealed within our guides, the ideal companions to the stories behind the greatest cathedrals of all. Whether you are travelling to view the buildings themselves or being an armchair enthusiast, let us take you on a journey.** Book Three: Central & the East of England** Heavy hitters on the religious landscape, the famous cathedrals of East Anglia were a roll-call of riches, power, authority & influence in the Middle Ages & still attract hundreds of thousands of visitors today. In cathedral terms, they rank among some of the brightest & the best
- Norwich, Lincoln, Ely, Peterborough & St Edmundsbury
- along with their close neighbours Oxford
- the smallest cathedral in England
- & Lichfield
- the final resting place of the 7th century St Chad & his multitude of angels. Here are wonderful treasures to be explored. From a building that was once the tallest in the world, surpassing even the monumental Great Pyramid of Giza, to one that is the final resting place for the digestive system of a legendary queen.




...