In Country, Jasper Conran uses his own experiences & the landscapes & homes that are familiar to him to portray a seductive way of life. The allure of the countryside has a universal aspiration. How do we achieve the dream? It is not about spending money, or prescribing to a certain style, it is about appreciation, self-expression & getting back to the root of what makes us tick. Moving from one season to the next, from interior to exterior, from detail to landscape, this is life as it is actually lived in the countryside today. It is one man`s vision that informs by captivating the senses & the imagination. Country is realistic, full of ideas & completely engrossing
- a book to spend time with. Beautifully conceived, beautifully photographed & beautifully written, Country is a new kind of lifestyle book
- it means that you can live the dream.

...

In Country
- A continent, a kangaroo, & a scientist, Tim Flannery writes a love letter to his homel&, drawing on three decades
...

This text explores the world of country breweries & the variety of ales they produce, placing emphasis on quality ales brewed by master craftsmen. It stresses the rural roots of brewing, & highlights the survival of long-established breweries as well as the arrival of small microbreweries. The photographs illustrate the varied architecture & idyllic locations of the breweries. ...

This is a celebration of England's most glorious churches, from Norman masterpieces & Medieval treasures to Baroque splendour & Victorian high gothic. Simon Jenkins has travelled England from Cornwall to Cumbria to select its finest churches of all periods & styles, unearthing rich mosaics, precious stained glass, grand marbles & humble carvings of green men, dogs, rabbits & birds. In doing so he reveals not only an unparalleled collection of national art & architecture, but the history & spirit of a people. 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).

...

Published in association with the National Trust, this book looks at the country cottage in Britain, in areas that range from Cornwall to Northumbria & from East Anglia to Wales. Some of the cottages are reflections of place, showing how, for centuries, people used the materials around them to create buildings. These are the cottages that were built by h&, with the traditional vernacular skills that led to the cob & thatch of the West country, the half-timbering of the Weald of Kent & Sussex & of the Welsh Borders, & the gabled golden stone of the Cotswolds. Others were purpose-built & architect-designed, forming trim terraces in 100 estate villages, or set beside a waterway or on a remote coast for lock-keepers, coastguards & lighthouse attendants. ...

In the summer of 2001, Peter Hessler, the long-time Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, acquired his Chinese driver's license. For the next seven years he travelled the country, tracking how the automobile & the enhanced transport system were transforming China. Hessler writes movingly of everyday people
- farmers, migrant workers & entrepreneurs
- who have reshaped the country during one of the most critical periods in its history.

...

For centuries the English lived on the land & even today, as cities encroach further & further on the remaining green fields & the number of working country villages dwindles, there is still a particularly powerful feeling for the countryside. This anthology, edited & introduced by novelist Joanna Trollope, spans the centuries & aims to evoke both the dream & the reality, from Anglo-Saxon laments to Tudor husbandry, & from Regency fetes-champetres to pre-war tennis parties. The extracts are drawn from private journals & letters as well as the work of writers such as Jane Austen, Laurie Lee, Thomas Hardy, Virginia Woolf, Christopher Marlowe & William Wordsworth. ...

Throughout the centuries, the English country house has reflected a variety of tastes, lifestyles & interests. From the baroque of Blenheim Palace to the eccentricity of Wollaton Hall, the country house has changed with the years. This collection of bird's-eye-view photography offers the opportunity to view 40 such houses in the context of their surrounding gardens & countryside, twinned with historic portraits of how they have appeared in the past. The stories behind the houses are told with anecdotes, whilst research points out the connections between the lives of the owners & the alterations to house & garden made as a result of the shifting sands of fortune & fate. Gazetter pages provide would-be visitors with practical information on the houses. ...

From stone-throwing Cornish giants to a haunted Northumberland mine, from the ghostly Mistletoe Bride of Oxfordshire to the 'bloody hand' in a Kent church, here are the myths, legends & supernatural stories that have been passed down through the generations all over Engl&. Containing tales of fairies, hobgoblins, spectral huntsmen, black dogs, bogey beasts, screaming skulls & clanging bells, as well as real & mythical figures such as King Arthur, Robin Hood, St George, Boadicea & Dick Turpin, this is a magical journey through England's legendary past. 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).

...

In this book, originally published in 1937, the acclaimed writer & engraver Clare Leighton takes us on a tour of her favourite country subjects, from picking primroses & the local pub, to tramps & the flower show. With her senses perfectly attuned to her part of southern England in the Chiltern hills, Leighton gently explores rural culture & landscapes with affectionate pen-portraits & her wonderful, bold engravings of people at work in the country. ...