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. ...

After living in China for five years, & learning the language, Peter Hessler decided to undertake an even more complicated endeavor: he acquired his Chinese driving licence. An eye-opening challenge, it enabled him to embark on an epic journey driving across this most enigmatic of countries. Over seven years, he travelled to places rarely explored by tourists, into the factories exporting their goods to the world & into the homes of their workers. Full of extraordinary encounters & details of life beyond Beijing, it is an unforgettable, unique portrait of the country that will likely shape all our lives in the century to come. ...

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.

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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. ...

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. ...

Country Pubs & Inns of Devon is a guide to over 900 places in the county, offering real ales, food, and/or accommodation. Locator maps & directions are given & details of facilities are provided, with a summary box on selected places of interest & local attractions feature, accompanied by colour images. Businesses have been grouped geographically, & information on each pub or inn
Includes:: name, address, contact details, directions on how to get there, internal & external facilities, opening hours, real ales, food options, accommodation, entertainment, disable access & credit cards.
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Possibly read more than any other railway book, The Country Railway has sold over 170, 000 copies. This is a redesigned edition of the original text & photographs. Everyone loved the country railway with its neat stations & colourful gardens, the shining brasswork of its tank engines, viaducts daringly built over gushing rivers, embankments carpeted with flowers, & guards whose appearance & voice as well as the traffic they carried in their vans reflected exactly the character of the terrain being served. Basing his work on deep historical research & rich personal experience, David St John Thomas lovingly portrays the branch & cross-country railway in all its nostalgic, technical & commercial aspects. He tells of the days of high expectation when the local promoters first met & chose the architectural style for their stations, sees the navvies at work hacking through the countryside, reports the arrival of the first trains, recalls the troubled realisation when traffic receipts failed to provide enough for dividends. Stations, signalboxes, engines & their men, coaches & trucks, cattle docks & railway pubs, junctions & termini, varied landscapes, special occasions & disasters... In words & pictures here is a unique study for railway enthusiasts & for those who just miss the passing of the country railway. ...

Country Walking magazine has a section called Down Your Way, which is devoted to walks all over Britain. This is a compilation of over 100 of them, ranging from Cornwall to Yorkshire & from Cumbria to Kent. The walks vary from three to 15 miles, & are coded to give easy reference to the length of the walk, the kind of terrain, convenience of parking at start & finish, refreshment en route, number of stiles, suitability for dogs & OS map numbers. Each walk has numbered descriptions of the paths to take, & is illustrated with colour maps & photographs. ...

Country Walks near London in the Pathfinder Guides series, produced in association with Ordnance Survey & published by Crimson; comprising a range of walking guides to popular British destinations. Each Pathfinder guide

Includes:: 28 varied walks ranging from easy strolls to exhilarating hikes & is accompanied by 1:25, 000 Ordnance Survey mapping with marked, colour-coded routes. Introductory sections profile the county or region covered, with recommendations on the best time to visit & a brief explanation of GPS. An ‘at-a-glance’ table gives an overview of the walks covered in the guide, with information on the starting point, National Grid reference, distance, time, highest point & general brief comments. Each walk described in the guide has a dedicated information box profiling the walk, with useful information such as the starting point, distance, approximate time, parking, refreshments & the relevant Ordnance Survey map for navigation. Clear & easy to follow directions are provided & are accompanied by practical information about the route, including the location of toilets, refreshment areas & picnic sites, as well as colour photography illustrating some of the highlights of the walk. A Further Information section contains information on walking safety & responsible walking, as well as a list of useful contacts.

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