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. ...

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).

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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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Combining insightful & descriptive writing about our countryside with easy-to-follow practical information & clear, detailed OS mapping, Countryfile: Great British Walks will inspire you to explore some of the most striking areas that our nation has to offer. Offering 100 walks spread across varying terrain, this practical guidebook features a range of outings, from gentle strolls through peaceful scenery to more challenging journeys that take you to the very heart of the Great British wilderness. Covering regions across the country, from the Peak District & Lake District in the Heart of England to the highlands of Scotland & the rolling hills of the South East, this compact walking guide offers the tried-and tested knowledge of the Countryfile team
- providing detailed descriptions of routes & levels of difficulty, as well as comprehensive Ordnance Survey mapping plus practical information to help you plan your trip. Let Countryfile: Great British Walks be your guide to our outstanding countryside.
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