In September 2014 the wreck of a sailing vessel was discovered at the bottom of the sea in the frozen wastes of the Canadian Arctic. It was broken at the stern & covered in a woolly coat of underwater vegetation. Its whereabouts had been a mystery for over a century & a half. Its name was HMS Erebus. Now Michael Palin – former Monty Python stalwart & television globetrotter – brings this extraordinary ship back to life, following it from its launch in 1826 to the epic voyages of discovery that led to glory in the Antarctic & to ultimate catastrophe in the Arctic. He explores the intertwined careers of the men who shared its journeys: the dashing James Clark Ross & the troubled John Franklin. & he vividly recounts the experiences of the men who first stepped ashore on Antarctica’s Victoria L&, & those who, just a few years later, froze to death one by one in the Arctic wastes as rescue missions desperately tried to reach them. To help tell the story, he has travelled to various locations across the world – Tasmania, the Falklands, the Canadian Arctic – to search for local information, & to experience at first hand the terrain & the conditions that would have confronted the Erebus & her crew. Michael Palin has written & starred in numerous TV programmes & films, from Monty Python & Ripping Yarns to The Missionary & American Friends. He has also made several much-acclaimed travel documentaries, his journeys taking him to the North & South Poles, the Sahara Desert, the Himalayas, Eastern Europe & Brazil. His books include accounts of his journeys, novels (Hemingway’s Chair & The Truth) & several volumes of diaries. From 2009 to 2012 he was president of the Royal Geographical Society, & in 2013 he was made a BAFTA fellow. In 2018 he was awarded the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing. He lives in London. ...

ADAC, Germany's equivalent of the British Automobile Association publishes an extensive series of street plans which provide detailed high-quality mapping of all the major towns & cities, including their outer suburbs. The plans name all the individual streets & indicate all the main landmarks & public buildings. All public transport facilities are shown: buses, trams, underground & overland rail lines. One way streets & car parks are indicated. Plans of larger cities include an enlargement for the city centre. The plans also show the administrative & postal divisions & have an extensive street index which, where appropriate, shows individual postal codes for each street. On the reverse, each plan has a road map at 1:100, 000, covering a very wide area around the city. Map legend

Includes:: English.

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Erfurt on a topographic map at 1:200, 000 from the Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, Germany’s federal mapping agency. The map covers an area of Approx. 100 x 90km. This map is belongs to a series of 58 topographic maps from Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, the federal cartographic agency of Germany responsible for topographic mapping at 1:200, 000 & maps at smaller scales (the more detailed topographic & leisure maps are prepared & published by the survey organizations of the individual states). Cartography is from the 200K topographic survey & the maps have very elegant, modern look whilst retaining the traditional German presentation of names of smaller towns & villages in italics. Contours are at 12, 5m intervals, enhanced by relief shading, with colouring for woodlands, moors, marches, vineyards & hop plantations. Waterways & rivers are also described in detail, with currents, waterfalls, dams, & jetties clearly marked. Road network, graded into five types, highlights in colour national & regional roads; no driving distances are marked Railway network is also shown in detail, with stations, goods only lines, etc. The maps show administrative boundaries of states & counties, & have a UTM grid plus margin ticks for latitude & longitude at 2’ intervals. Map legend is in German only. PLEASE NOTE: maps in this series provide an excellent presentation of the areas covered by them, with plenty of place names & detailed representation of the road network, & will appeal to anyone who likes quality cartography, but they are not necessarily the best option for holiday & business travel. To see other titles in this series please click on the series link. ...

Falk, one of Germany`s leading publishers of street plans, produce their town plans in two different formats. Falk Extra plans are folded in a standard way, where the whole map can be opened to view the entire area it covers. For larger cities, the same mapping is also published with a special folding system designed to show only a small section of the map at one time. The whole map can be opened but it will be cut in several places. Many find these street plans very user-friendly & easier to handle than conventional maps. The plans, which cover towns with their outer suburbs, indicate main landmarks & public buildings & show all the public transport facilities, one way streets & car parks. Plans of lager cities include a separate map of the town centre at a more detailed scale & a diagram of the underground & the suburban rail network. The plans also show the postal divisions & have an extensive street index which, where appropriate, shows individual postal codes for each street. Map legend

Includes:: English. Falk Extra plans also include on the reverse a road map of the surrounding area.

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One of the titles in a series of topographic maps covering much of north-west Africa, produced as part of the IMW* project in 1960’s. Each map covers an area spanning 6° in longitude & 4° in latitude. There is some variation in colouring & the depiction of terrain, but hill-shading, spot heights & contours are used to show the general relief. Additional graphics show features such as dunes, rock outcrops, cliffs, sand areas, escarpments, marshes, seasonal lakes & watercourses, & areas liable to flooding. Bathymetric contours are also included. Communications detail

Includes:: roads, major trails & railways, although there is some inconsistency in colouring & the extent of classification, e.g. not all maps distinguish seasonal roads. On most maps intermediate road distances are indicated on main routes. Symbols show airports, mosques, mines, oil & gas fields, lighthouses, ruins & significant isolated buildings. Administrative boundaries are marked & latitude & longitude lines are drawn at 1° intervals, with further margin ticks at 1’ intervals. The map legend is in French only on some sheets, & in English & French on others.* The International Map of the World was a project conceived in the early 20th century to compile a world map series at 1:1, 000, 000 through the efforts of participating nations. The value of the program has declined since 1970 & the IMW is no longer regarded as an active international series.

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This is a delightful collection of 100 postcards, featuring the beautiful & iconic artwork of Eric Carle, creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Showcasing brand new artwork, alongside classic images, this exquisite box is a celebration of Carle`s extraordinary children`s book illustration talent. Send the gorgeous postcards to family & friends, or cherish the collection yourself. ...

Originally produced in 1933 by the Kynoch Press, this perpetual week-to-week diary features beautiful wood block engravings by Eric Ravilious on every spread. The delightful illustrations follow the changing seasons, from roaring fires & snowy vignettes for the winter months to strawberries in the summer, bringing to life the simplicity of the English countryside. Beautifully designed, this is the perfect gift for gardeners & nature lovers as well as fans of Ravilious` work. ...

When Erica Perkins wakes up on the morning of her tenth birthday, the last thing she expects is to find a very confused elephant sitting on her doorstep. So begins an unlikely friendship. But can a small girl & a rather large elephant learn to live together in a tiny terraced house? & when the dastardly owner of the local zoo plots to steal the elephant, will Erica be able to outsmart him? ...

When Erica Perkins wakes up on the morning of her tenth birthday, the last thing she expects is to find a very confused elephant sitting on her doorstep. So begins an unlikely friendship. But can a small girl & a rather large elephant learn to live together in a tiny terraced house? & when the dastardly owner of the local zoo plots to steal the elephant, will Erica be able to outsmart him? ...

Everybody knows that wolves live in packs. But one little wolf cub dreams of setting off on his own adventure... all by himself! Will life as a lone wolf be everything he hoped, or will he miss the rough & tumble of the pack? This fun adventure story featuring a cute wolf cub teaches young readers about the value of friendship, showing how good friends can still be with you, even when they`re not! ...