This field guide to the trees of Southern Africa covers Approx. 900 of the species found in the region. The trees are grouped into sections according to leaf shape, & each section is identified by a line drawing of the ”leaf group”. Each species is illustrated by photographs of the diagnostic tree parts, which may include flowers, fruit, bark, or a combination of these. Concise descriptions of each tree are written with an emphasis on identification & the authors provide additional information on medicinal & other uses of the tree parts where it may be of interest to the reader. ...

Erwin Rommel was a complex man: a born leader, brilliant soldier, a devoted husband & proud father; intelligent, instinctive, brave, compassionate, vain, egotistical, & arrogant. In France in 1940, then for two years in North Africa, then finally back in France once again, at Normandy in 1944, he proved himself a master of armored warfare, running rings around a succession of Allied generals who never got his measure & could only resort to overwhelming numbers to bring about his defeat. & yet for all his military genius, Rommel was also naive, a man who could admire Adolf Hitler at the same time that he despised the Nazis, dazzled by a Fuhrer whose successes blinded him to the true nature of the Third Reich. Above all, he was the quintessential German patriot, who ultimately would refuse to abandon his moral compass, so that on one pivotal day in June 1944 he came to understand that he had mistakenly served an evil man & evil cause. He would still fight for Germany even as he abandoned his oath of allegiance to the Fuhrer, when he came to realize that Hitler had morphed into nothing more than an agent of death & destruction. In the end Erwin Rommel was forced to die by his own h&, not because, as some would claim, he had dabbled in a tyrannicidal conspiracy, but because he had committed a far greater crime
- he dared to tell Adolf Hitler the truth. In Field Marshal historian Daniel Allen Butler not only describes the swirling, innovative campaigns in which Rommel won his military reputation, but assesses the temper of the man who finally fought only for his country, & no dark depths beyond.
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The world has known about global warming since the late 1970s, yet little has been done to halt it. The threat, if we fail, is nothing less than catastrophe
- the flooding of coastal communities, the extinction of species & entry into a climate regime of which humans have no experience. Exploring the relationship between what we know & what we refuse to know, Elizabeth Kolbert takes us on an urgent journey from the Arctic to Central America, interviewing researchers, environmentalists & traditional Inuits whose lives have already been dramatically altered by climate change.
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Field Notes From a Hidden City is set against the background of the austere, grey & beautiful northeast Scottish city of Aberdeen. In it, Esther Woolfson examines the elements
- geographic, atmospheric & environmental
- which bring diverse life forms to live in close proximity in cities. Using the circumstances of her own life, house, garden & city, she writes of the animals who live among us: the birds
- gulls, starlings, pigeons, sparrows & others; the rats & squirrels; the spiders & the insects. In beautiful, absorbing prose, Woolfson describes the seasons, the streets & the quiet places of her city over the course of a year, which begins with the exceptional cold & snow of 2010. Influenced by her own long experience of corvids, she considers prevailing attitudes towards the natural world, urban & non-urban wildlife, the values we place on the lives of individual species & the ways in which man & creature live together in cities.


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Against the background of austere & beautiful Aberdeen, Woolfson observes the seasons, the streets & the quiet places of her city over the course of a year. She considers the geographic, atmospheric & environmental elements which bring diverse life forms together in close proximity, & in absorbing prose writes of the animals among us: the birds, the rats & squirrels, the spiders & the insects. Her close examination of the natural world leads her to question our prevailing attitudes to urban & non-urban wildlife, & to look again at the values we place on the lives of individual species. ...

”A profoundly satisfying read”. (Financial Times). In Field Notes from the Edge, the acclaimed writer of the Guardian`s ` Country Diary`, Paul Evans, takes us on a journey through the in-between spaces of Nature
- such as strandlines, mudflats, cliff tops & caves
- where one wilderness is on the verge of becoming another & all things are possible. Here, Evans searches out wildlife & plants to reveal a Nature that is inspiring yet intimidating; miraculous yet mundane; part sacred space, part wastel&. It is here that we tread the edge between a fear of Nature`s dangers & a love of Nature`s beauty. Combining a naturalist`s eye for observation with a poet`s ear for the lyrical, Field Notes from the Edge confirms Paul Evans`s place among our leading nature writers today.

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The new high-end Fieldmaster-ED85DS is perfect for the discerning birdwatcher & nature observer. This refined instrument features a doublet objective lens which provides a highly corrected image & excellent optical performance. One Exotic ED (Extra-low dispersion) lens element is employed in its construction, which virtually eliminates chromatic aberration & delivers high-fidelity true-colour images. Features high quality Ba K-4 Prisms. Optics are fully broadband multi-coated throughout for maximum light transmission & contrast. Features a precision 4:1 ratio dual-speed focuser for exceptional focusing accuracy. The stylish spotting scope body is constructed from robust but lightweight magnesium alloy, with a sliding dewshield/sun shade. Fully waterproof & nitrogen-filled for clear, fog-free viewing. The supplied 7.5-22.5mm zoom eyepiece, constructed from 8 lens elements, provides a generous 20-18mm of eye relief & is suitable for use with or without spectacles. Supplied with quality Stay-on case. Standard tripod bush. ...

The Fieldmaster-A90 offers large aperture & high magnification performance at an astonishing price. The spotting scope is rubber armoured to protect against knocks, waterproof & nitrogen-filled for fog-free viewing. Lightweight polycarbonate body. Features fully-coated optics & an extendable dew shield/sun shade. Eye relief from 18 to 15mm. Supplied with Stay-On Case & tabletop tripod, but can also be fitted to a full-size tripod via its tripod bush. ...

It is the most persistent myth of our time: religion is the cause of all violence. But history suggests otherwise. Karen Armstrong, former Roman Catholic nun & one of our foremost scholars of religion, speaks out to disprove the link between religion & bloodshed. Religion is as old as humanity: Fields of Blood goes back to the Stone Age hunter
- gatherers & traces religion through the centuries, from medieval crusaders to modern-day jihadists; The West today has a warped concept of religion: we regard faith as a personal & private matter, but for most of history faith has informed people`s entire outlook on life, & often been inseparable from politics; humans undoubtedly have a natural propensity for aggression: the founders of the largest religions
- Jesus, Buddha, the rabbis of early Judaism, the prophet Muhammad
- aimed to curb violence & build a more peaceful & just society, but with our growing greed for money & wealth came collective violence & warfare; with the arrival of the modern all-powerful, secular state humanity`s destructive potential has begun to spiral out of control. Is humanity on the brink of destroying itself? Fields of Blood is a celebration of the ancient religious ideas & movements that have promoted peace & reconciliation across millennia of civilization.


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Fields of Ice tells the dramatic story of Franklin's third & final expedition to the North-West Passage through the eyes of the ship's cook, Canot. The Erebus & the Terror set sail from Greenhithe on 19 May 1845. On board were Sir John Franklin, a crew of a hundred & twenty-nine men, & three years' provisions. Franklin's plan was to find the North-West Passage, a northern sea route to Asia that had eluded European explorers for hundreds of years. He was never heard from again. When Franklin failed to report back, his wife started a major campaign to try to find her missing husb&. Alongside Sir John Franklin's journey, Fields of Ice tells the story of Jane, Lady Franklin, a strong, redoubtable woman, who spent years trying to raise money & support to send out expeditions to find her husband & his men. ...