Having written enthralling biographies of London & of its great river, the Thames, Peter Ackroyd now turns to England itself. This first volume of six takes us from the time that England was first settled, more than 15, 000 years ago, to the death in 1509 of the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII. In it, Ackroyd takes us from Neolithic Engl&, which we can only see in the most tantalising glimpses
- a stirrup found in a grave, some seeds at the bottom of a bowl
- to the long period of Roman rule; from the Dark Ages when England was invaded by a ceaseless tide of Angles, Saxons & Jutes, to the twin glories of medieval England
- its great churches & monasteries & its common law. With his extraordinary skill for evoking time & place, he tells the familiar story of king succeeding king in rich prose, with profound insight & some surprising details. The food we ate, the clothes we wore, the punishments we endured, even the jokes we told are all found here, too.


...

Ellis recounts the sometimes collaborative, sometimes archly antagonistic interactions between these men, & shows us the private characters behind the public personas: Adams, the ever-combative iconoclast, whose closest political collaborator was his wife, Abigail; Burr, crafty, smooth, & one of the most despised public figures of his time for killing in a duel Alexander Hamilton, whose audacious manner & deep economic savvy masked his humble origins; jefferson, renowned for his eloquence, but so reclusive & taciturn that he rarely spoke more than a few sentences in public; Madison, small, sickly, & paralyzingly shy, yet one of the most effective debaters of his generation; & the stiffly formal Washington, the ultimate realist, larger-than-life, & America's only truly indispensable figure. Ellis argues that the checks & balances that permitted the infant American republic to endure were primarily intensely personal, rooted in the interaction of leaders with quite different values & gives us a new perspective on the unpredictable forces that shape history. ...

Among the most recognizable & best-loved features of Rome are its fountains. The many varied examples that grace the urban fabric of the ” Eternal City” were designed by some of Europe`s greatest artists & architects, including Domenico Fontana, Giacomo della Porta, Gian Lorenzo Bernini & Nicola Salvi. Built at enormous expense, & often requiring new water-feeds to be constructed from miles outside Rome, the fountains were important elements of the urban renewal undertaken by the papal rulers, who were concerned with the creation of a new city which would demonstrate their triumphant & undisputed authority
- echoing, where necessary, the heritage of Imperial Rome. A wide-ranging survey of these remarkable monuments is presented in this work, which

Includes:: colour photographs taken both at night & by day. The fountains are described individually, from the story of their commission & creation to stylistic & technical analyses. Maps & contemporary documents complete the survey.


...

” Four Children & It” is the number one bestseller from Jacqueline Wilson, the award-winning, bestselling creator of ” Tracy Beaker”, ” Hetty Feather” & ” The Illustrated Mum”. A funny & heartwarming story of four children who discover an extraordinary way to make wishes come true, ” Four Children & It” is inspired by E Nesbit`s classic, ” Five Children & It”. Jacqueline Wilson`s millions of fans will be gripped by the relationship between step-sisters Rosalind & Smash, just as they love the story of sisters Jodie & Pearl in ” My Sister Jodie” or Lily & Pixie in ” Lily Alone”. ” Readers always ask who inspired me to be a writer. Well, I adored E Nesbit`s books as a child
- & I liked her lifestyle too. She liked Liberty clothes, silver jewellery & buns for tea, & so do I! My favourite E Nesbit story is ” Five Children & It”
- & this is my modern day tribute to her fantastic story”. (Jacqueline Wilson). Jacqueline Wilson has won many awards for her writing, including the ” Guardian” Children`s Fiction Award & the Children`s Book of the Year. She is one of the nation`s favourite authors, & her books are loved by young readers not only in the UK but all over the world.

...

America’s famous Four Corners region, the only spot in USA where four states meet, presented by the National Geographic in their Destination Map series with highlighting for protected areas & tourist notes, plus on the reverse four separate thematic maps on different aspect of this fascinating region. Printed on light, waterproof & tear-resistant synthetic paper, the map is centred on the Four Corners Monument, the meeting point of Colorado, Utah, Arizona & New Mexico. Coverage extends north to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, east to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, west to the Gran Canyon Village & south beyond the Highway 40 linking Santa Fe, Albuquerque & Flagstaff. Relief shading provides an excellent picture of the terrain; various types of protected areas (national/state parks, forests, etc) & the region’s numerous Indian Reservations are indicated by the colour of their borders. Road network is graded in six types, including unpaved roads. Symbols highlight various places of interest, many annotated with brief notes. The map has latitude & longitude lines at 1° intervals. The reverse side has four separate maps, each designed to present a different aspect of the area: archaeology, outdoor recreation, water & geology, plus art, music & culture. There is also a table showing facilities in the national parks, plus travel tips. ...

Pearson's Canal Companions have achieved cult status with canal users of all kinds. These lively, colourful & committed books are generally regarded as the most detailed, informative & down-right entertaining guides to the inland waterways. Each of the nine titles in the series covers a popular route or area with large scale & highly detailed maps accompanied by a wide ranging commentary, descriptions of waterside towns & villages, & itemised listings on eating & drinking, shopping, visitor centres, public transport & boating facilities. Of particular use to walkers & cyclists is the classification of towpath conditions into three grades. Considerable coverage is given to items of industrial archaeological interest. The Four Counties Ring Canal Companion covers the Trent & Mersey & Erewash Canals & other neighbouring routes such as the Staffs & Worcs Canal; Shropshire Union; Caldon Canal; &, Trent Navigation. ...

Four Counties Ring Pearson`s Canal Companion from Wayzgoose, showing sections of the Trent & Mersey Canal, the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, the Shropshire Union, the Caldon Canal, the Trent Navigation, & the Weaver Navigation. Pearson’s Canal Companions have for over 30 year now been presenting Britain’s network of inland waterways on handy size, informative guides which combine practical information with interesting descriptions & facts about the surrounding countryside. The routes are shown in sections on maps at approx. 2” to 1 mile, & are annotated with locks, towpaths & nearby facilities. Rather than providing a more technical picture of each waterway (depth, clearance, etc), these guides are indeed true “companions” with the accompanying descriptions full of interesting historical or literary references, little know facts, etc. Where appropriate the maps are also accompanied by recommendations for eating & drinking, shopping, things to do, & public transport connections. Each guide also

Includes:: a boating directory with hire bases, boatyards, ferries, etc. Please note: Pearson’s Canal Companions sometimes indicate facilities and/or places of interest without showing detailed road access to them; it’s perhaps advisable to use these charming companions with proper road maps of the surrounding countryside.

...

Being well camouflaged & unobtrusive, Nicholas keenly observed the comings & goings of three generations of his family & their animals in a remote area of the Isle of Mull. In the early 1950s life was basic, without mains water or electricity, as each day followed the next. But sometimes the routine was disrupted. Despite its isolation, the island was affected by Foot & Mouth disease while conflict raging in a foreign land caused separation in the family. Nothing escaped Nicholas' attention. As the family cat, his contact with humans & animals alike gave him a unique opportunity to record the events that concerned them all. This delightful account, written during a year in the life of the family, came to light after more than fifty years of neglect in a drawer. It will appeal to all ages, & to lovers of the simple life, of big open spaces, of country living, of farm animals
- & of cats in particular.
...

` Touching, insightful & human
- this book demands a social &, above all, a political response` Jon Snow Tamsen Courtenay spent
...

In his first book since the acclaimed The Running Sky Tim Dee tells the story of four green fields. Four fields spread around the world: their grasses, their hedges, their birds, their skies, & their natural & human histories. Four real fields
- walkable, mappable, man-made, mowable & knowable, but also secretive, mysterious, wild, contested & changing. Four fields
- the oldest & simplest & truest measure of what a man needs in life
- looked at, thought about, worked in, lived with, written. Dee`s four fields, which he has known for more than twenty years, are the fen field at the bottom of his Cambridgeshire garden, a field in southern Zambia, a prairie field in Little Bighorn, Montana, USA, & a grass meadow in the exclusion zone at Chernobyl, Ukraine. Meditating on these four fields, Dee makes us look anew at where we live & how. He argues that we must attend to what we have made from the wild, to look at & think about the way we have messed things up but also to notice how we have kept going alongside nature, to listen to the conversation we have had with grass & fields. Four Fields is a profound, lyrical book by one of Britain`s very best writers about nature.


...