The incredible true story of four ordinary working mums from Yorkshire who took on an extraordinary challenge & broke a world record along the way, proving it`s never too late to go on a life-changing adventure, experience the beauty & power of the elements, push the very limits of your abilities & rediscover who you are. Janette, Frances, Helen & Niki, though all from Yorkshire, were four very different women, all juggling full time jobs alongside being mothers to each of their 2 children. They could never be described as athletes, but they were determined to be busy & the local Saturday morning rowing club was the perfect place to go to have a laugh & a gossip, get the blood pumping in the open air, & feel invigorated. Brought together by their love of rowing, they quickly became firm friends, & it wasn`t long before they cooked up a crazy idea over a few glasses of wine: together, they were going to do something that fewer people than had gone into space or climbed Everest had succeeded in doing. They were going to cross 3, 000 miles of treacherous ocean in the toughest row in the world, The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Yes, they had children & husbands that they would be leaving behind for two months, yes they had businesses to run, mortgages to pay, responsibilities. & there was that little thing of them all being in their 40s & 50s. But two years of planning, preparation, fundraising, training & difficult conversations later, & they found themselves standing on the edge of the San Sebastian harbour in the Canary Islands, petrified, exhilarated & ready to head up the race of their lives. This is the story of how four friends together had the audacity to go on a wild, terrifying & beautiful adventure, not to escape life, but for life not to escape them. ...

Four Oaks in 1902 in a fascinating series of reproductions of old Ordnance Survey plans in the Alan Godfrey Editions, ideal for anyone interested in the history of their neighbourhood or family. The maps cover the Four Oaks area, north of Sutton Coldfield. Features include LNWR railway with Four Oaks station, Moor Hall & Park, Little Sutton (at top of map), Lady Wood, Doe Bank, Four Oaks Park, Moorhall Farm, etc. On the reverse are extracts from a 1921 directory & a railway timetable for the Birmingham-Lichfield line in 1897. About the Alan Godfrey Editions of the 25” OS Series: Selected towns in Great Britain & Ireland are covered by maps showing the extent of urban development in the last decades of the 19th & early 20th century. The plans have been taken from the Ordnance Survey mapping & reprinted at about 15 inches to one mile (1:4, 340). On the reverse most maps have historical notes & many also include extracts from contemporary directories. Most maps cover about one mile (1.6kms) north/south, one & a half miles (2.4kms) across; adjoining sheets can be combined to provide wider coverage.FOR MORE INFORMATION & A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL AVAILABLE TITLES PLEASE CLICK ON THE SERIES LINK. ...

` Never before had the world seen four such giants co-existing. Sometimes friends, more often enemies, always rivals, these four men together held Europe in the hollow of their hands.` Four great princes
- Henry VIII of Engl&, Francis I of France, Charles V of Spain & Suleiman the Magnificent
- were born within a single decade. Each looms large in his country`s history &, in this book, John Julius Norwich broadens the scope & shows how, against the rich background of the Renaissance & destruction of the Reformation, their wary obsession with one another laid the foundations for modern Europe. Individually, each man could hardly have been more different -- from the scandals of Henry`s six wives to Charles`s monasticism
- but, together, they dominated the world stage. From the Field of the Cloth of Gold, a pageant of jousting, feasting & general carousing so lavish that it nearly bankrupted both France & Engl&, to Suleiman`s celebratory pyramid of 2, 000 human heads (including those of seven Hungarian bishops) after the battle of Mohacs; from Anne Boleyn`s six-fingered hand (a potential sign of witchcraft) that had the pious nervously crossing themselves to the real story of the Maltese falcon, Four Princes is history at its vivid, entertaining best. With a cast list that extends from Leonardo da Vinci to Barbarossa, & from Joanna the Mad to le roi gr&-nez, John Julius Norwich offers the perfect guide to the most colourful century the world has ever known & brings the past to unforgettable life.


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` Never before had the world seen four such giants co-existing. Sometimes friends, more often enemies, always rivals, these four men together held Europe in the hollow of their hands.` Four great princes
- Henry VIII of Engl&, Francis I of France, Charles V of Spain & Suleiman the Magnificent
- were born within a single decade. Each looms large in his country`s history &, in this book, John Julius Norwich broadens the scope & shows how, against the rich background of the Renaissance & destruction of the Reformation, their wary obsession with one another laid the foundations for modern Europe. Individually, each man could hardly have been more different -- from the scandals of Henry`s six wives to Charles`s monasticism
- but, together, they dominated the world stage. From the Field of the Cloth of Gold, a pageant of jousting, feasting & general carousing so lavish that it nearly bankrupted both France & Engl&, to Suleiman`s celebratory pyramid of 2, 000 human heads (including those of seven Hungarian bishops) after the battle of Mohacs; from Anne Boleyn`s six-fingered hand (a potential sign of witchcraft) that had the pious nervously crossing themselves to the real story of the Maltese falcon, Four Princes is history at its vivid, entertaining best. With a cast list that extends from Leonardo da Vinci to Barbarossa, & from Joanna the Mad to le roi gr&-nez, John Julius Norwich offers the perfect guide to the most colourful century the world has ever known & brings the past to unforgettable life.


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Brian Keenan`s fascination with Alaska began as a small boy, while reading Jack London`s wondrous, ” Call of the Wild”. With a head full of questions about its inspiring landscape & a heart informed by his love of desolate & barren places, Brian Keenan sets out for Alaska to discover its four geographical quarters, from snowmelt in May to snowfall in September, & en route, finds a land as fantastical as a fairytale, but whose vastness has a very peculiar type of allure... From dog-mushing on a frozen lake beneath the whirling colours of the aurora borealis, to camping in a two dollar tent in the tundra of the arctic circle, Brian Keenan seeks out the ultimate wilderness experience & along the way, encounters hard-core survivalists who know what struggle & endurance mean, from their daily battle with nature to exist. He discovers that true wilderness is as much a state of mind, as it is a place. & ultimately to make Alaska home, one must surrender to the l&. ...

On the same day that his wife gave birth to twins, Anthony Doerr received the Rome Prize, an award that gave him a year-long stipend & studio in Rome! ` Four Seasons in Rome` charts the repercussions of that day, describing Doerr`s varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world, & the first year of parenthood. He reads Pliny, Dante, & Keats -- the chroniclers of Rome who came before him -- & visits the piazzas, temples, & ancient cisterns they describe. He attends the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II & takes his twins to the Pantheon in December to wait for snow to fall through the oculus. He & his family are embraced by the butchers, grocers, & bakers of the neighbourhood, whose clamour of stories & idiosyncratic child-rearing advice is as compelling as the city itself. This intimate & revelatory book is a celebration of Rome, a wondrous look at new parenthood & a fascinating account of the alchemy of writers. ...

Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan. Because of its solemn & majestic view, this mountain has been adored as a religious object & loved by people in Japan from ancient days. Even though it is hard to climb to the top, you can go up to the middle by car, so there are increasing numbers of visitors coming from overseas these days. What is attractive about Mount Fuji is its expressive look that changes day & night & season by season, & never shows the same again. This book introduces 40 images of the mountain taken by professional photographers who have been shooting Mount Fuji for so long. Not only photographs of Mount Fuji, but also images of art & craft with a motif of Mount Fuji are included, which gives more taste of culture to the book. Back matter

Includes:: history of Mount Fuji, popular climbing routes to the top, best view spots, & maps for accommodation.

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Spanning the globe with 100 top places to go each season, National Geographic`s expert travel writers & photographers invite you to experience the world`s most tempting locales with this lush gift book. Covering festivals, foliage displays, harvests, summer & winter sports & activities, markets, traditional celebrations, & more, this lavish, beautifully photographed book is both inspiring & useful. Dozens of fun, themed Best of the World lists (ten best places to go whale watching in summer or warm up with hot drinks in winter, for example), as well as in-depth site descriptions, locator maps, illuminating sidebars, & tons of insider tips will inspire you to plan your next getaway during a destination`s showcase period
- whether it`s Christmas in New York, complete with ice-skating at Rockefeller Centre & seeing Radio City Music Hall`s famous holiday show; springtime in Kyoto, when cherry blossoms create clouds of pink around ancient temples; Nova Scotia in summer, when biking from lighthouse to lighthouse along the rugged coastline is sublime; or Tanzania in fall, during the migration season of millions of birds & mammals. Divided into chapters by season, each site is portrayed through authentic experiences recommended by locals & resident experts & is showcased with stunning photography, evocative text, & detailed visitor information. Eclectic sidebars highlight intriguing ancillary information, entertaining snippets on the local culture, history, don`t-miss experiences, great places to stay & food to eat, as well as other sights to see. This gorgeous book is rounded out with a series of ”top ten” lists in a wide variety of themed categories, including Harvest Festivals, Extreme Winter Adventures & Best Places to Get Summer Ice Cream.
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On 17 July 1918, four young women walked down twenty-three steps into the cellar of a house in Ekaterinburg. The eldest was twenty-two, the youngest only seventeen. Together with their parents & their thirteen-year-old brother, they were all brutally murdered. Their crime: to be the daughters of the last Tsar & Tsaritsa of All the Russias. In Four Sisters acclaimed biographer Helen Rappaport offers readers the most authoritative account yet of the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria & Anastasia. Drawing on their own letters & diaries, she paints a vivid picture of their lives in the dying days of the Romanov dynasty. We see, almost for the first time, their journey from a childhood of enormous privilege, throughout which they led a very sheltered & largely simple life, to young womanhood
- their first romantic crushes, their hopes & dreams, the difficulty of coping with a mother who was a chronic invalid & a haeomophiliac brother, &, latterly, the trauma of the revolution & its terrible consequences. Compellingly readable, meticulously researched & deeply moving, Four Sisters gives these young women a voice, & allows their story to resonate for readers almost a century after their death.
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Four Tales brings together Clockwork, The Firework-Maker`s Daughter, I was a Rat!, & The Scarecrow & His Servant. Four stories & a new prologue & epilogue from the uniquely talented Philip Pullman. Drawing on the rich tradition of fairytales, the collection will amuse, engage, & delight readers. ...