Over the years, authors, artists & amblers aplenty have felt the pull of the Thames, & now travel writer Tom Chesshyre is following in their footsteps. He’s walking the length of the river from the Cotswolds to the North Sea – a winding journey of over two hundred miles. Join him for an illuminating stroll past meadows, churches & palaces, country estates & council estates, factories & dockyards. Setting forth in the summer of Brexit, & meeting a host of interesting characters along the way, Chesshyre explores the living present & remarkable past of England’s longest & most iconic river. ...

Over the years, authors, artists & amblers aplenty have felt the pull of the Thames, & now travel writer Tom Chesshyre is following in their footsteps. He`s walking the length of the river from the Cotswolds to the North Sea
- a winding journey of over two hundred miles. Join him for an illuminating stroll past meadows, churches, palaces, country (and council) estates, factories & dockyards. Seeing some familiar sights through new eyes, & meeting a host of interesting characters along the way, Chesshyre explores the living present & remarkable past of England`s longest & most iconic river.
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Brassiere Hills, Alaska. Mollys Nipple, Utah. Outhouse Draw, Nevada. In the early twentieth century, it was common for towns & geographical features to have salacious, bawdy, & even derogatory names. In the age before political correctness, mapmakers readily accepted any local preference for place names, prizing accurate representation over standards of decorum. Thus, summits such as Squaw Tit
- which towered above valleys in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, & California
- found their way into the cartographic annals. Later, when sanctions prohibited local use of racially, ethnically, & scatalogically offensive toponyms, town names like Jap Valley, California, were erased from the national & cultural map forever. ” From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow” probes this little-known chapter in American cartographic history by considering the intersecting efforts to computerize mapmaking, standardize geographic names, & respond to public concern over ethnically offensive appellations. Interweaving cartographic history with tales of politics & power, celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier locates his story within the past & present struggles of mapmakers to create an orderly process for naming that avoids confusion, preserves history, & serves different political aims. Anchored by a diverse selection of naming controversies
- in the United States, Canada, Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, & Antarctica; on the ocean floor & the surface of the moon; & in other parts of our solar system
- ” From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow” richly reveals the map`s role as a mediated portrait of the cultural landscape.



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There is an undoubted interest in the ability to see a subject from a slightly different angle. Aerial photography provides a unique overview of a subject, allowing the viewer to put into context sights that may be highly familiar from the ground. Combine this fascinating angle with the undoubted popularity of the ' Then & Now' approach
- to show continuity & change in the landscape
- & that ability is considerably extended. It is only from the air that the enthusiast can gain a true impression of how far the railways dominated the landscape & how far even relatively unimportant locations were dominated by the railway. Moreover, it is through the comparison that the reader can fully appreciate how far the importance of the railway has declined in many places & how far society itself has changed over the past decades. The first collection of ' Then & Now' comparison shots using the superb archive of the Aerofilms company was published to critical acclaim in 1998 & was subsequently reprinted. However, with a collection that encompasses many hundreds of thousands of images over an 80-year period, the first volume used but a fraction of the number of ' Then' photographs available. This second collection, therefore, goes further into the archive, delving deep to produce a fascinating range of locations
- from major railway towns like Darlington to rural branches like Bridport
- to illustrate the changing face of the British landscape over the past decades. As with the previous book, specially commissioned contemporary photographs provide a remarkable contrast between the scenes recorded more than 30 years ago & those of the present day. Each entry is provided with a detailed account telling the reader the story behind the photographs &, where necessary, key maps are provided to pin-point specific locations.



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With passion & wit, Bernard Levin describes his travels on foot through the beautiful countryside of south-eastern France. He follows in the mighty footsteps of the great Carthaginian enemy of Rome, Hannibal, who made the expedition with an army & elephants nearly two millennia before. From the Camargue via the Rhone Valley, across the Alps & into Italy during August snowstorms, he comments on the social & historical importance of the landscapes he passes through, taking detours to the table of chef Jacques Pic at Valence & the Arles region immortalised by Van Gogh. The journey would not have been complete without enjoying the hospitality of the Moussets
- the fifth generation of their family to produce wine at Chateauneuf-du-Pape, before turning eastwards, to face the greater challenge of the Alps.
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From the Fatherl&, with Love is set in an alternative, dystopian present in which the dollar has collapsed & Japan`s economy has fallen along with it. The North Korean government, sensing an opportunity, sends a fleet of `rebels` in the first land invasion that Japan has ever faced. Japan can`t cope with the surprise onslaught of ` Operation From the Fatherl&, with Love`. But the terrorist Ishihara & his band of renegade youths
- once dedicated to upsetting the Japanese government
- turn their deadly attention to the North Korean threat. They will not allow Fukuoka to fall without a fight. Epic in scale, From the Fatherl&, with Love is laced throughout with Murakami`s characteristically savage violence. It`s both a satisfying thriller & a completely mad, over-the-top novel like few others.

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The award-winning gardens at Pashley Manor have been open to the public for over 20 years. It`s hard not to love the tulip festivals & the magnificent roses, or get lost in the scent of lilies. The garden`s soft pink brick walls radiate heat in the summer months, ripening the berries, pears, figs & tomatoes that grow alongside it. They neatly contain rows upon rows of vegetables & bristling heads of parsley, thyme, rosemary & other herbs. Hattie`s family have cooked with all these good, fresh produce for years. From the Garden brings together some of her family`s best recipes from the gardens & the kitchen table at Pashley Manor. Photographer Leigh Clapp has captured the mouth-watering images. With over 100 recipes broken down into chapters including: Leeks, onions garlic & shallots; courgettes, squash & cucumbers; tomatoes & potatoes, roots; greens; salads; tree fruits & so much more, From the Garden introduces you to delicious recipes using fresh produce & will make a beautiful special gift for anyone who loves to cook with fresh fruit & vegetables. ...

Everyone likes Olive Piper. A happy, open-hearted child growing up in the 1950s, her life is contented. When her passion for reading gets her into university she feels sure the world is waiting for her. But then she makes a mistake
- the kind any one of us could make
- & faces an impossible choice.`A shattering coming-of-age story` Daily Telegraph

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In his third book, William Dalrymple makes another ambitious journey, this time following in the footsteps of John Moschos, a sixth-century Byzantine monk who made records of the various religious communities & the miracles he encountered. Beginning at Mount Athos in Greece, Dalrymple passes the Great Oasis at Kharga in Upper Egypt, through a bloody civil war in eastern Turkey, the ruins of Beirut, Lebanon, Syria & Israel before reaching the edge of the Sahara & the end of his trip. A number of the monasteries & churches visited by Moschos & his pupil Sophronius the Sophist still survive, though they are often surrounded by hostile populations. Dalrymple’s eye for art & architecture brings the Byzantine world to life so that the beliefs of the early Christian church become matter of fact & we can see how the prayers, music & way of life have altered little over the intermittent 1500 years. It’s an informative & spiritually moving lament to the disappearing world of Christianity in its Middle Eastern homeland & the winner of the 1997 Scottish Arts Council Autumn Book Award. ...

From the Kitchens of Yam Chops North America`s Original Vegan Butcher Shop offers mouthwatering & easy plant-based recipes that are high in protein & mimic the taste & texture of meat. The variety at Yam Chops is expansive; think Carrot Lox, Quick Pickles, Eggless Egg Salad, No Crab Crabcakes & Beet Wellington. The products feature vegetables, soy-free, gluten-free & raw alternatives. Learn the wide variety of techniques to achieve meat-like texture & taste at home, all with fresh & minimally processed ingredients. Recipes include soups, appetisers & sides, salads, entrees, sauces & sweets that you`d find at the deli counter. This book will have 75 recipes & 60 photographs. ...