Blank inside, this card comes with a white envelope & is cello wrapped. The Coconut Tin Card Company is the creation of London based illustrator Finn Dean, award winning illustrator of evocative cityscapes & landscapes, which blend 20th century aesthetic with contemporary imagery. ...

Now available in a convenient pocket-sized mini format, this is the essential illustrated reference book for everyone interested in houses. Following the popular format of The Art Book, this title is a new & innovative presentation of houses & dwellings from all periods & all corners of the globe. It presents 500 houses classified by architect, designer, patron or cultural tribe & people in an A-Z format, with each house represented by a full-page reproduction & a text that describes the building, placing it & its designer in its historical context. The book also

Includes:: an easy-to-use glossary of technical terms & movements, & a directory of houses open to the public. The Mini House Book presents an interesting & fresh view of 500 iconic houses & tradititional dwellings, representing the most diverse selection of houses of all time from around the world. From Hadrian`s Villa & Palladio`s Villa Rotonda to Le Corbusier`s Villa Savoye & the contemporary houses of Richard Rogers or Frank Gehry, it features the widest range of architect-designed houses as well as traditional types of dwelling. Vanished buildings, such as Nonsuch Palace by Henry VIII, are illustrated by artists` impressions & rare illuminated manuscripts. Like The Art Book, it presents 500 houses listed in an A-Z format by architect, patron, cultural tribe or people that departs from the usual emphasis on genres & time periods, encouraging readers to contemplate the connections between social history, popular culture & design types. The houses selected represent a broad variety of styles, structures & aesthetics. Experts, as well as readers coming to an architectural survey for the first time, will find many well-loved & familiar houses, alongside others that are rarely explored in architectural books. The houses were carefully selected in an effort to choose the appropriate work for architecture around the world. Some of the houses will be acknowledged for their role in architectural history, others will be iconic for their individual features or structure, but all will be seminal forms of dwelling. The selection ranges from the palaces of kings to the individual huts of the Maasai tribe of East Africa. Technology has changed dramatically over the centuries, but the essential qualities of house or dwelling remain greatly unchanged. All of the houses provide shelter & protection, space to live in private & public, regardless of their budget or aesthetic. This book explores the concept of the house, around the world & across different cultures. Each entry is represented by a full-page image of a significant view & an accompanying text that describes the building & discusses the type of architecture & its role in the further development of the tradition. Each page

Includes:: cross-references to other designers working in a similar style, movement, or time period, as well as biographical information about the designer, & complete data on the house reproduced. The book also

Includes:: an easy-to-use glossary of architectural terms & movements, & a directory of houses open to the public.





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It is a good time for a beginner to set about finding out about his or her house. Popular television programmes are highlighting the satisfaction that can be gained from investigating the history of houses, & interest in the subject is growing. Archives, too, are becoming ever more accessible under the impetus of the internet. As the subject covers a broad field, the authors have set out to include advice on those aspects that usually apply to a project & others that will be of particular use for beginners. The reader is guided through every stage of research, from the first exploration of the archives to the completion of the project. Suggestions are also included on how to present the findings
- a house history makes a very attractive gift. The authors describe how to deduce the age of a property (it is very seldom directly recorded when a house was built) & characteristics of research on particular types of property
- such as cottages, manor houses, inns, mills, former church properties, & farms
- are discussed. In one example, research demonstrated that a farm was likely to have been a Domesday manor
- a discovery achieved using records accessible to any beginner.A wealth of other interesting & instructive examples is provided, showing the reader how the history of a house can also reveal much of our towns` & countryside`s history. The poet, Edmund Blunden, summed it up in ” Forefathers”: Names are gone
- what men they were, these their cottages declare. Written in an entertaining & informative style, & filled with fine illustrations, this book will act as an excellent reference book for those seeking to take up this rewarding hobby.




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Paris, 1869. Houses are being razed, whole neighbourhoods reduced to ashes. By order of Emperor Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann has set into motion a series of large-scale renovations that will permanently transform Paris into a modern city. In the midst of the tumult, one woman will take a st&. Rose Bazelet is determined to fight against the destruction of her family home until the very end; as others flee, she stakes her claim in the basement of the house on rue Childebert, ignoring the sounds of change that come closer & closer each day. Attempting to overcome the loneliness of her daily life, she begins to write letters to Arm&, her late husb&. & as Rose delves into her memories, she reveals the secrets held within the walls of her beloved house. Praise for A Secret Kept: ' That rare thing -- a hugely accomplished, compelling, compulsively readable novel' Douglas Kennedy 'A wholly captivating novel. A triumphant follow-up to the bestselling Sarah's Key' Easy Living 'A sumptuous dark story...it's the suspense that keeps you truly hooked' Stylist ...

When eleven-year-old Henrietta arrives at the Fishers` house in Paris, she is prepared to spend her day between trains looked after by an old friend of her grandmother`s. Henrietta longs to see a few sights in the foreign city; little does she know what fascinating secrets the Fisher house itself contains. For Henrietta finds that her visit coincides with that of Leopold, an intense child who has come to Paris to be introduced to the mother he has never known. In the course of a single day, the relations between Leopold, Henrietta`s agitated hostess Naomi Fisher, Leopold`s mysterious mother, his dead father, & the dying matriarch in bed upstairs, come to light slowly & tantalizingly. It is as if the whole of the past has led up to this gloomy afternoon, which also holds within it the seeds of a no less tragic future. ...

With an emphasis on plants that add the most to the home decor while also being easy to care for, Dornan-Smith`s visual guide covers all the basics, including equipment, containers, soil preparation, light requirements & care techniques. Her plant illustrations show off the aesthetic features of each one, from palms & spider plants to succulents, hanging plants, bonsai, bamboo, air plants & herbs. The result is a book that is both fun to browse as well as useful & inspiring. The small format & delightful illustrations makes it a perfect housewarming gift. ...

REVISED & UPDATED WITH BRAND NEW MATERIALThe acclaimed political thriller that first introduced the unforgettable Francis Urquhart MP & launched Michael Dobbs` No 1 bestselling career
- now updated with brand new material. Michael Dobbs` entertaining tale of skulduggery & intrigue within the Palace of Westminster has been a huge hit with the public. Its scheming hero, Chief Whip Francis Urquhart, who uses fair means & foul to become Prime Minister, is one of the best-known characters of the last decade
- the politician we all love to hate. Acclaimed for its authenticity & insights into a secret world
- the result of many years working behind the scenes for the Conservative Party
- it became a highly popular, award-winning BBC TV series, with Francis Urquhart memorably portrayed by Ian Richardson, & was followed by two further sequels, ` To Play the King` & ` The Final Cut`, which also became top-rating TV series.



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The town of Nowa Ruda & the surrounding countryside is a place of shifting identities. Polish now, it has been German, Czech & Austro-Hungarian in the past. Here, in the heart of Europe, where borders move & languages & their speakers come & go, ordinary lives are not as simple as they appear. When the narrator & her husband settle in the area, she soon discovers that all the locals have their secrets & with the help of Marta, her enigmatic old neighbour, she gathers their stories, disentangling the events of their days from the dreams of their nights. House of Day, House of Night is a wonderfully funny weave of myths & dreams, internet findings, recipes & gossip. A bestseller in Pol&, & winner of the prestigious NIKE prize
- the country`s most important literary prize
- its publication brings a new voice to English-speaking readers.

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Johnny Truant wild & troubled sometime employee in a LA tattoo parlour, finds a notebook kept by Zampano, a reclusive old man found dead in a cluttered apartment. Herein is the heavily annotated story of the Navidson Report. Will Navidson, a photojournalist, & his family move into a new house. What happens next is recorded on videotapes & in interviews. Now the Navidsons are household names. Zampano, writing on loose sheets, stained napkins, crammed notebooks, has compiled what must be the definitive work on the events on Ash Tree Lane. But Johnny Truant has never heard of the Navidson Record. Nor has anyone else he knows. & the more he reads about Will Navidson`s house, the more frightened he becomes. Paranoia besets him. The worst part is that he can`t just dismiss the notebook as the ramblings of a crazy old man. He`s starting to notice things changing around him.. . Immensely imaginative. Impossible to put down. Impossible to forget. House of Leaves is thrilling, terrifying & unlike anything you have ever read before. ...

There were conjugal visits in the slave camps of the USSR. Valiant women would travel continental distances, over weeks & months, in the hope of spending a night, with their particular enemy of the people, in the House of Meetings. The consequences of these liaisons were almost invariably tragic. House of Meetings is about one such liaison. It is a triangular romance: two brothers fall in love with the same girl, a nineteen-year-old Jewess, in Moscow, which is poised for pogrom in the gap between the war & the death of Stalin. Both brothers are arrested, & their rivalry slowly complicates itself over a decade in the slave camp above the Arctic Circle. ...