From stalwart little locomotives of topographic necessity, to the maverick engines of one man`s whimsy, Britain`s narrow-gauge steam trains run on tracks a world apart from its regimented mainlines. In Small Island by Little Train, eccentricity enthusiast Chris Arnot sets out to discover their stories. Stories include miniature railway on the Kent coast, used for Home Guard military trains during World War II, & now the school commute for dozens of local school children. The UK`s only Alpine-style rack-&-pinion railway, scaling one of Britain`s highest mountains. The five different gauges of railway circling one man`s landscaped garden, & the team building their own trains to run on it. Far more than mere relics of the nation`s industrial past, or battered veterans of wartime Britain, these are also stories of epic feats of preservation, volunteerism, tourism, & local history. They are an exploration of idiosyncrasy, enthusiasm & eccentricity. Or, to put it another way, a tale of Britishness. ...

Born in Portugal in 1922 in the tiny village of Azinhaga, Jose Saramago was only eighteen months old when he moved with his father & mother to live in a series of cramped lodgings in a working-class neighbourhood of Lisbon. Nevertheless, he would return to the village throughout his childhood & adolescence, its river landscape & olive groves seeping deep into his memory. Shifting back & forth between Azinhaga & Lisbon, this touching book is a mosaic of memories, a gathering together of the fragmented recollections that make up the idea of one`s youth. Written with Saramago`s characteristic wit & honesty, Small Memories traces the formation of an artist fascinated by words & stories from an early age & who emerged, against all the odds, as one of the world`s most respected writers. By the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. ...

If you've ever been to a restaurant with friends & ordered a few starters or a large platter to share, you'll know how sociable & appealing it is to be able to try several dishes at once. This a popular way of eating in many parts of the world
- the Spanish have tapas, the Chinese have dim sum & many regions of the Mediterranean & Middle East enjoy meze. Grazing plates & small bowls of shareable food make entertaining fuss-free & fun, & encourage guests to get stuck in. In Small Plates, Annie Rigg serves up an irresistible selection of plates to share from all around the world. From chorizo with red wine & olives to garlic & white bean dip, there's plenty for friends to tuck into. There are also bites & fingerfood to choose from, like fish goujons, honey & soy glazed baby ribs, & Vietnamese prawn rolls with chilli dipping sauce.
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Cute & cuddly Puffin plush soft toy with excellent detailing. Swing tag

Includes:: educational facts about

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Cute & cuddly Sitting Fox plush soft toy with excellent detailing. Swing tag

Includes:: educational facts about

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This is a print of the original boroughs of London map produced by Stanfords in November 1888 showing the County of London According to the Local Government Act. of the same year, & indicating the Urban Sanitary Districts, Area of District Council or Urban Authority as established in 1875. The different London boroughs are identified with a light colour overlaid on a street map showing most streets & naming the major ones. The different railway lines & stations are indicated & named. Shadings reproduce the topography of the city & hills, parks & woodland are distinguishable & most of them are named. The map covers the city from Kew in the west to Plumstead in the east, & from Crouch End & Stamford Hill in the north to Lower Streatham & Upper Norwood in the south. Surprisingly or not most of London as we know it today seems to be already present. Its area attests to a booming city with a population of about four millions, at the time. The boundaries of its boroughs will transform to accommodate the changes & pace of a leading capital. ...

This is a beautiful reproduction of 1920s Stanford's General Map of the World. Originally published in 1921, our political world map showed the then newly-independent European nations, as well as imperial possessions elsewhere. In addition to major rivers, detail

Includes:: major railway lines & principal shipping routes, the latter indicating distances. Latitude & longitude lines are at 15 degree intervals. Mercator projection, Equatorial scale Approx. 1:44, 000, 000.

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The clouds disappeared & gave us a clear day. No more excuses. No more newspapers, radio, beds, hot water, china mugs... Meet Barnie, 11 months old, dangerously learning to walk... Tess the dog, who likes rolling in smelly things... Ben the cart horse, who barely fits through a stile... Spud, a young mother recovering from cancer treatment, who wants to share with her motley family the joys of following old drovers` trails around the Cairngorm Mountains...and Rob, who abandons his stethoscope for an OS map to accompany her. Lively, funny & contemplative, ” Small Steps” will inspire you to hit the road. ...

Tim Bradford is growing up in a small town in Lincolnshire in the 1970s. Market Rasen is not the most exciting place, but to his teenage mind it was the centre of the universe. Tim is at that in-between phase between childhood & adolescence, where you are trying to be grown up & get your first snogs whilst at the same time still playing with airfix models & making dens. Tim takes us through his first crushes, falling in love with the local beauty queen & an elusive Gallic beauty on a French exchange. His first attempts at getting drunk & trying to impress girls, forming bands which churned out endless numbers of rubbish songs & trying to avoid deckings by the local hards. Tim & his equally hapless friends are gradually working towards breaking free of their childhoods & moving away from their roots. Life in this small town was a rollercoaster of mundane happenings. ” Small Town” paints a portrait of the energy & melancholy at the heart of our generation, the inability to live for now & the feeling that something better is just around the corner. Too young (just) to be baby boomers & too English & uncool to call itself Generation X. It`s a universal tale about dreams, ambitions, brass bands, cubs, rugby songs, football stickers, tractors, young love, & valve amplifiers connected up to cheap distortion pedals, set at a time of political change & pudding basin hair. ...

Think ` Woodstock` & the mind turns to the seminal 1969 festival that crowned a seismic decade of sex, drugs & rock `n` roll. But Woodstock itself was over 60 miles from the site to which the fabled half a million flocked. So why the misnomer? Quite simply, Woodstock was already a key location in the Sixties rock landscape, the tiny Catskills town where Bob Dylan had holed up after his 1966 motorcycle accident. In Small Town Talk, Barney Hoskyns recreates Woodstock`s community of brilliant dysfunctional musicians, opportunistic hippie capitalists & scheming dealers drawn to the area by Dylan & his sidekicks The B&. Central to the book`s narrative is the broodingly powerful presence of Albert Grossman, manager of Dylan, The B&, Janis Joplin & Todd Rundgren
- & Big Daddy of a personal fiefdom in Bearsville that encompassed studios, restaurants & his own record label. Intertwined in the story are the Woodstock experiences of artists as diverse as Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Paul Butterfield, Tim Hardin, Karen Dalton & Bobby Charles. Drawing on first-hand interviews with the remaining key players in the scene, & on the period when he lived there himself in the 1990s, Hoskyns has produced an East Coast companion to his bestselling LA Canyon classic Hotel California
- a richly absorbing study of a vital music scene in a revolutionary time & place.

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