Among all the varied productions with which Nature has adorned the surfaces of the earth none awakens our sympathies or interests our imagination so powerfully as those venerable trees which seem to have stood the lapse of ages... John Muir 1868 A fascinating celebration of the some of the oldest living organisms on the planet from the grand Oaks of Europe & mighty Redwoods of California to Africas upside-down Baobab tree & from the Ginkgos of China & Korea to the Olive tree the worldwide symbol of peace. Ancient Trees covers those species of tree that have lived for more than a thousand years: the Redwood Bristlecone pine Montezuma Cypress the Monkey Puzzle Amazonian Ancients Yew Oak Sweet Chestnut Lime Olive Welwitschia the Baobab Kauri Totara Antarctic Beech the Fig Cedar & Ginkgo. Anna Lewington the well-known writer on all things botanical & leading wildlife photographer Edward Parker provide an illuminating & visually striking history of each tree species including where the long-living species can still be found the trees botanical details & its mythical associations. ...

Travel back in time & find out about the first weapons & their uses
- stone clubs flint axes wooden spears bronze daggers & steel
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Ancillary Relief & Financial Orders Handbook is the new edition of the well established Ancillary Relief Handbook which has been thoroughly revised to take account of the new regime under the Family Procedure Rules 2010. Established as the first resort for thousands of matrimonial lawyers this work combines clear explanation of the legal principles governing financial provision upon divorce with straightforward advice on practice & procedure. This eighth edition has been fully updated to reflect all major changes & contains detailed analysis of relevant case law developments & practical guidance as to how these should be applied. ...

In & Another Thing"...the outspoken & outrageous presenter Jeremy Clarkson shares his opinions on just about everything. Jeremy Clarkson finds the world such a perplexing place that he wrote a bestselling book about it. Yet despite the appearance of " The World According to Clarkson" things
- amazingly
- haven't enhanced. Not being someone to give up easily however he's decided to have another go. In " And Another Thing"...the king of the exasperated quip discovers that: Bombing North Carolina is bad for Yorkshire; we can look forward to exploding at the age of 62; Russians look bad in Speedos. But not as bad as we do; Wasps are the highest form of life. Thigh-slappingly funny & in your face Jeremy Clarkson bursts the pointless little bubbles of the idiots while celebrating the special the unique & the sheer bloody brilliant..." And Another Thing"...is a hilarious collection of Jeremy's " Sunday Times" columns & the second in his " The World According to Clarkson" series which also

Includes:: " The World According to Clarkson" " For Crying Out Loud!" & " How Hard Can It Be?" Praise for Jeremy Clarkson: " Brilliant.. .laugh-out-loud". (" Daily Telegraph"). " Outrageously funny.. .will have you in stitches". (" Time Out"). Number-one bestseller Jeremy Clarkson writes on cars current affairs & anything else that annoys him in his sharp & funny collections. " Born To Be Riled" " Clarkson On Cars" " Don't Stop Me Now" " Driven To Distraction" " Round the Bend" " Motorworld" & "I Know You Got Soul" are also available as Penguin paperbacks; the Penguin App i Clarkson: The Book of Cars can be downloaded on the App Store. Jeremy Clarkson because his writing career on the Rotherham Advertiser. Since then he has written for the " Sun" & the " Sunday Times". Today he is the tallest person working in British television & is the presenter of the hugely popular " Top Gear"."



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Arthur Dents accidental association with that wholly remarkable book The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy has not been entirely without incident. Arthur has travelled the length breadth & depth of known & unknown space. He has stumbled forwards & backwards through time. He has been blown up reassembled cruelly imprisoned horribly released & colourfully insulted more than is strictly necessary. & of course he has comprehensively failed to grasp the meaning of life the universe & everything. Arthur has though finally made it home to Earth. But that does not mean he has escaped his fate. For Arthurs chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa are evaporating along with the worlds oceans. Because no sooner has he arrived than he finds out that Earth is about to be blown up.. .again. ...

The landscape of the British Isles is filled with history much of which we miss as it flashes past the car window. Do we even realise that we're following the same path as the Tolpuddle Martyrs or that we're driving past the exact spot where King Harold was killed shot through the eye with an arrow? As a lover of both history & the British countryside Charlie Connelly decided to rectify this & set out on a series of walks that recreate famous historical journeys. En route he retells the story of the original trip while discovering who & what now inhabit these iconic routes. Walking in England Scotland Ireland & Wales Charlie journeys alongside Boudicca's ghost in Norfolk relives Bonnie Prince Charlie's flight to Skye disguised as Flora Mac Donald's maid & takes the same 32-mile round trip as the starving Louisburgh famine walkers. He suffers broken toes becomes trapped in the Scottish Parliament & encounters dead poets & a surprisingly high number of mad old women in woolly hats. Told with Charlie's customary charm & wit & Did Those Feet will reveal the historical secrets hidden in the much-loved coastal country & urban landscapes of Britain. ...

From the moment Judi Dench appeared as a teenager in the York Mystery Plays it was clear that acting would be her career. Trained at Londons Central School of Speech & Drama it was her performance in her twenties as Juliet in Franco Zeffirellis memorable Old Vic production that turned her into a star. In the theatre since she has played every classic role from Titania to Cleopatra. She first became a household name via television thanks initially to a sitcom A FINE ROMANCE in which she played alongside the actor Michael Williams whom she married in 1971. She has since made nine series of another sitcom AS TIME GOES BY (with Geoffrey Palmer) as well as plays & classic serials such as CRANFORD. In the cinema her films have ranged from LADIES IN LAVENDER (opposite Maggie Smith) through NOTES ON A SCANDAL with Cate Blanchett to SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE in which she played Queen Elizabeth a role which gained her a Hollywood Oscar. But it is her role as M in seven James Bond films that has gained her worldwide recognition. This book is however much more than a career record. Her marriage to Michael Williams their daughter & her impish sense of humour contribute vividly to her account of more than half a century as Britains best-loved actress. ...

From the Inside Flap A sweeping saga spanning 1898 to 1984 stretching from the mining fields of South Wales to the film sets of Hollywood & from the playhouses of Cardiff to the grand theatres of Broadway
- this new & far reaching biography rakes over the coals of the life of Britains greatest ever actor Richard Burton. & how one extraordinary man had three fathers three mothers seven brothers six sisters & four wives & how he loved them all. & how that man earned US$75 million from the start of his career in 1951 to when he died in 1984; the equivalent of US$1.5 billion in todays money making him the highest-paid actor in Hollywood history. From the Back Cover & God Created Burton is the first complete biography of the greatest Welshman ever to have lived. The man conquered Hollywood like no other British actor before or since. His achievements were considered all the greater as they were accomplished in the era of such great British actors as Laurence Olivier & John Gielgud as well as great American stars such as Humphrey Bogart Clark Gable & Cary Grant. Burtons achievement was even more pronounced as his prowess uniquely spanned theatre film & television unlike any other actor before him. In the end he became a genuine legend in his own lifetime & in the mid-sixties for one year he stood at the very pinnacle of Hollywood as the worlds most bankable actor. He also loved & lost some the most beautiful & talented actresses of the era including Elizabeth Taylor Claire Bloom & Susan Strasberg. But he could have achieved even more if it had not been for his addiction to alcohol a fate inherited from his father & which stayed with him right to the end of his days eventually killing him & tarnishing an otherwise extraordinary career.
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Cricket defines Englishness like no other national pastime. From its earliest origins in the sixteenth century (or an early version played by shepherds called creag in the 1300s) through the formation of the MCC & the opening of Lords cricket ground in 1787 to the spread of county cricket in the next century when the Wisden Cricketers Almanack" was first published & the Ashes series was born this simple sport of bat & ball has captured the imagination of the masses. Throughout its 500-year history cricket has been a mirror for society as a whole reflecting the changes that have brought us from the quintessential village green to Freddie Flintoffs pedalo from W G Grace to Monty Panesar via a fair number of eccentrics heroes & downright villains. William Hill Award-winning writer Simon Hughes no mean player himself has lived & breathed cricket his whole life & now takes his analytical skills & typically irreverent eye to charting the history of English cricket. But this is no dry dusty tome. It is the story of the mad characters who inhabit the game the extraordinary lengths people will go to watch & play it the tale of a national obsession. It debunks the myth of cricket sportsmanship showing the origins of sledging & match-fixing in centuries of subterfuge corruption & violence. & it takes us beyond sport to the heart of what it really means to be English." ...

Double acts dont come any closer than the The Two Ronnies. Messrs Barker & Corbett kept a nation laughing for two decades & yet despite the rigorous work that went into writing rehearsing & broadcasting almost a hundred episodes to millions of viewers each week the pair never shared a cross word. For the first time Ronnie Corbett tells the story of the their rise from theatre through The Frost Report & into their own legendary show as well as how some of their greatest sketches including Mastermind & Fork Handles came into being. This is the story of one of the great British institutions of the last thirty years & a hilarious & moving look inside the working lives of two of our most-beloved comedians. ...