A personal & horticultural tour of the 400-year-old gardens at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. The Duchess of Devonshires anecdotal text takes the reader on a stroll through a garden that

Includes:: parterres & vistas water in all its forms rockeries & trees a working kitchen garden & statuary as well as planted borders. The history of the garden is described incorporating the creation the changes & the restorations both the Duke & Duchess have made in the spirit of the place". The Duchess of Devonshire has lived at Chatsworth since 1950."

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When The Prince of Wales bought Highgrove House in 1981 the surrounds consisted of a brown path which ran around the house a lawn & a few thorn bushes. Twenty years later he has transformed the land adjoining the house into several exquisite gardens which embody his gardening ideals & organic principles. With help from some of Britain's finest designers including The Marchioness of Salisbury Rosemary Verey Miriam Rothschild & Sir Roy Strong the Prince of Wales has created highly individual gardens which have now with his own ideas reached maturity. The Prince of Wales describes the thinking behind each garden the mistakes & the triumphs & his plans for the future. Lavishly illustrated with photographs which capture both the scope & detail of each garden this book will delight & inspire both gardeners & horticulturalists at every level. ...

Do you really know whats going on away from the bird feeder? Discover the private lives of your bird table regulars in this fascinating expose of the drama behind their everyday survival. There are profiles of over 50 birds with key information for identifying & learning about their different plumage song food & ways you can attract them to your garden. However this book goes further than just the general profile revealing the more secretive & intimate aspects of their existence such as: unusual feeding behaviour; territorial conflict; strange relationships with man; & breeding & nesting oddities. With over 200 colour photographs & artworks to help you identify your winged visitors Garden Bird Confidential" is a must for all nature lovers." ...

The ideal portable companion the world-renowned Collins Gem series returns with a fresh new look & updated material. This is the perfect pocket guide for keen birdwatchers & nature enthusiasts to identify the diverse range of birds that inhabit their gardens. Authoritative text & beautiful photographs show the distinguishing features of each bird including information on each species' feeding behavioural habits breeding voice & population. An extensive introduction provides information on nesting sites water pests & predators. This new edition builds on the strengths of the unrivalled original covering all birds most likely to be found in our gardens. ...

Gardens would be far less calming & enchanting without the cheerful singing of birds. But how can you tell just which birds you have visiting your garden? With this expert handbook you will soon be able to recognise their songs understand their behaviour & appreciate their wonderful plumage. Packed with interesting facts & beautiful illustrations this authoritative guide will help you to appreciate the birds you see every day in your garden. ...

Challenged to prove her claim that an 18th-century diet was better than todays for a full year Fiona J Houston recreated the lifestyle of her 1790s rural Scottish ancestors in a basic one-roomed cottage cooking from her garden & the wild often entertaining family & friends & surviving on her own resources. She learned lost crafts & skills making nettle string quill pens & ink as well as cheese & ale lighting her fire from flints & dressing in h&-sewn period clothing with nothing but an old range stove & candles for warmth & light. This beautiful quirky illustrated title tells her extraordinary story & is packed with historical anecdotes folklore practical gardening info seasonal menus recipes wildlife notes & more.

Includes:: linocuts photos & historic engravings.

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The complete guide to choosing fitting & maintaining all the non-living things in the garden with step-by-step advice on everything you could build or use in your garden: Walls fences & gates. Paths drives & patios. Ponds bird baths & bird tables. Pergolas & garden lighting. Barbecues & play areas. Greenhouses & garden storage. Choosing the right materials & tools for the job. How to maintain & repair garden structures. ...

Winner of the National Trust Outdoor Book of the Year 2011 The story of one mans unlikely quest to create out of a mountainous Welsh landscape a garden fit for inclusion in the prestigious Yellow Book -- the Gardens of England & Wales Open for Charity guide -- in just one year. The son of two passionate gardeners Antony Woodward was born with chlorophyll running through his veins. Unfortunately growing up with Latin plant names took its toll & he was ingrained early on with a profound loathing of both gardens & gardening. Buying Tair-ffynnon a derelict smallholding 1 300 feet up in the Black Mountains of Wales changed everything. Hooked by its beauty -- when not buried in cloud -- Woodward battles to meet the strict requirements of the famous Yellow Book in this unlikely terrain. He finds himself driven by apparently inexplicable compulsions: wood chopping hauling a 20-tonne railway carriage up a mountain even beekeeping. Soon his voyage along the rocky path to his own patch of paradise takes on a more personal tenor as he unearths the deep roots linking gardening & his childhood in this warm funny & unlikely memoir. Beautifully written & effortlessly engaging The Garden in the Clouds is a compelling read for anyone who has ever gardened -- or ever dreamt of doing so. ...

Alice Herz-Sommer was born in 1903 in Prague the Prague of the Hapsburgs & of Franz Kafka a family friend. Musically very gifted by her mid-teens Alice was one of the best-known pianists in Prague. But as the Nazis swept across Europe her comfortable bourgeois world began to crumble around her as anti-Jewish feeling not only intensified but was legitimised. In 1942 Alices mother was deported. Desperately unhappy she resolved to learn Chopins 24 Etudes
- the most technically demanding piano pieces she knew
- & the complex but beautiful music saved her sanity. A year later she too
- together with her husband & their six-year-old son
- was deported to a concentration camp. But even in Theresienstadt music was her salvation & in the course of more than a hundred concerts she gave her fellow-prisoners hope in a world of pain & death. This is her remarkable story but it is also the story of a mothers struggle to create a happy childhood for her beloved only son in the midst of atrocity & barbarism. Of 15 000 children sent to the camp Raphael was one of the 130 who survived. Today Alice Herz-Sommer lives in London & she still plays the piano every day.



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SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2012. Malaya 1949. After studying law at Cambrige & time spent helping to prosecute Japanese war criminals Yun Ling Teoh herself the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp seeks solace among the jungle fringed plantations of Northern Malaya where she grew up as a child. There she discovers Yugiri the only Japanese garden in Malaya & its owner & creator the enigmatic Aritomo exiled former gardener of the Emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in Kuala Lumpur in memory of her sister who died in the camp. Aritomo refuses but agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice 'until the monsoon comes'. Then she can design a garden for herself. As the months pass Yun Ling finds herself intimately drawn to her sensei & his art while outside the garden the threat of murder & kidnapping from the guerrillas of the jungle hinterland increases with each passing day. But the Garden of Evening Mists is also a place of mystery. Who is Aritomo & how did he come to leave Japan? Why is it that Yun Ling's friend & host Magnus Praetorius seems to almost immune from the depredations of the Communists? What is the legend of ' Yamashita's Gold' & does it have any basis in fact? & is the real story of how Yun Ling managed to survive the war perhaps the darkest secret of all? ...