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? ...

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 Lings friend & host Magnus Praetorius seems to almost immune from the depredations of the Communists? What is the legend of Yamashitas 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? ...

This is the International Bestseller. It is the winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize 2012. It is the winner of the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction 2013. It is shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012. With ravishing sensuousness it conjures up the lush landscapes & tea estates of Malaya during the 1950s Emergency...A haunting novel about memory". (Sunday Times Books of the Year). In the highlands of Malaya a woman sets out to build a memorial to her sister killed at the hands of the Japanese during the brutal Occupation of their country. Yun Ling's quest leads her to The Garden of Evening Mists & to Aritomo a man of extraordinary skill & reputation once the gardener of the Emperor of Japan. When she accepts his offer to become his apprentice she begins a journey into her past inextricably linked with the secrets of her troubled country's history." ...

The prequel to the compelling saga that began with ' Flowers in the Attic' repackaged for a new generation of fans. THEIR DARKEST SECRETS WOULD TURN TO SHAME & HAUNT THEIR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN. Olivia Winfield's hopes blossomed when the dashing Malcolm Foxworth asked her to marry him. But her hopes withered like flowers in the scorching sun when his true nature was revealed. Foxworth Hall the beautiful home that should have given them so much happiness became like a prison to her with Malcolm the cruellest of jailers. Suddenly unexpectedly the hand of friendship was offered to Olivia when Alicia her father-in-law's new young bride came to Foxworth Hall. The two women were unlikely companions but soon the laughter of their youth filled the gloomy place. Yet over them both loomed the shadow of Malcolm whose dark desires were to sow the seeds of a shocking secret that would lead in time to a darkened locked attic room... ...

Roof gardens represent the highest level" of garden design. They are lofty lifestyle oases
- modern rural romantic or classic
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This title contains four Maeve Binchy short stories specially commissioned for BBC Radio 4. Maeve Binchy is one of Britains most popular & bestselling authors & this collection of four stories from the BBC Radio 4 archive shows her at her most insightful & imaginative. In The Garden Party" Helen envies her neighbour Debbie Kennedys garden
- & her life
- but discovers that things are not always as they seem; while " The Special Sale" sees lonely Yvonne arranging a special lunch for her friend Frank & his children on the day after Christmas." The Sensible Celebration" finds Lorna about to throw a small party to celebrate the decade gone by: but as she plans she starts to think about her life & her marriage. Finally in " Dollys Mother" the beauty grace & efficiency of her perfect parent have always made Dolly feel inferior
- until the day of her sixteenth birthday. These four stories never collected together in book form & unique to audio are read by acclaimed actors Niamh Cusack Dervla Kirwan Doreen Hepburn & Stella Mc Cusker."


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This superb handbook encourages you to look at what you want from your garden & shows how to achieve it. There are original ...

Graham Payne has set out the ground rules for Mediterranean gardeners clearly & comprehensively. Here is the vast range of plants to consider growing what they offer & what they dem&. This is an eminently practical book."
- Hugh Johnson."
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