The Gardens of Delight brochure promises the opportunity to visit some of the most beautiful gardens in the Lake Como area of Italy. For Lucy the chance to go to Italy offers more than just gardens. Lake Como is where her father lives & the last time she saw him was when she was just a teenager. Recently married Helen & her wealthy husband have just moved into the Old Rectory. With her husband spending so much time away from home Helen throws herself into caring for the garden. But Helen needs help
- & friends
- & so decides to take the plunge & join the local Garden Club. Conrad isn't the least bit interested in gardening. Widowed for five years his life revolves around work & humouring Mac his elderly uncle who lives with him & who has expressed a desire to go on the Gardens of Delight tour. Reluctantly Conrad agrees to accompany him. ' Anything for a peaceful life ' he concedes. But a peaceful life is the last thing any of them are in for...

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In England gardening & garden-visiting are national obsessions. More than 80 years ago the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) was founded with the aim of raising money for charity by opening gardens of quality & interest to the public. In the first year some 600 gardens were opened. Today over 3700 gardens
- many of them privately owned & opened for just a few days each year
- are listed in The Yellow Book the annual guide published by the NGS. The Gardens of England gives you the opportunity to enjoy 50 of the country's greatest garden gems from the comfort of your armchair. Each of the five chapters is written by a different leading gardens expert & surveys 10 gardens opened as part of the NGS during a particular period. George Plumptre head of the NGS provides an engaging introduction on garden-visiting & 12 well-known gardeners offer a personal account of their favourite NGS garden. Featuring established & new gardens of all styles this is a book that no lover of the English garden should be without.

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The magnificent parks & gardens owned by English Heritage are far less well-known than its evocative medieval abbeys or Victorian mansions. Yet these remarkable places offer a wide-ranging variety of gardening pleasures. Some have stunning designs while others are important for their history or their plants. A surprising number are brand new & a few of the best are tiny. All have marvellously atmospheric surroundings. From the formality of Wrest Park & Chiswick House to the rolling parkland slopes around Kenwood House; from Queen Victorias garden at Osborne complete with charming vegetable plots for the royal children to the exotic Quarry Garden at Belsay Hall & the modern restraint of the Contemporary Heritage Scheme here are gardens from every corner of England & almost every century. These essays tell the story of how each was created & of the sometimes eccentric families who owned them. The decay their trees fountains & statues so often fell into is described
- & the way they have been restored & survive to delight us today.
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Gertrude Jekyll is one of the most influential 20th-century garden designers. This book shows the best of her garden designs & a wonderful collection of her planting plans made more accessible by extensive analysis & reinterpretation of the originals accompanied by simple watercolours of the plans & illuminating photographs. ...

Attracting over a million visitors each year the island gardens of Madeira are unique. For centuries Madeira was at the crossroads of the world
- half-way between the tropics & the old continent. The islanders were poised to receive plants from far-flung empires & accommodate ideas from both north & south. In such a climate growth is phenomenal & streets & squares are filled with magnificent trees (jacarandas flame-trees & rosewoods) let alone the oozing dragon trees. Some thirty gardens in & around the capital Funchal & further afield as well as some of the unique native flora & landscape are expertly described. Luckhurst also explores the discovery & development of the island & its earliest gardens & the role of Portuguese aristocrats & British wine merchants in creating the country estates known as quintas.
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An extraordinary French Resistance wartime memoir combining the best kind of adventure story with a coming of age testimony of unforgettable resonance & poignancy. September 2011 Halkidiki Northern Greece. A solitary 86 year-old man gazes across an Aegean headland knowing that he must finally confront his past. He begins to write... September 1939 Nieppe Northern France. 14 year-old Stephen is living with his family 25 kilometres from Ypres. His French mother battles with her encroaching blindness. Failing to escape the advancing German army his English father can no longer look after the war graves that cast so heartbreaking a shadow across the region. Stephen & his friend Marcel embark upon their great adventure: collecting souvenirs from strafed convoys & crashed Messerschmitts. But their world turns dark when arrested & imprisoned for sabotage & threatened with deportation or the firing squad. Upon his release & still only 16 Stephen is recruited by the French Resistance. Growing up under the threat of imminent betrayal he learns the arts of clandestine warfare &
- in a moment that haunts him still
- how to kill... Such was the impact of Stephen Gradys work for the French Resistance (especially during the countdown to D-Day & its bloody aftermath) that he was awarded the Croix de Guerre & the American Medal of Freedom.

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Elizabeth Glendinning QC has lost faith in the legal system. In an attempt to restore it she has secretly devised a scheme to bring back to court a guilty man
- Graham Riley
- whom she had successfully defended some ten years before. As part of an elaborate contingency plan Elizabeth leaves the unsuspecting Father Anselm with a key to a safety deposit box to be opened in the event of her death. Three weeks later she is found dead in the East End of London & once the box has been opened a chain of events is triggered as if from beyond the grave leading Anselm to fulfil what Elizabeth has begun. A powerful portrait of the dark heart of London & a tense thriller THE GARDENS OF THE DEAD confirms William Brodricks growing critical reputation.

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Bled dry by interminable warfare infighting & bloody confrontations with Lord Anomander Rake & his Tiste Andii the vast sprawling Malazan empire simmers with discontent. Even its imperial legions yearn for some respite. For Sergeant Whiskeyjack & his Bridgeburners & for Tattersail sole surviving sorceress of the Second Legion the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the dead. But Darujhistan last of the Free Cities of Genabackis still holds out
- & Empress Lasseen's ambition knows no bounds. However it seems the empire is not alone in this great game. Sinister forces gather as the gods themselves prepare to play their h&... Conceived & written on an epic scale Gardens of the Moon is a breathtaking achievement
- a novel in which grand design a dark & complex mythology wild & wayward magic & a host of enduring characters combine with thrilling powerful storytelling to resounding effect. Acclaimed by writers critics & readers alike here is the opening chapter in what has been hailed a landmark of epic fantasy: the awesome ' The Malazan Book of the Fallen'.

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The National Trust has the finest collection of gardens in the United Kingdom. In this book Stephen Lacey paints a vivid historical & horticultural picture of the individual gardens placing them firmly within the context of gardening history in Britain. All the major periods & styles of garden design are represented ranging from the formality of early gardens such as Hanbury Hall & Ham House magnificent 18th-century landscapes like Stowe & Croome Park & the heady Victorian creations of Biddulph Grange & Waddesdon Manor to the famous plantsmens gardens of the last century such as Nymans Hidcote Manor & Sissinghurst Castle. Much has happened in the gardens of the National Trust since the last revision of this book & this edition has been substantially revised to embrace recent restorations
- notably of walled kitchen gardens in numerous properties
- to introduce recently acquired properties & to showcase superb new photography. Nine gardens make their debut in this new edition the Trust having acquired Seaton Delaval Hall Sunnycroft Godolphin Quarry Bank House & parts of the surrounding Styal estate & undertaken improvements at Treasurers House Goddards Wordsworth House & Sheringham. Woolbeding also opens for the first time presenting the work of more contemporary garden designers. The book serves as a practical guide as well as a source of inspiration. Each entry gives details of soil type & climate & an appendix

Includes:: many other gardens to visit. In addition there are practical features on different aspects of gardening written by National Trust head gardeners. Glorious colour photographs illustrate the entries complementing the text to bring the gardens to life.



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Gardens are most peoples main opportunity to see an ecosystem at work. Even the smallest space contains a collection of both wild animals & plants. Yet we are often oblivious of the sheer richness of experience that our gardens can provide. Most of us do not expect to see anything they havent built or planted. In small gardens most visiting wildlife will be in the form of birds & butterflies; in more substantial gardens residents may include larger mammals but they are mainly nocturnal
- & few gardeners look in their gardens after dark. This book explores the gardens hidden world of life amid the grass behind the bushes in the trees & under stones & fallen branches & will convert a stroll around your garden from a conversation with familiar friends (the plants chosen & planted) to a voyage of discovery that

Includes:: invertebrates & larger animals as well. Broad & inclusive in its approach this book should appeal to naturalists & gardeners of all ages.


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