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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Nicknamed 'the rose among the palms' the thous&-year-old city of Marrakesh is characterised by its pink-coloured pise architecture & its deeply rooted tradition for gardens & green spaces. The majority of historic sites are inextricable from their gardens
- or indeed are historic green spaces: the huge royal orchard pleasure-gardens of the Agdal were described by Monty Don as 'of international cultural importance on a par with Versailles or Villa d' Este'. Scores of traditional riads & hotels like the Mamounia created by the French in 1923 on the site of an eighteenth-century royal residence offer splendid gardens to the visitor. Yves Saint Laurent's Majorelle garden is an icon of modern garden design. The first book to be published on this fascinating subject Gardens of Marrakesh champions the city's relevance today in a world of water scarcity & urban development & explores its green heritage considering some twenty gardens both from an historic & cultural perspective.
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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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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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This book by historical transport expert Graham Edge is a comprehensive study of a Manchester company whose name became revered in over forty countries. It traces the story from the origins of the firm in 1868 until it ceased engine production almost 130 years later. In 1929 L Gardner & Sons Ltd perfected a small high-speed direct injection diesel engine the worlds first for an engine of its size. The company soon developed this into the first purpose-built automotive engine of its type. This renowned Gardner LW series was also revolutionary in its use of lightweight aluminium alloys. Because diesel fuel was more economical than petroleum spirit for most of the last century & especially in the 1930s Gardners was able to capitalise on a huge & growing market. Their diesel engines went on to gain an unrivalled reputation for reliability & economy in buses coaches lorries rail shipping & industrial installations. Their heyday was probably from the end of the Second World War to the early 1960s a time when their order book was always full. As well as telling the story of the companys engineering achievements (and setbacks) the author also brings to life some of the personalities involved not least the members of the Gardner family. Although they were engineers par excellence some of the could be quite irascible! By the 1970s Gardners were being left behind by changes in the transport market & also faced damaging industrial relations. In 1977 they became part of the Hawker Siddeley group. This is a reprint of a book first published in 2002 & revised in 2006. Graham Edge was able to draw on knowledge freely provided by former sales director Dion Houghton. The superb photographs are mainly from the archives of Dion Houghton & Paul Gardner the great-grandson of the founder. Each photograph has a detailed caption & the books Appendices include production figures. ...

Gareth Bale is one of the most promising young talents in the Premier League & is regarded as one of Europes hottest football properties. Born in 1989 Bale first attracted the attention of Southampton FC at the age of just nine. At secondary school he was such a prodigious talent that his PE teacher Gwyn Morris had to impose special restrictions on him to make it fair for the other pupils. These included playing one-touch football & not using his left foot. After completing his GCSE exams (he gained an A grade in PE) Bale became the second-youngest player ever to sign for Southampton on 17 April 2008. Despite playing at left-back he scored five goals & was extremely impressive in his first season. The Premier League soon came calling & in 2007 Bale signed a four-year deal with Tottenham Hotspur. His career at White Hart Lane didnt get off to the best start as he played in a record 24 games without a win but in late 2009 he seized his chance to secure a regular place in the first team & since then he had proved to be a top-class footballer with a stunning hat-trick in Tottenhams Europa League tie against Inter Milan at the San Siro & a man-of-the-match performance in the return leg. Bale has unsurprisingly also made several appearances for Wales & his talent has been compared to that of the legendary Ryan Giggs. ...