Nestled in the green & rolling hills of the Southern Highlands of New South Wales is Whitley a gardeners paradise. Surrounded by beautifully manicured hedges this property boasts majestic oak trees roses & maples pretty cottage flower beds romantic Italian hillside plantings Australian native bush & secret vegetable patches. The beautifully laid out gardens are refuge to peacocks parrots & possums while picturesque statues & fountains provide glimpses of the gothic past. Yet Whitley is also home as well as sanctuary & inspiration for gardener Jenny Ferguson. In A Year in My Garden Jenny welcomes us into her private world & shares the glory of the passing seasons at Whitley. Through peaceful times of everyday pleasures & lifes little ups & downs Jennys garden is a constant & uplifting backdrop. Lavishly illustrated & featuring seasonal recipes A Year in My Garden is the perfect escape for busy lives
- sit back & enjoy a quiet moment in this delightful garden.
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Enjoy an irresistible feast of humour & discover the joys of French rural living with Peter Mayle's bestselling much-loved account of A Year In Provence". Peter Mayle & his wife did what most of us only imagine doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: throwing caution to the wind they bought a glorious two hundred year-old farmhouse in the Luberon Valley & began a new life. In a year that begins with a marathon lunch & continues with a host of gastronomic delights they also survive the unexpected & often hilarious curiosities of rural life. From mastering the local accent & enduring invasion by bumbling builders to discovering the finer points of boules & goat-racing all the earthy pleasures of Provencal life are conjured up in this enchanting portrait." ...

Beth Chatto has been among the most influential British gardeners of the second half of the twentieth century. When she started to make her garden on an overgrown area of wasteland in Essex in 1960 she was faced with a range of widely differing conditions from drought-stricken gravel through woodland to dense silty bog. Applying the principles of ecological gardening she set about finding plants that would suit these very different awkward situations. The gardens she made
- the Mediterranean garden on the sunny slopes the shady woodland garden the damp garden for water-loving plants the drier than dry gravel garden
- have become legendary. In this book photographer Rachel Warne has traced all these different gardens through the course of a year. She is the author of many books including her classics The Dry Garden (1978) & The Damp Garden (revised 2004) as well as Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden (2000) & Beth Chatto's Woodland Garden (2002). An engaging exchange of letters with Christopher Lloyd Dear Friend & Gardener was published in 1998. In 2002 she was awarded the OBE for her services to horticulture. A keen advocate of organic gardening she has lectured worldwide.

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Photographer Rob Beighton presents a magnificent selection of photographs of North Cornwall through the seasons an area that boasts some of the most spectacular scenery in the British Isles coupled with the most romantic history & traditions. Among the key locations on the coast are St. Ives voted Britains Best Seaside Town by the Guardian in 2007; Newquay now a major tourist & surfing destination; Padstow a fishing village that has become a high-profile resort yet maintains its yearly pagan festivals; Tintagel with its dramatically situated thirteenth-century castle said to be the birthplace of King Arthur; & Boscastle a picturesque village with a dramatic natural harbour. ...

Nestling on the beautiful Camel Estuary Padstow's colourful harbour is surrounded by pastel-washed fishermen's cottages & a glorious collection of shops & restaurants. Meanwhile just a short ferry ride away is the pretty village of Rock. Their location on the stunning north Cornish coast makes them hugley popular with the young & old alike offering an ecclectic mixture of sedate cream teas in Padstow & Atlantic rollers at Polzeath wildlife on the estuary & nightlife in Rock. All this combines to make sure that this area is one of the most popular holiday detsinations in the UK. With clarity & affection Joanna Jackson chronicles in photos a year in the life of this most charming corner of North Cornwall from the festive to the picturesque from the enduring pagan traditions of the ' Obby ' Oss & ' Mummers' to spectacular land & seascapes through the seasons. ...

The River Eden runs for 75 miles from its source high above the Mallerstang Dale to the magnificent wide expanses of the Solway Firth. The surrounding landscape the broad sweep of the Eden Valley contains some of the finest scenery in northern England yet it is little known all the attention going to the neighbouring Lake District. This tranquil & unspoilt area has a turbulent history. A line of fine Norman castles fortified churches & pele towers helped to protect the populace from the frequent Scots border raids. Most of the attractive red sandstone villages date from the more peaceful times of the seventeenth century. Cross Fell the highest point of the Pennines soars majestically over the valley while the curiously pointed cones of the Dufton & Knock Pikes speak of the interesting geological history. Downstream from Appleby the Eden flows through pastoral settings sometimes through more turbulent stretches. In these it cuts deeply through eroded rich red sandstone cliffs where hermits' caves strange carvings & inscriptions can be found sculpted in the soft rock. The weirs rapids & long pools provide renowned salmon & trout fishing. Award-winning photographer Val Corbett captures the beauty of this landscape through the seasons. ...

The Yorkshire Dales National Park is a showcase for some of the finest limestone scenery in Europe. Covering 683 square miles it can be divided naturally into a number of areas each with its own character. Perhaps the most famous of these is the area widely known as the Three Peaks much of which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The Three Peaks lie on the western fringe of the National Park & consist of the mountains of Whernside (2414 ft) Ingleborough (2373 ft) & Pen-y-Ghent (2273 ft). In this stunning book photographer Andy Standfield who has known the area most of this life captures the ever-changing seasons of a year in the life of the Three Peaks. ...

Paul West a young Englishman arrives in Paris to start a new job
- & finds out what the French are really like They do eat a lot
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' It was time the editor told me for a more modern approach to Germany... The three of us were the backbone of the British press corps. No cliche about Germany left the country without us having given it our seal of approval.' Laugh-out-loud funny this is the memorable story of an English journalist's adventures
- including his encounters with women
- as he tries to get to grip with the Germans. Facing bankruptcy Roger is advised by his accountant to make use of a legal loophole: in Germany married couples have their tax bill halved. So the search is on for a German bride. Meanwhile his father a former bomber pilot & war hero is also in financial trouble & is threatening to move to Germany & sponge off his son. The combination of financial romantic & parental crises sets in train a hilarious romp during which we discover more than we really wanted to about speed-dating & nudist beaches the British media obsession with Adolf Hitler & how to cheat at the Berlin marathon curry wurst & stuffed cabbage. Writing incisively & almost without prejudice Roger Boyes describes the peculiarities of everyday life in Germany.

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The village of Campodimele in the Aurunci Mountains has been called the village of eternal youth by the scientific community after a study revealed the astonishing longevity of its inhabitants. The average life expectancy of the Campomelani is 95 compared to the European average of 75 for men & 82 for women. Not only do the villagers live to an extraordinary age but they also enjoy healthy & active lives at an age when many people in the UK have succumbed to general infirmity or the three major plagues of Western life: cancer heart disease & diabetes. How do they do it? Tracey Lawson decided that the only way to find out was to spend some time living in the village herself. This book chronicles twelve months in the life of Campodimele focusing on the seasonal cooking & eating habits that doctors believe are the key to the villagers long lives. There are insights from such colourful characters as Gerardo who still zips down to the wheat fields on his aged scooter & Maria who is often seen chasing hens up the hill on her 83-year-old legs
- as well as a years worth of timeless simple recipes that will seduce even the busiest urbanite. With full-colour plate sections to show off the wealth of gorgeous photography A Year in the Village of Eternity is at once a Mediterranean cookbook a sensible & inspiring food manual & a stunning unique travel book
- a winning cross between Under the Tuscan Sun & Jamies Italy with a dash of You Are What You Eat.

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