Born in 1831, Isabella, daughter of a clergyman, set off alone to the Antipodes in 1872 `in search of health` & found she had embarked on a life of adventurous travel. In 1873, wearing Hawaiian riding dress, she rode on her spirited horse Birdie through the American ` Wild West`, a terrain only recently opened to pioneer settlement. Here she met Rocky Mountain Jim, her `dear (one-eyed) desperado`, fond of poetry & whisky
- `a man any women might love, but no sane woman would marry`. He helped her climb the ` American Matterhorn` & round up cattle on horseback. The wonderful letters which make up this volume were first published in 1879 & were enormously popular in Isabella Bird`s lifetime. They tell of magnificent unspoilt landscapes & abundant wildlife, of small remote townships, of her encounters with rattlesnakes, wolves, pumas & grizzly bears & her reactions to the volatile passions of the miners & pioneer settlers.
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Isabella Bird, an Englishwoman whose extensive travels & writings earned her the first female membership of the Royal Geographic Society, visited the Rocky Mountains alone during the autumn of 1873.A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, gives a fascinating description of life in the untamed Colorado Territory at a time when it was only notionally under the control of the American authorities, having been brutally seized from the Indians. Her intrepid journeys through remote areas are relayed in the form of fluent, achingly beautiful, highly spirited letters written to her sister. They tell of magnificent unspoiled landscapes, of small remote townships, of her encounters with rattlesnakes, wolves, pumas & grizzly bears & her reactions to the volatile pioneer settlers as they came to terms with their isolation, poverty & difficulties as immigrants in the wake of the Civil War. These letters, first published in 1879, were enormously popular in Bird’s own lifetime & remain as wonderfully vivid & powerful as ever. Stanfords Travel Classics feature some of the finest historical travel writing in the English language, with authors hailing from both sides of the Atlantic. Every title has been reset in a contemporary typeface to create a series that every lover of fine travel literature will want to collect & keep. ...

”A Lake District Miscellany” is a treasure-trove of facts, figures & lists for one of England`s most celebrated regions, offering a wealth of information on everything from finding Wordsworth`s famous daffodils to the region`s sheep-farming, from Kendal Mint cake to home of pencils. Compiled by Lake District resident & veteran walker Tom Holman, this Miscellany is guaranteed to absorb the reader with its collection of tidbits, covering history, geography, literary connection, food, lifestyle, language, walking, weather & much more besides. ...

How do you make a Lancashire Hot Pot? Why did a red rose become the emblem of Lancashire? Where can you find Bedlam, Buttock & Little Tongues? Which Italian opera was set in Lancashire? What is the highest point in the county? When is Lancashire Day? Find all the answers & much more besides in A Lancashire Miscellany-a treasure trove of knowledge about this wonderful part of Engl&. Whether you`re a true Lancastrian or just passing through, this book is an entertaining romp through the people & places of the wonderful county. Teach yourself the Lancashire lingo with a gradely guide to local dialect & sayings, & pick up tips for cooking famous local specialities like black pudding & Eccles cakes. From Prime Ministers to rock stars, read the stories of famous Lancastrians through the ages, & discover some of the quirky customs of the region. From its famous landmarks & industries to its cultural & sporting highlights, A Lancashire Miscellany is bursting with intriguing facts & figures-a book to dip into again & again. This title is also available as an ebook, in either Kindle, e Pub or PDF editions ...

Jacquetta Hawkes’ A Land is a reissue from the Collins Nature Library, a new series of classic British nature writing which aims to bring back into the light long-lost seminal works in the field. The titles have been chosen by one of Britain’s best known & highly acclaimed nature writers, Robert Macfarlane, who has also written new introductions that put these classics into a modern context.A Land is Jacquetta Hawkes’ seminal work, & a classic piece of British Nature writing. It is the history of the shaping of Britain & its people from the first, lifeless, Pre-Cambrian rocks to the days of the ice-cream carton & the hydrogen bomb. First, as an archaeologist & geologist, Hawkes paints a picture of the creation of Britain from the very first forming of the earth’s crust, through periods marked by lifeless worlds of rock, water & air, to the first emergence of life that senses its surroundings. The worms & trilobites mark the beginning of the story of life that evolves through the great reptiles, dinosaurs & finally humans. Science writing at its very best, these engrossing stories, curious facts & powerful narrative combine under the umbrella of poetic writing & unadulterated passion for the subject. Widely lauded on its publication, this is an exposition of complex science in a way that is not just comprehensible, but deeply moving. ...

James Morris challenges the tourist cliches & looks at the impact of human presence & the layers history in the landscape. He reflects upon issues of identity, exploitation & regeneration; it is a land of beauty & of hardship where
- in this post industrial, post rural economy
- Tesco & tourism are now the great employers. These are the contrasting realities of the Welsh landscape
- that seen by the many visitors & that experienced by most inhabitants. Morris moves between tourist hot spots & the terraces & back streets where the majority of people live. The latter are often hard bitten unpretty places, often built for reasons that no longer exist, no longer the world`s largest producer of iron, coal, copper or slate, these are places that have lost their historic & heroic status, sometimes even their raison d`etre. Regeneration is taking place, but it is taking its time. By contrast the tourist landscape is one of pleasure seeking & escape
- this is the Wales that visitors are sold & want to see. But in a small land this selling of culture for the tourist pound has complex consequences that build on the complexities of a relationship that has shaped so much of the landscape.



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The Famous Five
- Julian, Dick, George, Anne & Timmy
- have been delighting readers for over 70 years. It`s so terribly hot,

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This is the first novel in over twenty-five years to feature George Smiley, le Carré`s most beloved character. Peter Guillam, staunch colleague & disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, & involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley & Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinised under disturbing criteria by a generation with no memory of the Cold War & no patience with its justifications. Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carré has spun a single plot as ingenious & thrilling as the two predecessors on which it looks back: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold & Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. ...

Chosen as a Book of the Year in The Times Literary Supplement, the Evening Standard, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, The Times `A brilliant novel of deception, love & trust to join his supreme cannon` Evening Standard ` Vintage le Carre. Immensely clever, breathtaking. Really, not since The Spy Who Came in from the Cold has le Carre exercised his gift as a storyteller so powerfully & to such thrilling effect` John Banville, Guardian Peter Guillam, former disciple of George Smiley in the British Secret Service, has long retired to Brittany when a letter arrives, summoning him to London. The reason? Cold War ghosts have come back to haunt him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of the Service are to be dissected by a generation with no memory of the Berlin Wall. Somebody must pay for innocent blood spilt in the name of the greater good... ` Splendid, fast-paced, riveting` Andrew Marr, Sunday Times` Remarkable. Vintage John le Carre. It gives the reader, at long last, pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that have been missing for 54 years. Like wine, le Carre`s writing has got richer with age. Don`t wait for the paperback` The Times ` Perhaps the most significant novelist of the second half of the 20th century in Britain. He`s in the first rank` Ian Mc Ewan ` One of those writers who will be read a century from now` Robert Harris ...

Refreshes the parts other history books can`t reach...A bit ropy on the Renaissance? In the dark about the Enlightenment? Or, in fact, do you need a revision course on the entire history of the world & want to read a witty, irreverent, definitely not boring romp through everything that has ever happened on planet earth
- from 15 billion years BC to the present day? Good. A Less Boring History of the World tells you everything you need to know from the Big Bang to Barack Obama, taking in the Byzantines, the Black Death, Bin Laden & the fall of bankers along the way, all boiled down to bite size chunks so that you can finally piece together all the different bits of history
- & see how on earth we ended up in the mess we are today. A Less Boring History refreshes your memory & broadens your mind. &, if that`s not enough, it will also make you laugh. A lot.

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