Did the Romans have rakes? Did the monks get muddy? Did the potato seem really, really weird when it arrived on our shores? This lively `potted` history of gardening in Britain takes us on a garden tour from the thorn hedges around prehistoric settlements to the rage for ornamental grasses & `outdoor rooms` today. It tracks down the ordinary folk who worked the earth
- the apprentice boys & weeding women, the florists & nursery gardeners
- as well as aristocrats & grand designers & famous plant-hunters. Coloured by Jenny Uglow`s own love for plants, & brought to life in the many vivid illustrations, it deals not only with flowery meads, grottoes & vistas, landscapes & ha-has, parks & allotments, but tells you, for example, how the Tudors made their curious knots; how housewives used herbs to stop freckles; how the suburbs dug for victory in World War II. With a brief guide to particular historic or evocative gardens open to the public, this is a book to put in your pocket when planning a summer day out
- but also to read in your deckchair with a glass of cold wine, when dead-heading is simply too much.


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Philosophy begins with questions about the nature of reality & how we should live. These were the concerns of Socrates, who spent his days in the ancient Athenian marketplace asking awkward questions, disconcerting the people he met by showing them how little they genuinely understood. This engaging book introduces the great thinkers in Western philosophy & explores their most compelling ideas about the world & how best to live in it. In forty brief chapters, Nigel Warburton takes us on a chronological tour of the major ideas in the history of philosophy. He provides interesting & often quirky stories of the lives & deaths of thought-provoking philosophers from Socrates, who chose to die by hemlock poisoning rather than live on without the freedom to think for himself, to Peter Singer, who asks the disquieting philosophical & ethical questions that haunt our own times. Warburton not only makes philosophy accessible, he offers inspiration to think, argue, reason, & question in the tradition of Socrates. ”A Little History of Philosophy” presents the grand sweep of humanity`s search for philosophical understanding & invites all to join in the discussion. ...

A fast-paced, character-filled history that brings the unique American saga to life for readers of all ages How did a land & people of such immense diversity come together under a banner of freedom & equality to form one of the most remarkable nations in the world? Everyone from young adults to grandparents will be fascinated by the answers uncovered in James West Davidson`s vividly told A Little History of the United States. In 300 fast-moving pages, Davidson guides his readers through 500 years, from the first contact between the two halves of the world to the rise of America as a superpower in an era of atomic perils & diminishing resources. In short, vivid chapters the book brings to life hundreds of individuals whose stories are part of the larger American story. Pilgrim William Bradford stumbles into an Indian deer trap on his first day in America; Harriet Tubman lets loose a pair of chickens to divert attention from escaping slaves; the toddler Andrew Carnegie, later an ambitious industrial magnate, gobbles his oatmeal with a spoon in each h&. Such stories are riveting in themselves, but they also spark larger questions to ponder about freedom, equality, & unity in the context of a nation that is, & always has been, remarkably divided & diverse. ...

“A Little History of the World” presents Ernst Gombrich’s lively & involving history to English-language readers for the first time. In 1935, with a doctorate in art history & no respect of a job, the twenty-six-year-old Ernst Gombrich was invited to attempt a history of the world for younger readers. Amazingly, he completed the task in an intense six weeks, & “ Eine kurz Weltgeschichte für jinge Leser” was published in Vienna to immediate success, & is now available in twenty-five languages across the world. Toward the end of his life, Gombrich embarked upon a revision &, at last, an English translation; in forty concise chapters, he tells the story of man from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colourful picture of wars & conquests, grand works of art, & the spread & limitations of science. This is a text dominated not by dates & facts, but by the sweep of mankind’s experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity’s achievements & an acute witness to its frailties. The product of a generous & humane sensibility, this timeless account makes intelligible the full span of human history. ...

E. H. Gombrich’s “ History of the World” is one of the most famous books of all time, & here in this fantastically illustrated edition is that book’s concise little brother, “A Little History of the World”. In forty chapters, Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone age to the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colourful picture of wars & conquests, grand works of art, & the spread & limitations of science. This wonderful illustrated edition brings together the pellucid humanity of his narrative with the images that may well have been in his mind’s eye as he wrote the book. With a revised preface, new maps, two hundred illustrations (most in colour), this is both a sumptuous gift book & an enhanced edition of a timeless account of human history. ...

` Now I am a mother & a married woman, but not long ago I led a life of crime`: so Bianca begins her tale of growing up the hard way in Rome in A Little Lumpen Novelita. Orphaned overnight as a teenager
- `our parents died in a car crash on their first vacation without us`
- she drops out of school, gets a crappy job, sees a terrible brightness at night, & drifts into bad company. Her little brother brings home two petty criminals who need a place to stay. As the four of them share the family apartment & plot a strange crime, Bianca learns she can drift lower.. . Electric & tense with foreboding, with its jagged, propulsive short chapters beautifully translated by Natasha Wimmer, A Little Lumpen Novelita
- one of the last novels Roberto Bolano published
- delivers a surprising, fractured fairy tale of taking control of one`s fate.



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A specially adapted board book edition of Oliver Jeffers` original whodunit The Great Paper Caper. There was once a forest where everyone was contentedly going about their business. All was well until the strangest thing suddenly started happening. Without any warning, branches started disappearing from trees. Something would have to be done, everyone agreed
- everyone that is, except for someone who was acting very mysteriously indeed. A thrilling tale of mystery, crime, a forest, paper planes & a bear who wanted to win!
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`I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try & behave like one` Without her beloved father & miles from home, it is very hard for Sara Crewe to like her new life at boarding school. Luckily Sara is always dreaming up wonderful things & her power of telling stories wins her lots of friends. When a letter arrives that brings disastrous news, the wicked headmistress Miss Minchin forces Sara to become a servant. Her lovely clothes & toys are taken away from her. She must work from dawn until midnight. How will Sara cope with her new found poverty? Can her imagination help her overcome this horrible situation? BACKSTORY: Read why Jacqueline Wilson loves this book & find out which pupil of Sara`s school you are most like. ...

Alone in a new country, wealthy Sara Crewe tries to make friends at boarding school & settle in. But when she learns that she`ll never see her beloved father again, her life is turned upside down. Transformed from princess to pauper, she must swap dancing lessons & luxury for drudgery & a room in the attic. Will she find that kindness & generosity are all the riches she truly needs? With deeply poignant introduction written by bestselling author of ” Chinese Cinderella”, ”A Little Princess” is one of the twelve wonderful classic stories being relaunched in ” Puffin Classics” in March 2008. ...

Alone in a new country, wealthy Sara Crewe tries to settle in & make friends at boarding school. But when she learns that she`ll never see her beloved father gain, her life is turned upside down. Transformed from princess to pauper, she must swap dancing lessons & luxury for hard work & a room in the attic. Will she find that kindness & genorosity are all the riches she truly needs? ...