Innovative, startlingly perceptive & aglow with colour, these fifteen stories were written towards the end of Katherine Mansfield`s tragically short life. Many are set in the author`s native New Zeal&, others in England & the French Riviera. All are revelations of the unspoken, half-understood emotions that make up everyday experience
- from the blackly comic ` The Daughters of the Late Colonel`, & the short, sharp sketch ` Miss Brill`, in which a lonely woman`s precarious sense of self is brutally destroyed, to the vivid impressionistic evocation of family life in ` At the Bay`. ` All that I write, ` Mansfield said, `all that I am
- is on the borders of the sea. It is a kind of playing.`

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This is the latest book by a popular & highly professional writer who has opened the eyes of thousands of readers to both the complex beauty & the practical implications of garden design. The first part offers a worldwide survey of garden philosophies, & the modern phenomenon of garden tourism. Why do owners want to open their gardens, & why do people want to visit them? The rest of the book is effectively an answer to these questions. This will be essential reading for all garden visitors & also for garden owners & garden designers. ...

Published annually in spring, The Garden Visitor`s Handbook 2018 lists nearly 4, 000 gardens open for visiting. It is packed with full-colour photographs & informed comment. Fully updated & supported by an online database, The Garden Visitor`s Handbook 2018 is now easier to use than ever. Look out for sensory gardens, those offering accommodation & delicious treats, & learn how to create your own patch. Find a garden to visit near you & support the NGS`s vital charity work. ...

Igor is confident his old Soviet policeman`s uniform will be the best costume at the party. But he hasn`t gone far before he realises something is wrong. The streets are unusually dark & empty, & the only person to emerge from the shadows runs away from him in terror. After a perplexing conversation with the terrified man, who turns out to be a wine smuggler, & on recovering from the resulting hangover, Igor comes to an unbelievable conclusion: he has found his way back to 1957 Kiev. & it isn`t the innocent era his mother & her friends have so sentimentally described. As he travels between centuries, his life becomes more & more complicated. The unusual gardener who lives in his mother`s shed keeps disappearing, his best friend has blackmailed the wrong people, & Igor has fallen in love with a married woman in a time before he was born. With his mother`s disapproval at his absences growing, & his adventures in each time frame starting to catch up with him, Igor has to survive the past if he wants any kind of future. ...

This brain-teasing puzzle book is the perfect way to relax after a hard day's toil in the garden. With 200 intriguing puzzles, ranging from Spot the Difference to plant & flower anagrams, interspersed with beautiful historical engravings & fascinating facts & garden folklore, it's guaranteed to keep your mind as sharp as a thorn, & germinate lots of ideas in your mental greenhouse! David Squire has spent a lifetime gardening & writing. He has written 80 books which have been published in over 18 countries. This is David's first gardening puzzle book & the culmination of many years of research. ...

This is a stunningly illustrated guide to Florence & Tuscany`s best gardens. This superbly illustrated volume takes readers on a grand tour of all the public gardens in Florence & throughout Tuscany as is divided into three sections: Florence Within the Walls
- 9 gardens; Florence Outside the Walls
- 28 gardens; &, Gardens in Tuscany
- 58 gardens. This superb volume provides a wealth of historical, botanical, & architectural information on these 95 gardens & the people who helped create them. Featuring travel info, maps, & visitor itineraries to help you make the most of your visit, plus photos, chronologies, & plans, this is a must-have volume for anyone wanting to discover the natural beauty of Florence & Tuscany.


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In Japanese gardens, visitors find nature condensed & brought to perfection. Trees are trained & sculpted; the finest natural landscapes are reproduced in miniature; & the seasons are celebrated with spring blossom & the fiery leaves of autumn. The Gardens of Japan is the perfect introduction to Japanese gardens. Helena Attlee captures the essence of Japanese garden style, & outlines its history. She then explores 28 of the great Japanese gardens in detail, explaining their character & nature. Alex Ramsay`s superb photographs, specially taken for The Gardens of Japan, illustrate every aspect of the gardens. ...

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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In 1929, a newly married M.F.K. Fisher said goodbye to a milquetoast American culinary upbringing & sailed with her husband to Dijon, where she tasted real French cooking for the first time. ” The Gastronomical Me” is a chronicle of her passionate embrace of a whole new way of eating, drinking, & celebrating the senses. As she recounts memorable meals shared with an assortment of eccentric & fascinating characters, set against a backdrop of mounting pre-war tensions, we witness the formation not only of her taste but of her character & her prodigious talent. ...

Between 1970 & 1975 Jon Swain, the English journalist portrayed in David Puttnam`s film, ” The Killing Fields”, lived in the lands of the Mekong river. This is his account of those years, & the way in which the tumultuous events affected his perceptions of life & death as Europe never could. He also describes the beauty of the Mekong landscape
- the villages along its banks, surrounded by mangoes, bananas & coconuts, & the exquisite women, the odours of opium, & the region`s other face
- that of violence & corruption.

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