The Palladian Way is the brainchild of Cotswold walker Guy Vowles. It was born out of a previous idea for a long distance walk between Oxford & Bath but was extended northwards to Buckingham where the author was educated nearby. The realization that there was a Palladian bridge at Prior Park outside Bath to match the one at Stowe suggested a suitable title & the discovery of many classical houses & large estates along the route has helped to make the trail more than just another long walk. The majority of this 200km (125m) trail passes through beautiful countryside & many interesting villages with a wealth of historical background so that walkers can discover parts of England they would not normally visit. THE MAKING OF A LONG DISTANCE TRAIL The inspiration for a new long distance walk can come from many sources. In my case it was a loan of a book. ” The Wayfarers Journal” is an elaborate production describing a number of routes which a small, rather quirky group of men who called themselves the ” Viators” (Latin for ”the travellers”) started walking in the 1950s. They researched their routes & kept records. Some 30 years later a chance meeting with a journalist one lunch time at a pub close to Hadrian`s Wall, led eventually to publication. Many of their walks or ”iters” had Roman connections & ITER XXXVI particularly interested me. The cover pages contain a map of a route ” South Cotswolds-Bath to Oxford 108 miles” but unfortunately there is no descriptive text. The book is out of print but I managed to acquire a copy & transposed the route on to modern OS maps. One January I set off to walk the first three days from Oxford. Their route was quite convoluted & I soon decided that I could plan something more interesting. I started the first walk over with a good friend with whom I had walked the length of Scotland & England a few years previously. We left Oxford via the tow path of the Oxford canal which we found to be rather unattractive with some of the houseboats described by my friend as ”sinking assets A”. He also enquired about the length of the intended new route which now fell short of the magic 100 mile mark. By coincidence, about the same time, I was talking to another friend about my old school, Stowe, & he commented that his own old school, Prior Park, also had a Palladian bridge in the grounds. This was an eye opener to me & set me thinking. Stowe is north of Oxford & a route via Woodstock & Blenheim would not only avoid the difficulties around Oxford but would also take the distance down to Prior Park & Bath to over the 100 mile distance. ...

There are a multitude of ` London Calling` cards in the collection at Rocket 68. This lively illustrated range of London themed prints & cards aims to portray the vibrancy & beauty of London`s architecture, areas, life & communities. Each card is supplied with quality Gunpowder grey envelope in a cellophane wrapper. These cards are all illustrated by Jill White & printed in the UK on a lovely soft Calisto FSC accredited board. ...

The Palm-Wine Drinkard is the phantasmagorical story of an alcoholic man & his search for his dead wine tapster. As he travels through the land of the dead, he encounters a host of supernatural & often terrifying beings
- among them the `complete gentleman` who returns his body parts to their owners, the insatiable `hungry-creature`, & his own pyromaniac son. Mixing Yoruba folktales with what TS Eliot described as a `creepy crawly imagination`, The Palm-Wine Drinkard is regarded as the seminal work of African literature.
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Enjoy more than 100 utterly delicious recipes from award-winning restaurant The Palomar, with dishes influenced by the rich cultures of Southern Spain, North Africa & the Levant. This debut cookbook

Includes:: recipes for the restaurant`s signature dishes, alongside recipes drawn from family tradition, mothers & grandmothers, from influences, encounters, places travelled to & places evoked by their flavours alone. Pulling on the traditions of the Mediterranean, The Palomar Cookbook is your guide to recreating the intense & evocative flavours of an exotic elsewhere in your own kitchen. With mezze dishes to share, sweet & savoury pastries, simple dishes for a quick fix & more complex dishes for a main meal, each recipe is both evocative & innovative, &
- first & foremost
- bursting with flavour. Chapters include: What`s in the cupboard? Essential ingredients & spice mixes The meal before the meal Spiced olives with rose petals & balsamic vinegar Velvet tomatoes Baba ganoush Raw beginnings Scallop carpaccio with ` Thai-bouleh` Kubenia Spring salad The main act Cauliflower steak with labneh & grated tomatoes Polenta Jerusalem-style Pork belly with ras el hanout Yael`s Kingdom Kubanah bread Tahini ice cream Jerusalem mess For those who want to kick back Drunken botanist Bishbash posh wash Sumac-ade PRAISE FOR THE PALOMAR ” Middle Eastern fireworks”
- Giles Coren, The Times ” Death-row dinner good”
- Grace Dent, Evening Standard ” Gorgeousness”
- Nigella Lawson






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A special edition of The Pan Book of Horror Stories reissued with a bright retro design to celebrate Pan`s 70th anniversary. Over fifty years ago, Pan launched a series of books that were to delight & disgust
- sometimes even on the same page
- readers from across the world. From classics in the genre to scraping-the-barrel nastiness, the Pan Books of Horror had them all. This reissue of the very first Pan Book of Horror contains twenty-two terrifying tales of horror by a dazzling array of famous names
- including Peter Fleming, C.S. Forester, Bram Stoker, Angus Wilson, Noel Langley, Jack Finney & L.P. Hartley. Stories of the uncanny jostle with tales of the macabre, it is the perfect bedside book
- for those with nerves of steel!



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The most comprehensive guide written about the Caribbean & Pacific coasts of Panama. With 187 detailed chartlets ` The Panama Guide` travels through the 365 islands of San Blas, explores the protected bays of Bocas del Toro, the green shores of the Las Perlas achipelago, the rivers leading into the tropical forests as well as the Panama Canal. This book

Includes:: explicit piloting instructions, GPS waypoints, lists of navigational aids, local services, customs regulations & recommendations for on shore activities. A full colour section featuring Tom Zydler`s photography depicts the splendour & panorama of cruising in Panama.

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Late one evening, investigative journalist Bastian Obermayer receives an anonymous message offering him access to secret data. Through encrypted channels, he then receives documents showing a mysterious bank transfer for $500 million in gold. This is just the beginning. Obermayer & fellow Suddeutsche Zeitung journalist Frederik Obermaier find themselves immersed in the secret world where complex networks of shell companies help to hide people who don`t want to be found. Faced with the largest data leak in history, they activate an international network of journalists to follow every possible line of enquiry. Operating for over a year in the strictest secrecy, they uncover a global elite living by a different set of rules: prime ministers, dictators, oligarchs, princelings, sports officials, big banks, arms smugglers, mafiosi, diamond miners, art dealers & celebrities. The real-life thriller behind the story of the century, The Panama Papers is an intense, unputdownable account that blows their secret world wide open. ...

” You`ve only been here for a few days but you already know loads of people. You walk into people`s lives, just like that.” Gabriel is a stranger in a small Breton town. Nobody knows where he came from or why he`s here. Yet his small acts of kindness, & exceptional cooking, quickly earn him acceptance from the locals. His new friends grow fond of Gabriel, who seems as reserved & benign as the toy panda he wins at the funfair. But unlike Gabriel, the fluffy toy is not haunted by his past... ...

Invented in 1788, the panorama reached the height of its popularity at the time of the 1900 Universal Exhibition. Vast circular canvases installed in purpose-built rotundas were designed to be viewed from centrally placed platforms & attracted an admiring public. The aim was to produce a perfect illusion. Thus the relationship between viewer & ”reality” underwent a profound mutation, opening up a new logic according to which the world was transformed into a spectacle & images substituted for direct experience. This illustrated text examines the wide variety of panoramas in both the Old & New Worlds. Included among views of cities are Robert Baker`s ” View of Edinburgh” & Karl Friedrich Schinkel`s ” View of Palermo”, as well as depictions of Paris, Moscow, Jerusalem & Lima. Among historical themes, ” The History of the Century” & ” Battle of Moscow” proved especially popular. The author expands his subject to encompass the sister formats of diorama & cineorama. ...

Brian Blessed has a lifelong love of animals & over the years has rescued cats & dogs, horses & ponies, & even a very ungrateful fighting cock. All were characters in their own right, such as Jessie, a dog left languishing for a year at the local RSPCA, who ruled the entire household with a rod of iron, when she wasn`t out harassing the local vicar. Then there was Bodger, an abused terrier cross breed, who was nursed back to health by Brian & his wife, & Peppone, a stray cat & notorious thief, who was responsible for a crime epidemic in the Bagshot area. Most of all there was Misty, a soul mate & the first Jack Russell Brian met who didn`t take an instant dislike to him. Over the years Brian has encountered more exotic animals too, from Kali the black panther who had free run of his kitchen & the gentle boa constrictor Bo Bo who went for walks with him in Richmond Park to the female gorillas who found him incredibly attractive. Written with all of Brian`s ebullience, The Panther in My Kitchen is a laugh-out-loud, life-affirming book about the joy animals bring & why we should care for them. ...