BookOdyssey

Opens a window into a previously dark and secret time in our universe\'s history: when the first stars were born.Astronomers have successfully observed a great deal of the Universe’s history, from recording the afterglow of the Big Bang to imaging thousands of galaxies, and even to visualising an actual black hole. There’s a lot for astronomers to be smug about. But when it comes to understanding how the Universe began and grew up, we are literally in the dark ages. In effect, we are missing the first one billion years from the timeline of the Universe.This brief but far-reaching period in the Universe’s history, known to astrophysicists as the ‘Epoch of Reionisation’, represents the start of the cosmos as we experience it today. The time when the very first stars burst into life, when darkness gave way to light. After hundreds of millions of years of dark, uneventful expansion, one by the one these stars suddenly came into being. This was the point at which the chaos of the Big Bang first began to yield to the order of galaxies, black holes and stars, kick-starting the pathway to planets, to comets, to moons, and to life itself.Incorporating the very latest research into this branch of astrophysics, this book sheds light on this time of darkness, telling the story of these first stars, hundreds of times the size of the Sun and a million times brighter, lonely giants that lived fast and died young in powerful explosions that seeded the Universe with the heavy elements that we are made of. Dr Emma Chapman tells us how these stars formed, why they were so unusual, and what they can teach us about the Universe today. She also offers a first-hand look at the immense telescopes about to come on line to peer into the past, searching for the echoes and footprints of these stars, to take this period in the Universe’s history from the realm of theoretical physics towards the wonder of observational astronomy. Σελίδες: 304, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0705, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

The new season begins. The geese return... Selected as a BOOK OF THE YEAR by The Times ; The arrival of huge flocks of geese in the UK is one of the most evocative and powerful harbingers of winter; a vast natural phenomenon to capture the imagination. So Stephen Rutt found when he moved to Dumfries one autumn, coinciding with the migration of thousands of pink-footed geese who spend their winter in the Firth. Thus began an extraordinary odyssey. ; From his new surroundings in the north to the wide open spaces of his childhood home in the south, Stephen traces the lives and habits of the most common species of goose in the UK and explores the place they have in our culture, our history and, occasionally, on our festive table. ; Wintering takes you on a vivid tour of the inbetween landscapes the geese inhabit, celebrating the short days, varied weathers and long nights of the season during which we share our home with these large, startling, garrulous and cooperative birds. ; Praise for Wintering: ; \'A poignant testament to how we can find peace in the rhythms of the natural world.\' - The Times, Books of the Year 2019 ; \'Illuminating history and descriptive nature writing make Wintering an understated gem.\' - Waterstones.com, Gifts for Nature Lovers ; \'Rutt\'s dreamy prose is as cool and elegant as the season he charts.\' - Jon Dunn, BBC Wildlife ; \'I will never look at geese the same again. Strangely, I can\'t wait for winter.\' - Caught by the River Σελίδες: 224, Έτος Έκδοσης: 1101, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

If we could see it as a whole, if they all arrived in a single flock, say, we would be truly amazed: sixteen million birds. Swallows, martins, swifts, warblers, wagtails, wheatears, cuckoos, chats, nightingales, nightjars, thrushes, pipits and flycatchers pouring into Britain from sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of the enduring wonders of the natural world. Each bird faces the most daunting of journeys -navigating epic distances, dependent on bodily fuel reserves. Yet none can refuse. Since pterodactyls flew, twice-yearly odysseys have been the lot of migrant birds. For us, for millennia, the Great Arrival has been celebrated. From The Song of Solomon, through Keats\' Ode To a Nightingale, to our thrill at hearing the first cuckoo call each year, the spring-bringers are timeless heralds of shared seasonal joy. Yet, migrant birds are finding it increasingly hard to make the perilous journeys across the African desert. Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo is a moving call to arms by an impassioned expert: get outside, teach your children about these birds, don\'t let them disappear from our shores and hearts. Σελίδες: 256, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0401, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

Britain is the home of the badger - there are more badgers per square kilometre in this country than in any other. And yet many of us have never seen one alive and in the wild. They are nocturnal creatures who vanish into their labyrinthine underground setts at the first hint of a human. Here, Patrick Barkham follows in the footsteps of his badger-loving grandmother, to meet the feeders, farmers and scientists who know their way around Badgerlands: the mysterious world in which these distinctively striped creatures snuffle, dig and live out their complex social lives. As the debate over the badger cull continues, Barkham weighs the evidence on both sides of the argument, and delves into the rich history of the badger - from their prehistoric arrival in Britain and their savage persecution over the centuries, to Kenneth Grahame\'s fictional creation in Wind in the Willows and the badger who became a White House pet. From the celebrated author of The Butterfly Isles, this is rich, vivid nature writing at its best. Σελίδες: 400, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

One spring, many years ago, Esther Woolfson\'s daughter rescued a fledgling rook. That rook, named Chicken, quickly established herself as part of the family, and other birds, including an irascible cockatiel and a depressive parrot, soon followed. But it was the corvids - members of the crow family - who amazed Woolfson with their personality and their capacity for affection. This classic blend of memoir and natural history combines the author\'s fascination with all things avian, from the mechanics of flight to the science of birdsong, with her funny, tender stories of life among the birds. Σελίδες: 352, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

As a new wave of interplanetary exploration unfolds, a talented young planetary scientist charts our centuries-old obsession with Mars.\'Beautifully written, emotive - a love letter to a planet\' DERMOT O\'LEARY, BBC Radio 2Mars - bewilderingly empty, coated in red dust - is an unlikely place to pin our hopes of finding life elsewhere. And yet, right now multiple spacecraft are circling, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium and Mare Sirenum - on the brink, perhaps, of a discovery that would inspire humankind as much as any in our history. With poetic precision and grace, Sarah Stewart Johnson traces the evocative history of our explorations of Mars. She interlaces her personal journey as a scientist with tales of other seekers - from Galileo to William Herschel to Carl Sagan - who have scoured this enigmatic planet for signs of life and transformed it in our understanding from a distant point of light into a complex world. Ultimately, she shows how its story is also a story about Earth: it is a foil, a mirror, a tell-tale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings to find - if we\'re lucky - that we\'re not alone.\'Elegantly written and boundlessly entertaining\' Sunday Telegraph\'Beguiling\' The Times\'Johnson\'s prose swirls with lyrical wonder, as varied and multi-hued as the apricot deserts, butterscotch skies and blue sunsets of Mars\' Anthony Doerr, New York Times Book Review\'Elegantly crafted\' Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal Σελίδες: 288, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

‘[A] delightful hymn of praise to the most extraordinary of all the world\'s bird families – hummingbirds’ STEPHEN MOSS‘A brilliant read’ MARK AVERY\'Ever thoughtful and engaging, Jon Dunn pursues these dazzling creatures through dust and jungle\' BENEDICT ALLEN\'A warm-hearted and enthusiastic triumph of nature writing\' TIM DEE_____________________For centuries hummingbirds have captured our imaginations: revered by Native Americans, coveted by European collectors and admired worldwide for their jewel-like plumage, acrobatic flight and immense character. Though their renown extends throughout the world, hummingbirds are found exclusively in the Americas. Small in stature yet fiercely tenacious, they have conquered every habitat imaginable: from boreal woodlands to deserts, mangrove swamps to volcanic slopes, and on islands both tropical and sub-polar. The Glitter in the Green takes us on an unforgettable journey in search of the most remarkable examples of this wildly variable family. There’s the Bee Hummingbird in Cuba, the smallest species of bird to have ever lived; the diminutive Rufous Hummingbird, whose annual migration exceeds 3,000 miles; and the critically endangered Juan Fernández Firecrown, marooned on the remote Pacific island that inspired Robinson Crusoe. Jon Dunn brings us closer than ever before to these magnificent creatures, exploring a heady mix of rare birds, a history redolent with mythology, and the colourful stories of the people obsessed with hummingbirds through the ages. With great passion for his subject and a taste for adventure, Dunn transports us to wondrous landscapes from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, and invites us into the kaleidoscopic world of the hummingbird – the bird that has won the hearts and minds of mankind for millennia. Σελίδες: 336, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0830, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

From the slums of Cape Town to the palaces of Algiers, through Pygmy villages where pineapples grow wild, to the Gulf of Guinea where the sea blazes with oil flares, across two continents and fourteen countries - this epic journey is nothing to swallows, they do it twice a year. But for Horatio Clare, writer and birdwatcher, it is the expedition of a lifetime. Along the way he discovers old empires and modern tribes, a witch-doctor\'s recipe for stewed swallow, explains how to travel without money or a passport, and describes a terrifying incident involving three Spanish soldiers and a tiny orange dog. By trains, motorbikes, canoes, one camel and three ships, Clare follows the swallows from reed beds in South Africa, where millions roost in February, to a barn in Wales, where a pair nest in May. Σελίδες: 336, Διαστάσεις: 13.1x13.1cm

Every morning, ecologist Tim Blackburn is inspired by the diversity contained within the moth trap he runs on his roof. Beautiful and ineffably mysterious, these moths offer a glimpse into a larger order, one that extends beyond individual species and into a hidden landscape. Footmen, whose populations are on the march as their lichen food recovers from decades of industrial pollution. The Goat Moth, a thumb-sized broken stick mimic, that takes several years to mature deep in the wood of tree trunks. The Oak Eggar, with the look of a bemused Honey Monster, host to a large wasp that eats its caterpillars alive from the inside. The Uncertain, whose similarity to other species has motivated its English name. The Silver Y, with a weight measured in milligrams, but capable of migrating across a continent. A moth trap is a magical contraption, conjuring these and hundreds of other insect jewels out of the darkness. Just as iron filings arrange themselves to articulate a magnetic field that would otherwise be invisible, Blackburn shows us that when we pay proper attention to these tiny animals, their relationships with one another and their connections to the wider web of life, a greater truth about the world gradually emerges. In THE JEWEL BOX, he reflects on what he has learned in thirty years of work as a scientist studying ecosystems, and demonstrates how the contents of one small box can illuminate the workings of all nature. Σελίδες: 384, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0917, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

Ever since the first human settlements 10,000 years ago, weeds have dogged our footsteps. They are there as the punishment of \'thorns and thistles\' in Genesis and , two millennia later, as a symbol of Flanders Field. They are civilisations\' familiars, invading farmland and building-sites, war-zones and flower-beds across the globe. Yet living so intimately with us, they have been a blessing too. Weeds were the first crops, the first medicines. Burdock was the inspiration for Velcro. Cow parsley has become the fashionable adornment of Spring weddings. Weaving together the insights of botanists, gardeners, artists and poets with his own life-long fascination, Richard Mabey examines how we have tried to define them, explain their persistence, and draw moral lessons from them. One persons weed is another\'s wild beauty. Σελίδες: 336, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

_______________ ‘Starman takes us at breakneck speed through Gagarin\'s strange trajectory ... Without books like these to shelter it, history is eroded by propaganda and real heroes fall victim to spin\' - New Scientist ‘A riveting account of Gagarin\'s life ... Starman brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the time\' - European ‘Starman was worth writing and is definitely worth reading\' - Daily Telegraph _______________ The definitive biography of Yuri Gagarin, re-published with new material to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of his momentous flight into space. On April 12 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to leave the Earth\'s atmosphere and venture into space. An icon of the 20th century, he also became a danger to himself and a threat to the Soviet state. At the age of 34, he was killed in a plane crash. Based on KGB files, restricted documents from Russian space authorities, and interviews with his friends and colleagues, this biography of the Russian cosmonaut reveals a man in turmoil: torn apart by powerful political pressures, fighting a losing battle against alcoholism and rebelling against the cruelties of a corrupt totalitarian regime. 2011 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Gagarin\'s flight. This new edition of Starman includes a new afterword that celebrates the importance of that momentous expedition and reflects on Gagarin\'s legacy. Σελίδες: 256, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**\'Thrilling dispatches from a vanishing world\' ObserverAnimals don\'t exist to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves.From the bestselling author of H is for Hawk comes Vesper Flights, a transcendent collection of essays about the human relationship to the natural world.Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best-loved writing along with new pieces covering a thrilling range of subjects. There are essays here on headaches, on catching swans, on hunting mushrooms, on twentieth-century spies, on numinous experiences and high-rise buildings; on nests and wild pigs and the tribulations of farming ostriches.Vesper Flights is a book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make the world around us. Moving and frank, personal and political, it confirms Helen Macdonald as one of this century\'s greatest nature writers. A perfect read for anyone looking for renewed appreciation for the natural world.\'Helen Macdonald is one of the best nature writers now working\' The Telegraph Σελίδες: 272, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARThe No.1 bestselling author of The Future of the Mind brings us a stunning new vision of our future in spaceHuman civilization is on the verge of living beyond Earth. But how will it happen? World-renowned physicist Michio Kaku takes us on a journey to the future, introducing the mind-boggling developments in robotics, nanotechnology and biotechnology that will one day enable us to make our homes among the stars.\'With admirable clarity and ease, Kaku explains how we might colonize not only Mars but some of the rocky moons of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn . . . The book has an infectious, can-do enthusiasm\' Steven Poole, The Wall Street Journal\'Kaku grounds his readers in science happening right now, while throwing open the windows to imagine where it might lead in a thousand years\' Adam Frank, The New York Times Book Review\'Kaku is an international treasure and a man of infectious enthusiasm\' The Times Σελίδες: 368, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

‘Revelatory … convey[s] the technical brilliance and political significance of an achievement that hides in plain sight’TelegraphFrom satellites circling the Earth, to weather stations far out in the ocean, through some of the most ingenious minds and advanced algorithms at work today - In this gripping investigation, Andrew Blum takes us on a global journey. Our destination: the simulated models weather scientists have constructed of our planet, which spin faster than time, turning chaos into prediction, offering glimpses of our future with eerie precision.This collaborative invention spans the Earth and relies on continuous co-operation between all nations – a triumph of human ingenuity and diplomacy we too often shrug off as a tool for choosing the right footwear each morning. But in this new era of extreme weather, we may come to rely on its maintenance and survival for our own. Σελίδες: 224, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANEDuring the Second World War, John Stewart Collis volunteered to leave his comfortable life as an academic to work on the land for the war effort. His account of this time perfectly captures the soft-handed, city-dweller\'s naivety and wonder both at the workings of nature and the toughness of life on a farm. It\'s set in the south of England and comprises exquisitely written sections on whatever happens to take Collis\'s fancy and inspire his thoughtful curiosity, ranging from humorous sketches of the characters he works alongside; mini-essays such as \'Contemplation upon Ants\', The Mystery of Clouds\', \'Colloquy on the Rick\', \'Meditation while Singling Mangolds\', \'The Garden of Eden\'; and celebrations of the earthworm, pea and potato. His mind ranges far and wide through literature science and philosophy as well as amazing descriptive writing, which makes for a book that is as uncategorisable as it is enchanting. Σελίδες: 304, Διαστάσεις: 13x13cm

‘Glorious… Political, passionate, perceptive’ Robert MacfarlaneAn eye-opening exploration of the lines that cut through our countryside, from hedges to railways, and a passionate manifesto for reconnecting wildlife.Our landscape has been transformed by a vast network of lines, from hedges and walls to railways and power cables. In Linescapes, Hugh Warwick unravels the far-reaching ecological consequences of these changes. As our lives and our land were fenced in and threaded together, wildlife habitats were cut into ever smaller – and increasingly unviable – fragments. Yet as Warwick travels across this linescape, he shows that we can help our flora and fauna to flourish once again. With his fresh and bracing perspective on Britain’s countryside, he proposes a challenge and gives ground for hope, for our lines can and do contain a real potential for wildness and for wildlife. Σελίδες: 272, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER\'Memoir of the year\' - Vogue\'A wondrous, sensuous memoir of salt-stung survival . . . clear-eyed and poetic prose\' Sunday Times\'A fascinating memoir\' - Daily MailWhen Tamsin Calidas first arrives on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides, it feels like coming home. Disenchanted by London, she and her husband left the city and high-flying careers to move the 500 miles north, despite having absolutely no experience of crofting, or of island life. It was idyllic, for a while. But as the months wear on, the children she\'d longed for fail to materialise, and her marriage breaks down, Tamsin finds herself in ever-increasing isolation.Injured, ill, without money or friend she is pared right back, stripped to becoming simply a raw element of the often harsh landscape. But with that immersion in her surroundings comes the possibility of rebirth and renewal. Tamsin begins the slow journey back from the brink. Startling, raw and extremely moving, I Am An Island is a story about the incredible ability of the natural world to provide when everything else has fallen away - a stunning book about solitude, friendship, resilience and self-discovery. Σελίδες: 320, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

The latest adventure from bestselling author Ben Fogle explores what we can learn from nature about living well and living wild. What can rowing across the Atlantic teach us about boredom and about patience? Can coming down from Everest take more resilience than climbing up in the first place? How can the isolation of the South Pole highlight what’s most important? And how can we tap into the same reflective state in our daily lives? Writing during the unprecedented period of the coronavirus pandemic and drawing on a wealth of personal stories, Ben reflects on the significance of nature to all our lives and shows us how we can benefit from living a little more wild. Drawing on his greatest adventures, he shares what his time spent in the wilderness has taught him about life. Ranging across seas, icecaps, jungles and deserts, Ben’s stories are filled with wonder and struggle, with animals, adventure, wilderness, friendships, unexpected acts of kindness and heroism, and are bursting with inspiration directly from nature. Ben’s epic stories reveal a new side to his adventures and show how everyone can find meaning in the wilderness, even if it’s just outside their front door. Full of exciting adventures and practical guidance, this primer on positivity is a story about overcoming obstacles, surpassing your expectations and inspiring your journey of adventure. Σελίδες: 288, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

The inspirational autobiography of Britain’s beloved astronaut Tim Peake, the #1 bestselling author of Hello, is this Planet Earth? and Ask an AstronautAs heard on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs__________________\'What surprised me was how entirely serene I felt. I was weightless, no forces exerting themselves on my body. To my left was the Space Station. Below me, gradually going into shadow, was the Earth. And over my right shoulder was the universe.\'In fascinating and personal detail, and drawing on exclusive diaries and audio recordings from his mission, astronaut Tim Peake takes readers closer than ever before to experience what life in space is really like: the sights, the smells, the fear, the sacrifice, the exhilaration and the deep and abiding wonder of the view.Warm, inspiring and often funny, Tim also charts his surprising road to becoming an astronaut, from a shy and unassuming boy from Chichester who had a passion for flight, to a young British Army officer, Apache helicopter pilot, flight instructor and test pilot who served around the world. Tim\'s extensive eighteen-year career in the Army included the command of a platoon of soldiers in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, deployment in Bosnia, and operations in Afghanistan.Full of life lessons for readers of all ages, Limitless is the story of how ordinary can become extraordinary.__________________\'For someone who has literally been out of this world Tim\'s an incredibly down to earth guy and I think you\'ll be amazed at some of the things he has done ... it\'s so inspiring to know that even going into space didn\'t change him as much as being a parent did.\' JOE WICKS\'Tim is one of our nation\'s good guys - and his story is a testament to his courage, kindness and a never-give-up spirit.\' BEAR GRYLLS\'Full of courage, camaraderie and daring escapades, this reads like a Boys\' Own adventure\' MIRROR\'A fantastic book\' PIERS MORGAN\'Fasten your seatbelt for an exhilarating read ... His accounts of blasting into orbit at 25 times the speed of sound and floating, weightless, around the space station are enthralling.\' EXPRESSBestseller in the UK, Sunday Times, October 2020 Σελίδες: 496, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

Fredrik Sjöberg\'s Swedish bestseller about summer, islands, freedom and boundaries.\'The light, the warmth, the smells, the mist, the birdsong - the moths. Who can sleep? Who wants to?\'Fredrik Sjöberg finds happiness in the little things. Millions of them, in fact. This beguiling bestseller is his unique meditation on collecting hoverflies. It is also about living on a remote Swedish island, blissful long summer nights, lost loves, unexpected treasures, art, nature, slowness, and how freedom can come from the things we least expect.\'Full of charm, a book about how to find meaning in life\' Melissa Harrison, The Times, Books of the Year\'I often return to The Fly Trap, it remains close to my heart. The minute observations from nature that reveal sudden insights into one\'s life. Sometimes I almost think that he wrote it for me\' Tomas Tranströmer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature\'Charming, witty and original\' Patrick Barkham, Guardian \'Nature writing that can laugh at itself, a real tonic\' Gregory Day, Sydney Morning Herald\'Delightful, at once informative and often humorously digressive . . . a humane man of wide-ranging curiosity, Sjöberg writes with infectious passion\' Paul Binding IndependentFredrik Sjöberg collects hoverflies on the island Runmarö, in the archipelago east of Stockholm. He is also a literary critic, translator, cultural columnist and the author of several books including The Art of Flight and The Raisin King, which form a trilogy with The Fly Trap. Σελίδες: 288, Διαστάσεις: 13x13cm

Calming, thought-provoking, poetic and honest, Notes from Walnut Tree Farm is a collection of writing and musing by documentary-maker, environmentalist and author of Waterlog, Roger Deakin. \'Gentle, straight, honest, inquisitive, funny, melancholic\' Spectator\'A lovely book that is a poignant epitaph to a remarkable individual\' Amazon Review________________For the last six years of his life, Roger Deakin kept notebooks. In them, he wrote his daily thoughts, impressions, feelings and observations about and around his Suffolk home, Walnut Tree Farm. Collected here are the very best of these writings, capturing his extraordinary, restless curiosity about nature as well as his impressions of our changing world.Perfect for fans of Robert Macfarlane and Colin Tudge, this is a book that fills readers with a desire to explore the world around them.________________\'A secular saint\' The Times\'Marvellous, wonderful, lovely, remarkable . . . to be read and reread and treasured\' Elizabeth Jane Howard, Daily Mail\'Very funny, sharp-eyed. To look at the world through Deakin\'s eyes was to see somewhere that was more wonderful than it often appears\' Sunday Telegraph\'Thoughtful and invigorating, full of humour, timeless . . . will take its place among the classics of Nature diaries . . . to be read alongside Frances Kilvert, Gilbert White, and Dorothy Wordsworth\' Mail on Sunday\'So busy and bustling with life\' Observer Σελίδες: 320, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

A startling book, his most personal to date, from Philip Hoare, co-curator of the Moby-Dick Big Read and winner of the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize for ‘Leviathan’. The sea surrounds us. It gives us life, provides us with the air we breathe and the food we eat. It is ceaseless change and constant presence. It covers two-thirds of our planet. Yet caught up in our everyday lives, we barely notice it. In ‘The Sea Inside’, Philip Hoare sets out to rediscover the sea, its islands, birds and beasts. He begins on the south coast where he grew up, a place of almost monastic escape. From there he travels to the other side of the world – the Azores, Sri Lanka, New Zealand – in search of encounters with animals and people. Navigating between human and natural history, he asks what these stories mean for us now. Along the way we meet an amazing cast; from scientists to tattooed warriors; from ravens to whales and bizarre creatures that may, or may not, be extinct. Part memoir, part fantastical travelogue, ‘The Sea Inside’ takes us on an astounding journey of discovery. Σελίδες: 384, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

The heart-warming story of how a tiny hedgehog helped one man find hope. \'Could you look after it for a couple of days? . . .\' So begins the extraordinary friendship between veterinarian Massimo, who is at a low spot in his life, and a tiny, orphaned hedgehog. Only a few days old, covered with soft, white quills and mewling quietly, this little creature will turn around his life forever. Through the sheer force of Ninna\'s personality - curious, playful, affectionate - and the sudden, unexpected paternal protectiveness he feels nursing her back to health, Massimo reconnects with the world - and finally begins to feel like home. But as Ninna wakes from her first hibernation, she grows up, like any teenager, longing for freedom. A creature of the wild, she craves the free range of the woods beyond Massimo\'s house. Massimo must accept that Ninna is ready to move on . . . but one little hedgehog saved and released into her natural habitat is a new beginning for Massimo: setting up a sanctuary for the injured, orphaned, fragile - but with a will to live so strong it is truly contagious. A Handful of Happiness is their funny and life-affirming story - a celebration of our favourite prickly wildlife creature, which will make you laugh and cry. Perfect for animal lovers and fans of A Streetcat Named Bob, Arthur, Finding Gobi and Monty Don\'s Nigel. Σελίδες: 208, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0326, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

A vibrant and richly detailed guide to fossils for readers with a passion for the natural world and those that inhabited it long ago.This is a book for those that want to learn to scan the beach for fossils, who love the simple pleasure of getting outside or those who want to develop their relationship with the world around them. From the Jurassic Coast to the Antrim Coast, our nation is home to some of the most incredible fossil sites in the world.Weaving an intricate tapestry of knowledge on the landscape of our own pre-historic planet, palaeontologist and Education Officer of the Bristol Dinosaur Project, Rhys Charles beautifully communicates the joy of fossil-hunting and where best to hunt for them in the country. Under his guidance, and with The Natural History Museum, this book invites readers to unlock breath-taking fragments of a lost world. Σελίδες: 256, Έτος Έκδοσης: 1115, Διαστάσεις: 19.6x19.6cm

The inspiration behind ITV\'s hit family drama, The Durrells.My Family and Other Animals is Gerald Durrell\'s hilarious account of five years in his childhood spent living with his family on the island of Corfu. With snakes, scorpions, toads, owls and geckos competing for space with one bookworm brother and another who\'s gun-mad, as well as an obsessive sister, young Gerald has an awful lot of natural history to observe. This richly detailed, informative and riotously funny memoir of eccentric family life is a twentieth-century classic.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an afterword by Peter Olney, former Keeper of Birds at the London Zoo, and a distinguished ornithologist who was awarded the Zoological Society of London\'s Silver Medal in 2003. Σελίδες: 376, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0712, Διαστάσεις: 10.3x10.3cm

THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER\'Affectionate, evocative, illuminating. A story of survival - of a flock, a landscape and a disappearing way of life. I love this book\' Nigel Slater\'Triumphant, a pastoral for the 21st century\' Helen Davies, Sunday Times, Books of the Year\'The nature publishing sensation of the year, unsentimental yet luminous\' Melissa Harrison, The Times, Books of the YearSome people\'s lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks\' isn\'t. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and around the Lake District for generations. Their way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand, and has been for hundreds of years. A Viking would understand the work they do: sending the sheep to the fells in the summer and making the hay; the autumn fairs where the flocks are replenished; the gruelling toil of winter when the sheep must be kept alive, and the light-headedness that comes with spring, as the lambs are born and the sheep get ready to return to the fells. Σελίδες: 320, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST, OBSERVER, NEW SCIENTIST, BBC FOCUS, INDEPENDENT AND WASHINGTON POST \'A rollicking tour of the wildest physics. . . Like an animated discussion with your favourite quirky and brilliant professor\' Leah Crane, New Scientist\'Weird science, explained beautifully\' - John ScalziWe know the universe had a beginning. But what happens at the end of the story?With lively wit and wry humour, astrophysicist Katie Mack takes us on a mind-bending tour through each of the cosmos\' possible finales: the Big Crunch, Heat Death, Vacuum Decay, the Big Rip and the Bounce. Guiding us through major concepts in quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory and much more, she describes how small tweaks to our incomplete understanding of reality can result in starkly different futures. Our universe could collapse in upon itself, or rip itself apart, or even - in the next five minutes - succumb to an inescapable expanding bubble of doom.This captivating story of cosmic escapism examines a mesmerizing yet unfamiliar physics landscape while sharing the excitement a leading astrophysicist feels when thinking about the universe and our place in it. Amid stellar explosions and bouncing universes, Mack shows that even though we puny humans have no chance of changing how it all ends, we can at least begin to understand it.The End of Everything is a wildly fun, surprisingly upbeat ride to the farthest reaches of all that we know. Σελίδες: 240, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

During the last decade, the osprey has risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes - once extinct in Britain, now returned as a powerful symbol of hope. The opreys\' story is a moving tale of triumph over adversity. Their slow but sure resurgence has attracted huge public interest and support; that of one bird in particular, Lady, at 25, Britain\'s oldest breeding osprey, has tugged at the world\'s heartstrings.For the past twenty years, Lady has made the 3000-mile journey from Africa back to Scotland, her nest and her mate. In March 2010, she produced an egg for a record-breaking 20th year; despite her weakened state throughout that summer, and with the stalwart assistance of her youthful mate, the chicks fledged successfully. But how many more times can Lady defy the odds; will the spring see her return, as, happily, it will so many other ospreys? Σελίδες: 192, Έτος Έκδοσης: 1120, Διαστάσεις: 12.8x12.8cm

The science of geology is going through a remarkable period of expansion and advancement. The New Penguin Dictionary of Geology contains over 7,500 fully updated definitions, making it the most extensive dictionary of the Earth sciences ever produced. It includes a full bibliography of up-to-date works covering all areas of geology. Authoritative and accessible, this new edition will prove invaluable to researcher, student and amateur geologist. Σελίδες: 336, Διαστάσεις: 13x13cm

Deep Country is Neil Ansell\'s account of five years spent alone in a hillside cottage in Wales.\'I lived alone in this cottage for five years, summer and winter, with no transport, no phone. This is the story of those five years, where I lived and how I lived. It is the story of what it means to live in a place so remote that you may not see another soul for weeks on end. And it is the story of the hidden places that I came to call my own, and the wild creatures that became my society.\'Neil Ansell immerses himself in the rugged British landscape, exploring nature\'s unspoilt wilderness and man\'s relationship with it. Deep Country is a celebration of rural life and the perfect read for fans of Robert Macfarlane\'s Landmarks, Helen Macdonald\'s H is for Hawk orJames Rebanks\' A Shepherd\'s Life.\'A beautiful, translucent portrayal of mid-Wales\' Jay Griffiths\'Touching. Through Ansell\'s charming and thoroughly detailed stories of run-ins with red kites, curlews, sparrowhawks, jays and ravens, we see him lose himself . . . in the rhythms and rituals of life in the British wilderness\' Financial Times\'Remarkable, fascinating\' Time Out\'A gem of a book, an extraordinary tale. Ansell\'s rich prose will transport you to a real life Narnian world that CS Lewis would have envied. Find your deepest, most-comfortable armchair and get away from it all\' CountryfileNeil Ansell spent five years living on a remote hillside in Wales, and wrote his first book, Deep Country, about the experience. Since that time, he has become an award-winning television journalist with the BBC. He has travelled in over fifty countries and has written for the Guardian, the New Statesman and the Big Issue. Σελίδες: 224, Διαστάσεις: 13x13cm

Discover the fascinating and cutting-edge science behind the greatest question of all: is there life beyond Earth? For millennia, we have looked up at the stars and wondered whether we are alone in the universe. In the last few years, scientists have made huge strides towards answering that question. In The Aliens are Coming!, comedian and bestselling science writer Ben Miller takes us on a fantastic voyage of discovery, from the beginnings of life on earth to the very latest search for alien intelligence. What soon becomes clear is that the hunt for extra-terrestrials is also an exploration of what we actually mean by life. What do you need to kickstart life? How did the teeming energy of the Big Bang end up as frogs, trees and quantity surveyors? How can evolution provide clues about alien life? What might it look like? (Probably not green and sexy, sadly.) As our probes and manned missions venture out into the solar system, and our telescopes image Earth-like planets with ever-increasing accuracy, our search for alien life has never been more exciting - or better funded. The Aliens are Coming! is a comprehensive, accessible and hugely entertaining guide to that search, and our quest to understand the very nature of life itself. Σελίδες: 304, Έτος Έκδοσης: 0516, Διαστάσεις: 12.6x12.6cm

In Peter\'s own words: These are the stories of a not particularly brave safari guide . . . As a child I knew that I was afraid of heights, and while uncomfortable admitting any phobia, was glad to have only one. Then I met my first crocodile. Now I know that there are at least two things in the world that unhinge my knees with fear, sour my breath, and overwhelm me with an urge to squeeze my eyes shut and wake up somewhere else. In this companion to Don\'t Run, Whatever You Do, Peter Allison encounters ravenous lions, stampeding elephants and lovesick rhinos. He recounts his hairy, and often hilarious, adventures in a private section of South Africa\'s famous Kruger National Park and in Botswana\'s Okavango Delta, where desert animals from the Kalahari make their homes next to aquatic creatures like hippos, and where the unusual becomes commonplace. It is written with a wonderful, gentle humour evocative of Gerald Durrell. One can almost feel the heat from the campfire flames as the stories are told. Σελίδες: 272, Διαστάσεις: 19.2x19.2cm

Shortlisted for THE WAINWRIGHT BOOK PRIZE 2017Can Britain make room for wildlife? Stephen Moss believes it can. The newspaper headlines tell us that Britain’s wildlife is in trouble. It’s not just rare creatures that are vanishing, hares and hedgehogs, skylarks and water voles, even the humble house sparrow, are in freefall. But there is also good news. Otters have returned to the River Tyne; there are now beavers on the River Otter; and peregrines have taken up residence in the heart of London. Stephen Moss travels the length and breadth of the UK, from the remote archipelago of St Kilda to our inner cities, to witness at first-hand how our wild creatures are faring and ask how we can bring back Britain’s wildlife. Σελίδες: 304, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

One night Mark Cocker followed the roiling, deafening flock of rooks and jackdaws which regularly passed over his Norfolk home on their way to roost in the Yare valley. From the moment he watched the multitudes blossom as a mysterious dark flower above the night woods, these gloriously commonplace birds were unsheathed entirely from their ordinariness. They became for Cocker a fixation and a way of life.Cocker goes in search of them, journeying from the cavernous, deadened heartland of South England to the hills of Dumfriesshire, experiencing spectacular failures alongside magical successes and epiphanies. Step by step he uncovers the complexities of the birds\' inner lives, the unforeseen richness hidden in the raucous crow song he calls \'our landscape made audible\'.Crow Country is a prose poem in a long tradition of English pastoral writing. It is also a reminder that \'Crow Country\' is not \'ours\': it is a landscape which we cohabit with thousands of other species, and these richly complex fellowships cannot be valued too highly.One Midsummer\'s Day by Mark Cocker coming in June 2023. Σελίδες: 224, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

For the last thirty years John Lister-Kaye has taken the same circular walk from his home deep in a Scottish glen up to a small hill loch. Each day brings a new observation or an unexpected encounter - a fragile spider\'s web, an osprey struggling to lift a trout from the water or a woodcock exquisitely camouflaged on her nest - and every day, on his return home, he records his thoughts in a journal. Drawing on this lifetime of close observation, At The Water\'s Edge encourages us to look again at the nature around us, to discover its wildness for ourselves and to respect and protect it. Σελίδες: 320, Διαστάσεις: 12.9x12.9cm

EMMA GRAY\'S NEW BOOK \'MY FARMING LIFE\' (\'A HEARTWARMING TALE OF LIFE ON THE LAND\' Alan Titchmarsh) IS OUT NOWWhat happens when you swap \'I do\' for pastures new?When twenty-three-year-old shepherdess Emma Gray breaks off her engagement, the chance to take over an isolated Northumberland farm seems just the fresh start she needs. But while the beautiful scenery certainly offers plenty of scope for contemplation, a night out with an eligible bachelor soon seems more remote than the farm itself. And once you add fugitive sheep and freak blizzards into the mix, Emma\'s dreams of a happy future at Fallowlees Farm quickly begin to fade.Throughout the long nights of lambing, the highs and lows of the local sheepdog trials and the day-to-day chores of maintaining a large, ramshackle farm, Emma\'s collies are her most loyal companions. With Bill, Fly, Roy and Alfie by her side, she\'ll never really be alone. Emma\'s remarkable first year at Fallowlees - the triumphs, the disasters, the heartbreak and the glimmer of romance on the horizon - is an inspiration for anyone who has ever dreamt of changing their life and starting all over again.____________________________________________________________Readers love ONE GIRL AND HER DOGS: \'This is an amazing book, difficult to put down. A must for all thinking of living of the land, or looking to be inspired by a hard working courageous young woman\' \'What a little gem of a book, I loved it. Emma has given us a little taste of her life in the remote Fallowlees Farm in Northumberland, her knowledge of lambing is just astonishing to me and her beautiful dogs are amazing, I must admit to shedding a tear now and then, but there was plenty to chuckle at too\' \'An admirable book\'\'Very entertaining and readable. A brave girl who made the decision to become a sheep farmer and farm in a lovely and lonely spot\'\'This story is written in such a way that you feel you are actually on the farm and going through the trials too. Wonderful empathy with her dogs and an excellent storyteller\' Σελίδες: 288, Διαστάσεις: 16.4x16.4cm