Hush little baby, close your eyes, Mama loves you, Papa loves you...So do I! A beautifully illustrated retelling in sturdy board format.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 22

Dimensions: 160 x 160 mm

Publication Date: 23-01-2013

Dickens is famous for his moralising and the entreaties within his fiction to help the poor, and characters such as the Cratchit family, or little Joe in Bleak House have become iconic figures in our recollections of the nineteenth century's working class struggles.

This collection includes articles such as ‘A Poor man and his beer’ and ‘Walk in the Workhouse’ based directly upon Dickens' own involvement and experience of walking round the more derelict areas of London and England to meet the poor firsthand and report their plights to the reading population, as well as considering Dickens' own charitable work, such as his involvement in setting up a refuge for prostitutes, as defended in his article ‘A Home for Homeless Women’. In contrast to his personal nostalgia for the innocence of childhood, Dickens tirelessly argued against those who hearkened back to the good old days, instead flying the flag for evolution and development.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 120

Publication Date: 29-03-2013

‘In a little while we were speeding through the streets of Paris and delightfully recognizing certain names and places with which books had long ago made us familiar. It was like meeting an old friend when we read Rue de Rivoli on the street corner; we knew the genuine vast palace of the Louvre as well as we knew its picture; when we passed by the Column of July we needed no one to tell us what it was or to remind us that on its site once stood the grim Bastille, that grave of human hopes and happiness...’

This is a brand new selection of Mark Twain’s views on Europe and the Europeans, taken from several volumes of travelogues recounting his journeys across the continent with wit, vivacity and humour. Few fellow travellers, locals or ideologies are left unscathed. Uproariously funny at times and often cutting with his remarks, Twain always seems to pull it back from the brink and err on the side humour rather than offence. Throughout France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, the food, the language, the customs and the people, no subject escapes analysis of the most amusing kind.

In addition, On Europe provides a captivating snapshot into life late nineteenth-century Europe – Twain’s writing documents the political zeitgeist of a changing era. The author also takes the opportunity to lambast fellow travel writers, lampooning their overwrought style and grandiose emotional outpourings. Following the age-old tradition of new-world travellers returning to the old world, Twain’s account features the usual blend of awe and disillusionment which met Americans in equal measure when confronted with lands so steeped in history and legend and yet now in the grip of modernity.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 120

Publication Date: 29-03-2013

Winston Churchill probably had more impact on 20th Century British military history than any other person and especially during World War II. Yet of all the many volumes since that war which deal with his relationships with generals and admirals, most surprisingly, there seems not to be a single book devoted to Churchill as a would-be pilot, and, more importantly, to the relations he had with a host of airmen between 1914 and 1945. Exceptional air marshals of his time included Dowding, Park, Portal, Freeman, Tedder, Coningham and Harris. Such men had years of professional expertise behind them and those who had reached the top by 1943 were such strong characters that not even the prime minister could dominate them in policy-making. Crucially, Churchill had supported the independence of the RAF from other services, and whilst he did bully and cajole, even abuse his airmen, he also listened to them and their plans, and inspired them. With his expert eye, respected historian and professor, Vincent Orange, has carefully studied and evaluated every detail of Churchill's relationships with his closest officers to produce a masterful analysis of a neglected subject.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 156 x 234 mm

Publication Date: 22-03-2013

"I was born at home in time for lunch - the doctor lured me out with a cold roast chicken sandwich. Dad had just popped downstairs to make up a few rounds - one for the doctor, another for the midwife and one for himself. Mum was busy..." So says Tim Halket in the Introduction to his engaging and original book, Five Fat Hens.
A love of eating and good ingredients led Tim to build a hen house in the cormer of his garden for a daily harvest of fresh eggs. His take on the role of keeping chickens is amusing and insightful but this book is more than just a DIY guide to keeping a few free range birds, or a new slant on a chicken themed cookbook. This book takes the reader through an entire year, skilfully combining the author's passion for cooking in diary form interwoven with his recipes, his throughts and observations and with the premise that even the smallest garden can be home to a supply of the freshest eggs imaginable.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 324

Dimensions: 148 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 22-03-2013

From all over Europe from Scotland to the Mediterranean, from Hungary to Cornwall, Elisabeth Luard has collected descriptions of traditional feasts and festivals and hundreds of recipes for the dishes appropriate to them. As well as being a unique and wonderfully readable cookery book, Seasonal European Dishes (originally published uner the title of European Festival Food) is written with the scrupulous attention to detail and authenticity that is the hallmark of Elisabeth Luard's cookery writing, the recipes are peppered with hundreds of fascinating anecdotes and little known facts about local history and folklore.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 344

Dimensions: 185 x 246 mm

Publication Date: 22-03-2013