Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Joseph Delaney

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Chas Griffin

In 1982 the Griffins left the security of suburbia to grow garlic in West Wales. This is a funny and sometimes touching, warts-and-all account of their first three years: of how they learned lambing and marketing and ploughing and hay-making: and of the dung-sodden joys of milking and the surreal terrors of bee-keeping. Be amused. Be very amused. 
 
Scenes from a Smallholding is by turns challenging, touching, and informative; but above all, it is very funny.

Scenes From A Smallholding

In 1982 the Griffins left the security of suburbia to grow garlic in West Wales. From the struggle with rurality that ensued grew (organically) the very amusing, and informative, warts-and-all account Scenes From a Smallholding . 
 
Now in this sometimes touching, but always funny sequel, Chas reveals what happened four years after their arrival - when the dream had been well and truly dreamt and they were experiencing some rather rude awakenings. Did they ever achieve the blissful good life? Are they surrounded by organic veg? How have the family coped with their new rural life? 
 
Written with Chas Griffin's trademark charm and humour, enjoy another compelling romp through the countryside.

More Scenes From a Smallholding

Julian Austwick

Tracy Austwick

‘The first time Shocks saw Amber coming, he lowered his head so she could wrap her arms around his nose. It was as if they understood each other’s pain. Like two broken beings, helping each other.’ 
 
When Shocks the donkey was left for dead on a farm in Ireland, no one ever thought he would make a full recovery. 
 
When Amber and her twin sister Hope were born 26 weeks premature, it was Amber who was separated from her family and rushed into theatre for an emergency tracheostomy. Her parents were given the devastating news that she had Cerebral Palsy and would be unlikely to walk or talk. 
 
Then Amber met Shocks at the Donkey Sanctuary and their lives were changed 
for good. 
 
This is their touching story of recovery through friendship.

Amber's Donkey

How a donkey and a little girl healed each other

Caroline Taggart

Take a journey down winding lanes and Roman roads in this witty and informative guide to the meanings behind the names of England's towns and villages. From Celtic farmers to Norman conquerors, right up to the Industrial Revolution, deciphering our place names reveals how generations of our ancestors lived, worked, travelled and worshipped, and how their influence has shaped our landscape. 
 
From the most ancient sacred sites to towns that take their names from stories of giants and knights, learn how Roman garrisons became our great cities, and discover how a meeting of the roads could become a thriving market town. Region by region, Caroline Taggart uncovers hidden meanings to reveal a patchwork of tall tales and ancient legends that collectively tells the story of how we made England.

The Book of English Place Names

How Our Towns and Villages Got Their Names

Lucy Pinney

Twenty years ago a young Londoner named Lucy arrived in the Dorset countryside as a rather bemused bride. She knew nothing of the great outdoors and blithely agreed to spend her honeymoon harvesting. Her rural education was to be a fast and frantic one. 
 
This is the story of a woman who began rural life in romance, raised a family in the farmyard, was left by her husband just as her name was being made as a columnist for the countryside, and found a whole new life for herself in the hills and valleys she had come to love. 
 
Inspired by Lucy Pinney's popular columns for The Times, this bewitching bucolic romp is a glorious combination of Bridget Jones, I Don't Know How She Does It and Gervase Phinn. 
 
She became a farmer's wife for love of the farmer, but can Lucy's relationship with the countryside survive two decades, divorce and more mud than she ever dreamed possible?

A Country Wife

Lucy Edge

What happens when an urban girl swaps her kitten heels in the city for karma in the country? 
 
It is a big year for Lucy - she has met the love of her life and they're planning to trade the city rat race for a Norfolk farmhouse, get married, and try for a baby. 
 
But country life isn't quite what Lucy imagined. Sure, there's time to stop and chat, but where does she find the people to stop and chat to? 
 
She has almost had it up to here when, one day, she stumbles across a local yoga club. There - in a small room above Knit and Knatter - she finds the laughter, friendship and wisdom to steer her through whatever dramas life throws at her. 
 
A funny and heart-warming true story about one woman's search for love and friendship in the lotus position.

The Handbag and Wellies Yoga Club

Rory McGrath

Bearded Tit is Rory McGrath's story of life among birds. From a Cornish boyhood wandering gorse-tipped cliffs listening to the song of the yellowhammer with his imaginary girlfriend, or drawing gravity-defying jackdaws in class when he should have been applying himself to physics, to quoting the Latin names of birds to give himself a fighting chance of a future with JJ - the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. 
 
As an adult, or what passes for one, Rory recounts becoming a card-carrying birdwatcher, observing his first skylark - peerless king of the summer sky - while stoned; his repeatedly failed attempts to get up at the crack of dawn like the real twitchers; and his flawed bid to educate his utterly unreconstructed drinking mate Danny in the ways of birding. 
 
Rory's tale is a thoroughly educational, occasionally lyrical and highly amusing romp through the hidden byways of birdwatching and, more importantly, a love story you'll never forget.

Bearded Tit

A Love Story with Feathers

Jon Katz

When Jon Katz hears about Izzy, a three-year-old Border collie kept alone in a field on an abandoned farm, his heart speaks louder than his head and he agrees to take him in. 
 
Once again Jon finds himself challenged by a difficult dog. Having found his human, Izzy wants to go with Jon wherever he may be, and jumps fences and chews through locks to do so. Jon has been through this before with his dog Orson, and isn't sure he can cope with the responsibility and potential heartache again. 
 
But Jon's motley collection of animals - from Jesus the baby donkey to Elvis the surprisingly sociable steer, as well of course as farm manager and Border collie Rose - form an ideal refuge for Izzy. And as Jon and Izzy decide they are perfect companions, Jon realises just how much life on the farm has taught him about patience, perseverance and love. 
 
Please note, Saving Izzy is the UK title for the book published in the US as Dog Days.

Saving Izzy

The Abandoned Dog Who Stole My Heart

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