Evelyn Waugh was born in Hampstead in 1903 and educated at Hertford College, Oxford. In 1928 he published his first novel, Decline and Fall, which was soon followed by Vile Bodies (1930), Black Mischief (1932), A Handful of Dust (1934) and Scoop (1938). During these years he also travelled extensively and converted to Catholicism. In 1939 Waugh was commissioned in the Royal Marines and later transferred to the Royal Horse Guards, experiences which informed his Sword of Honour trilogy (1952-61). His most famous novel, Brideshead Revisited (1945), was written while on leave from the army. Waugh died in 1966.

Evelyn Waugh

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John-Paul Stonard

No house embodies the spirit of one dynasty better than Chatsworth. Set in an unspoilt Derbyshire valley, surrounded by wild moorland, and home to the Cavendish family for sixteen generations, this treasure house is filled with works of art and objects - from Nicolas Poussin's The Arcadian Shepherds and Antonio Canova's Endymion to great contemporary paintings by Lucian Freud and David Hockney - which have all, in their time, represented the very best of the new. As Stoker Cavendish, the twelfth Duke of Devonshire, likes to point out: 'Everything was new once.' 
 
Following the completion of a decade-long programme of renovations, the exterior of Chatsworth is gleaming, its stone façade newly cleaned and its window frames freshly gilded. Inside, through the inspired juxtaposition of old and modern, its rooms fizz with creative energy. Chatsworth, Arcadia, Now tells the story of this extraordinary place through seven scenes from its life, alongside a stunning photographic portrait of the house and its collections, captured at a moment of high optimism in its long history.

Chatsworth, Arcadia, Now

Seven Scenes from the Life of a House

Steven Lovatt

When Steven Lovatt’s grandmother died, he lost not only a beloved family member but also his last link to the way of life she had represented: rooted in place, socially democratic, ecologically rich. Cut loose from the past and confronted with a present missing even the birds of his childhood, Steven’s mind cracked. 
 
Drawing on field work, local library archives and oral history, as well as dreams, diaries and visions, Enchanted Ground charts a fractured course from breakdown to belonging. For if he is to survive, Steven realises he must set out, like a pilgrim, across the motorways and monoculture wastes of Britain in search of enchanted ground – and those who have begun to rebuild it.

Enchanted Ground

Growing Roots in a Broken World

Judith Schalansky

Born on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall, as a child Judith Schalansky could travel only through the pages of an atlas. Now she has created her own, taking us across the oceans of the world to fifty remote islands. Perfect maps jostle with cryptic tales from the islands, full of rare animals and lost explorers, marooned slaves and lonely scientists, mutinous sailors and forgotten castaways.

Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands

Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will

Myfanwy Jones

'Remember when you played cards or knucklebones or noughts and crosses? Or what about charades, murder in the dark, I spy or hide and seek? Or made chatterboxes, those devices made from a square of paper that you flipped open between thumbs and forefingers with wishes and dreams under the flaps.This book has the lot. It may even ween you off the telly. Remember blind man's buff? What about conversations, in which players discuss a topic by starting each sentence with a consecutive letter of the alphabet? Great family fun ' Sun Herald 
 
Written by two young mums, Parlour Games for Modern Families sets out to revive the tradition of indoor family games.This book is bursting with games of logic and memory, wordplay, card games, role-play, and rough and tumble. No game requires any equipment beyond a pack of cards, a dictionary, dice, paper, and pen. Games are organised thematically and referenced for age-appropriateness. All are set out with clear rules and instructions. There are games that will challenge and stimulate you, and games that will have you in fits; games that can last all night, and games to fill that empty half-hour before tea; games for adults and older children, and games to keep all the kids at a four-year-old's birthday party happy. Every family and every home needs a copy.

Parlour Games for Modern Families

Lea Korsgaard

In the darkness of winter on the first day of the year, a woman in Denmark is making a list. She plans to set out and see all of the country's butterfly species in a single year. She knows nothing about butterflies. She doesn’t even know why she wants to see them. She just knows that something is calling her. The pull is irresistible. 
 
The Butterfly Season tells the story of what happened next. We follow Lea Korsgaard as her list takes her to landscapes she never knew existed, shaped by the wind and by the sea. She walks on ancient seabeds and hills made of algae shells. She is led to secret places by strangers who offer their help along the way. And she is led into the past; into the lives of her ancestors, and into the world of books, philosophy and mythology. Because ever since humans started thinking about the meaning of life and death, the butterfly has symbolized our hope of rebirth—and confronted us with the biggest questions of existence: Why do we live? And what are we living for?

The Butterfly Season

William Sieghart

The Poetry Pharmacy is one of the best-selling (and most giftable) poetry anthologies of recent decades. Now, after huge demand for more prescriptions from readers and 'patients' alike, William Sieghart is back. This time, tried-and-true classics from his in-person pharmacies are joined by readers' favourite poems and the new conditions most requested by the public - all accompanied by his trademark meditations (warm, witty and understanding, with just a twist of the challenging) on the 58 spiritual ailments he seeks to cure. 
 
From ageing bodies and existential crises to long-distance relationships and embracing your slovenliness, The Poetry Pharmacy Returns caters to all-new conditions while drilling further down into the universals: this time, the challenges of family life, and of living as a person among others, receive a much closer look. Perfect for the treasured friends, barely tolerated siblings, beloved aunts and revered grandparents in your life.

The Poetry Pharmacy Returns

More Prescriptions for Courage, Healing and Hope

Grandma Marina

Grandpa Chan

Like many grandparents wishing to stay close to their grandchildren in a world in which so many families are spread across the globe, Korean grandparents Grandpa Chan and Grandma Marina, decided to learn how to use Instagram as a way to stay connected. What started as an intimate family project, their Instagram page @drawings_for_my_grandchildren has attracted a large following and their story has been featured in major press around the world. This book inspired by their Instagram page features Chan's watercolors accompanied by Marina's texts. Whether it's to celebrate Astro becoming a big brother to Lua or to share the story of how the grandparents met for the first time and fell in love during their college years, Looking Back Life was Beautiful echoes with the kind of family love that spans generations and traverses geography. 
 
A testament to the great wisdom only grandparents can provide to younger generations, Looking Back Life Was Beautiful will inspire families to always stay close and connected.

Looking Back Life Was Beautiful

Drawings for My Grandchildren

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