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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Peter Wadhams

'Astonishing ... beautiful, compelling and terrifying' Observer 
 
'Wadhams' writing sparkles ... a lyrical sense of wonder at the natural world ... essential reading ... may be the best reader-friendly account of the greenhouse effect available to date' John Burnside, New Statesman 
 
Ice is beautiful and complex. It regulates our planet's temperature. And it is vanishing - fast. Peter Wadhams, the world's leading expert on sea ice, draws on his lifetime's research in the Arctic region to illuminate what is happening, what it means for the future, and what can be done. 
 
'This most experienced and rational scientist states what so many other researchers privately fear but cannot publicly say' John Vidal, Guardian 
 
'Wadhams brings huge expertise to his subject - and he is an excellent writer' Martin Rees 
 
'Utterly extraordinary' Jonathon Porritt

A Farewell to Ice

A Report from the Arctic

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

Meredith Wadman

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE** 
**A GUARDIAN SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR** 
 
‘Riveting … invites comparison to Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ 
Nature 
 
The epic and controversial story of a major breakthrough in cell biology that led to the conquest of rubella and other devastating diseases. 
 
Until the late 1960s, tens of thousands of children suffered crippling birth defects if their mothers had been exposed to rubella, popularly known as German measles, while pregnant. There was no vaccine and little understanding of how the disease devastated foetuses. In June 1962, a young biologist in Philadelphia produced the first safe, clean cells that made possible the mass-production of vaccines against many common childhood diseases. Two years later, in the midst of a German measles epidemic, his colleague developed the vaccine that would one day effectively wipe out rubella for good. 
 
This vaccine - and others made with those cells - have since protected hundreds of millions of people worldwide, the vast majority of them preschool children. Meredith Wadman’s account of this great leap forward in medicine is a fascinating and revelatory read.

The Vaccine Race

How Scientists Used Human Cells to Combat Killer Viruses

Rosina Harrison

'I was able to get on well with everyone below stairs and above, or so I thought until I began working for Lady Astor...' 
 
In 1929, Yorkshire lass Rosina Harrison became personal maid to Lady Astor: the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat and wife of one of England's wealthiest lords. 
 
Lady Astor was brilliant yet tempestuous, but outspoken Rose gave as good as she got. For 35 years the battle of wills and wits raged between the two women, until an unlikely friendship began to emerge. 
 
The Lady's Maid is a captivating insight into the great wealth 'upstairs' but also the endless work 'downstairs', but it is Rose's unique relationship with Lady Astor that makes this book a truly enticing read. 
 
Please note, The Lady's Maid is the new title for the book originally published as Rose.

The Lady's Maid

My Life in Service

Arthur Parkinson

Most of us want a dog, or a cat, or a pony when we are young &ndash; but for Arthur Parkinson, it was always hens. Growing up in an ex-mining town in Nottinghamshire, the other kids in the playground called him 'Chicken Boy'. The quiet fulfilment of keeping hens became his sanctuary, a tonic for mental and physical health, a connection with his family and the natural world. Illustrated with Arthur's own characterful watercolours and photographs of his &lsquo;girls&rsquo;, Chicken Boy is a one-of-a-kind memoir of a life in nature.

Chicken Boy

My Life With Hens

Joanna Trollope

Multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope expertly depicts how grief can tip the family balance head over heels in this beautifully written novel about change and hope through adversity. Perfect for readers of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse. 
 
'Extraordinarily powerful' -- Mail on Sunday 
'A devastatingly acute picture of a harsh rural world' -- The Sunday Times 
'Certainly one of her best' -- Daily Telegraph 
'A richly satisfying novel ... compulsively readable' -- Sunday Express 
'Kept me interested - twists and turns - great character development - well written' -- ***** Reader review 
'I couldn't put it down and finished the book in just a couple of days' -- ***** Reader review 
'Excellent' -- ***** Reader review 
'A wonderful book, a wonderful story, wonderful characters - a must have' -- ***** Reader review 
 
************************************************************** 
 
A FAMILY IN CRISIS. A CATALYST THAT THREATENS TO CHANGE EVERYTHING... 
 
The land running down to the River Dean has been farmed by the Meredith family for generations. Robin Meredith bought the farm from his father, just before he married his wife Caro and now he and his brother Joe work on the land. But now Caro has died, as much as a mystery to the family as she was when she arrived twenty years ago, and the whole family feels her loss acutely, none more so than her adopted daughter Judy. 
 
Into this unhappy family comes Zoe, Judy's London friend, an outsider with an independent spirit and a disturbing directness. Everyone underestimates Zoe's power as a catalyst for change as the realities behind the seeming idyll of a rural community become ever clearer...

Next Of Kin

a moving novel about loss and growth from one of Britain’s best loved authors, Joanna Trollope

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

'I'd toast the moon and look at the sky... I think it draws us to it; we wonder what lies beyond.' 
 
Maggie Aderin-Pocock’s destiny was always written in the stars. From the age of three, inspired by The Clangers, her dream was to go into space. Throughout a chaotic childhood, ricocheting between divorced parents and acrimonious custody battles, she attended thirteen schools in fourteen years – but while her environment regularly changed, her fascination with the Universe did not. It became enmeshed in her desire to succeed as a scientist even when her school careers advice was to become a nurse. 
 
Starchild is Maggie’s emotionally honest and revealing memoir, telling a story of education and prejudice, adversity and ambition, motherhood and the moon – all recounted in her characteristically warm and relatable style. From being the only Black woman on her physics course at Imperial College London, to her groundbreaking work on the James Webb and Gemini telescopes, to starting her own public speaking company and sharing the wonders of science with thousands of children every year, Maggie’s story will inspire you to never give up on your dreams.

Starchild

My Life Under the Night Sky

Rachel Carson

<a href="https://shop.penguin.co.uk/collections/book-bundles-modern-classics/?&amp;utm_source=Penguin.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=Linked_text&amp;utm_campaign=Penguin_Modern_Classics_Series_26_06">Choose 3 timeless classics for only £21 over on the Penguin Shop</a>

Now recognized as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century, SILENT SPRING exposed the destruction of wildlife through the widespread use of pesticides. Despite condemnation in the press and heavy-handed attempts by the chemical industry to ban the book, Rachel carson succeeded in creating a new public awareness of the environment which led to changes in government and inspired the ecological movement.

Silent Spring

James Rebanks

Some 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. 
 
In evocative and lucid prose, James Rebanks takes us through a shepherd's year, offering a unique account of rural life and a fundamental connection with the land that most of us have lost.

The Shepherd's Life

A Tale of the Lake District

Anna May McHugh

'The embodiment of the spirit of rural Ireland' Irish Mirror 
 
Anna May McHugh's name is synonymous with 'the Ploughing' - the annual Championships of the National Ploughing Association. The event is the biggest outdoor agricultural show in Europe and Anna May is the driving force behind its spectacular growth. 
 
Anna May now tells her story. Her description of growing up as part of a large family in rural County Laois is an evocative and affectionate account of an Ireland that is now gone. But in her account of how she went from being a secretary of the Ploughing Association, her first job, to becoming - to her own amazement - its managing director twenty years later is a story of leadership and people skills that are very much of the twenty-first century. Anna May was truly ahead of her time. 
 
Still living in County Laois, close to where she grew up, and now in her eighties, Anna May still runs the multi-million euro operation from her home, alongside her daughter, Anna Marie. 
 
Queen of the Ploughing is a captivating read, full of warmth, lively stories and Anna May's sharp observations. And it's not just about Anna May's life, but is also a celebration of the best of Irish life over eight decades.

Queen of the Ploughing

Patricia Atkinson

For most people giving up the day job and moving to a beautiful area of France and living off the vines is an impossible but delicious dream. In 1990, Patricia Atkinson and her husband decided to sell up in Britain and emigrate to the Dordogne. Their idea was to buy a house with a few vines attached and employ someone to tend to the wine while they earned their living with some financial consultancy work. There followed a series of disasters: the stock market crashed leaving their small holding as their sole source of income; the first red wine harvest turned to vinegar; and Patricia's husband returned to Britain, unable to cope with the stress. He never returned. Patricia Atkinson, whose only knowledge of wine up to that moment was 'that it came from a bottle' and who had not a word of French, was left to salvage their life savings form the vineyards. What follows is a remarkable story of struggle and transformation whereby her tiny 4 hectare plot has become a major estate of 21 hectares, where her Clos d'Yvigne wines have won awards and been adopted by wine merchants throughout the world and where she has been hailed as a superstar by UK wine writers.

The Ripening Sun

Siddhartha Mukherjee

** NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER ** 
 
The Gene is the story of one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in our history from the author of The Emperor of All Maladies. 
 
The story begins in an Augustinian abbey in 1856, and takes the reader from Darwin’s groundbreaking theory of evolution, to the horrors of Nazi eugenics, to present day and beyond - as we learn to “read” and “write” the human genome that unleashes the potential to change the fates and identities of our children. 
 
Majestic in its scope and ambition, The Gene provides us with a definitive account of the epic history of the quest to decipher the master-code that makes and defines humans – and paints a fascinating vision of both humanity’s past and future. 
 
 For fans of Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and Being Mortal by Atul Gwande. 
 
‘Siddhartha Mukherjee is the perfect person to guide us through the past, present, and future of genome science’ Bill Gates 
 
‘A thrilling and comprehensive account of what seems certain to be the most radical, controversial and, to borrow from the subtitle, intimate science of our time…Read this book and steel yourself for what comes next’ Sunday Times

The Gene

An Intimate History

Michael Booth

'The next Bill Bryson.’ New York Times 
 
Michael Booth has had his fill of celebrity chefs and their 'on the table in five minutes' recipes. He wants to learn how to cook properly, so he burns his cookery books and, together with his young family, heads for a new life in Paris - reasoning that, if anyone can be trusted to make food complicated, it's the French. 
 
Embarking on the ultimate foodie's fantasy, he enrols at the world's most famous cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu, where wise and battle-scarred French chefs commence their transformation of him into a professional cook. 
 
Along the way Booth shares the insider tips and secret techniques of classical cuisine. His odyssey takes him from trauma to triumph, ending in the white-hot heat of the Michelin-starred kitchen of the greatest chef in France.

Doing without Delia

Tales of Triumph and Disaster in a French Kitchen

Michael Sissons

The rural fuse has been lit. The countryside is tinder-dry. Post offices and banks, shops and schools are closing. Farmers are going out of business. Houses are becoming unaffordable as prices soar ad poverty grows. Pollution and over-exploitation are destroying landscapes. Many rural communities are on the verge of collapse. Some fear the foot- and - mouth crisis will prove to be the last straw. This book offers disturbing evidence of the background to the crisis. 
 
A Countryside For All is a rallying cry for action, pointing ways towards a presciption for the future. This volume tackles many of the issues in a variety of new and original ways. Possibly the most controversial and radical call is for the creation of a Department for the Countryside, with a Secretary of State for the Countryside- who would be responsible for setting a coherent set of policies to reverse the decline of rural Britain. 
 
This timely book outlines the main problems facing the countryside, and starts to bring together a balanced range of proposals. Thought-provoking, filled with common sense, often controversial but always fascinating, it points the way forward for the countryside, and for town and country as a whole.

A Countryside For All

The Future of Rural Britain

Simon Guerrier

Emma Price

'The nation's go-to woman for all things space... her joy for the subject is boundless' – The Guardian 
 
Take a new look at the world around you. 
 
What is a planet? Is there life on Mars? What makes Earth so special? 
 
Questions about our Solar System have fascinated us for centuries. Based on the latest scientific research, The Story of the Solar System will help you see the planets around us in a whole new light. Using colourful and easy-to-follow infographics, each planet becomes a character with a story of its own to tell, from Jupiter the King of the Solar System to ice oddity Uranus and outlier planet-but-not-a-planet Pluto. 
 
As space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock shows us, the story of Earth is best understood as part of its larger family, and The Story of the Solar System will bring that family to life.

The Story of the Solar System: A Visual Journey

Jo Wheeler

While their husbands, brothers and sweethearts fought in Europe and their mothers, sisters and friends kept the home fires burning, for the first time, a group of remarkable women took to the skies. They weren't allowed into combat but risked their lives in bad weather and without radios to bring our boys the aircraft they so vitally needed. 
 
Employed by the Air Transport Auxiliary, these women were known as 'attagirls'. They proved that women too could master Spitfires, Mosquitoes and Hawker Hurricanes, forging a new path in aviation. 
 
The Hurricane Girls is the fascinating, moving and inspirational story of bravery, determination and remarkable women.

The Hurricane Girls

The inspirational true story of the women who dared to fly

Jackie Ellis

How often have you thought you might like to chuck it all in, leave the steaming metropolis and its noise and dirt behind and make for pastures new, to begin your life again? 
 
We often talk about it but people rarely do it. Jackie Moffat is one of those who did. In 1982 she and her family - armed with a bucketload of optimism, stout boots and a highly developed sense of the ridiculous - upped sticks from London (where she'd lived all her life) and went North, to Cumbria. Their destination was the Eden Valley, and a small stock-rearing and dairy farm called Rowfoot, and there they have spent the past twenty years getting to grips with the practice of running a working farm, keeping sheep, cattle, pigs and horses, becoming part of the (often eccentric) community, coping with the ups and downs (Foot and Mouth devastated them) of farming life. 
 
For the past ten years, the author's written a regular column for the Cumbria and Lake District Life magazine, and it was this that inspired her to write about her life in rural England and the trials, tribulations and pleasures of running a farm.

The Funny Farm

Rana el Kaliouby

A captivating memoir that chronicles one woman's mission to humanise technology and what she learns about humanity along the way. 
 
Now more than ever, we find ourselves unable to express our true feelings through technology. Rana el Kaliouby discovered this when she left Cairo, a newly-married, Muslim woman, to take up her place at Cambridge University to study computer science. Many thousands of miles from home, she began to develop systems to help her better connect with her family. She started to pioneer the new field of Emotional Intelligence (EI). She now runs her company, Affectiva (the industry-leader in this emerging field) that builds EI into our technology and develops systems that understand humans the way we understand one another. This is the fascinating story of her mission to humanise technology and what she learns about humanity along the way.

Girl Decoded

My Quest to Make Technology Emotionally Intelligent – and Change the Way We Interact Forever

Charles Higham

Howard Hughes was America's most famous playboy and rogue operator, an outlaw eccentric millionaire and hellraiser, 'I can buy any man' he once bragged, 'and have any woman.' And it was almost true. 
He stormed from bedroom to boardroom, from corporate bribary to Capitol Hill; his affairs with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Bette Davis and many others were as brief as they were stormy. he was a deeply involved in Watergate and in the Cuban missile crisis. He burgled his own office records when tax authorities were after him. And, despite a mystrious illness, he wheeled and dealed to the last days of his life.

Howard Hughes

Raynor Winn

Nature holds the answers for Raynor and her husband Moth. After walking 630 homeless miles along The Salt Path, living on the windswept and wild English coastline; the cliffs, the sky and the chalky earth now feel like their home. 
 
Moth has a terminal diagnosis, but against all medical odds, he seems revitalised in nature. Together on the wild coastal path, with their feet firmly rooted outdoors, they discover that anything is possible. 
 
Now life beyond the Salt Path awaits and they come back to four walls, but the sense of home is illusive and returning to normality is proving difficult - until an incredible gesture by someone who reads their story changes everything. 
 
A chance to breathe life back into a beautiful farmhouse nestled deep in the Cornish hills; rewilding the land and returning nature to its hedgerows, becomes their saving grace and their new path to follow. 
 
The Wild Silence is a story of hope triumphing over despair, of lifelong love prevailing over everything. It is a luminous account of the human spirit's instinctive connection to nature, and how vital it is for us all.

The Wild Silence

Wendell Berry

'He is unlike anybody else writing today ... After Donald Trump's election, we urgently need to rediscover the best of radical America. An essential part of that story is Wendell Berry. Few of us can live, or even aspire to, his kind of life. But nobody can risk ignoring him' Andrew Marr 
 
'Wendell Berry is the most important writer and thinker that you have (probably) never heard of. He is an American sage' James Rebanks 
 
Wendell Berry is 'something of an anachronism'. He began his life as the old times and the last of the old-time people were dying out, and continues to this day in the old ways: a team of work horses and a pencil are his preferred working tools. The writings gathered in The World-Ending Fire are the unique product of a life spent farming the fields of rural Kentucky with mules and horses, and of the rich, intimate knowledge of the land cultivated by this work. These are essays written in defiance of the false call to progress, and in defence of the local landscapes that provide our cultural heritage, our history, our home.

The World-Ending Fire

The Essential Wendell Berry

Qing Li

Shinrin = Forest 
Yoku = Bathing 
 
Shinrin-Yoku or forest bathing is the practice of spending time in the forest for better health, happiness and a sense of calm. A pillar of Japanese culture for decades, Shinrin-Yoku is a way to reconnect with nature, from walking mindfully in the woods, to a break in your local park, to walking barefoot on your lawn. 
 
Forest Medicine expert, Dr Qing Li's research has proven that spending time around trees (even filling your home with house plants and vaporising essential tree oils) can reduce blood pressure, lower stress, boost energy, boost immune system and even help you to lose weight. Along with his years of ground-breaking research, anecdotes on the life-changing power of trees, Dr Li provides here the practical ways for you to try Shinrin-Yoku for yourself.

Shinrin-Yoku

The Art and Science of Forest Bathing

K. Iggulden

Told in a series of snapshots, A House for Two Pounds is filled with wit, warmth and joy. It follows the life of Kathleen Iggulden, and is a quietly powerful account of life on Brookdale farm. Though it is very personal, it tells the wider story of a vanished Ireland; an era of innocence, community and pure elbow grease.

A House for Two Pounds

Samantha Cristoforetti

‘I read a lot of writings by astronauts in my research for Orbital, but this was my go-to. It's written with clarity, generosity, humour, humility and heart’ Samantha Harvey 
 
'Today I woke up on Earth. And I will fall asleep in space' 
 
In space the sun rises and sets 16 times a day. You fly over every sea, every mountain and desert, every city and every port. The most ordinary things -- eating, sleeping, brushing your teeth or cutting your hair -- have to be relearned, until they become familiar again. This is the story of Samantha Cristoforetti's incredible journey to becoming an astronaut, and her journey beyond Earth. 
 
Her voyage as an apprentice astronaut began when she was in her early thirties: five years of intense training around the world, from Houston to Japan to the legendary Star City in Russia. Countless hours spent in centrifuges, spaceship simulators and under water for spacewalk practice. Then, one day, a rocket was waiting for her on the launch pad. And after eight minutes of wild ascent, she was on orbit, crunched up with her two crewmates in a tiny spaceship that took them to the International Space Station. 
 
With honesty and warmth, Cristoforetti chronicles the two hundred days she spent on the ISS, the joys and challenges of being in an extraordinary place, from the sublime sight of seeing Earth for the first time to more unusual concerns, such as mastering the art of floating. How do you find your bearings when there is no up and down? What is it like to run in weightlessness? And how do you cook in space? 
 
This is an enthralling, inspiring and surprisingly down-to-earth story about what it really takes to pursue your dreams.

Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut

Richard Williams

For tens of millions of people around the world, a single name evokes the world of speed - Enzo Ferrari. Today's Formula One would be unthinkable without the presence of the Ferrari cars on the grid. Win or lose, Ferrari attract more fans than all the other teams combined. And the cars unique appeal - their mystique, their myth - has its origins in the story of one man with a dictator's will and the cunning of a Machiavelli. 
 
Going back to the origins of "The Old Man", tracing his remarkable rise to prominence, and using sources which have hitherto remained silent, Richard Williams tells the story of a man who was one of the key figures of sport in the twentieth century, and whose influence over his sport is undiminished today, more than a decade after his death.

Enzo Ferrari

A Life

One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on. 
 
Back at home, Rebanks couldn’t stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly – and yet strangely familiar. Years passed. Then, one day, he wrote her a letter, asking if he could return. Bring work clothes, she replied, and good boots, and come quickly: her health was failing. And so he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island. 
 
This is the story of that season. It is the story of a unique and ancient landscape, and of the woman who brought it back to life. It traces the pattern of her work from the rough, isolated toil of bitter winter, to the elation of the endless summer light, when the birds leave behind their precious down for gathering, like feathered gold. 
 
Slowly, Rebanks begins to understand that this woman and her world are not what he had previously thought. What began as a journey of escape becomes an extraordinary lesson in self-knowledge, forgiveness and how to make lasting change.

The Place of Tides

Ladybird

Brought to you by Ladybird. 
 
Winner of The FutureBook of the Year Award 2019 and shortlisted for the Best Children's Audiobook at the New York Festival Radio Awards 2020. 
 
Meet our fearless adventurers Cassandra, Otto and Missy AKA the smartest raven in the universe as they set out on their next action-packed Ladybird Audio Adventure! 
 
On this adventure, we're learning about incredible inventors. We'll travel through time to see how humans first discovered fire-making, all the way through to the modern scientific research of today! 
 
These audiobooks help children learn about their environment on a journey of discovery with narrators, Sophie Aldred best known for her role as Ace in Doctor Who and Kristin Atherton as Missy. 
 
Ladybird Audio Adventures is an award-winning original series for three to seven year-olds; an entertaining and engaging way for children to learn about the world around them. These are special stories written exclusively for audio, so little ones can become their own adventurers with fun sound and musical effects that are perfect for listening at home, before bed and on long journeys. 
 
Have you listened to our new Audio Adventures? Australia, The Vikings, Musical Instruments, Cities Around the World and Big Cats are available now! 
 
©2021 Ladybird (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Ladybird Audio Adventures: Incredible Inventors

Peter Ginn

Ruth Goodman

Ruth Goodman and Peter Ginn have become familiar faces on BBC2 after their hugely popular and immersive time-travelling experiments, Victorian, Edwardian and Wartime Farm. But for their fourth series, and our accompanying book, they have joined forces with Tom Pinfold to take on their biggest challenge yet: going back to Tudor England to endure the harsh realities of working for an Abbey Farm. 
 
Peter, Ruth and Tom are trained historians, driven by new research and discovery. They are passionate about bringing period details to life, and they do that for us by comprehensively inhabiting the era for months, using only materials, tools and technology available at the time, to earn their living, celebrate their holidays, clothe and feed themselves and their families. Follow them as they discover how to build a pigsty, brew their own ale, forge their own machinery and keep a Tudor household. 
 
Scrupulously researched, totally authentic and with its own contemporary narrative playing out within an accurate reconstruction of Tudor England, this is a fantastic glimpse into history, as it was lived. This is set to be Peter, Ruth and Tom’s most ambitious historical assignment yet.

Tudor Monastery Farm

Life in rural England 500 years ago

Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean first met John Laroche when visiting Florida to write for the New Yorker about his arrest for stealing rare ghost orchids from a nature reserve. Fascinated both by Laroche and the world she uncovered of orchid collectors and growers, she stayed on, to write this magical exploration of obsession and the strange world both of the orchid obsessives and of Florida, that haunting and weird 'debatable land' of swamps and condos, retirement communities and real-estate scams. 
 
The world of the orchid hunters, breeders and showmen, their rivalries, vendettas and crimes, smuggling, thefts and worse provide the backdrop to a fascinating exploration of one of the byways of human nature, the obsessive world of the collector, and the haunting beauty of the flowers themselves.

The Orchid Thief

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