Although spare, sweeping landscapes may appear "empty," plains and prairies afford a rich, unique aesthetic experience—one of quiet sunrises and dramatic storms, hidden treasures and abundant wildlife, infinite horizons and omnipresent wind, all worthy of contemplation and celebration.  In this series of narratives, photographs, and hand-drawn maps, Tyra Olstad blends scholarly research with first-hand observation to explore topics such as wildness and wilderness, travel and tourism, preservation and conservation, expectations and acceptance, and even dreams and reality in the context of parks, prairies, and wild, open places. In so doing, she invites readers to reconsider the meaning of "emptiness" and ask larger, deeper questions such as: how do people experience the world? How do we shape places and how do places shape us? Above all, what does it mean to experience that exhilarating effect known as Zen of the plains?

Since the early 1980s, art photographers from metropolitan France have been training their lenses on ordinary landscapes throughout the country they call home. The Topographic Imaginary is the first book to study this important and flourishing trend. It examines work by artists who meld documentary and creative modes to attune viewers to places that mainstream culture tends to tune out, but which, as Ari J. Blatt argues, are in fact more meaningful than they initially appear. From views of building sites in Paris, peri-urban edgelands, or a tangle of trees in a forest, to those that ponder the play of light and shadow on roadside fields in Normandy or the tacky colors painted on dated village shopfronts, images that signal the emergence of a "topographic turn" in contemporary French photography constitute new ways of seeing and sensing France's diverse national territory. As Blatt suggests, they also represent a visual laboratory through which to investigate how landscape "scapes" our understanding of French culture. In their efforts to reimagine a more traditional and time-worn idea of France's shared common space, topographic photographs animate conversations about capital and class; cities and their peripheries; the politics and impact of development; migration and borders; memory, history, and affect; empire and postcolonialism; national identity; and the changing environment. The Topographic Imaginary thus reveals how attending to place in pictures provides valuable insight into the disposition of a nation in flux.

James Morris challenges the tourist cliches and looks at the impact of human presence and the layers history in the landscape. He reflects upon issues of identity, exploitation and regeneration; it is a land of beauty and of hardship where - in this post industrial, post rural economy - Tesco and tourism are now the great employers. These are the contrasting realities of the Welsh landscape - that seen by the many visitors and that experienced by most inhabitants. Morris moves between tourist hot spots and the terraces and back streets where the majority of people live. The latter are often hard bitten unpretty places, often built for reasons that no longer exist, no longer the world's largest producer of iron, coal, copper or slate, these are places that have lost their historic and heroic status, sometimes even their raison d'etre. Regeneration is taking place, but it is taking its time. By contrast the tourist landscape is one of pleasure seeking and escape - this is the Wales that visitors are sold and want to see. But in a small land this selling of culture for the tourist pound has complex consequences that build on the complexities of a relationship that has shaped so much of the landscape.

As Vietnam moves towards urbanisation, the country's agricultural labour force faces losing its land to urban projects - and its way of life. The country's growing population is reducing the availability of farming land and rural families, no longer able to sustain themselves from the land, are turning to the creation of various products. These 'craft' villages have become the meeting place between rural and urban, agriculture and industry. During the last decade, along with rapid national economic development many craft villages have increased production up to five fold through small-scale industrial development. However, the consequence of this shift is increased waste and environmental pollution with the resources of the landscape becoming overused. Tessa Bunney spent two six month periods in Vietnam and visited many of these villages. The traditional village house is typically single storey and consists of three rooms. The large central room is a multi-purpose living, sleeping and working area and it is in this room where many of Tessa's images are taken, the mix of work and everyday objects fascinating her visually. Interspersed with images from daily life in the rice fields and in the villages, these photographs depict 'working from home' in an unromanticized sense, where their subjects, mostly women, balance childcare with the routine work necessary for survival.

Take a stroll down memory lane with this collection of photographs of Britain in the 1940s, which evokes those happy days when everyone pulled together to defeat Hitler and kept smiling despite the hardship of the post-war years.

This award-winning author's nineteenth novel explores the effects of the closing months of World War II on a small community in a corner of north Wales. The story is told through two voices, the local rector and a German countess in his care as a displaced person. A young conscientious objector and a gifted German prisoner of war contest the love of the rector's idealistic daughter, while the two narrators and their families negotiate the fall of fascism and nationalism and the effects of winning the war on older, established relationships.

From global literary superstar Karl Ove Knausgaard, an achingly beautiful collection of daily meditations and love letters addressed directly to Knausgaard's unborn daughter In Winter, we rejoin the great Karl Ove Knausgaard as the birth of his daughter draws near. In preparation for her arrival, he takes stock of the world, seeing it anew. While new life is on the horizon, the earth is also in hibernation, waiting for the warmer weather to return. In his inimitably sensitive style, he writes about everything from the moon, winter boots and messiness, to owls and birthdays. Taking nothing for granted, he fills these everyday familiar objects and ideas with new meaning. Startling, compassionate, and exquisitely beautiful, Knausgaard's writing is like nothing else. Somehow, he shows the world as it really is, at once mundane and sublime.

A visual journey exploring one of Southeast Asia's most beautiful destinations. Through more than 250 stunning photographs, readers are taken across the length and breadth of this culturally and geographically diverse archipelago--from the chocolate hills of Bohol to the country's northernmost province of Batanes. Often overlooked by travelers to Southeast Asia, the islands are home to spectacular white-sand beaches, bubbling volcanoes, 2000-year-old rice terraces, and some of the best surfing and diving in the world. This book captures the islands' stunningly varied natural landscapes, and provides an insight into the lives of the Filipino people--from centuries-old traditions and religious festivals to exquisite craftsmanship and warm hospitality.

In 1956, a few brash young men created the Mai-Kai Restaurant and bar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by poaching key staff from Don the Beachcomber, a Polynesian-themed Chicago restaurant. The Mai-Kai became the playground of celebrities and playboys, and the beautiful women working there used it as a jumping-off point for adventure and fame. Through first-hand stories and more than 400 images, this book documents the history, allure, and enduring legacy of the mid-twentieth-century Tiki era. Focusing on the period 1955 to 1971, it is the story of how the Mai-Kai and its iconic elements came to exist, and the men and women who shaped it and went on to shape the world. Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Mai-Kai is the only place on earth that still serves the Rum Rhapsodies that kicked off that indulgent era.

John Comino-James has photographed the streets, shops and shopkeepers in the centre of Thame, an historic market town some 45 miles from London. Portraits, texts and candid photographs are contained in a sequence representing a meandering walk through the town, during which we encounter not only the shops and shopkeepers but also the last cattle market operating in the area, travelling showmen at one of the two annual fairs, and the weekly street market. The accompanying interviews reveal pride in the continuation of family businesses, as well as small enterprises both challenged by and benefiting from the increasing impact of the internet. While the presence of supermarkets and services such as banks, travel agents and estate agents is acknowledged, in choosing subjects for portraits Comino-James was drawn to those shopkeepers whose aim might be summed up in the words of one of them: to keep the character of Thame as a Market Town and not a Supermarket town.

"Beijing Portrait of a City" is a captivating collection of stories, essays, poetry and reminiscence by leading China authors, storytellers and academics, about a city they know from the inside. The book is the shared work of some of the city's finest writers who lead us through 'hutong' alleys, antique markets, artists' communities, gay bars, parks and the nostalgic streets of memory. They beguile with poems, amuse with camel anecdotes and thrill with two murder stories - one a genuine antique, the other a fictional contemporary. They take us back to the often-ignored Mongolian roots of the city and project forward to ask whether spectacular modern architecture will suffice to return Beijing to what it sees as its ancient place at the centre of the world. Compiled by Alexandra Pearson and Lucy Cavender, the book interweaves its written work with a collection of wry and telling photographs of different aspects of the city, creating a compelling portrait of Beijing. The contributors - including Zhu Wen, Adam Williams, Roy Kesey, Ma Jian, Alfreda Murck, Tim Clissold, Catherine Sampson, Peter Hessler, Karen Smith, Paul French, Michael Aldrich, Hong Ying and Rob Gifford, all published authors and experts in their field - have spent many years living in Beijing and know it from the inside. Their individual contributions combine to leave a highly original and unforgettable impression of one of the world's oldest and most fascinating cities.

Part of a series of guides following key figures and themes, Walter Stephen explores the life and theories of the Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, philanthropist and urban planner, Sir Patrick Geddes. His renewal work in Edinburgh's Old Town is as visible and impressive today as it was in the 19th and 20th centuries and his concepts such as 'Think Global, Act Local' are just as relevant. The author is an authority on Patrick Geddes and this book forms part of the On the Trail series.

The reputed home of the Queen of Sheba, Yemen has been at the crossroads of Africa, the Middle East and Asia for thousands of years thanks to its position on the ancient spice routes. Ten thousand years of trade along Yemen's Red Sea and Indian Ocean coasts, over its mountains and across its deserts made it a meeting point of people, ideas, money and goods and the centuries of trading generated much wealth. There has been a British presence in Yemen ever since the early 1600s when the East India Company set up trading posts in Mukha (Mocha in the west), a port then famous as the world centre for trade in coffee. In 1839 the port city of Aden was captured to provide a base to protect British trade routes. This began an even stronger relationship which would last some 130 years until 1967 when the Britain finally pulled out, having granted independence after several years of insurgency against British rule including riots and attacks on its troops.But Britain's links do not end there. Yemen is the mother country of the longest-established of Britain's Muslim communities. Yemenis came to Britain from the 1890s onwards, many as an indirect result of having joined the British Merchant Navy, and after World War Two there was further emigration. By the mid-1970s there were some 15,000 Yemenis in Britain, though today this figure has shrunk back considerably. One of the poorest countries in the region, Yemen still maintains much of its tribal character and old ways. People wear traditional dress and the custom of chewing the narcotic plant khat in the afternoons is still widely observed. Yemen remains a country of great mystery and in recent years it has attracted the curiosity of a growing number of the more adventurous tourists.

This handsome, unique package -- containing a stereoscopic viewer, 34 3D photographic cards, and a photo-packed paperback book -- offers a rare view of Paris, the world's most beautiful city, during an era when art, literature, poetry, and music blossomed and reigned. Paris during the Belle Epoque (1880-1914) was a time when peace and prosperity allowed for towering innovation in art, fashion, architecture, and gastronomy. The city at this time was the epicenter of art and music. Faure, Saint Saens, Debussy, and Ravel were composing; Rodin was working on The Thinker; Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Pissarro, and Degas painted scenes depicting everyday life; and Pablo Picasso embarked on his Blue Period. As Art Nouveau came into fashion, new buildings followed suit. Opera Garnier, Castel Beranger, Moulin Rouge, and the Paris Metro entrances were all built during this time. Galeries Lafayette unveiled its gilded department store, which sold couture to the aspiring middle class. This burgeoning creativity and prosperity, as well as the city and the inhabitants who embraced it, are all captured here, with stunning clarity and realism. Paris in 3D's innovative and inimitable package includes a sturdy metal stereoscopic viewer, 34 rarely seen stereoscopic photographs of the city at the turn of the century, and an accompanying 128-page paperback, which provides a brief history of the stereograph craze and an overview of the city's evolution during that time.

Where the windswept Patagonian steppe meets the Andes, and the massive unclimbed south wall of Cerro San Lorenzo looks down on the Lacteo Valley, a visitor understands: Perito Moreno National Park is a stronghold of wild nature. In a region so alluring that is has become synonymous with beauty at the end of the Earth, Perito Moreno National Park is an icon of Patagonia. This relatively little visited Park is a magnet for intrepid travellers and ambitious alpinists. In a book as grand as the natural area it celebrates, Perito Moreno National Park presents a stunning collection of images of the park by renowned landscape photographer Antonio Vizcaino. With supporting essays from experts on the park's natural and cultural history, this elegant volume offers an armchair tour of one of the world's most scenic and unsullied landscapes. Legendary businessman and philanthropist Douglas Tompkins (founder of The North Face) contributes the book's foreword. In a dramatic gesture that expanded the park in 2013, Tompkins donated a key private inholding in Perito Moreno to the Argentine national parks administration.For all of those who dream of Patagonia, Perito Moreno National Park is a ticket into the heart of the wild. All proceeds from this book go towards conservation efforts at Perito Moreno National Park.

'Heartwarming, magical and uplifting' In today's throwaway culture, there's a counter movement growing that urges us to 'make do and mend'. The BBC's The Repair Shop has brought this waste-conscious message to an even wider audience, with its regular viewing figures of 7 million in the UK alone, cementing itself as a classic series in the vein of Antiques Roadshow. This new book concentrates on the show's much-loved experts, including woodworker and furniture restorer Will Kirk, clock restorer Steve Fletcher, metalworker Dominic Chinea, silversmith Brenton West, leatherworker Suzie Fletcher, upholsterer Sonnaz Nooranvary, and seamstresses Julie Tatchell & Amanda Middleditch - aka The Teddy Bear Ladies. Each of the experts shares their own stories and their repairs, capturing in the process the magic and ethos of the barn. Includes quotations and Q & As from the experts as well as Jay Blades on some unique restoration collaborations. With the focus on the experts themselves, readers will feel as though they're stepping straight into the 'workshop of dreams' and experiencing first hand the magic of the barn.

What are the English about? This question has vexed many peopled, including the English and the French at different times. This book looks at all of the myths, all of the stereotypes and all of the things, good and bad, that people have had to say about the English.

In 1987, skeletal remains were encountered during excavation just west of Old Fort Erie, in Ontario's Niagara Peninsula. While possession of the land had been bitterly contested in 1814, it remained virtually undeveloped and only in the 1980s, with the construction of permanent homes, did excavations yield evidence of the distant past. An international team of scholars and scientists investigated the remains and identified the individuals' nationalities for repatriation, where appropriate. The resulting archaeological dig has proven crucial to our understanding of the siege of Fort Erie, and provided new information about military clothing, personal gear, medical science, and other details of the day-to-day life of a soldier living under battlefield conditions during the War of 1812. Snake Hill provides a detailed account of this investigation, documenting an important story of suffering and carnage, and providing the reader with a rare glimpse at life and death during the War of 1812. This book contributes significantly to our understanding of events before, during and after Fort Erie's 1814 siege.

Bloomsbury lies at the heart of cultural and intellectual London, famed for its museums, universities and literary heritage. Matthew Ingleby's new history ranges across the neighbourhood to explore hidden corners and reveal unexpected connections between Bloomsbury's past and present, its buildings and its people, its austere towers and its garden squares. Ingleby examines the facets of Bloomsbury that have shaped its identity - its long association with youth and beginnings; its proud secularism and scepticism; and its role as London's centre of thinking, writing and publishing. He draws on the voices of Bloomsbury's most observant residents, such as Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf, to explain the character of the place in a fresh and engaging new way.