Let a little wildness in. Adventure is closer than you think. A lavishly illustrated celebration of the wonders that await in the outside world; the perfect gift for fans of Norwegian Wood, The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Almanac. Fly through the air on your homemade tree swing, feel the rush of water as you speed down your slip 'n' slide, taste the delicious smokiness of your campfire-cooked meal and learn more about the natural world. Unleash your inner child as you run, jump, craft, cook and wander your way through THE WILD BOOK. Whether you want to add a dash of adventure to your daily life, take a break from screen time, sleep under the stars or simply make something by hand, this book will inspire you to rediscover the outdoors and feel truly alive. It's full of fun and easy practical activities that will reawaken your sense of wonder and open up the world around you.

Drawing on sources from archaeology and written texts, the author brings out the full significance of trees in both pagan and Christian Anglo-Saxon religion. Trees were of fundamental importance in Anglo-Saxon material culture - but they were also a powerful presence in Anglo-Saxon religion before and after the introduction of Christianity. This book shows that they remained prominentin early English Christianity, and indeed that they may have played a crucial role in mediating the transition between ancient beliefs and the new faith. It argues that certain characteristics of sacred trees in England can be determined from insular contexts alone, independent of comparative evidence from culturally related peoples. This nevertheless suggests the existence of traditions comparable to those found in Scandinavia and Germany. Tree symbolismhelped early English Christians to understand how the beliefs of their ancestors about trees, posts, and pillars paralleled the appearance of similar objects in the Old Testament. In this way, the religious symbols of their forebears were aligned with precursors to the cross in Scripture. Literary evidence from England and Scandinavia similarly indicates a shared tradition of associations between the bodies of humans, trees, and other plant-life. Though potentially ancient, these ideas flourished amongst the abundance of vegetative symbolism found in the Christian tradition. MICHAEL D.J. BINTLEY is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Canterbury Christ Church University.

The plant world of the Mediterranean region is remarkable for its great diversity of species and forms. This user-friendly pocket nature guide is organized by colour to help identify over 500 commonly seen flowers, shrubs, trees, grasses and ferns. Detailed descriptions give the common and scientific names as well as the flowering time. They also provide information on characteristic features, occurrence and distribution.As an extra at-a-glance aid over 45 eye-catching ornamental plants are featured on the flaps.The book covers every country with a Mediterranean coastline, including France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco

A captivatingly informative and visually beautiful survey of the tree species - from all over the world - that human cultures have found most useful. Each tree species is the subject of a concise text centred on a story - or stories - about the tree in question, and is depicted by means of a photograph, painting or other aesthetic artefact. The species will be organized thematically according to the virtues they impart, be that in the form of timber, nuts, fruit or medicine. The bloodwood tree, a native of central America, is a tree that made a nation. Its wood produces a brilliant and lucrative bright red dye and was imported to Europe for use in dyeing fabrics. The 17th and 18th-century logging camps established by the British later became the modern nation of Belize, and the bloodwood tree appears on its national flag. From the bloodwood to the breadfruit and from the cinchona to the peach, these are trees that offer not merely shelter, timber and fuel but also medicines, dyes, foods and fibres. They are very special trees, and Max Adams, author of The Wisdom of Trees, has a plethora of such fascinating stories to tell about them.