An exuberant, life-affirming novel of taking your chances After a spur-of-the-moment day out with his boss' daughter in celebration of his 21st birthday, Polycarp Jarvis decides to quit his Bristol-based junior government worker job. Newly emboldened, he embarks on an erratic, engaging and not always strictly legal course through life. Going from bus driver for the Red Dragon Motor Company to co-owner of a flying company, to seller of quack medicines, and eventually to media tycoon, Polycarp makes much of his luck along the way. Through ups and downs, his exuberance and charm carry him through. But what kind of person will he be by the end? This gentle coming-of-age story was hugely popular on first publication in the 1930s and retains a timeless appeal today. Praise for Victor Canning: 'Quite delightful ... with an atmosphere of quiet contentment and humour that cannot fail to charm.' Daily Telegraph 'There is such a gentle humour in the book.' Daily Sketch 'What counts for most in the story ... is his mounting pleasure in vagabondage and the English scene.' The Times 'A paean to the beauties of the English countryside and the lovable oddities of the English character.' New York Times 'His delight at the beauties of the countryside and his mild astonishment at the strange ways of men are infectious.' Daily Telegraph 'A swift-moving novel, joyous, happy and incurably optimistic.' Evening Standard 'His gift of story-telling is obviously innate. Rarely does one come on so satisfying an amalgam of plot, characterisation and good writing.' Punch

How far could you go living in another's shoes? In a mid-life moment, Paul Morison travels from America to England to discover his mother's roots. A chance encounter and uncanny resemblance leads him to agree to assume the identity of a famous singer for a while. But it's not just the unnerving attentions of the adoring public that he must deal with. Seeking to regain his freedom, Paul flees the length of Britain from Southampton to the Scottish Isles. On the run, he discovers he has let himself in for much more than he bargained. This gentle comic caper and love story was hugely popular on first publication in the 1930s and retains a timeless appeal today. Praise for Victor Canning: 'Quite delightful ... with an atmosphere of quiet contentment and humour that cannot fail to charm.' Daily Telegraph 'There is such a gentle humour in the book.' Daily Sketch 'What counts for most in the story ... is his mounting pleasure in vagabondage and the English scene.' The Times 'A paean to the beauties of the English countryside and the lovable oddities of the English character.' New York Times 'His delight at the beauties of the countryside and his mild astonishment at the strange ways of men are infectious.' Daily Telegraph 'A swift-moving novel, joyous, happy and incurably optimistic.' Evening Standard 'His gift of story-telling is obviously innate. Rarely does one come on so satisfying an amalgam of plot, characterisation and good writing.' Punch

In Infinite Good: The Mountains of William James, author and naturalist, J. Parker Huber,follows the famed naturalist and philosopher William James sojourns in New England. The Adirondacksawhere neither Muir nor Thoreau treadaJames revealed, had the greatest influence on his life. He made annual pilgrimages there in late nineteenth century. He bought land there, as well as a farm at the south base of Mount Chocorua in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, which became his country home. Drawing on James's faithfully recorded itineraries, author J. Parker Huber provides comprehensive and well-documented summaries about the excursions of William James and his family. William James became increasingly aware of nature's beneficence. In 1872, then thirty, he confided to Henry in two letters what he had drawn from his Maine coast experiences that summer. In the first, of 24 August, he wrote that the "nervouspuckers" of his mind had been "smoothed out gently & fairly by the sweet influences of many a lie on a hill top at mt. Desert with sky & sea & Islands before me, by many a row, and a couple of sails, and by my bath and siesta on the blazing sand this morn." And, again in the fall of 1872, he wrote that he had "never so much as this summer felt the soothing and hygienic effects of nature upon the human spirit." Earlier his enjoyment of nature had been a "luxury, but this time t'was as a vital food, or medicine." And so it remained for his life. J Parker Huber provides a fascinating look at the prominent philosopher's love of the mountains and the solace he found there. Readers will appreciate the scholarly research, but also participate in the alpinist's adventures and revelations.

For centuries, man and mole have taken from the soil in their bid to survive. This has resulted in bitter conflict between these adversaries and one that continues today. Whatever the season, whatever the weather, wherever the mole! Mole catchers have worked to remove moles. Journey through history with the mole catchers of old as you learn of their lives, their work, and their struggle to survive with the pressure of change. Learn of the demands and needs inflicted upon the mole and how it adapts to survive, discover how it exploits the efforts of man, and how they deal with his plight to rid the land of them. Follow Jeff Nicholls through a typical year in the life of a mole catcher and explore the secrets of success to be mole free. Understand the relationship between man and mole both in alliance and conflict, and unearth your passion towards the little man in black. Jeff Nicholls has previously written books on mole catching but this is his most personal composition, providing the knowledge to compete on a level playing field and fully understand the rules of engagement. It will be a mole catcher's handbook for many years to come containing everything you ever need to know.

Before reality TV, GPS devices, and dashboard computers, there was a coming of age for the Maine Warden Service. It was a time when a compass, map, and one's wits were what mattered most in the field. Every day offered the potential for an exciting new adventure, many of which endangered the wardens' lives. Recreating the full warden experience, Open Season includes 20 stories from two former colonels, two lieutenants, two sergeants, four district wardens, a warden pilot, and one currently active-duty corporal. Altogether, their cumulative experiences account for more than 300 years of north woods law. In addition to hair-raising, life-and-death scenarios, the collection covers moments such as a child innocently outing his parents as "looking for deer" at night, the doldrums of a stakeout, and the grief of tragedy. You'll live through the eyes of these twelve wardens and feel the excitement of a twig snapped in the dark...the frustration of second guessing yourself when lives are at stake...and the duty to do what's right, even when it means breaking the law.

In Watershed Days, the reader embarks on a wide array of adventures shared in seasonal order over a period of two years, 2005-2007, yet spanning in memory back to the author's youth. Infused with a blend of ruggedness and sensitivity, the writing is ripe, wry, and roving, ever attuned to the natural world. When the focus is not on the immediate homestead activities of making apple butter, telling stories to his child at bedtime, coming to terms with an aging dog, planting fruit trees, building garden beds, stacking firewood, butchering hogs, keeping chickens, hunting deer behind the barn, Moeckel zooms in on his escapes to the near woods and rivers, creeks and coasts-surfing, canoeing, fishing, even skateboarding on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The twenty-four adventures are woven into a subtle, cohesive whole, providing a textured portrait of a young man, his family, and their evolving intimacy and distance with each other and the natural world, the 18-acre homestead to which they have just moved and started working, as well as the woods and rivers of Virginia's Jefferson National Forest just down Arcadia Road.

Before the 1970s few women were employed by the United States Forest Service. During the 1960s and 70s new environmental and fair employment laws meant that the Forest Service began to hire talented women in professional careers. For the first time women began working as wildlife biologists, geologists, soil scientists, and fisheries biologists for the U.S. Forest Service. A Hunger for High Country is the story of one of these women. Set in the national forests surrounding Yellowstone National Park, A Hunger for High Country is part memoir and part profile of a time and place. Susan Marsh finds her background and values often place her at odds with the agency she works for, and what was supposed to be her dream job in Montana ends in sorrow and frustration after a six year long struggle to fit in. Humbled by her failures, and the part she played in her own downfall, she begins again in the mountains of western Wyoming where she finds refuge and inspiration in nature. Susan Marsh shares with us not only a vivid portrait of what being a professional woman in a land management agency was like during this time period, but also of the Forest Service itself. Encounters with wolves and grizzly bears, outlaws and renegade lawmen, and moments of beauty inspired by wonder in wild country become the scenes through which Marsh's palpable appreciation for nature are fully rendered on the page. A Hunger for High Country will appeal to anyone interested in the Forest Service, wild land conservation, Yellowstone, and women's experiences in the West.

When Barbara Drake and her husband left Portland and moved to a small farm in western Oregon's Yamhill Valley in the late 1980s, they saw it as a temporary relocation - they would return to the city eventually. But as the couple's experiences on the farm multiplied - training herding dogs, enlisting a pair of traveling dowsers to help them find a good well, and stargazing in a singular nighttime darkness - they decide to hang on to their rural life as long as possible. Barbara Drake articulates the lessons she's learned from her long stint of country living in her new book, Morning Light. Replete with records of native wildflowers, an encounter with an elderly man who lived on her farm eighty years ago, and an old family recipe for wild blackberry pudding, Morning Light is an appreciation and exploration of the landscape of western Oregon, and readers will come to know it better through the book. As entertaining and instructive as it is personal and reflective, Drake's writing will resonate with anyone who has experienced a convergence of family history with natural history, considered their place in the historical continuum, or wondered if their lifestyle can be sustained with age. In a world where even "the country" is becoming increasingly citified, Morning Light reminds us why we should care for our rural landscapes - while we still can.

Nestled within the heart of the county, sparsely and largely untouched by the pressures of the modern age, the Kent Downs are home to some of the most enchanting countryside in southern England. This book unravels the history of the area's settlement and colonisation, the inspiration it has given to poets, artists and authors, and the legacy of its rich and varied natural treasures; the rare and the commonplace; the peculiar and unique, the mysterious and the haunting. Having spent most of his life living and working in the countryside of the Kent Downs, Dan Tuson offers an intimate and inspiring exploration of this unique landscape. He is a regular contributor of articles and photographs to The Orchid magazine of the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Beauty organisation, many of which have been included within the book and illustrated with the beautiful artwork of fellow contributors to The Orchid, Angel Design. Richly illustrated with over 100 stunning photographs in colour and monochrome, the book is a tribute to the many who have found solace and inspiration in the Kent Downs and will appeal to all those who visit, work or live in this cherished part of the county of Kent.

Letters from the Country, one of Bly's best-known and best-loved books, is a collection of essays as fresh today as when they were originally published in Minnesota Monthly. This contemporary classic welcomes readers to the small town of Madison, Minnesota (population 2,242), a rural community struggling to place itself in the new American landscape.

The daughter and granddaughter of Wyoming ranchers, Teresa Jordan gives us a lyrical and superbly evocative book that is at once a family chronicle and a eulogy for the land her people helped shape and in time were forced to leave. Author readings.

This book offers a retrospective look at farming life within living memory and beyond, celebrating a quintessential rural existence.It is warm and nostalgic but also honest about the hardships of life and the great changes the countryside has seen in the last 100 or so years.It is peppered with personal stories and recollections to give readers a real sense of the joys and tribulations of farming life.It is illustrated with a treasury of old photographs, some from unpublished collections, allowing a special glimpse into the worlds of real people for whom farming was a way of life.

Country life in every aspect has changed dramatically within living memory. This lovely book invites the reader to explore what has happened to our farms, villages, lanes and hedgerows in more detail than ever before. The author reveals the every day lives of the country community - both the hardships and the pleasures - to give a complete picture of our grandparents and their forefathers as they worked on and with the land. The fragile future of the countryside rests in our hands - this fascinating book reminds us to take care of it.

The H is for Hawk for lovers of the outdoors and wildlife. A fascinating memoir of Scotland's first-ever qualified female gamekeeper.Portia Simpson grew up outdoors, always preferring to climb trees than play indoors. Talented and driven, she became the first female to graduate as a Gamekeeper and Wildlife Manager. In this wonderful memoir, Portia tells the story of how she first broke into a traditionally conservative, male-dominated profession and the skills, training and dedication that helped to set her apart. She gives an intimate account of a life filled with stunning landscapes, heart-wrenching lows and magnificent highs, and shares her expert insight into the world of game keeping.Offering a sense of wonder at the mystique and natural beauty of the wild, this is a fascinating and unique look at the life of the huntswoman. `The vividness of Portia Simpson's writing seduces you, evoking her passionate connection with the raw, violent beauty of nature' Libby Purves, Daily Mail

The Best of Outdoor Life is the third, updated edition to the acclaimed Treasury of Outdoor Life. It includes the most distinguished stories and articles that appeared from 1898 through 1981 in Outdoor Life - one of the most respected outdoors magazines in the United States. It also includes a generous selection of old covers and advertisements of the time - making it, in all, one of the most exciting anthologies about outdoor sport ever assembled. The seventy-six stories and articles, selected by William E. Rae, former editor in chief of Outdoor Life, cover a wide range of subjects. There are great hunting and fishing stories, gripping survival tales, and humorous anecdotes by outdoorsmen who saw the comical aspects of their sport. There are also articles illuminating interesting corners of outdoor lore: the mythical expertise of Wild West gunmen, the fascinating history of the Kentucky Rifle, the intriguing hallucination known as "early blur." Brief introductions to the stories, written by Rae, provide the background and, if possible, biographical sketches of the authors. (7 1/4 X 9 1/2, 488 pages, color photos)

Thanks to James Herriot, the Dales have fame and popularity worldwide. The Herriot books introduced a huge public to the colourful life of a rural veterinary surgeon - an interest which has endured for more than four decades.The Dales Vet is different. It is a unique book celebrating author Neville Turner's passions for the countryside, natural history, dales heritage, music-making, and photography. Neville has marvelled at the world of nature since he was a small boy. He spent over 30 years in rural veterinary practice working on the eastern slopes of the Pennines and his professional life gave him the opportunity to establish an intimacy with the dales over the seasons. During this time he travelled over a million miles in the Dales with a camera by his side. The Dales Vet is a collection of literary sketches illustrated by beautiful pictures from the author's own huge library. The subjects cover life as a rural vet, but also include intimate views of farm animals, hill farmers, wildlife rehabilitation, dales nature, dales culture, and dales landscape in all its glory.This book will be attractive to all country lovers, those with an interest in animals and birds, botanists, farmers, photographers, and people with an interest in our rural heritage.

From the wonders of alfalfa, the "miracle plant," to barbed wire and the myriad difficulties of operating tractors and siderakes, renowned author Verlyn Klinkenborg paints a stunning and memorable portrait of life on American family farms.
Making Hay gives an unforgettable glimpse of everyday life on the farms of Iowa, Minnesota, and Montana. In beautiful, deceptively simple prose touched with humor and affection, Klinkenborg evokes a way of life at risk, and weaves a marvelous story of the richness of rural living.

'Owls call now in the hazy afternoon, and curlews get up in the night and join their voices with the plovers' lost cries. Small birds, distracted by the fury of mating, fly hedge-high in flight and pursuit and brush past one's ear, indifferent to human presence.There is a common belief that when sight diminishes hearing is intensified - an observation made, I would say, by onlookers. I doubt whether I hear more acutely than before, but every trifle heard passes under expert scrutiny in some formerly idle workshop in my mind...' Elizabeth Clarke's The Darkening Green (first published in 1964) portrays the gradual loss of sight endured by a farmer's daughter, and bursts with lyrical observation of rural life. It was inspired by Clarke's personal experience of supporting her husband, a farmer near the Elan Valley in mid-Wales, as his own vision began to fade.

From the rugged Appalachians to the Atlantic shore, from the rolling Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia boasts diverse natural wonders amidst its settled landscapes. In this first-of-its-kind collection of original essays, 20 of Virginia's finest authors--nature writers, essayists, and journalists--immerse themselves in 20 different wild places. In essays that range from natural history to social commentary to childhood memories, their tone varies from reflective to outraged to humorous--each one uniquely personal.

Every existence has its pulse points," writes Ted Leeson in this brilliant new book, "those places where life rises somehow closer to the surface and makes itself more keenly felt. Spring creeks have been mine." Jerusalem Creek is an exploration into the unique landscape and of the "driftless area" of Wisconsin. Left untouched by a succession of glaciers that continually reshaped the surrounding territory, the driftless area slowly weathered into a region of hundreds of narrow valleys carved by hundreds of small spring creeks that, taken together, make up ten thousand square miles of trout country. But for all its size, the driftless country "is a geography of small concealments" - of coves and hollows, oak groves and shady bends, winding brooks and trout: "It is not a landscape that you hike up, or climb down into, or stand out looking upon; it is one that you slip inside of," and this book presents the view from within. From the rumour of an old fishing log that first sends him into driftless country in search of trout, to a recognition of the loss and compromise that lie at the heart of many landscapes and many lives, Leeson reflects on waters and people - and the nature of his spring creek country. At times thoughtful and hilarious, passionate and wry, he journeys into the special charms of small-scale waters and pastoral spaces; the nature of meandering in trout streams and trout fishermen; ruminations on dairy cows, honeybees, and the Midwestern character, family and angling companions, Amish farmsteads, the memory of a missing photograph, the equivocal dream of owning a trout stream, the ways in which the past endures in the present. Jerusalem Creek tells the story of how we create the places we love - and how they in turn create us. This is a wise, poignant, and haunting book.

Coyote Nowhere - a phrase taken from Jack Kerouac's On the Road - explores and examines the northern high plains through John Holt's words and Ginny Diers's photographs. The northern high plains roll east from the base of the Rocky Mountains like still-life waves for hundreds of miles. From the Canadian Northwest down through Montana and into Wyoming, the sparsely populated country drifts off eternally. Isolated pockets of mountains rise thousands of feet above what was once an ancient seabed and home to dinosaurs. Millions of acres of native grass buffet back and forth in the wind or bake under a wicked sun. Yet, despite all this space, threats to the country rain down in the form of strip mining, oil exploration, and logging, to name a few.
The story begins in late spring in Livingston, Montana, and describes a loop that courses down through Wyoming, back into Montana, crosses the border into Alberta, Canada, and heads farther north before winding up back in Livingston as winter closes in. Follow Holt and Diers as they camp, fish, hang out in cowboy bars, dodge careening oil-rig semis, meet their fair share of law enforcement officials, and sink even further into the country that has such a firm hold on them.

From his boyhood days through his adulthood as a trapper, guide, naturalist, and outdoorsman, Andy Russell lived a lifestyle that would be near-impossible today. Growing up in the Northern Rockies in a "land of boots and saddles, guns and fishing rods, and the smell of pines and grass," he observed the ways of animals wild and tame, braved rugged mountaintops and freezing rivers. He forged friendships with the local Indians and with the "remittance men," second sons of British aristocracy who left their stamp on the new country with ready cash and a zest for high living. Here are thrilling and humorous tales of breaking horses, hunting bears, and living proud and free, told in a naturally eloquent voice. (51/2 X 81/4, 320 pages, b&w photos)