A mouthwatering anthology of food in literature, encompassing fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry, and even a smattering of recipes, with one piquant extract for every night of the year. This absorbing book is a literary feast for every food lover. Within these pages, you'll discover a wealth of foodie extracts from around the world and throughout the centuries, from Christmas feasts in Tudor times to Nigella Lawson on how much cheese to buy for a dinner party. In addition to renowned food writers such as Elizabeth David, Madhur Jaffrey and Anthony Bourdain, it includes literary greats like Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Maya Angelou, and some intriguing curiosities such as the surreal recipes in 1932’s Futurist Cookbook. And, of course, Mrs Beeton makes an appearance. Also on the menu are: Tantalizing gingerbread in Jane Austen's Emma. The joys of Caribbean cooking in Sam Selvon’s The Housing Lark. Ingenious wartime solutions in MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf and much, much more. Keep this delectable book by your bedside and savour a whole world of delicious food writing every night of the year – and it also makes the perfect gift for the foodie in your life!

Poems to celebrate spring. A sublime bedside companion to enjoy as the frost melts and days grow longer, with poems to immerse yourself in the season. From William Blake and Emily Dickinson to Robert Browning and Eleanor Farjeon, some of the finest poets that ever put pen to paper describe this wondrous season of new beginnings. With one entry for every day through spring, from 1st March until 31st May, this collection of 91 poems will invigorate you in the warmer and wetter months of Spring, from Robert Herrick's first drops of March dew and the breaking blossoms of Laurence Binyon's April day to William Blake's meadow-sweet May and Emily Dickinson's promise of light to come. This beautiful and collectable anthology of poems derives from the popular A Poem for Every Night of the Year and features poems inspired by springtime by Laurence Binyon, Margaret Cavendish, Amy Lowell, William Wordsworth and many more.

A calming collection of nature poems to help you relax and unwind at the end of every day. Now more than ever we're all in need of a daily fix of the natural world, to comfort and distract us from the cares of everyday life. Keep this beautiful book by your bedside and enjoy a dreamy stroll through nature every evening, just before you go to sleep. All the great, time-honoured poets are here - William Wordsworth, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Robert Bridges - along with some newer and less-well known poetic voices. The poems reflect and celebrate the changing seasons: read Emily Bronte on bluebells in spring and Edward Thomas's evocative 'Adlestrop' in summer, then experience golden autumn with Hartley Coleridge and William Blake's 'To Winter'. Beautifully illustrated with scenes from each season, this wonderful book deserves a place on your bedside table for years to come.

A glorious treasury of literary curiosities for every night of the year. Bedside Companion for Book Lovers contains an eclectic mix of fact and fiction, letters, diaries, essays and dedications, all suffused with the joys of books and reading. The perfect gift for the bibliophile in your life, it contains snippets from some of the greatest writers and book collectors from throughout history, including: Charles Dickens on the smell of books Maya Angelou on the pleasures of reading aloud Virginia Woolf on finding space for writing Nick Hornby on reading for pure enjoyment and much more. Along the way, you'll find advice on how to look after your most precious volumes, what to do when books start taking over your home, and where to find the most atmospheric libraries and bookshops around the world. Keep this beautifully illustrated book by your bedside and wander into a magical world of books every night of the year.

Enjoy a whole year of the very finest nature writing, with one carefully selected piece to savour every day. This beautifully illustrated daily anthology brings you the very best of nature writing from around the world and through the centuries, from Pliny the Elder’s Natural History to modern authors such as Helen Macdonald and Robert Macfarlane. Encompassing fact and fiction, essays and field guides, letters and diaries, it’s a rich banquet of prose, the perfect companion to help your mind escape into the world of nature every day. It contains descriptions of nature in all its guises: Virginia Woolf on snails, Kenneth Grahame on the charms of a riverbank, Willa Cather on the rolling American prairies, and, via L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables on Octobers. David Attenborough pops up to talk about our responsibility to the natural environment, Edith Holden provides evocative descriptions from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, and Henry David Thoreau, of course, sends dispatches from Walden Pond. We meet Rudyard Kipling’s jungle animals and Jack London’s wild dogs, and Mark Twain explains why a camel is not jumpable. Keep this wonderful celebration of nature by your bedside and it will become the perfect start or close to each day of the year.

"The quince has always had a special place among the fruits of Europe. The ancient Greeks called it the 'golden apple', the Romans the 'honey apple'. And it was most likely a quince, not an apple, that Eve plucked from the tree in the Garden of Eden. This book describes both the cultivation, the history and the cooking of quinces. Useful sections set out how to choose the variety best suited to your garden, to plant the trees and to maintain them in good health; there is a sketch of the glorious history of the fruit in cookery of past ages; there are some excellent recipes for savoury dishes that depend on the quince for that special flavour, and for all those sweet dishes that bring out the unique qualities of the fruit. The authors ensure that the reader can keep their harvest in the proper manner and they spend much time describing those special quince confections such as quince preserve and quince 'cheese' (or membrillo as it is known to the Spanish). We tend to forget that the first marmalades were made from quinces and that before we had easy access to citrus fruit, the quince was perhaps the most flavourful and aromatic product of the orchard known to our forebears. Books about quince cookery are rare (and mostly out of print). Yet people with a quince tree (or trees) in their garden will often have more fruit than they can cope with in the small number of recipes they have to hand.

Poems to celebrate the winter season. A wonderful bedside companion for a frosty winter’s evening, with poems to immerse yourself in the season. From William Shakespeare to John Keats to Katherine Mansfield, the finest poets that ever put pen to paper describe this beautiful and sometimes terrible season. With one entry for every day through winter, from 1st December until 28th or 29th February, this is the ideal book to take you through the darker months and find joy and comfort in nature. In December ‘Gaunt in gloom’ begins James Joyce’s ‘Nightpiece’. In January, there’s a ‘certain slant of light for Emily Dickinson, while ‘the dull dead wind is out of tune’ for Oscar Wilde. And in February, the last month of meteorological winter, William Morris muses ‘From this chill thaw to dream of blossomed May’. This beautiful and collectable anthology of poems derives from the popular A Poem for Every Night of the Year and also features wintry poems by Alice Oswald, Edward Lear, Emily Brontë, William Wordsworth, Ted Hughes and many more.

An eclectic collection of prose, poetry and practical advice for every day of the year. A mix of fact and fiction, fantasy and experience, the Bedside Companion for Gardeners is a treasure trove of green-fingered inspiration where practical advice blends seamlessly with poetry and prose from intrepid gardeners past and present. Dip in and out of this collection with an entry for every night of the year that draws on writing through the ages and from across the globe. The Bedside Companion for Gardeners incorporates practical advice from the 17th-century gardening diarist John Evelyn; inspiring prose from Elizabeth von Arnim and John Milton; astute commentary from Horace Walpole on William Kent and Nancy Mitford on the vulgarity of a Surrey garden. Kipling offers practical advice, while Tennyson waxes lyrical on an Arabian night garden. The perfect gift for any gardener, this magical book is an invaluable source of inspiration and guidance to revisit throughout the year. 

Those special occasions in life all need to be marked with words bigger and better than those we could compose ourselves. This beautiful collection includes some of the best readings and poems to help you mark anything from a birth to a death, an engagement to a retirement, a wedding to a memorial service. Poems and readings from the best British and American writers and poets are arranged into the chapters: New Life, Childhood, Love, Unions, Getting Older, Solitude and Loss. The works of poets Longfellow, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson rub shoulders with those of William Blake, Wordsworth and W.H. Auden. The readings come from writers ranging from Churchill to Shakespeare. Mixed in are Apache prayers and Irish blessings to make this a rich reference for anyone looking for the right word at the right moment. It is lavishly illustrated with nostalgic images, making this a wonderful gift.

A diverse collection of poetry which celebrates both England and all that it means to be English - from the rolling hills, to those lost in battle over the centuries, to London's bustling streets and a nation obsessed with the weather. Ode to England encompasses a breadth of poetry from our most renowned writers - such as William Wordsworth, D. H. Lawrence and William Blake - alongside verses from less prestigious names which equally capture many inspiring visions of our 'sceptered isle'. The poems are presented alongside stunning illustrations which pay further tribute to the beauty of this green and pleasant land. The perfect gift for any Englishman or Anglophile, this wonderful collection captures all the beauty and eccentricities of England and Englishness.

From 'Bing' cherries, names after one of the Chinese workers in the 1870s Oregon cherry farm owned by Henderson Lewelling, to maraschino cherries which originated in Yugoslavia when a liqueur was added to the local cherry 'Marasca', cherries are a herald of summer. They originated in the Caucasus Mountains, and were mentioned in 74 BC by Pliny the Elder, and then spread from Rome to Britain. We have much to learn about cherries and mulberries, and we need to discover how versatile they are. Now, the country that produces the most cherries is Turkey, but they are easy to grow in your own garden, attract the local wildlife and birds, and are beautiful.

A paperback reissue of a beautiful anthology.A diverse collection of poetry which celebrates both England and all that it means to be English - from the rolling hills, to those lost in battle over the centuries, to London's bustling streets and a nation obsessed with the weather. Ode to England encompasses a breadth of poetry from our most renowned writers - such as William Wordsworth, D. H. Lawrence and William Blake - alongside verses from less prestigious names which equally capture many inspiring visions of our 'sceptered isle'. The poems are accompanied by stunning illustrations which pay further tribute to the beauty of this green and pleasant land. The perfect gift for any Englishman or Anglophile, this wonderful collection captures all the beauty and eccentricities of England and Englishness.

Orchards are one of the oldest and most beautiful types of garden. Forget large commercial orchards and, instead, think of sitting in the gentle shade of a graceful tree and eating a perfect piece of fruit. You do not need a lot of space to achieve this; you don't even need much skill. Just a desire for really good fruit and a love of beautiful gardens and trees. Whether you fantasise about having a whole orchard, just a cherry tree in a pot, or even the perfect apple pie, Orchard provides all the information, inspiration and encouragement you need. From versatile apples, popular pears, beautiful cherries and cultivated plums to rare quinces, ancient medlars and wise mulberries, Orchard caters for the fruit farmer, amateur cook and natural historian. As well as sharing essential cultivation advice and delicious recipes, this comprehensive guide also explores the rich traditions of fruit growing alongside the charming histories of your favourite fruits. Whether you have a tiny balcony or a huge field, it's never been easier to grow and cook orchard fruits.

365 poems celebrating friendship, love and constancy. This wonderful collection of poems celebrates friendship every day of the year. There are poems on the joys of companionship, encouragement, consolation, humour and love, making this is a perfect gift for friends, family and partners. Poems featured include Emily Bronte's 'Love and Friendship' and Stevie Smith's 'Pleasures of friendship', as well as writings from Keats, Norman MacCaig, Waldo Emerson and Amy Lowell. Some of the most beautiful poems ever written are collected here to give us insight into the important things in life.

An illustrated anthology of poetry celebrating life in England's capital. 'Earth hath not anything to show more fair' said Wordsworth of London in 1802. Hundreds of years on, the same can still be said of Britain's largest metropolis. Favourite Poems of London is a wonderful anthology of poetry celebrating England's capital and life as a Londoner. Verses from our best-loved authors, such as William Wordsworth, William Blake and John Betjeman among others, are accompanied by beautiful illustrations - often taken from iconic tube posters - of London's famous sights, green parks and Londoners in their daily lives. Epic poems celebrating London's vast and majestic presence sit alongside Cockney ditties about pie, mash and jellied eels in this new collection. Celebrating every aspect of 'the big smoke' - from the Houses of Parliament and the Blitz spirit, through to red double-decker buses and infamous rainy English summers - this is the perfect gift for any Londoner or visitor to the city.

A beautiful bumper collection of 366 perfectly happy poems. These days we're all in need of a little nugget of happiness to help soothe our weary souls at the end of the day. A Happy Poem to End Every Day provides just that: one sublimely happy poem for every day of the year, from cosy fireside idylls in winter to outdoor adventures in summer, encounters with the beauty of nature in spring and moments of quiet reflection in autumn. It features some of the greatest poets ever to put pen to paper, from William Wordsworth on the joy of skating and Emily Bronte enjoying life on the moors to Simon Armitage catching a cricket ball and Wendy Cope sharing an orange, with a good smattering of classic jolly verse such as Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat. Beautifully illustrated with contemplative scenes of pure happiness, this wonderful book is the perfect way to give yourself a little lift every evening. Keep it by your bedside and it's sure to bring restful sleep and sweet dreams.