Step into a world of enchantment with this captivating collection of prose and poetry, fact and fiction on myth and magic, folklore and faery.

Bedside Companion to Folklore and Magic contains a rich selection of prose and poetry, fiction and fact, with one entry to read every night of the year. Within the pages of this beautifully designed volume you’ll encounter dancing fairies, ferocious dragons, trickster gods, witches and wizards, enchanted islands, shape-shifting animals, and magic spells. Fantastical delights to peruse include:

• Tales from global folklore: Anansi the spider, Little Tieke the Dancing Thief from Maori legend, and Louise Erdrich’s accounts of North American Ojibwe tradition.

• Fiction ranging from classic fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen to exciting modern fantasy such as Marlon James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf, and poetry including Christina Rosetti’s peerless GoblinMarket.

• The very best of magical children’s literature: excerpts from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Peter Pan, His Dark Materials and, more recently, Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures.

• Non-fiction sources: extracts from 18th-century grimoires containing bloodthirsty revenge spells, evocative accounts of the Lancashire and Salem witch trials, and classic anthropological texts such as James George Fraser’s The Golden Bough.

If you’re in need of an escape into otherworldly realms, keep this book by your bedside and end every day with a fascinating flight of fantasy.

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. 

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!

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.

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.

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.

"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.

365 poems celebrating nature and the changing seasons. This is the perfect bedside companion for any nature or poetry fan, featuring famous odes from big-name poets alongside unsung poems from less-well-known writers. Each poem is chosen to chime with the natural world through the seasons. Spring is a time of hope, a season of new life with William Wordsworth's daffodils, John Clare's lambs and Christina Rossetti's birdsong. Summer shifts into a time of leisure with long idyllic holidays in the countryside. According to Henry James, the two most beautiful words in the English language were `summer afternoon', a sentiment echoed by Edward Thomas and Emily Dickinson. John Keats, William Blake and W. H. Auden are the poets we associate with autumn and this is possibly the most poetic season. The natural world, and the human one, hold onto the last lingering memories of summer before they turn to face the oncoming hardships of winter. Amy Lowell and George Meredith perfectly frame this time of year with their silver-fringed leaves and crimson berries. Winter can be savoured in poetry, rather than endured; bleak grey days are transformed into a world of glittering frost and snow-blanketed landscapes. Even in the darkest days life continues and soon we can turn our attention to the rebirth of spring. A wonderful collection of poems that help mark the daily turn of the seasons and all the rituals marking the significant moments of the year, from Candlemas to Christmas.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.