Calming, thought-provoking, poetic and honest, Notes from Walnut Tree Farm is a collection of writing and musing by documentary-maker, environmentalist and author of Waterlog, Roger Deakin. 'Gentle, straight, honest, inquisitive, funny, melancholic' Spectator 'A lovely book that is a poignant epitaph to a remarkable individual' Amazon Review ________________ For the last six years of his life, Roger Deakinkept notebooks. In them, he wrote his daily thoughts, impressions, feelings and observations about and around his Suffolk home, Walnut Tree Farm. Collected here are the very best of these writings, capturing his extraordinary, restless curiosity about nature as well as his impressions of our changing world. Perfect for fans of Robert Macfarlane and Colin Tudge, this is a book that fills readers with a desire to explore the world around them. ________________ 'A secular saint' The Times 'Marvellous, wonderful, lovely, remarkable . . . to be read and reread and treasured' Elizabeth Jane Howard, Daily Mail 'Very funny, sharp-eyed. To look at the world through Deakin's eyes was to see somewhere that was more wonderful than it often appears' Sunday Telegraph 'Thoughtful and invigorating, full of humour, timeless . . . will take its place among the classics of Nature diaries . . . to be read alongside Frances Kilvert, Gilbert White, and Dorothy Wordsworth' Mail on Sunday 'So busy and bustling with life' Observer

Have you ever imagined that you might be living in a dream reality? That your parents, your sister, your best friend, even your "dog" isn't who you think they are? Ever felt that while your friends gripe about their dysfunctional families and their grades, you can't really complain?

Have you ever thought your life is just a little too good to be true?

If your answer is yes, than you can imagine how Thomas Wisdom feels. Once he starts digging for clues about his family's history and identity, he begins to uncover a truth and a responsibility that are almost too fantastic and tragic for one boy to bear....

An affectionately imagined, candid, and often funny view of British life, in the voice of the Queen

For many years, Her Majesty the Queen has received a weekly report on the news and issues of the day, known at the Palace as "The Current Affairs Briefing Document," from one of her senior private secretaries. She has replied to them in letters which have expressed her private thoughts, and occasionally questions, about what is happening in the world outside. Now she has decided to allow some of these letters from the last 12 months to appear in the public domain. They reveal for the first time what she really thinks about attitudes to the Royal Family, about the Prime Ministers she has met, about Helen Mirren, about why dogs are so superior to cats, about the great, the good, and the mysteriously famous people she meets as she goes about her duties. She shares what it is really like to jump out of a helicopter to open the Olympics, how to deal with a media obsessed with taking pictures of one's grandchildren without their clothes and, and the happy prospect of being a great-grandmother.