Traditional mini puzzles to solve for all ages, the 17 approximately 1½ - 2" sturdy, high quality metal shapes help improve hand-eye coordination and shape recognition maintaining both IQ and EQ. Combining traditional Chinese culture with nostalgic fun, ideal for kids and adults, gift boxed for family and friends.

We descend into the Yorkshire's netherworld of caves and mines, and face dark episodes at once brave and dark such as the part played by Whitby and Hull in emptying Arctic waters of whales, or the re-routing of rivers and destruction of Yorkshire's fens. We encounter real and fabled heroes and discover why, from the Iron Age to the Cold War, Yorkshire has been such a key place in times of tension and struggle. In his wide-ranging and lyrical, restless, poetic and strange book Morris weaves history, family stories, travelogue and ecology to reveal how Yorkshire took shape as a landscape in literature, legend and popular regard. The book is illustrated with 64 images from the Tom Pudding Train to an acoustic mirror, a rainbow bridge to an internment camp, plus 26 plates including the topography of Yorkshire, castles at Richmond, Pontefract and Whorlton, a map of Yorkshire in a hand drawn style and all packaged in a neat 278 page paperback. Some colour plates.

John Busby was President of the Society of Scottish Artists 1976-79, the RSA and the RSW and has a lifelong interest in wildlife and fascination with birds in particular. In 1989 he began a Seabird Drawing course based at North Berwick which has continued each year since and has illustrated over 35 books about birds and animals mostly about behaviour, ranging from seabirds to tigers, garden birds to otters. His books include Birds in Mallorca 1988 and Landscapes at the Edge of the Sea 2010. One of the superb Langford Press Wildlife Art Series, the book explores larks ascending, profiles and postures, preening, birds in hiding watching us, body language in display and defence, hot pursuit and aerobatics, water and reflections and colour, light and shadows in all of his beautifully rendered line drawings and colourful illustrations. 98 large square pages, colour.
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Despite the attention dedicated to castles, siege warfare is often given little more than a token chapter in books on these strongholds or medieval warfare more generally and little has been written since 1992. Since 2019, Israeli-led excavations are underway at Arsuf and Montfort, and French teams worked at a number of Syrian strongholds, the crusader town of Caesarea and excavations at Belvoir. Excavations in Syria the citadels of Aleppo and Damascus and countless other strongholds including Gaza and Jaffa, already lost to history, while Crac and others have been damaged during the course of wars in the last 50 years, adding urgency in what is still a volatile region prone to conflict. Sieges played a role in the crusades and the famous battles fought between the Franks and the Muslims. Fulton's graphic, wide-ranging book considers the history of siege warfare in the Holy Land from every angle - tactics and technology, fortifications, composition of the opposing armies and strategy at each stage of the conflict on either side. The differences and similarities between the Eastern and Western traditions are explored, as is the impact of the shifting balance of power in the region. He looks at truces, rapid attack, deception and negotiation, transfer of knowledge, walls and towers, entrances and concludes with an overview of the Siege of Acre 1291, a list of sieges, rulers and their reigns and a glossary. There are ten regional maps including Sinai, Egypt and Cyprus and further maps on major battles and Saladin's campaigns in Palestine 1187 and Syria 1188. Plus plans and dozens of images, graphs and tables. 344 large glossy pages, colour.

Five lovely miniature puzzles, each jigsaw comprises 25 large pieces and makes up an exquisite artwork - Harlequin by Paul Cézanne, The Circus by Georges Seurat, Polichinelle by Manet, The Clown (Claude Renoir) by Pierre-August Renoir, Pierrot and Harlequin (Mardi Gras) by Cezanne. For ages six to adult, get your hands on these bright clowns which caught the attention of famous artists. Young children may wish to make up funny stories to go along with the pictures and learn a little about the artist who created them. 12 big card board pages, all in colour, 24.4 x 25.4cm.
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Wilmet Forsyth is well dressed, well looked after, suitably husbanded, good looking and fairly young - but very bored. Her sober husband Rodney who works at the Ministry is slightly balder and fatter than he once was. Wilmet would like to think she has changed rather less. Her interest wanders to the nearby church where she can neglect her comfortable household in the more serious-minded company of three unmarried priests and of course Piers Longridge, a man of an unfathomably different character altogether. With an introduction by John Bayley who says 'The setting and the characters are perfectly aligned with each other. Mr Bason, for example, is an excellent cook and a bit of a kleptomaniac.' 277pp, paperback.

If Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates seem an unlikely pair to be walking together at an Oxford reunion, neither of them is aware of it. They couldn't be more different - Jane is a rather incompetent vicar's wife who always looks as if she is about to feed the chickens, while Prudence, a pristine hothouse flower, has the most unsuitable affairs. With the move to a rural parish, Jane is determined to find her friend the perfect man. She learns though that matchmaking has as many pitfalls as housewifery. Set in the early 1950s with all the rationing and privation that entailed, the ghastly Fabian Driver is apparently another skewering of one of Barbara Pym's ex-lovers. 240pp in facsimile reprinted paperback.

Dulcie Mainwaring is always helping others, but never looks out for herself, especially in the realm of love. Her friend Viola is besotted by the alluring Dr Aylwin Forbes, so surely it isn't prying if Dulcie helps things along? Aylwin however is smitten by Dulcie's pretty young niece. And perhaps Dulcie herself however ridiculous it might be is falling, just a little, for Aylwin. Once life's little humiliations are played out, maybe love will be returned and fondly after all. Comic, brave, heartrending, this Virago Modern Classic edition has an introduction by Paul Binding. 288pp, paperback.

The entry of the United States into WW2 provided the Allies with the industrial might to finally take the war to German and Japanese sources across the world. Central to this was the focus of the American military industrial complex on the manufacture of tanks and armoured fighting vehicles. Between 1939 and 1945, 88,140 tanks and 18,620 other armoured vehicles were built - almost twice the number that Germany and Great Britain combined were able to supply. In this lavishly illustrated volume, armour expert Michael Green examines the dizzying array of machinery fielded by the US Army, from the famed M4 Sherman, M3 Stuart and M3 Lee through the half-tracks armoured cars, self-propelled artillery, tank destroyers, armoured recovery vehicles and tracked landing vehicles that provided the armoured fist that the Allies needed to break Axis resistance in Europe and the Pacific. This encyclopaedic new study detailed the design, development and construction of these vehicles, their deployment in battle, and the impact they had on the outcome of the war. With over 100 illustrations, many archive rare images and full colour plates, the story is taken right up to next-generation self-propelled guns and Howitzers. Green, grey, camouflage, on tracks, full statistical details and tables. 376 pages, paperback, 19 x 24.3cm.

Charlie Brown the famous character is depicted as an astronaut in full bright orange space suit with red trimmings and buttons and boots and a big clear globe around his head in this teeny 1½" high enamel lapel brooch pin with secure fastener. CE safety approved and for fans of all ages. A unique and imported item we just love.