A book about Britain's wildlife, how to discover it and the adventures we can have with it right here on our doorstep. In a world where nature is slowly being replaced by technology and material things, every single one of us could do with appreciating the flora and fauna that we have. To spend time in the outdoors exploring, searching and learning teaches us that there is life beyond out laptops and that it needs our help. Written by a young conservationist who details her own small adventures travelling in the UK in search of wildlife encounters, from ancient forests and coastal wildernesses, to bustling city streets an suburban back gardens, nature is everywhere if you know where to look. In her engaging and witty prose she has beautiful descriptions of wildlife including beaches, woodland, island and urban spaces detailing the best places to spot wildlife, tips and animal 'etiquette'. We meet seals and seabirds, whales and dolphins, understand dune systems and sparrowhawks, estuarine wildlife, ospreys and insects, hen harriers and moorland life, red squirrels, bats and owls, foxy city slickers, a graveyard that's very much still alive, garden birds and insects and how to encourage them into your garden. Best of all are the original illustrations and fabulous colour photographs by the author who has featured on BBC Wildlife and New Nature magazines. 192 big glossy pages in softback.

The author's paternal great grandparents, Charles Ernest Hardy and Edwin Hall Bailey, both worked in collieries in the Barnsley area as did their descendants. At the end of 2017 author Jane Ainsworth transcribed a ledger containing the minutes of the Colliers' Relief Fund Committee of the 1847 Oaks Colliery Explosion for Barnsley Archives. This stimulated her empathy with and curiosity about the lives of the people referred to in the Minutes, widows, orphans and a few survivors of the disaster as well as the 73 victims. Despite the challenge of limited early records, she fleshed out the stories and pays tribute to the families of mineworkers whose lives at the time were considered of little value to the colliery owners and managers. She has created a memorial book like no other and a contribution to Barnsley's mining heritage. She has researched dozens of images which are reproduced to the best possible quality given their age, many woodcuts, images of graves and newspaper articles to tell the story of Richard and Thomas Beardshal, Francis Birtles, Robert Hazle (Hessle), William, William, John and Luke Roe (Wroe) from the family who suffered the largest loss of life with four members killed in the explosion on 5th March 1847. For each there are details of who they married and in which church, how many children and how intertwined the families were and how widows like Rebecca Roe (1804-1881) would have struggled to support her family, even with relief from the Subscriptions Fund. She returned to Alfreton with her children to avoid the threat of being admitted to Barnsley Union Workhouse, but she suffered another three deaths there. Also includes hand drawn maps and early views of Barnsley in etchings. 270 page large softback.

Was the Méthode Champenoise really invented by a Gloucestershire country doctor whose main interest was in making glass bottles strong enough to contain sparkling wine? Was the kilt really invented by an English Quaker for the convenience of his Scottish charcoal burners? Why did Oliver Williams, Lord Protector, call himself Oliver Cromwell? Why was Winston Churchill with all his other responsibilities in World War Two really concerned with Britain's last witchcraft trial? What was Adolf Hitler's brother doing in Liverpool before World War One? Why was it once fatal to impersonate a Chelsea Pensioner? Discover how taxation on windows coined the expression 'daylight robbery', extraordinary places like an underground church, royalty, murder, Shakespeare, food and drink, cleaning your teeth with sugar, our love affair with teeth, government, politics, money and the law, diseases and prisons and extraordinary Britons like Arthur Ransome the children's author or 'dangerous Bolshevik'. Read on. 144pp. First published by David & Charles in 2011 and reprinted many times. Well illus. with line art and photos.

From the Wars of the Roses and the Earl of Essex losing his head, London turning against Charles I, Wellington and Nelson crossing paths, Russell's despatches from the Crimean War, spies in World War One, women wearing the trousers in industry and services, World War Two and queueing becoming a pastime, weekly allowances, nylons, whiskey, knicker elastic, digging for victory, eating out, bombing casualties, Ian Fleming taking his naval role with zeal, hospitals, the BBC, over five million books destroyed in the Paternoster Row hit, Penguin revolutionising paperbacks, tensions developing between US troops and Londoners, the ATS and the Home Guards, here are stories of mighty battles, heroic deeds and staunch determination in the face of adversity. A rich history of our remarkable capital city in times of war, an absorbing collection of stories and trivia. 142pp, well illus. with line art and photos.

You cannot move far in London without being reminded of the personalities who made its history - Dick Whittington who helped make London the centre of the trade in wool, Thomas Gresham who ensured that London would become the financial centre, Prince Albert who left behind the Kensington museums. Then there is Big Ben which caused its creator so much trouble that he died prematurely, and the Underground Railway. Whatever is that strange London Stone almost hidden behind a grill attached to a bank in Cannon Street, not to mention the metal tube which passes above the trains within Sloane Square underground station? Why that's the River Westbourne of course. Here are amphitheatres and temples, bars, taxes and taxis, Bazalgette and the Great Stink, rhyming slang, smog, parks, how the posh streets got their names, retail therapy and the story of Leicester Square along with royal rowing and dodgy dealing, fountains, lost rivers, hidden tube stations, famous prisons, police forces and power stations, Art Deco, philanthropy and the poor, tea shops and corner houses, theatreland and life beyond the fringe, London's drinking culture and its cemeteries, all the colourful characters and history, surprising events and iconic buildings of our capital city. 144pp, woodcut illus.

Archaeology, architecture, culture and customs, national costume, national parks, movers and shakers, art, literature and language, celebrities, Tom Jones's telephone box, black gold and industry, fun and games and weird sports like snorkelling which saved a Victorian spa town and the great Orme Tramway where day trippers share their journey with a coffin, to the Welsh lad Arthur Linton (1868-1896) who got on his bike and became the Champion Cyclist of the World. Wales is a small country but one with a rich and varied history despite its size with contributions and a passion for song, poetry, sport, food, fun and humour, an ancient land of myths and legend and curious traditions. Discover how Welsh pioneers changed the world, powered flight, and all about the world's first industrialised nation with its prehistoric copper mines to the black gold that fuelled the Industrial Revolution. Facts to amuse and intrigue. 144pp, well illus.