Freshwater, game fishing, saltwater and fly fishing, Angling is one of the most popular sports around the world, giving thousands of hours of pleasure to people of all ages and skill levels. This fully updated practical guide incorporates coarse fishing, sea angling and game fishing, giving the angler a strong foundation in what to fish for, how to fish, the different styles of fishing and the best locations to practise the sport. The book includes a marvellous visual identifier to the major species for all nature lovers including freshwater carp, chub and barbel, saltwater bass, skate and mackerel and the main game fish - trout and salmon. There is helpful advice on recognition, size potential and feeding habits, and all types of natural and artificial baits and lures are discussed and guidance to making baits and fly-tying patterns. Reading the water whether it is still or running, lake, river or reservoir is an important angling skill and the experts in their own fields tell you how to do this in this essential reference. Techniques are covered in detail including float fishing, freelining, ledgering, surface and pole fishing, beach casting, shore fishing and boat fishing with comprehensive diagrams of rigs and which technique is most appropriate to the waterscape. Big glossy white paper has been used throughout this 256 page excellent compendium packed with 1,200 pictures and colour photos and step by step instructions. 10" x 14" approx.

A British Library publication which is beautifully decorated with antiquarian botanical woodcuts and close up details of natural history drawings and paintings and book illustrations by Walter Crane and Gustave Doré, John James Audubon?s The Birds of America, or an engraving entitled 'Summer' by P. W. Tomkins, a Golden Eagle by Archibald Thorburn from British Birds, or a view of Krakatoa during the earliest stage of the eruption from a photograph taken on the 27th May 1883. From Leonardo da Vinci on the shifting colours of the sky, to Charlotte Brontë on the wild moors of Yorkshire, this eclectic illustrated anthology of nature writing showcases many voices - lyrical, awestruck, celebratory and often deeply reflective. Writers are as varied as Wordsworth, Milton, Virgil, Emerson, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Jane Loudon (1807-1858) on belling the rat, Aldous Huxley on Jonah and the Apes to Kenneth Stevens (born 1968) who concentrates on the magic of otters into eight lines of a poem. An infinitely varied and very beautiful collection, 224pp in sturdy softback.

A world leading expert in wildlife surgery, Romain Pizzi has caught, anaesthetised, diagnosed, operated on, medicated and then released some of the world's most endangered wild animals, travelling from the rainforests of Sierra Leone to the jungles of Borneo. From disease testing Polynesian snails to keyhole surgery in Sumatran Orangutans, sometimes this is high-tech work, such as the first robotic surgery on a tiger, or a giant panda cloning attempts. Sometimes the situations are more primitive from anaesthetising a bear with a bicycle pump, old plumbing tubes and a plank, to operating on a vulture using an old metal spoon. Mixing science, mystery and sometimes just plain guesswork, wildlife veterinarians treat the world's wildest and most endangered creatures and here Pizzi shares his extraordinary stories as well as his insight into the amazing breadth of biology and procedures needed to help get animals better. He also shares tips on where to run when the patients unexpectedly wake up! Chapters include Catching Crocodiles with Shoe Laces, How To Squeeze a Porcupine and Look an Owl in the Eye, Why Deer Don't Die of Sickle-cell Anaemia, Turtle Migraines, the Six-Fingered Woodpecker, Hippopotamus Dentistry with an Angle Grinder and Manatee Junk Food among them. 408pp in very large softback with 16 pages of amazing colour photos including a close up of a giant anteater and an X-ray of a swan's neck bones.

'I don't know any tract of land in which in so narrow a compass may be found an equal variety of sublime and beautiful features'. So said the poet William Wordsworth of the Lake District, an area as rich in cultural associations as it is in beautiful scenery. Hunter Davies, who has spent every summer in the Lakes for nearly half a century, takes the reader on an engaging, informative and affectionate tour of the lakes, fells, traditions, denizens and history of England's most popular tourist destination. From the first discovery of Lakeland as a tourist destination in the 18th century, to the tale of the Maid of Buttermere, the poet Coleridge's ascent of Scafell Pike in 1802, to such enduring local traditions as Cumberland wrestling and hound trailing, here are the lakes and tarns and towns and villages, literary and artistic folk and Cumbrian characters and a miscellaneous Lakeland A-Z in a living place, not a museum. Very well illustrated throughout, 324pp in paperback.

The lily has cultural connotations of romance, remembrance, love and innocence and can be found in literature, art and heraldry across the world where they have added dramatic elegance to gardens for centuries. With very glossy large pages and spectacular close-up colour photographs throughout, this magnificent guide celebrates the ornamental charm and delicate petals of the lily, beginning with the history of the flower from Greek and Roman mythology to the hybridisation of today. It is a reference to more than 50 well-loved and unusual varieties from the towering and prolific Arabian Knight to the fiery Viva la Vida, the pink pollen-free Distant Drum to the tall blonde bombshell Yelloween, the cheerful Perfect Joy in pink and the sophisticated orange with red spotted Lilium Superbum! Mascara has a goth-horror to it and is a lauded 'black' Asiatic hybrid. With an engaging commentary on each bloom, easy-to-follow advice and glorious photography, get the best blooms for wedding and parties, outdoor spaces or the most bountiful cut flowers. 240pp, 25.4 x 19.6cm.

A number one bestseller in Ireland, the author lives on his family farm Birchview in County Longford, Ireland. He writes about the connection between people and land in a way that goes beyond mere affection. For him, farming is hard graft and yet a spiritual process too that binds him to family, nationhood, language and myth. Farming has been in John Connell's family for generations, but he never intended to follow in his father's footsteps. One winter, after more than a decade away, John finds himself back on the farm. He records the hypnotic rhythm of the farming day - cleaning the barns, caring for the herd, tending to sickly lambs, helping the cows give birth. Alongside the routine events there are the unforeseen moments when things go wrong - a calf fails to thrive, a sheep goes missing, illness breaks out, an argument between father and son erupts and things are said that cannot be unsaid. It is also the story of a man who emerges from depression to find hope in the place he least expected to find it. In this new hidden Ireland, the book is also a fascinating portrait of a born noticer, someone on whom nothing is lost, observing birth and death, the landscape and his own heritage with intelligent reflection on the state of modern farming and the cycles of life and death that mark our days. With US desirable roughcut edges, 242pp, US first edition.

A manifesto of ideas for sustainable food production, the book is a tremendous piece from the award-winning environmental journalist. With the world population constantly rising, the human race is facing threats to the planet such as global warming which will have huge impact on our food production capabilities. Topical and highly informative, Amanda Little explores the past along with the present and discovers startling innovations - remote-control crops, vertical farms, robot weedkillers, lab-grown meat, 3D printed meals, water networks run by supercomputers, cloud seeding and sensors that monitor the microclimate of individual plants. She meets the creative and controversial minds changing the face of modern food production, and tackles fears over genetic modification with hard facts. On the whole, the industrialised world is enjoying a more abundant, diverse and accessible food supply than ever before in human history. Farms globally produce 17% more calories per person than they did in 1990 and while some 800 million people still suffer from chronic hunger, that is almost 200 million fewer than there were 30 years ago. Meanwhile prices have fallen. In the 1950s the average household spent about 30% of its budget on food; today it is around 13%. But according to the IPCC, food prices could nearly double by 2050 given current climate and population-growth trends. International conflicts over food resources could interrupt trade and paralyse distribution networks and shortages may be particularly acute in countries like the UK where half of the entire food supply is imported. A Silicon Valley start-up Soylent Inc. has developed a vegan beverage designed to replace the nutritionally complete meal and the Pentagon's research division is developing sustenance for soldiers that can be cranked out on demand by portable 3D printers. Sensors on the soldier's bodies will detect for example a potassium or vitamin A deficit, send that data to the 3D printer, which will then generate customised, nutrient-fortified food bars. The book is a taste of things to come and with an optimistic slant. 340pp, illustrated paperback.

Exotic plants, corals and crocodiles, birds and butterflies. Albertus Seba's extraordinary catalogue of natural specimens is not only one of the 18th century's greatest natural history achievements but also one of the most prized natural history books of all time. It is a beautiful tribute to the abundance and diversity of Earth's creatures, great and small, as well as a fascinating record of some now-extinct animals. Though scientists of his era often collected natural specimens for research purposes, Amsterdam-based pharmacist Albertus Seba (1665-1736) was unrivalled in his passion. Seba's scenic illustrations, often mixing plants and animals in a single plate, were unusual even for the time. His amazing collection of animals, plants and insects from all around the world gained international fame during his lifetime. In 1731, after decades of collecting, Seba commissioned careful and often scenic illustrations of every specimen. With these meticulous drawings, he arranged for the publication of a four-volume catalogue, covering the entire collection from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs, crocodiles, shellfish, corals, birds, and butterflies, as well as now extinct creatures. This reproduction is taken from a rare, hand-coloured original. 15.6 x 21.7cm, 512 pages.

Most scientists now believe that birds represent the only living relative of the dinosaurs. The key to their variety has been the feather and that they have evolved into a dazzling range of forms and functions. Recent fossil evidence unearthed in China suggests that feathers evolved in theropods before birds. The book is a stunning and authoritative full colour atlas of the world's birds grouped by continent, important bird areas, game birds to grebes, stalks to cranes, sea birds and shore birds, birds of prey, pigeons to cuckoos, owls to hummingbirds, kingfishers to mouse birds, taking to the air, land and water, egg to adult, living together and on the move, finding food, sense and sensitivity, showing off and their flyways and different journeys. Then the book looks at birds and people, on the menu, in culture, conflicts and birds for pleasure and finally birds under threat and extinction, with infrastructure and pollution, alien invasion and warming up. The book illuminates the conservation status around the world and full colour maps show where birds are found by country and terrain and in amazing global flyaway chart shows bird migration, while classification is explained using maps for each order and the many key families. From deforestation and climate change to invasive species and the caged-bird trade, here are bird groups most affected such as island endemics highlighted, and maps and data for everything from poultry farming to bird watching. Packed with sumptuous colour photos, original diagrams and imaginative graphics. 144pp, large softback. 21.6 x 27.7cm.

Sex and mutiny is the first chapter which begins "To botanists, the coconut palm is the Cocos nucifera, a member of the Aceraceae or Palm family." Writings in Sanskrit refer to coconut oil as being used in a medicine 3500 years ago. Coconuts appear again in the Hindu epic story the Ramayana 1000 years later and the Arabic folk tales of 1001 Nights include the seven voyages of Sinbad the sailor whose crew threw stones at monkeys who retaliated by throwing down coconuts, which the sailors probably sold to finance their next voyage! In the Song of Solomon, the last section of the Hebrew Bible likened the woman's body to the coconut palm. Seafaring Arab traders likely carried coconuts from India to East Africa as long as 2000 years ago. The rarity value of the coconut was soon to pass. Today supermarket shelves, health food shops and beauty salons are crowded with coconut products, but we look here beyond the oils and healthy drinks to uncover the unexpected and often surprising vital roles that the coconut palm has played. They have been used as part of the charcoal filters in First World War gas masks and it was coconuts that triggered the mutiny on the Bounty and coconuts that saved the life of the man who went on to become the 35th President of the United States. The coconut has long been the unseen player in the endeavours of industrialists and bomb makers, physicians and silversmiths, smugglers and snake charmers. 224 pages, illustrations and colour plates.