Covering all vertebrate animals apart from birds that live wild on land in Britain, and including all four-legged animals, snakes and a slow-worm as well as seals, the land animals described in this book belong to three major groups: amphibians, reptiles or mammals. The main part of the book features more than 70 wild land animals, species by species, their habitats, lifespan, size, life expectancy and how they are related to their surroundings. To help you understand how an animal's observed behaviour is linked to its body structure and lifestyle, pages 8 to 25 outline some of the reasons why animals feed, breed and behave in different ways, and distribution maps are given for each wild species, coloured maroon on the map. Covers skin whether waterproof, furry, breathable, changing colour, a new summer coat or a specially developed under fur and structure such as four limbs of flippers like the seal or as wings like the bat, long or short necks, feet with two toes or legs that spread sideways like the lizard. From adders and badgers to voles and weasels, you will find fascinating facts on where they breed, feed and how to identify each creature in their natural environment which greatly enhances any outdoor experience. All superbly illustrated and with detailed artworks showing how to distinguish between species and special features covering animal centres and recognising tracks and other signs of animal activity. 256pp, 15 x 14cm, softback packed with colour.

A complete guide to orchids and their cultivation, these flamboyant, intriguing, beautiful and exotic plants have evolved to become the largest family of plants in the world. This classic book written by two of the world's leading orchid authorities and newly updated helps you identify, choose and display these delightful flowers successfully. It offers a round-the-world tour of the range of tropical and temperate habitats in which orchids are found and explains main orchid types, how early explorers discovered the first tropical orchids and started an orchid craze that continues today. It explains orchid botany and nomenclature, inspirational ideas for growing these plants indoors whether in glass tanks and baskets or on trees and stones, as well as growing orchids outdoors. There is information on basic tools and equipment, compost mixes, potting and mounting, propagation, feeding, watering and light control and dealing with pests and diseases. The Orchid Directory explains their natural habitat, size, flowering time and growing requirements, and all the main genera are covered from Cymbidium to Dendrobium, from Phalaenopsis to Phragmipedium as well as a selection of specialist orchids. There is also an easy-to-use glossary. On each grand very glossy bright white heavyweight page are between one and four colour photographs, many in close up, exhibiting the range of colours of pinks and orange and white and mottles and veins and patterns and blotches and spots, and shapes and textures, standing clear of the foliage and how flowers are produced at various times of the year, blooming again the following year. In 2009, the authors were jointly awarded the Westonbirt Orchid Medal for Outstanding Literary Achievement on the Subject of Orchids. The final inside back cover photograph is so close up you can almost feel the spongy iridescent silver sparkling texture of the pin spots on the beautiful white flower photographed. 256 very large pages, colour.
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Sub-titled 'The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain', much has been written about Britain's trailblazing post-1975 Privatisation Programme, but the biggest privatisation of them all has until now escaped scrutiny - the privatisation of land. Since Margaret Thatcher took power in 1979, and hidden from the public eye, about 10% of the entire British land mass including some of its most valuable real estate has passed from public to private hands. Forest land, defence land, health service land and above all else local authority land for farming and school sports, for recreation and housing has been sold off en masse. Why? How? And with what social, economic and political consequences? This book is the first ever study of this profoundly significant phenomenon, setting it as a centrepiece of neoliberalism in Britain as a successor programme to the original 18th century enclosures. With more public land still slated for disposal, the book identifies the stakes and asks what if anything can and should be done. 'Necessary reading for anyone who wants to know where ruling-class power comes from, and how to take it back.' - Owen Hatherley. The economic geographer looks at the whole of Britain's 80,823 square miles. 362pp, paperback.

With news recently about the Great Sycamore being vandalised and cut down overnight on Hadrian's Wall, we turn today to this beautiful little book on why, which, where and how to plant trees. It is a practical guide written by an archaeologist concerned with understanding human relations with the landscape over the last few thousand years, involved with planting, growing, felling and studying trees for more than a quarter of a century. An old Chinese proverb says that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; but the next best time is now. For those who have never planted a tree in their lives, the book offers guidance on how to plant, propagate and care for your trees, the virtues of particular native British trees from Beech to Blackthorn, Oak to Alder, Willow to Whitebeam, Silver Birch, Hazelnut, Rowan, to the good old Yew and Oak tree. And advice on pollarding, weeding, disease and failure and growing trees from seed. 168pp, woodcut illus.

Original illustrations from Audubon's masterwork Birds of America. Favourites include the Blue Jay, Golden Eagle, colourful flycatchers, warblers, waterbirds, the Barred Owl, Passenger Pigeon, Belted Kingfisher, Red-shouldered Hawk, Carolina Wren, Baltimore Oriole, American Flamingo, Yellow-billed Magpie, all with vibrant plumage and ideal subjects for colouring in. John James Audubon (1785-1851) was born in Haiti and raised in France, emigrating to North America when he was 18 to avoid conscription into the Napoleonic Wars. His true passion was ornithology and he spent many years identifying and recording bird species. Peter Gray, a long established illustrator of books, provides the outline on each right hand page, some portrait some landscape orientation, and we can follow the colours of Audubon's originals in situ on branches and sometimes with berries and flowers on the opposite page. 96 pages, 22.5 x 28cm, softback.

Most of us who venture abroad have been intrigued by the design of other nations' toilets. Award-winning science writer Chelsea Wald has made a global study of what people do with their waste matter, and the result is alternately surprising, amusing, informative and terrifying. Before flush toilets, humans were often loath to waste urine, using it for a range of purposes including fertiliser, as a setting agent for plant dyes, and for the tanning industry. The Roman emperors Nero and Vespasian levied taxes on public urinals, and Madonna swears by it as a cure for athlete's foot. 100 trillion gallons of wastewater are produced daily worldwide, and in some countries it is diverted as irrigation, with purple being the colour for wastewater pipes to avoid mistakes resulting from colour blindness. Urine and faeces are also a major resource for medical research. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018 addressed a crisis of deaths from opioid addition by lowering a biobot into selected manholes to analyse the waste not only for opioids but also the overdose-reversal drug, identifying which areas should be targeted for opioid reduction and where the reversal programmes were active. The modern toilet was pioneered in Britain in the late 16th century, when toilet bowls with standing water were invented to reduce the stink. In 1775 a valve was introduced to release the water and waste, and by the late-19th century the toilet had become the single-piece ceramic self-cleaning mechanism that we would recognise today. Different designs of toilet are described, including the inventions of the legendary Thomas Crapper. As toilets gained in popularity, sewage became an increasing problem, resulting in the famous "great stink" of 1858 which prompting the creation of London's sewer system, the model for European and American developments. Worldwide, though, less than half the world's population even now have what experts call "safely managed sanitation". Read about a compost toilet in Haiti, a plant in the Netherlands that salvages toilet paper from sewage and a toilet seat that analyses signs of illness in your poop. Finally the author discusses "lavatory humour" and the psychology of talking about defecation. 282pp, illustrations.