Meadowland
Meadowland

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Black Swan

Published: 2015-03-26

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780552778992

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_________________ 'BRITAIN'S FINEST LIVING NATURE WRITER' - THE TIMES WINNER OF THE THWAITES WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2015 What really goes on in the long grass? Meadowland gives an unique and intimate account of an English meadow's life from January to December, together with its biography. In exquisite prose, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn, and includes the biographies of the animals that inhabit the grass and the soil beneath: the badger clan, the fox family, the rabbit warren, the skylark brood and the curlew pair, among others. Their births, lives, and deaths are stories that thread through the book from first page to last.

The Running Hare
The Running Hare

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Black Swan

Published: 2017-04-06

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9781784160746

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The Sunday Times Bestseller. Winner of the Thwaites Wainwright Prize 2015. BBC Radio 4's 'Book of the Week' Traditional ploughland is disappearing. Seven cornfield flowers have become extinct in the last twenty years. Once abundant, the corn bunting and the lapwing are on the Red List. The corncrake is all but extinct in England. And the hare is running for its life. Written in exquisite prose, The Running Hare tells the story of the wild animals and plants that live in and under our ploughland, from the labouring microbes to the patrolling kestrel above the corn, from the linnet pecking at seeds to the seven-spot ladybird that eats the aphids that eat the crop. It recalls an era before open-roofed factories and silent, empty fields, recording the ongoing destruction of the unique, fragile, glorious ploughland that exists just down the village lane. But it is also the story of ploughland through the eyes of man who took on a field and husbanded it in a natural, traditional way, restoring its fertility and wildlife, bringing back the old farmland flowers and animals. John Lewis Stempel demonstrates that it is still possible to create a place where the hare can rest safe.

A Footman for the Peacock
A Footman for the Peacock

Author: Rachel Ferguson

Publisher:

Published: 2016-10-03

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9781911413714

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The peacock displayed himself and paraded the lawn, sometimes pausing to look up at the sky. Waiting? Listening? Guiding. No. Signalling. Controversial when first published in the early days of World War II, due to its treatment of a loathsome upper-crust family dodging wartime responsibility, A Footman for the Peacock can now be enjoyed as a scathing satire of class abuses, a comic masterpiece falling somewhere between Barbara Pym and Monty Python. Sir Edmund and Lady Evelyn Roundelay live surrounded by a menagerie of relations and retainers. The Roundelays' history of callous cruelty is literally etched on a window of the servants' quarters with the words "Heryn I dye, Thomas Picocke. 1792." Sir Edmund reflects cheerfully on the running footmen who have 'died off like flies' in the family's service. But now--amidst digressions on everything from family history and servant woes to the villagers' linguistic peculiarities and a song immortalizing the footman's plight--war threatens the Roundelays' smug superiority. What's more, it appears that the estate's peacock is a reincarnation of Thomas Picocke, and may be aiding the Nazi cause ... By turns giddy and incisive, hilarious and heartbreaking, A Footman for the Peacock is Rachel Ferguson at her very best. This new edition features an introduction by Elizabeth Crawford. 'The Roundelays are people to live with and laugh at and love' Punch

The Wood
The Wood

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Black Swan

Published: 2019-03-14

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781784162436

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'BRITAIN'S FINEST LIVING NATURE WRITER' - THE TIMES A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER and BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' from 'indisputably, one of the best nature-writers of his generation' (Country Life) Written in diary format, The Wood is the story of English woodlands as they change with the seasons. Lyrical and informative, steeped in poetry and folklore, The Wood inhabits the mind and touches the soul. For four years John Lewis-Stempel managed Cockshutt wood, a particular wood - three and half acres of mixed woodland in south west Herefordshire - that stands as exemplar for all the small woods of England. John coppiced the trees and raised cows and pigs who roamed free there. This is the diary of the last year, by which time he had come to know it from the bottom of its beech roots to the tip of its oaks, and to know all the animals that lived there - the fox, the pheasants, the wood mice, the tawny owl - and where the best bluebells grew. For many fauna and flora, woods like Cockshutt are the last refuge. It proves a sanctuary for John too. To read The Wood is to be amongst its trees as the seasons change, following an easy path until, suddenly the view is broken by a screen of leaves, or your foot catches on a root, or a bird startles overhead. This is a wood you will never want to leave.

The Soaring Life of the Lark
The Soaring Life of the Lark

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2021-10-07

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 1473558611

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"How to describe the ecstatic song of larks? How the writers and poets have tried..." Skylarks are the heralds of our countryside. Their music is the quintessential sound of spring. The spirit of English pastoralism, they inspire poets, composers and farmers alike. In the trenches of World War I they were a reminder of the chattering meadows of home. Perhaps you were up with the lark, or as happy as one. History has seen us poeticise and musicise the bird, but also capture and eat them. We watch as they climb the sky, delight in their joyful singing, and yet we harm them too. The Soaring life of the Lark explores the music and poetry; the breath-taking heights and struggle to survive of one of Britain's most iconic songbirds. PRAISE FOR JOHN LEWIS-STEMPEL 'Britain's finest living nature writer' - The Times 'Lewis-Stempel is a fourth-generation farmer gifted with an extraordinary ability to write prose that soars and sings' - Daily Mail

Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper
Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper

Author: Paul E. Johnson

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2004-06-16

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 1429931957

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The true history of a legendary American folk hero In the 1820s, a fellow named Sam Patch grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, working there (when he wasn't drinking) as a mill hand for one of America's new textile companies. Sam made a name for himself one day by jumping seventy feet into the tumultuous waters below Pawtucket Falls. When in 1827 he repeated the stunt in Paterson, New Jersey, another mill town, an even larger audience gathered to cheer on the daredevil they would call the "Jersey Jumper." Inevitably, he went to Niagara Falls, where in 1829 he jumped not once but twice in front of thousands who had paid for a good view. The distinguished social historian Paul E. Johnson gives this deceptively simple story all its deserved richness, revealing in its characters and social settings a virtual microcosm of Jacksonian America. He also relates the real jumper to the mythic Sam Patch who turned up as a daring moral hero in the works of Hawthorne and Melville, in London plays and pantomimes, and in the spotlight with Davy Crockett—a Sam Patch who became the namesake of Andrew Jackson's favorite horse. In his shrewd and powerful analysis, Johnson casts new light on aspects of American society that we may have overlooked or underestimated. This is innovative American history at its best.

Where Poppies Blow
Where Poppies Blow

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published: 2016-11-03

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13: 0297869272

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Winner of the 2017 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writing The natural history of the Western Front during the First World War 'If it weren't for the birds, what a hell it would be.' During the Great War, soldiers lived inside the ground, closer to nature than many humans had lived for centuries. Animals provided comfort and interest to fill the blank hours in the trenches - bird-watching, for instance, was probably the single most popular hobby among officers. Soldiers went fishing in flooded shell holes, shot hares in no-man's land for the pot, and planted gardens in their trenches and billets. Nature was also sometimes a curse - rats, spiders and lice abounded, and disease could be biblical. But above all, nature healed, and, despite the bullets and blood, it inspired men to endure. Where Poppies Blow is the unique story of how nature gave the British soldiers of the Great War a reason to fight, and the will to go on.

The Private Life of the Hare
The Private Life of the Hare

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2019-10-17

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 1473542502

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THE PERFECT GIFT FOR NATURE LOVERS ‘To see a hare sit still as stone, to watch a hare boxing on a frosty March morning, to witness a hare bolt . . . these are great things. Every field should have a hare.’ The hare, a night creature and country-dweller, is a rare sight for most people. We know them only from legends and stories. They are shape-shifters, witches’ familiars and symbols of fertility. They are arrogant, as in Aesop’s The Hare and the Tortoise, and absurd, as in Lewis Carroll’s Mad March Hare. In the absence of observed facts, speculation and fantasy have flourished. But real hares? What are they like? In The Private Life of the Hare, John Lewis-Stempel explores myths, history and the reality of the hare. And in vivid, elegant prose he celebrates how, in an age when television cameras have revealed so much in our landscape, the hare remains as elusive and magical as ever.

Britain's Insects
Britain's Insects

Author: Paul D. Brock

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-07-13

Total Pages: 608

ISBN-13: 0691179271

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The go-to photographic guide to Britain and Ireland’s insects Britain’s Insects is an innovative, up-to-date, carefully designed and beautifully illustrated field guide to Britain and Ireland's twenty-five insect orders, concentrating on popular groups and species that can be identified in the field. Featuring superb photographs of live insects, the guide covers the key aspects of identification and provides information on status, distribution, seasonality, habitat, food plants and behaviour. It also offers insight into the life history of the various insect groups, many of which are truly amazing. This is the go-to guide for entomologists, naturalists, gardeners, wildlife photographers and anyone else interested in insects, whatever their level of knowledge. More than 2,600 stunning photographs, carefully selected to show key identification features Photo guides to every insect order, covering 316 families and almost 850 genera Covers 1,653 species, of which 1,476 are illustrated Designed to allow easy, accurate comparison of similar species Up-to-date distribution maps and charts summarizing adult seasonality QR codes that link to sound recordings of grasshoppers and crickets Information on photographing and recording insects to help conservation

The Secret Life of the Owl
The Secret Life of the Owl

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Doubleday UK

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780857524560

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'Dusk is filling the valley. It is the time of the gloaming, the owl-light. Out in the wood, the resident tawny has started calling, Hoo-hoo-hoo-h-o-o-o.' There is something about owls. They feature in every major culture from the Stone Age onwards. They are creatures of the night, and thus of magic. They are the birds of ill-tidings, the avian messengers from the Other Side. But owls - with the sapient flatness of their faces, their big, round eyes, their paternal expressions - are also reassuringly familiar. We see them as wise, like Athena's owl, and loyal, like Hedwig. Human-like, in other words. No other species has so captivated us. In The Secret Life of the Owl, John Lewis-Stempel explores the legends and history of the owl. And in vivid, lyrical prose, he celebrates all the realities of this magnificent creature, whose natural powers are as fantastic as any myth.