Hazel the Guinea Pig

Hazel the Guinea Pig

Author: A. N. Wilson

Publisher: Corvus

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 9780857890788

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Hazel the guinea pig just wants to explore. But she's also very fond of food ... When her seven-year-old owner puts her down into the kitchen, she seizes her chance to escape - but her bulging tummy gets her stuck in a wellington boot! That's just the beginning of Hazel's adventures. She's about to meet Tobacco, a handsome boy guinea pig, and together they must fight off a hutch invasion from a curious furball called Fudge. Can Hazel and Tobacco warn the humans in time - using just the power of squealing? Brought to life by celebrated author and animal lover A.N. Wilson.


Imperial Intimacies

Imperial Intimacies

Author: Hazel V. Carby

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2019-09-24

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1788735110

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'Where are you from?' was the question hounding Hazel Carby as a girl in post-World War II London. One of the so-called brown babies of the Windrush generation, born to a Jamaican father and Welsh mother, Carby's place in her home, her neighbourhood, and her country of birth was always in doubt. Emerging from this setting, Carby untangles the threads connecting members of her family to each other in a web woven by the British Empire across the Atlantic. We meet Carby's working-class grandmother Beatrice, a seamstress challenged by poverty and disease. In England, she was thrilled by the cosmopolitan fantasies of empire, by cities built with slave-trade profits, and by street peddlers selling fashionable Jamaican delicacies. In Jamaica, we follow the lives of both the 'white Carbys' and the 'black Carbys', as Mary Ivey, a free woman of colour, whose children are fathered by Lilly Carby, a British soldier who arrived in Jamaica in 1789 to be absorbed into the plantation aristocracy. And we discover the hidden stories of Bridget and Nancy, two women owned by Lilly who survived the Middle Passage from Africa to the Caribbean. Moving between the Jamaican plantations, the hills of Devon, the port cities of Bristol, Cardiff, and Kingston, and the working-class estates of South London, Carby's family story is at once an intimate personal history and a sweeping summation of the violent entanglement of two islands. In charting British empire's interweaving of capital and bodies, public language and private feeling, Carby will find herself reckoning with what she can tell, what she can remember, and what she can bear to know.


The Girl Who Came Home

The Girl Who Came Home

Author: Hazel Gaynor

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2014-04-01

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0062316877

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Inspired by true events, the New York Times bestselling novel The Girl Who Came Home is the poignant story of a group of Irish emigrants aboard RMS Titanic—a seamless blend of fact and fiction that explores the tragedy's impact and its lasting repercussions on survivors and their descendants. Ireland, 1912. Fourteen members of a small village set sail on RMS Titanic, hoping to find a better life in America. For seventeen-year-old Maggie Murphy, the journey is bittersweet. Though her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in Ireland with Séamus, the sweetheart she left behind. When disaster strikes, Maggie is one of the lucky few passengers in steerage who survives. Waking up alone in a New York hospital, she vows never to speak of the terror and panic of that terrible night ever again. Chicago, 1982. Adrift after the death of her father, Grace Butler struggles to decide what comes next. When her Great Nana Maggie shares the painful secret she harbored for almost a lifetime about the Titanic, the revelation gives Grace new direction—and leads her and Maggie to unexpected reunions with those they thought lost long ago.


The Nature of Winter

The Nature of Winter

Author: Jim Crumley

Publisher: Saraband

Published: 2022-01-01

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1915089301

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During winter, dark days of wild storms can give way to the perfect, glistening stillness of frost-encrusted winter landscapes – it is the stuff of wonder and beauty, of nature at its utmost. In The Nature of Winter, Jim Crumley ventures into our countryside to experience firsthand the chaos and the quiet solitude of nature's rest period. He bears witness to the lives of remarkable animals such as golden eagles, red deer and even whales as they battle intemperate weather and the turbulence of climate change. In the snow Jim discovers ancient footsteps that lead him to reflect on the journey of his personal nature-writing life – a journey that takes in mountain legends, dear departed friends and an enduring fascination and deep love for nature. Simply, he evokes winter in all its drama, in all its pathos, in all its glory. "Connoisseurs of nature and good writing will be enthralled by his first-person wildlife encounters. His accounts...are written with dazzling clarity, lyrical tilt and a story-teller's skill." BBC Countryfile Magazine, Book of the Month "This book is all luminous moments, small delights and bright meditations drawn from the northern cold... there is deeply indigenous wisdom here... Crumley invites us to linger a while and witness frosty gifts made vivid by the warmth of his conversation." Miriam Darlington, BBC Wildlife Magazine "Inviting and informative...Crumley has earned himself the enviable position of our foremost nature commentator... Meditative... bewitching... outspoken... persuasive... a true winter's tale." Rosemary Goring, Herald "A very timely piece; it is a book full of passion and love for [the] natural world ... It celebrates nature... in all its glory." Sean Barrs, Disclaimer Magazine


Seasons of Storm and Wonder

Seasons of Storm and Wonder

Author: Jim Crumley

Publisher: Saraband

Published: 2022-09-08

Total Pages: 555

ISBN-13: 191339364X

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From Jim Crumley, the “pre-eminent Scottish nature-writer” (Guardian), this landmark volume documents the extraordinary natural life of the Scottish Highlands and bears witness to the toll climate chaos is taking on its wildlife, habitats, and biodiversity—laying bare what is at stake for future generations. In this landmark volume, Jim Crumley brings together a sweeping five-year quest to document the seasons and how he has seen them change. It explores the damage to the Earth’s natural rhythms, but also relishes the enduring beauty and wonder of nature itself. Drawing on his studies of each season over more than thirty years and reworking the volumes in his best-selling Seasons quartet, Crumley has created this unique account of our natural world today. After a lifetime of immersing himself in the landscapes of Scotland and a handful of other northern countries, Crumley has amassed a body of knowledge and insight and a bank of memorable imagery. Combining lyrical prose and passionate eloquence, he lays bare the impact of an increasingly chaotic climate and urges us all towards a more daring conservation vision that embraces everything from the mountain treeline to a second spring for the wolf.


Native Woodlands of Scotland

Native Woodlands of Scotland

Author: Scott Wilson

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2015-04-26

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 0748692878

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This book presents up-to-date information about Scotland's native woodlands. It draws upon professional experience of scientific research, survey and management, where the author has studied many important native woodlands in Scotland and beyond.


A Less Green and Pleasant Land

A Less Green and Pleasant Land

Author: Norman Maclean

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-04-16

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 1316062279

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Disentangling the facts from the hype, this 'Domesday book' of the British and Irish countryside offers a definitive and up-to-date survey of the state of our wildlife today. Norman Maclean, editor of the bestselling Silent Summer, examines the latest findings of Britain and Ireland's top wildlife experts and interprets them for a wider audience. Each chapter provides reliable estimates of animal populations, showing which species are thriving and which are in decline. The book also considers the effects of climate change on our wildlife and how human population growth is influencing its development. Beautifully illustrated with colour plates and wood engravings throughout, this accessible and timely study reveals just how rapidly our countryside and its wildlife are changing, why we should be concerned, and what we can do about it.


Shades of Green

Shades of Green

Author: Ruth Tittensor

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2016-10-31

Total Pages: 562

ISBN-13: 1909686786

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This book takes a fresh look at the most disliked tree in Britain and Ireland, explaining the reasons it was introduced and why it became ubiquitous in the archipelagos of northwest Europe. Sitka spruce has contributed to the Pacific Coast landscapes of North America for over ten millennia. For the Tlingit First Nation it is the most important tree in terms of spiritual relationships, art, and products in daily use such as canoes, containers, fish-traps and sweet cakes. Since the late nineteenth century it has also been the most important tree to the timber industry of west coast North America. The historical background to the modern use of Sitka spruce is explored. The lack of cultural reference may explain negative public response when treeless uplands in the UK and Ireland were afforested with introduced conifer species, particularly Sitka spruce, following two World Wars. The multipurpose forestry of today recognizes that Sitka spruce is the most important tree to the timber industry and to a public which uses its many products but fails to recognize the link between growing trees and bought goods. The apparently featureless and wildlife-less Sitka spruce plantations in UK uplands are gradually developing recognizable ecological features. Sitka spruce has the potential to form temperate rain forests this century as well as to produce much-needed goods for society. The major contribution of Sitka spruce to landscapes and livelihoods in western North America is, by contrast, widely accepted. But conserving natural, old-growth forests, sustaining the needs of First Nations, and producing materials for the modern timber industry will be an intricate task.