The Age of Railways was an era of extraordinary change which utterly transformed every aspect of British life – from trade and transportation to health and recreation.Full Steam Ahead reveals how the world we live in today is entirely shaped by the rail network, charting the glorious evolution of rail transportation and how it left its mark on every aspect of life, landscape and culture. Peter Ginn and Ruth Goodman brilliantly bring this revolution to life...

Ruth Goodman and Peter Ginn have become familiar faces on BBC2 after their hugely popular and immersive time-travelling experiments, Victorian, Edwardian and Wartime Farm. But for their fourth series, and our accompanying book, they have joined forces with Tom Pinfold to take on their biggest challenge yet: going back to Tudor England to endure the harsh realities of working for an Abbey Farm.Peter, Ruth and Tom are trained historians, driven by new research and d...

During World War Two Britain had to look to the land to provide the produce it had previously shipped in from abroad, meaning huge changes on both the agricultural and domestic scenes. Accompanying an 8-part BBC series and written by the three presenters who spend a year living on a reconstructed farm from the era, Wartime Farm sets these changes within a historical context and looks at the day-to-day life of that time. Exploring a fascinating chapter in Britain's recent history, we see ho...

This clear, concise book offers a down-to-earth system for newcomers to the field of birding, using a proven formula that remains valid even among experienced birders. It trains the reader, step by step, in the art of observing birds, from assessing their general size and shape to pinpointing their diagnostic features, habitats and idiosyncrasies. Mastering these observation skills will help beginners use a field guide more effectively, thus launching them into the captivating world of bir...

The Legend of the Mango Aklan is a province in the island of Panay in central Philippines. One of its major fruit produce is the sweetly delicious mango, or mangga in Filipino. And so it goes that the Aklanons have a story about the first mango. In times gone by, there lived a couple named Daeogdog and Mabuot. They had a beautiful daughter called Aganhon. Aganhon, whose name means morning, was so much loved for she had a golden heart. She was very helpful to allher parents, the old, the si...

The Age of Railways was an era of extraordinary change which utterly transformed every aspect of British life – from trade and transportation to health and recreation.Full Steam Ahead reveals how the world we live in today is entirely shaped by the rail network, charting the glorious evolution of rail transportation and how it left its mark on every aspect of life, landscape and culture. Peter Ginn and Ruth Goodman brilliantly bring this revolution to life...

As a Victorian lady, what unspoken rules governed what you wore, how you spoke, and how you filled your time? This fascinating book takes you back in time to show you just how your day would be, and how it differed from lower class life.

What was it like to live in a Victorian Household? What time did the servants have to get up? What was the food like and who cooked it? How did the clothing differ for the different types of servants? How much did the servants get paid? This book shows you what it was really like to live in Victorian times, for those both above and below stairs.

Polly Perkins can hardly believe her luck when she is taken on as under-housemaid at Swallowcliffe Hall. At first it's all she can do to keep up, with endless fires to be laid and beds to be made, never mind when guests arrive from London for a country house party. Will she ever feel at home in this grand old house, full of whispers and ghosts from the past? But friendship and comfort are found in unexpected places and Polly slowly becomes used to her new life - until the discovery of a tr...

Grace is a kitchenmaid but, unlike her mother, Polly, she doesn't enjoy life inside the house; she'd much rather be working in the stables with the horses. Cricket teas and shooting-party luncheons will soon become a distant memory, however. It's 1914 and war is about to turn the country upside down. Soon all the young male servants are leaving to fight in France, while trainloads of wounded soldiers arrive at the Hall to convalesce. Grace can see at firsthand the terrible effects of war, ...

For 'Downton Abbey' fans: a new title in the popular Swallowcliffe Hall series! This is the journal of Eugenie Vye: the prettiest debutante of the 1890 season, with hair she can sit on and a seventeen-inch waist – yet somehow three years later, still unmarried. Lord Vye's daughter might be thought to want for nothing, but life isn't easy on fifty guineas a year with a jealous stepmother watching one's every move. Eugenie's passionate nature and unerring ability to get hold of the wrong end...

It's 1939 and Isobel is visiting her grandmother, Polly, the housekeeper at crumbling Swallowcliffe Hall. Izzie's meant to be resting after a serious illness but with talk of war on everyone's lips, life is anything but peaceful, even deep in the English countryside. Izzie meets Andreas, a Jewish boy who has fled Nazi Germany on the Kindertransporte: the evacuation of thousands of Jewish children to safety in Britain. He's left his family behind and now they're in terrible danger. If war b...