British Isles   |   READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Essential Books These 5 items are available for $101, including
U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXGBR184)		  
The British Isles, A History of Four Nations  •  Hugh Kearney
HISTORY •  2006 •  PAPER  • 324 PAGES
A survey of 2000 years of British history from the Celts to the Romans, the Normans, to the rise (and fall) of the empire. With a welcome focus on the interaction of the Celts, Normans and other cultures that have made their home in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. Highly recommended. (GBR88, $39.99)		   The British Isles, A History of Four Nations
Seamanship, A Voyage Along the Wild Coasts of the British Isles  •  Adam Nicolson
TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2007 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES
A stylish writer with a romantic streak, Nicolson offers a direct, engrossing account of a coastal voyage from Cornwall, along the western coast of Ireland, out to the Faeroes and to Orkney in this brief hymn to the sea. He recruits his sailor-friend George; buys a nice, squat wooden boat (the Auk) for the six-month voyage; and drags along a television crew to pay for the trip. Nicolson is the author of the superb Sea Room, Life in the Hebrides. (GBR561, $13.95)		   Seamanship, A Voyage Along the Wild Coasts of the British Isles
The Mother Tongue, English and How it Got That Way  •  Bill Bryson
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1996 •  PAPER  • 270 PAGES
An indispensable guide to the language that divides us, this book is a humorous and informative history of the English language that showcases Bryson's wry wit. He traces the development of the English language and its oddities from the Neolithic to present. Excellent. (GBR15, $14.99)		   The Mother Tongue, English and How it Got That Way
Eyewitness Guide Great Britain  •  Eyewitness Guides
GUIDEBOOK •  2011 •  PAPER  • 720 PAGES
With its 1,400 photos, maps and excellent introductory chapters, this guide is both a general introduction to Great Britain and a region-by-region look at its attractions. Handsome, convenient and up-to-date, this is the guide to carry. (GBR01, $30.00)		   Eyewitness Guide Great Britain
Great Britain and Ireland Map  •  HEMA Maps
MAP
A nicely detailed map showing both Great Britain and Ireland at a scale of 1:750,000. Two Sides. 56x39 inches. (GBR31, $10.95)		   Great Britain and Ireland Map



Also Recommended

Fodor's Exploring Scotland  •  Gilbert Summers   • GUIDEBOOK  •  With its many photographs, detailed descriptions and practical information, this compact guide covers Scotland in style. (SCT09, $22.00)
 		  
Fodor's London's 25 Best  •  Fodor's   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This slim guide to London (with handy full-color maps) has everything you need to know for a short visit to the city, including recommended sightseeing, restaurants, hotels and shops. (GBR08, $12.99)
 		  
Knopf Mapguide Edinburgh  •  Knopf Guides   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A handy set of full color, ingeniously folded maps, each indicating favorite sites, shops, restaurants and attractions. (SCT105, $9.95)
 		  
A History of the Vikings  •  Gwyn Jones   • HISTORY  •  Jones integrates history and archaeology in this classic portrait of the Vikings. (VIK20, $18.95)
 		  
A Short History of England, The Glorious Story of a Rowdy Nation  •  Simon Jenkins   • HISTORY  •  Jenkins relates the exhilarating tale from the Dark Ages -- when the Angles arrived from Germany, lending their name to England -- to the modern day in this concise, very readable and illustrated history. (GRB40, $35.00)
 		  
Arthur's Britain  •  Leslie Alcock   • HISTORY  •  Drawing on the archaeological record, Alcock searches for a historical basis of Arthurian legend while painting a vivid portrait of early medieval Briton life. (GBR701, $16.00)
 		  
London Perceived  •  Evelyn Hofer  •  V. S. Pritchett   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  A classic, lyrical celebration of the palaces, parks, people and everyday experience of London. Pritchett's eloquent riffs on the character of the city are accompanied by evocative black-and-white photographs by the superb Evelyn Hofer. (GBR310, $19.95)
 		  
Scotland, A Concise History  •  Fitzroy MacLean  •  Magnus Linklater   • HISTORY  •  With 250 well-integrated illustrations, this lively and authoritative history covers the romantic figures and bloody battles from the early clans up to the present. (SCT15, $19.95)
 		  
The Druids  •  Stuart Pigott   • HISTORY  •  An illustrated history of the ancient Celtic priesthood. (GBR565, $18.95)
 		  
The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England  •  Antonia Fraser   • HISTORY  •  Lady Fraser gathers eight British historians for this engaging, illustrated history of the monarchy from 1066 to the House of Windsor, chock full of personality, incident and scandal. (GBR160, $34.95)
 		  
The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History  •  Colin McEvedy   • HISTORY  •  McEvedy deftly sketches the culture, history and society of Medieval Europe in this slim historical atlas. (EUR240, $15.00)
 		  
The Penguin Illustrated History of Britain and Ireland, From Earliest Times to the Present Day  •  Barry Cunliffe   • HISTORY  •  A wonderfully rich and comprehensive guide to the history of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland -- from the arrival of the first humans half a million years ago right up to the present. (GBR624, $35.00)
 		  
The Secret History of MI6, 1909-1949  •  Keith Jeffery   • HISTORY  •  Jeffrey was given unprecedented access to MI6's archives for this thrilling, balanced history of Britain's Special Intelligence Service, which essentially created the modern craft of spying. (GRB50, $20.00)
 		  
The Story of England  •  Christopher Hibbert   • HISTORY  •  Beautifully illustrated with color pictures, chronological charts, royal genealogies and maps, this popular history of English politics, economics and culture from the Neolithic age to the 1990s is an excellent traveler's companion. (GBR02, $19.95)
 		  
England, Oxford Archaeological Guide  •  Timothy Darvill   • ARCHAEOLOGY  •  An overview and catalog of prehistoric, Roman, and medieval sites from Stonehenge and Hadrian's Wall to sites in London and York. With sketch maps, 200 photographs, travel information, and site diagrams. (GBR724, $36.50)
 		  
Pagan Celtic Ireland, The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age  •  Barry Raftery   • ARCHAEOLOGY  •  An illustrated, authoritative overview of Iron Age Ireland, its culture and history. (IRE153, $29.95)
 		  
Stonehenge  •  Rosemary Hill   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  Hill captures the enduring mystery and allure of Stonehenge in this witty meditation on the myth and meaning of the most famous prehistoric site in all Europe. (GBR795, $19.95)
 		  
The Book of Kells  •  Bernard Meehan   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  Written by the keeper of manuscripts at Trinity College, this book features 110 color illustrations, including enlargements, of some of the more spectacular decorations in this most famous of medieval manuscripts. (IRE09, $19.95)
 		  
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides  •  Samuel Johnson  •  James Boswell   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  Written when Johnson was 63 and Boswell 32 in 1773 (when they had been friends for ten years), these travel journals were the result of a three-month trip to Scotland. Johnson observed Scotland, and Boswell observed Johnson. (SCT07, $18.00)
 		  
A Writer's House in Wales  •  Jan Morris   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  In this extended essay, Morris uses her much-loved 18th-century house as a point of departure for a meditation on Welsh identity. (GBR325, $20.00)
 		  
Coasting, A Private Journey  •  Jonathan Raban   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  Raban's eloquent, anecdotal account of a solo circumnavigation of the British Isles in a 30-foot ketch, his first experience in a boat. It's an engaging account of the experience of the sea, and the people and places he encounters. (GBR591, $13.00)
 		  
In Search of England  •  H.V. Morton  •  James Morris   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  The much-beloved, enduring account of Morton's ramblings through the English countryside in the early days of the motorcar. Morton charmingly mixes a deep appreciation of the art, culture and history of the place with his own keen observations. (GBR368, $16.00)
 		  
Kingdom by the Sea  •  Paul Theroux   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  This time, the prolific writer recounts a coastal journey around the British Isles in 1982, displaying his occasional ill temper alongside his celebrated ability to combine social history with a good old-fashioned traveler's tale. (GBR09, $14.95)
 		  
Mary Queen of Scots  •  Antonia Fraser   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  This richly readable biography, the story of a legend who was loved even en route to her death, illuminates Mary's age as well as the figure herself. (SCT01, $20.00)
 		  
Nature's Engraver, A Life of Thomas Bewick  •  Jennifer S. Uglow   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  Born to a farming family in Northumberland in 1753, Bewick eventually published his own History of British Birds, the first field guide intended for a general audience. Uglow's engrossing illustrated biography includes an array of the great engraver's vignettes depicting rural life and the natural world. (NAT249, $18.00)
 		  
Outposts, Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire  •  Simon Winchester   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  Winchester's fascinating, globe-trotting account of scattered, mostly oceanic, outposts of the British Empire shows his usual flair for anecdote in describing Hong Kong, Diego Garcia, Tristan de Cunha, St. Helena, As-cension, Pitcairn, Antarctica and the Falkland Islands. (GBR569, $13.99)
 		  
The Wild Places  •  Robert Macfarlane   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  MacFarlane climbs, walks and swims by day, and spends his nights sleeping on cliff-tops and in ancient meadows and wildwoods, in this marvelous exploration of the nature of the British Isles. (GBR893, $15.00)
 		  
Angry Island, Hunting the English  •  A. Gill   • ANTHOLOGY  •  A comic manual to the English by a splendidly irreverent London critic. Gill includes scathing chapters on voice, humor, drink, animals, garden, sport and class. (GBR715, $14.00)
 		  
Celtic Prayers and Incantations  •  Alexander Carmichael   • LITERATURE  •  An authoritative edition of poems and blessings as collected by folklorist Alexander Carmichael (1832 - 1912) over 40 years, when Gaelic was still widely spoken in the Skye, Uist, Oban and other islands of the Hebrides. (CLT4, $7.95)
 		  
Irish Fairy and Folk Tales  •  W.B. Yeats   • LITERATURE  •  Edited by the Nobel Prize-winning poet who spearheaded the Celtic Renaissance in the early 20th century, these enchanting stories introduce a cast of changelings, ghosts, mermaids, demons, saints, priests and fairies. (IRE04, $16.00)
 		  
Orkneyinga Saga, The History of the Earls of Orkney  •  Hermann Palssom  •  Paul Edwards   • LITERATURE  •  A fusion of myth and legend, circa A.D. 1200, by an unnamed Icelandic author. The medieval chronicle has its center of action among the Orkney Islands, describing their conquest by Norwegian kings during the Viking expansion of the ninth century. (VIK07, $16.00)
 		  
The Flight of Gemma Hardy  •  Margot Livesey   • LITERATURE  •  In this updated version of Jane Eyre by a leading Scottish writer, a desolute young woman from Iceland travels to the remote Orkney Islands to become an au pair. (SCT181, $26.99)
 		  
Wildlife of the North Atlantic, A Cruising Guide  •  Tony Soper  •  Dan Powell   • FIELD GUIDE  •  This compact, illustrated guide covers the many petrels, ducks, gulls, terns and other seabirds, as well as the rich abundance of life existing under the waves, that populate the vast Atlantic region from the British Isles to Newfoundland. (ATL26, $25.99)
 		  
 
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