Wild & Ancient Britain   |   READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Essential Books These 5 items are available for $98, including
U.S. shipping, a 15% discount (Item no. EXGBR484)		  
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 Crofter and the Laird  •  John McPhee
TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1978 •  PAPER  • 159 PAGES • FAVORITE
In this volume, McPhee returns for a year to his ancestral land, the island of Colonsay in the Scottish Hebrides, to tell the stories of people whose lives are deeply entrenched in their land. With his characteristic grace and admiration for his subjects, McPhee writes about this stark region where residents still live under an almost feudal system of farmers, crofter and lord. (SCT23, $16.00)		   The Crofter and the Laird
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
Wildlife of the North Atlantic, A Cruising Guide  •  Tony Soper  •  Dan Powell
FIELD GUIDE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 176 PAGES
As interesting to read as it is useful, this compact guide, geared for a anyone venturing by sea across the North Atlantic from Britain to Iceland or Greenland, covers all the birds, whales, dolphins you are likely to see (along with a few fish and invertebrates). Each of the creatures is fully described with a page or two, including handsome large watercolor illustrations. (ATL26, $25.99)		   Wildlife of the North Atlantic, A Cruising Guide
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

Celtic Prayers from Iona  •  J. Philip Newell   • RELIGION  •  Inspired by the Gaelic prayers and poems of the 19th-century Scotsman Alexander Carmichael, Newell and his wife developed this handsome hard cover book while wardens on the island. (SCT21, $14.95)
 		  
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 Celts: A Very Short Introduction  •  Barry W Cunliffe   • HISTORY  •  A concise, revealing social history of the Celts, by a reigning authority and popular writer. (CLT03, $11.95)
 		  
The Mother Tongue, English and How it Got That Way  •  Bill Bryson   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  An indispensable guide to the language that divides us, this book is an informative linguistic history that showcases Bryson's wry wit. (GBR15, $14.99)
 		  
The Shetland Bus, A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival and Adventure  •  David Howarth   • HISTORY  •  The little-known story of a fleet of fishing boats that regularly journeyed across treacherous waters from the Shetland Islands to Norway, to bring relief and fortifications to Norwegians under Nazi attack. (NOR26, $16.95)
 		  
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)
 		  
Cathedrals and Castles, The Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages  •  Alain Erlande-Brandenburg   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  This pocket-size encyclopedia of the art, architecture and culture of the Middle Ages features hundreds of drawings, color illustrations and a brief chronology. (MED07, $15.95)
 		  
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)
 		  
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)
 		  
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)
 		  
Sun Dancing, A Vision of Medieval Ireland  •  Geoffrey Moorhouse   • LITERATURE  •  This wonderfully inspired combination of scholarship and historical fiction, set at the monastery on Skellig Michael, carries the reader back to Ireland's early monastic tradition. (IRE13, $22.95)
 		  
Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World  •  Paul Schofield   • FIELD GUIDE  •  This compact guide to those confounding tubenoses features 46 exquisite color plates by Derek Onley. (BRD50, $29.95)
 		  
Birds of Europe  •  Lars Svensson   • FIELD GUIDE • FAVORITE  •  Featuring 3,500 glorious paintings by Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterstrom, the second revised edition of this exquisite guide has been brought up to date with revised text and maps. (FG47, $29.95)
 		  
 
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