Step back in time with Maestro as he goes on a field trip from his home on car #3, changing 'hats' from conductor to trail guide. He joins his friend Malvin the mule on a watershed walk along the towpath trail. Come along, too, and learn about a slower pace of life, when canal boats transported people and goods from town to town.

Examines how changes from the Industrial Revolution prior to World War I brought about radical transformation in society, changes in education, and massive migration in population that led to one of the bloodiest events in history.

Clive James has been close to death for several years, and he has written about the experience in a series of deeply moving poems. In Sentenced to Life, he was clear-sighted as he faced the end, honest about his regrets. In Injury Time, he wrote about living well in the time remaining, focusing our attention on the joys of family and art, and celebrating the immediate beauty of the world. When The River in the Sky opens, we find James in ill health but high spirits. Although his body traps him at home, his mind is free to roam, and this long poem is animated by his recollection of what life was and never will be again; as it resolves into a flowing stream of vivid images, his memories are emotionally supercharged ‘by the force of their own fading’. In this form, the poet can transmit the felt experience of his exceptional life to the reader. As ever with James, his enthusiasm is contagious; he shares his wide interests with enormous generosity, making brilliant and original connections, sparking passion in the reader so that you can explore the world’s treasures yourself. Because this is not just a reminiscence, it’s a wise and moving preparation for and acceptance of death. As James realizes that he is only one bright spot in a galaxy of stars, he passes the torch to the poets of the future, to his young granddaughter, and to you, his reader. A book that could not have been written by anyone else, this is Clive James at the height of his considerable powers: funny, wise, deeply felt, and always expressed with an unmatched power for clarity of expression and phrase-making that has been his been his hallmark.

In her study of the married couple as the smallest political unit, Phyllis Rose uses the marriages of five Victorian writers who wrote about their own lives with unusual candor: Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, and George Eliot--née Marian Evans.

"The canals are tranquil havens from a chaotic world, with a treasure trove of living heritage to discover on every twist and turn over 2,000 miles, whether you visit on foot or by boat."--Book jacket.

The Catalan modern classic, first published in 1985, now in its 50th edition, for the first time in English. The beginning of the 20th century: 13-year-old Conxa leaves her home village in the Pyrenees to work for her childless aunt. After years of hardship she finds love with Jaume - a love that will be thwarted by the Spanish Civil War. Approaching her own death, Conxa looks back on a life in which she has lost everything except her own indomitable spirit. Why Peirene chose to publish this book: 'I fell in love with Conxa's narrative voice, its stoic calmness and the complete lack of anger and bitterness. It's a timeless voice, down to earth and full of human contradictory nuances. It's the expression of someone who searches for understanding in a changing world but senses that ultimately there may be no such thing.' Meike Ziervogel 'Sparse and haunting.' Katy Guest, Independent 'The compression is so deft, the young narrator's voice so strong, so particular, her straightforward evocation of the hard labour and rare pleasures of mountain life . . . so vibrant, that it makes me want to take scissors to everything else I read.' Richard Lea, Guardian 'A Pyrenean life told in a quietly effective voice.' Daniel Hahn, Independent 'There is an understated power in Barbal's depiction of how the forces of history can shape the life of the powerless.' Adrian Turpin, Financial Times 'A masterpiece of world literature and a shining example of the virtuosity of elegant and concise prose.' Pam Norfolk, Lancashire Evening Post 'Air-tight believability.' Matthew Tree, Times Literary Supplement ​ INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2010 FOYLES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2010