'A fully comprehensive guide . . . includes information and tips that even the park officers do not know about!' - What's on in London 'The Best of London Parks is a guide to more than 70 green spaces, with details of all their sporting facilities: from horse riding to Aussie rules football' - The Times London is one of the green cities in the world with thousands of acres of parks. There is a wealth of inexpensive, top quality facilities in the Parks that are often not known about even by the people who live near to them. These include numerous sports such as tennis, rugby, football, golf and bowls. There are gyms and athletics tracks, free playgrounds and paddling pools for children and clubs for their parents to meet and relax together. Every park in central London is covered. For each of these famous parks, there is a chapter detailing their history and all they have to offer. The chapters have something for all interests from the price of bacon butties, to rare goats (with frost-proof ears), to tennis courts, to boating. The information includes a brief historical background, how to get to the park, the opening times of all facilities and costs. Each park has a list of highlights and nearby places of interest and the larger parks include a map.

This guidebook presents 25 varied walks exploring London's green and open spaces. Covering both the city centre and the Greater London area, it takes in royal parks, heaths, forests, canals and rivers, including Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath, the World Heritage site of Kew Gardens and Wimbledon Common. Walks range from 4 to 14 miles and most can be accessed by public transport. Alongside detailed route descriptions and OS mapping, the book features practical information on parking, public transport and refreshments. Each walk showcases a particular species of wildlife that you might encounter, and there is fascinating background information the history and conservation of the capital's wild spaces. London is a city of 8 million people and 8 million trees, and its vast open spaces are home to 13,000 species of wildlife. This book is an ideal companion to exploring a greener, more gentle side to the city.

In an age of behemoth brands, visiting local independent shops has never been more rewarding - or important. London has an army of small owner-run indies and we've picked the very best. From artisan delis to stationery hubs, these shops are champions of friendly service and expert knowledge. Go out, support and enjoy. The book includes 54 shops and is packed with original photography, insider tips and interviews with the owners.

If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it's that people love parks As horizons shrank, we took stock. At first, a sense of panic set in: nowhere to go, nothing to do... Then we all went to the park, and we realized something: we need greenery - we crave it. Whether we're in Colombia or Korea, America or Australia, urban parks are places where we can find calm amid the chaos. They can also (more often than we may realize) conceal intriguing hidden histories, and can tell us something about modern life in our frenzied world, too. With fondness and humour, travel writer Tom Chesshyre recalls 50 of his favourite urban parks from across the world, in a love letter to the green escapes that bring us joy in our cities.

A refreshing guide to discovering the hidden details of London with 10 fully guided walking routes from London's leading tour guide Look Up London. Have you ever noticed London's tiniest public sculpture? Or wondered why there are strange cone-shaped structures on the fanciest historic homes? Did you know that the Tower of London used to be a zoo, or about the now defunct London railway that transported over 200,000 people to their final resting place? These are just some of the fascinating details that Blue Badge Tourist guide Katie Wignall reveals in this absorbing guide to the secrets of London hidden in plain sight. Take a journey through London's rich past with these 10 fully guided walking routes and discover a whole world of incredible history hiding above your eye-line, just waiting to be spotted. From the saucy scandals of Covent Garden to stories of power and intrigue from the City, atmospheric pubs to hidden Roman remains, London is a city bursting with captivating stories which are etched into its very architecture. So, Look Up and discover a London you have never seen before.

Born in Argentina, W. H. Hudson was a late Victorian author, naturalist and ornithologist, best known today for his exotic romances, including his masterpiece ‘Green Mansions’. He also published important works of non-fiction, including a series of books on the English countryside, which due to their imaginative descriptions helped foster the “back-to-nature” movement of the 1920’s and 1930’s. For the first time in publishing history, this eBook presents Hudson’s complete works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Hudson’s life and works * Concise introductions to the novels and other texts * All the novels, with individual contents tables * Rare novels appearing for the first time in digital publishing * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Famous works are fully illustrated with their original artwork * Rare story collections * Includes Hudson’s complete non-fiction – spend hours exploring the author’s naturalist works * Features the compelling memoir of the author’s early years in Argentina * Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres CONTENTS: The Novels The Purple Land that England Lost (1885) A Crystal Age (1887) Ralph Herne (1888) Fan (1892) Idle Days in Patagonia (1893) Green Mansions (1904) A Little Boy Lost (1905) The Shorter Fiction El Ombú (1902) Tales of the Pampas (1916) Dead Man’s Plack and An Old Thorn (1920) A Traveller in Little Things (1921) The Non-Fiction Argentine Ornithology (1888) The Naturalist in La Plata (1892) Birds in London (1898) Nature in Downland (1900) Birds and Man (1901) Hampshire Days (1903) Land’s End (1908) Afoot in England (1909) A Shepherd’s Life (1910) Adventures among Birds (1913) An Outline History of English Literature (1913) The Book of a Naturalist (1919) Birds in Town and Village (1919) A Hind in Richmond Park (1922) Rare Vanishing and Lost British Birds (1923) Articles from ‘Popular Science Monthly’ The Autobiography Far Away and Long Ago (1918)

The real-life inspiration and setting for the Emmy Award-winning Downton Abbey, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war. Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart, Lady Cora Crawley, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon's ancestral home. Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman. This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.