Few have written more beautifully about the British countryside than Francis Kilvert. A country clergyman born in 1840, Kilvert spent much of his time visiting parishioners, walking the lanes and fields of Herefordshire and writing in his diary. Full of passionate delight in the natural world and the glory of the changing seasons, his diaries are as generous, spontaneous and vivacious as Kilvert himself. He is an irresistible companion. This new edition of William Plomer’s original selection contains new archival material as well as a fascinating introduction illuminating Kilvert’s world and the history of the diaries. ‘One of the best books in English’ Sunday Times 'Kilvert has touched and delighted (and mildly shocked) readers of his diaries ever since they were first published. New readers are in for a treat' Alan Bennett

In this autobiography, the author evokes his Edwardian childhood in his portrait of a vanished community as he tells how he and the other children of Salford struggled daily to survive the poverty that surrounded them.

Francis Kilvert born in 1840 at Hardenhuish, Wiltshire, England, was the son of Robert Kilvert and Thermulthis Coleman. He married Elizabeth Ann Rowland on 20 August 1879 at Wooton-by-Woodstock. Five weeks after his marriage he became ill and died 23 September 1879 at Bredwardine, Hereford, where he was Vicar. Elizabeth survived him by 30 years. She died in 1911.

Plutarch's parallel biographies of the great men in Greek and Roman history are cornerstones of European literature, drawn on by writers and statesmen since the Renaissance, most notably by Shakespeare. This selection provides intimate glimpses into the lives of these men, depicting, as he put it, 'those actions which illuminate the workings of the soul'. We learn why the mild Artaxerxes forced the killer of his usurping brother to undergo the horrific 'death of two boats'; why the noble Dion repeatedly risked his life for the ungrateful mobs of Syracuse; why Demosthenes delivered a funeral oration for the soldiers he had deserted in battle; and why Alexander, the most enigmatic of tyrants, self-destructed after conquering half the world.