How writer Simon Barnes rewilded the marshland next to his garden to attract new species and to bring inspiration to his family

Mr. Scott believes he has found a formula for becoming a millionaire in less than 30 days. There is a problem. He lives in total chaos with his wife and young children. What follows is a roller coaster ride of misadventures - both serious and hilarious. This genre-defying novel is a series of short stories woven together as part of a powerful tale.

Selenium, essential in microscopic doses, can be deadly in larger amounts. Death in the Marsh explains how federal irrigation projects have altered selenium's circulation in the environment, allowing it to accumulate in marshes, killing ecosystems and wildlife, and causing deformities in some animals.

Chris Landrums morning has already started on a down note, as he stands in a cemetery listening to the eulogy for a friend. But his entire day deteriorates rapidly when he hears that a murder victim has been found in the marsh behind his retirement home on Folly Beach, South Carolina. Worse yet, the victim is the business associate of one of his friends. In a matter of hours, Chriss quiet, relaxed life is turned upside down. The police are convinced that Sean Aker, the victims law partner, is the killer. Chris has no reason to disagree other than the fact Sean is a frienda feeble defense at best. With the help of a group consisting of a tagalong buddy and wannabe private detective; an aging hippy and surf shop owner; a has-been country music singer; and a new acquaintance who runs a marsh tour business, Chris is thrust into a murder investigation that soon puts his dream of spending an idyllic retirement on hold yet again. As Chris and his merry band of misfit friends stumble, bumble, and come face-to-face with death in their amateurish quest to find a killer, they all wonder if the golden years are like this for everyoneor just them.

An Environmental Fantasy

When a woman goes missing, it gets personal for DCI Craig Gillard. But he could never imagine what happens next. Criminologist Martin Knight lives a gilded life and is a thorn in the side of the police. But then his wife Liz goes missing. There is no good explanation and no sign of Martin... To make things worse, Liz is the ex-girlfriend of DCI Craig Gillard who is drawn into the investigation. Is it just a missing person or something worse? And what relevance do the events around the shocking Girl F case, so taken up by Knight, have to do with the present? The truth is darker than you could ever have imagined. Utterly gripping and full of twists, this is a compulsive thriller from master Nick Louth for fans of Robert Bryndza, Patricia Gibney and Carole Wyer. What readers are saying about Nick Louth'An unputdownable, heart-thudder of a read' Carol Wyer, author of Little Girl Lost ‘This was up there with the best thrillers I have ever read.’ ‘Had me hooked from the start! I would definitely recommend this book.’ ‘It grips you from the first page to the last. Excellent.’

Award-winning photographer Dorothy Monnelly captures the yet-unspoiled beauty of one of the last natural ecosystems in the Northeast. In this collection of 57 large format, black and white photographs, the salt marsh is a solemn force rendered dramatically with crisp scans of Monnelly's original gelatin silver prints. As a native of Ipswich, Massachusetts, Monnelly executes her work with a familiarity and grace evocative of Ansel Adams. Her work is described in the forward by Jeanne Adams, director of the Ansel Adams Trust as capturing the marsh's "amazing sculptural quality." "Between Land and Sea" is grounded with an essay by journalist Doug Stewart, a regular contributor to "Smithsonian" and other magazines. Stewart's words provide a rich context for the images, as well as a strong case for preserving the marshlands. "Standing in an upland clearing overlooking a vast prairie of marsh grass, you can easily believe that a salt marsh is the closest thing a landscape comes to eternity. Even the Grand Canyon is eroding, after all, but a healthy salt marsh is renewed with each rising tide." Monnelly's book is indispensable to those who are conscious of the threat to our planet's sustainability. 57 black and white illustrations.

Louisiana is in a desperate battle to save what remains of its coastal wetlands, which are disappearing at the rate of a football field--size area every 38 minutes. Most people are unaware of the devastating transformation of this remote region, though the effects are detrimental for the entire country economically, culturally, and environmentally. Hoping that art will inspire concern where statistics have not, and focusing on the marshlands' beauty rather than their destruction, nature photographer C. C. Lockwood and painter Rhea Gary have joined together in Marsh Mission to show that a picture is worth at least a thousand words. Their rapturous thirty photographs and thirty paintings may well leave one speechless. For an entire year, C.C. immersed himself in the wetlands, living on a houseboat -- the Wetland Wanderer -- with his wife, Sue, a schoolteacher, who created an interactive classroom from the boat via the Internet. They covered more than 5,000 miles, taking the pulse of their environs and documenting everything from oil rigs to egrets and vivid setting suns. Rhea sometimes joined the Lockwoods and other times ventured out in her own bateau, designed to hold an easel for making oil-on-paper sketches. She produced the final oil paintings on canvas in her studio. In his photographs, C.C. captures the quiet, hidden activity of the wetlands in all their paradisaical aspects. Breathtaking detail -- the reward of day-in and day-out vigilance. Rhea conveys her emotional response to the light, color, and mood of the landscape with bold impressionistic strokes in raspberry, tangerine, lime, fuchsia, azure, and yellow. Hot -- like the culture and the climate of south Louisiana. Together, the two impart an aesthetic experience that explains better than any map or scientific data the irreplaceable treasure being lost. A narrative by each artist enhances their visual testimony and gives a rare glimpse into the creative process. Formed by silt deposits from the Mississippi River, Louisiana's coastal region constitutes 40 percent of all U.S. marshlands, but it is sinking at an alarming rate because the river's leveed banks -- while essential for flood control and ship navigation -- obstruct silt replenishment. With Marsh Mission, C. C. Lockwood and Rhea Gary offer a visionary tribute to this endangered, national natural resource. Their images should arouse awareness, appreciation, and, especially, action.

“Five thousand years of history were here and the pattern was still unchanged.” During the years he spent among the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq, Wilfred Thesiger came to understand, admire and share a way of life that had endured for many centuries. Travelling from village to village by canoe, he won acceptance by dispensing medicines and treating the sick. In this account of his time there, he pays tribute to the hospitality, loyalty, courage and endurance of the people, describes their impressive reed houses, the waterways and lakes teeming with wildlife, the herding of buffalo and hunting of wild boar, moments of tragedy and moments of pure comedy, all in vivid, engaging detail. Untouched by the modern world until recently, these independent people, their way of life and their surroundings suffered widespread destruction under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Wilfred Thesiger's magnificent account of his time spent among them is a moving testament to their now threatened culture and the landscape they inhabit.

From award winning author Lucy Strange comes a thrilling story of six sisters who must fight against circumstance and fate, gorgeously told and steeped in history and legend. On a poor farm surrounded by marshlands, six sisters -- Grace, Willa, Freya, and triplets Deedee, Darcy, and Dolly -- live in fear of their father and the superstition that haunts him: The Curse of the Six Daughters. Their beloved grandmother tries to protect them, but the future seems bleak. When the Full Moon Fayre makes a rare visit to Hollow-in-the-Marsh, the girls slip out to see the famous Shadow Man, an enigmatic puppeteer. Afterwards, oldest sister Grace is missing. Following the Full Moor Fayre and into the Lost Marsh, Willa will have to battle her inner doubts and the legends that have haunted her family. Can she save her sister from one fate, and yet outrun her own? The thrilling new novel from acclaimed author Lucy Strange, author of The Secret of Nightingale Wood, The Ghost of Midnight Lake and the Waterstones Prize-shortlisted Our Castle by the Sea.