As some of the oldest living organisms to be found in Europe, yew trees have become inextricably bound up in some of the oldest enduring institutions of European culture. In The Immortal Yew, Tony Hall explores the biological, cultural, and mythic significance of these imposing evergreens. Supporting a range of animals and plants, yew trees foster new life by contributing to biodiversity in their surroundings. But their common occurrence in churchyards and their evergreen leaves have given them a separate folk status as symbols of life--in the British isles, they have come to represent the resurrection and eternal life central to the Christian faith. Their enduring significance to British culture extends beyond the church, however--even the founding political document of British government, the Magna Carta, is believed to have been sealed beneath a yew tree. Despite the enduring presence and significance of the yew tree across a millennium of British history, this seemingly immortal stalwart faces new threats in the twenty-first century as elderly trees near the end of their lives and global climate change threatens the next generation. Perhaps by spending time in the generous shade of one of the yew trees Hall documents in this beautifully illustrated book, a new generation might begin to learn the importance of protecting its legacy and invest in its future.

The ancients revered this sacred tree that has existed on Earth for 200 million years - some trees, still alive today, even survived the last ice age. This immortal tree was therefore venerated as the triple goddess of life, death and rebirth, and was believed to be the guardian of our planet. With climate change threatening our existence, many are now turning to the Tree of Life, identified with the ancient yew, for answers to our predicament. Through groundbreaking research, Janis Fry answers our modern yearning to make sense of life through a god/dess of Nature that guides our lives and connects us to people and events, to which we are answerable as custodians of life on Earth. The Cult of the Yew: Tree of Life, Mystery and Magic explores the spiritual history of this iconic tree and aims to change how those who read it think and understand life in these times.

A tree that had seen a thousand winters before the Vikings came to America tells the stories of what she and her fellow trees have seen in their lives.

The father of the young actor best known for his performances in "Deadwood" describes his son's congenital heart defect, the young man's theatrical achievements, and the family's effort to find life-saving medical answers.

'The Little White Horse was my favourite childhood book. I absolutely adored it. It had a cracking plot. It was scary and romantic in parts and had a feisty heroine.' - JK Rowling - The Bookseller In 1842, thirteen-year-old orphan Maria Merryweather travels to her family's ancestral home, Moonacre Manor, to live with her uncle Sir Benjamin. She immediately feels right at home with her kind and funny uncle and meets a wonderful set of new friends — but she quickly learns that beneath all this beauty and comfort, a past feud haunts Moonacre Manor and it’s her destiny to right the wrongs of her ancestors and restore the peace to Moonacre Valley. A beautifully written fantasy story filled with magic, a Moon Princess, and a mysterious white horse. Little White Horse and the delightful heroine, Maria Merryweather, are sure to be loved by all children.

The gnarled, immutable yew tree is one of the most evocative sights in the British and Irish language, an evergreen impression of immortality, the tree that provides a living botanical link between our own landscapes and those of the distant past. This book tells the extraordinary story of the yew’s role in the landscape through the millennia, and makes a convincing case for the origins of many of the oldest trees, as markers of the holy places founded by Celtic saints in the early medieval ‘Dark Ages’. With wonderful photographic portraits of ancient yews and a gazetteer (with locations) of the oldest yew trees in Britain, the book brings together for the first time all the evidence about the dating, history, archaeology and cultural connections of the yew. Robert Bevan-Jones discusses its history, biology, the origins of its name, the yew berry and its toxicity, its distribution across Britain, means of dating examples, and their association with folklore, with churchyards, abbeys, springs, pre-Reformation wells and as landscape markers. This third edition has an updated introduction with new photographs and corrections to the main text.

An epistolary novel set on a fictional island off the South Carolina coastline, 'Ella Minnow Pea' brings readers to the hometown of Nevin Nollop, inventor of the pangram 'The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog'. Deified for his achievement in life, Nevin has been honored in death with a monument featuring his famous phrase. One day, however, the letter 'Z' falls from the monument, and some of the islanders interpret the missing tile as a message from beyond the grave. The letter 'Z' is banned from use. On an island where the residents pride them-selves on their love of language, this is seen as a tragedy. They are still reeling from the shock when another tile falls. And then another... In his charming debut, first published in 2001, Mark Dunn took readers on a journey through the eyes of Ella Minnow Pea, a young woman forced to create another clever turn of phrase in order to save the islanders’ beloved language.

Whilst out walking one day in the shade at the age of thirty-six, with the First World War looming, Edward Thomas decided to become a poet. In the few years that followed, believing he belonged nowhere, he tramped across rolling chalk downland, stitching himself to the landscape. Gently slanting from the door of his stone cottage, the South Downs – a range of chalk hills that extend across the southeastern coastal counties of England from Hampshire in the west to Sussex in the east – became day by day the mainspring of his poetry. As a perennial poet and essayist of the South Downs, Edward Thomas remains an enduring presence a century later in the downland he trampled daily, treading and documenting a series of paths around the village of Steep, East Hampshire, where he lived until enlisting. Arranging itself around a number of journeys in pursuit of the early twentieth century poet and nature writer, this book provides a personal and moving tale of encountering literature in landscape, retreading Edward Thomas’s footprints from the beginning of his epically creative final four years, to the site where he died in 1917, during the Battle of Arras.

"That night there was talk in the Dun, of strangers. A traveler had brought word of the great metal army, like a snake, wending its way north. It was nearing the Dee. "Rhodri’s spies say they are headed for Ynnys Mon.” “Who are they dada?” Daffydd said. “Romans,” replied his father. “They control Brittany and much besides. Now they have invaded Britain.” “What will we do?" said Daffydd . “The war sign is out, the tribes are assembling. This will be a bloody battle. Daffydd I don’t want you mixed up in this. You are to go to Ynnys Mon tomorrow. Nothing should interrupt your training.” "But father,” protested Daffydd. “You chose your path, swore the oath, 'tis with the Druids you must make your stand, to protect The Knowledge. Celynn, your master will go with you.”