Rich in new discoveries and fresh interpretation, this fully revised survey is the perfect companion and guide to one of England’s most beguiling counties. A profusion of black-and-white timber-framed houses testifies to the prosperity of earlier centuries, as do the many and varied parish churches. Highlights among these include the extraordinary Norman carvings at Kilpeck, the exquisitely spare Cistercian architecture of Abbey Dore, the seductive Georgian Gothick of Shobdon, and Lethaby’s Arts and Crafts masterpiece at Brockhampton. The city of Hereford is freshly presented in detail, from its splendid medieval cathedral to the architectural adventures of the Georgians and Victorians. Country houses are plentiful and diverse, including much that is well in step with national fashions. The characteristic landscape of hills and woods lends a special pleasure to architectural exploration, while market towns such as Ledbury, Leominster, and Ross-on-Wye can match any in England for visual and architectural appeal.

(Description courtesy of Yale University Press)

Tristan Gooley has led expeditions in five continents, climbed mountains in Europe, Africa and Asia, sailed small boats across oceans and piloted small aircraft to Africa and the Arctic.

He is the only living person to have both flown solo and sailed singlehanded across the Atlantic and is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and the Royal Geographical Society.

Prior to setting up a natural navigation school, Tristan gained extensive experience in the travel industry and is currently the Vice Chairman of Trailfinders.

Tristan has appeared on TV and radio programmes in the UK and internationally, including The Today Programme, Countryfile, Excess Baggage, Country Tracks, Ramblings, Open Country and All Roads Lead Home.

Successful interior design requires resolving a multitude of logistical and creative problems to produce a coherent, functional and aesthetically pleasing environment. This book, the first of its kind, tackles the problem from a theoretical approach and not in the conventional how-to or inspiring ideas fashion. Categorising design into nine key elements, including space, light, display, storage, and offering new terminology to describe each area, the author breaks new ground in the field of interior design in an approach that brings vitality and clear communication to a misunderstood and often free-wheeling design discipline.

Drawing on more than 45 years’ experience as an interior designer, Anthony Sully provides the ultimate resource in insight and explains best practices from interpreting a client’s brief, to analysing the building, to setting up a design team and work schedule plus a host of other practical aspects. Peppered through this toolkit are illustrations and explanations of how to analyse space and form in relation to human activity, the formulation of design concepts, and how to learn from mistakes that have been made in the past.

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Wednesday 20th June, Rossiter Books, Monmouth at Noon, Free (playing while we trade)

The Bookshop Band write songs inspired by books, and perform them at themed literary evenings held at Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, in Bath (Independent Bookshop of the Year 2008 / 2011). The  collaboration was started as part of a plan to help Mr B’s rejuvenate its traditional ‘author evenings’.. The band would read the forthcoming author’s book in advance and write two songs based upon it, to be performed at the start of the evening. Their performances are inextricably linked to the books themselves, as the members of the band take it in turns to describe where the inspiration for each song came from.

After the first season the band recorded and released their first CD,
Travels From Your Armchair. Despite only being available in the bookshop itself, word soon spread and they were picked up by radio DJ Tom Robinson who played them on his national Introducing show on BBC 6Music. More recently the band had a 10 minute feature on Kirsty Lang’s culture show, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, and the band appeared on BBC 1 as part of a news feature on Britain’s independent bookshops. Over the course of the year, they have completed 18 author events, and written 36 songs inspired by 21 diverse books, from Andrew Miller’s “Pure” (2011 Costa Novel of the Year) to China Mieville’s acclaimed science-fiction novel “Embassytown” and from Edmund De Waal’s multi-award winning “The Hare with the Amber Eyes” to “Death and the Penguin” by the master of post-Commmunist Ukrainian satire, Andrey Kurkov.

The band is made up of three British musician / songwriters, Ben Please,
Poppy Pitt and Beth Porter. They struck up a friendship whilst playing with their respective bands at UK music festivals in 2010, and decided to
collaborate after Mr B’s proposed the idea in late 2010. Beth has played
with Peter Gabriel and currently tours with Eliza Carthy. She has also
recorded for Newton Faulkner, The Unthanks, and Maximo Park. Ben is part of indie-folk band Urusen, who have recently recorded an album at Peter Gabriel’s Realworld Studio with platinum-selling producer Steve Osborne (KT Tunstall, The Happy Mondays, U2, Doves). Poppy Pitt is an artist and sculptor, and tours with her own band, Poppy and Friends. The Bookshop Band also produce music for films, most recently with Ben writing, and Beth involved in recording, the orchestral score for a short animation called The Eagleman Stag, which won the 2011 BAFTA for Best Short Animation.

Click on the picture below to be taken to a website where you can see & hear them play for yourselves.

Archie Miles brings an illustrated talk, taking the audience on a journey through the ancient Welsh countryside to visit the country’s most remarkable trees. Steeped in history, surrounded by myth and legend and full of cultural and historical significance, these trees dominate the Welsh landscape. Packed with colour photography, directions for visiting the trees and detailed maps, this book tells the story of Wales’unique and diverse collection of heritage trees. Ideal for those interested in history or nature of any age. Published in association with the Tree Council.

Chris Cleave’s debut novel INCENDIARY was a prize-winner and international bestseller and his second novel, THE OTHER HAND has found phenomenal success both in the UK and abroad, hitting number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

1576. Five years after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto, a ship steals unnoticed into Venice bearing a deadly cargo. A man more dead than alive, disembarks and staggers into Piazza San Marco. He brings a gift to Venice from Constantinople. Within days the city is infected with bubonic plague – and the Turkish Sultan has his revenge. But the ship also holds a secret stowaway – Feyra, a young and beautiful harem doctor fleeing a future as the Sultan’s concubine. Only her wits and medical knowledge keep her alive as the plague ravages Venice.

Soon after his arrival at Warburg PoW camp, British army officer John Buxton found an unexpected means of escape from the horrors of internment. Passing his days covertly watching birds, he was unaware that he, too, was being watched. Peter Conder, also a passionate ornithologist, had noticed Buxton gazing skywards. He approached him and, with two other prisoners, they founded a secret birdwatching society.

This is the untold story of an obsessive quest behind barbed wire. Through their shared love of birds, the four PoWs overcame hunger, hardship, fear and stultifying boredom. Their quest would draw in not only their fellow prisoners, but also some of the German guards, at great risk to them all. Derek Niemann draws on original diaries, letters and drawings, to tell of how Conder, Barrett, Waterston and Buxton were forged by their wartime experience into the giants of post-war wildlife conservation. Their legacy lives on.