SOC026020 Archives - Duckworth Books

Deeper Into the Wood

In the late 1990s, Ruth Pavey bought four acres of scrub land above the Somerset Levels. She devoted the next two decades to improving the land into a lush wood; a haven for birds, insects and all manner of wildlife. Beneath the shade of the trees, she now reflects on the fate of her wood.

Deeper Into the Wood recounts a year in the life of an amateur naturalist working with wildlife experts to interpret the language of the land with the aim of preserving the wood for generations to come. Lyrically told stories of local people and regional history are accompanied throughout by Ruth’s beautifully hand-drawn illustrations.

Everyman’s England

A classic travelogue that brilliantly conjures 1930s Britain.

In this series of pen-portraits of England from the 1930s, Victor Canning ‘evocatively captures the pattern and colour of English life’ (The Bookseller), from Cumbria to Cornwall. Canning’s heart-warming and humorous observations of sleepy villages, pastoral scenes and busy industries are a delightful time capsule into life in England during the interwar years.

‘What does the word England mean to you? To all of us England means something different, and yet I think there is for every man and woman some little corner which is more England than anywhere else…’

A Wood of One’s Own

Touring the West Country in the late 1990s, Pavey found herself in the Somerset Levels. On seeing this expanse of reclaimed land under its wide, soft skies she was struck by its beauty and set-out to plant a wood, tree by tree. She bought four acres, and over the years transformed them into a haven where woodland plants and creatures could flourish; an emblem of enduring life in a changeable world.

Interwoven with Pavey’s candid descriptions of the practical challenges she faced are forays into the Levels’ local history, as well as thoughtful portraits of its inhabitants past and present. Accompanied throughout by her evocative hand-drawn illustrations, A Wood of One’s Own is a lyrical, beguiling and inspiring story; a potent reminder of nature’s delicate balance, and its comforting and abiding presence.

All That I Have

Wing is an experienced, practical man who enforces the law in his corner of Vermont with a steady hand and a generous tolerance. But when local tearaway Sean ‘Superboy’ Duke starts to get tangled up with a group of major league Russian criminals, things start to go awry in the sheriff’s small, protected domain. With an ambitious and aggressive deputy snapping at his heels and a domestic crisis of his own to confront, Wing must call on all the personal resources he has cultivated during his working life: patience, tact, and – especially – humour.

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