Penguin English Journeys-a gorgeous boxed set of 20 books

Penguin English Journeys Box set of 20 books

I found these today while poking around on the internet (don't ask me how, I don't remember the sequence of clicks!) and thought I would share them. They are reprints of old books which wander through the countryside of England. Churches, food, gardens, houses...they are all celebrated in these books which can be purchased separately or as a boxed set of 20 books. I managed to find a seller on Amazon.co.uk who would ship them to me in Canada (you have to look for one that says International delivery rates) for about £30/49 USD. Not bad considering they sell for about $10 each over here! Plus, I didn't want to have to decide on just one or two.

However if you can only get a few, here are some suggestions.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Gardens by Vita Sackville-West

In this unique gardening chronicle Vita Sackville-West weaves together simple, honest accounts of her horticultural experiences throughout the year with exquisite writing and poetic description. Whether singing the praises of sweet-briar, cyclamen, Indian pinks and the Strawberry grape, or giving practical advice on pruning roses, planting bulbs, overcoming frosts and making the most of a small space, her writings on the art of good gardening are both instructive and delightful. Generations of inhabitants have helped shape the English countryside - but it has profoundly shaped us too. It has provoked a huge variety of responses from artists, writers, musicians and people who live and work on the land - as well as those who are travelling through it.English Journeys celebrates this long tradition with a series of twenty books on all aspects of the countryside, from stargazey pie and country churches, to man's relationship with nature and songs celebrating the patterns of the countryside (as well as ghosts and love-struck soldiers). -description taken from Amazon

Cathedrals and Castles by Henry James

Some Country Houses and Their Owners by James Lees-Milne

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard and other poems

I'll bet you can't choose just one! And aren't these covers reason enough to purchase one or two? And they are all bite-sized at just about 125 pages each. Now I can't wait for our wretched postal strike to end so that I can receive them ASAP.