Mark Clarke – författare

This volume contains a collection of new editions of all the known fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Middle English technical recipes for painters, strainers, scribes, illuminators, and dyers, written c. 1300-1500. Most are previously unpublished and many are previously unknown. The collection contains 125 sets of recipes (around 1500 individual recipes), taken from 95 manuscripts, and forms the largest published corpus of such recipes in any language.These anonymous craft recipes describe the preparation of materials, outline their uses, advise on decorative effects, and confide tricks of the trade. In addition to recipes for conventional painting and illuminating are a number for 'staining' (figurative painting on cloth) which provide the only practical information on this one widely-practised, but now lost, English medium. The editor also identifies for the first time the earliest surviving recipes for block printing on textiles. The recipes are professional in origin, but were subsequently taken over by amateurs and encyclopaedists. Household recipes for colouring wax, fishing lines, hair, and food complete the collection.Most of the texts were originally composed in English; few are translated from pre-existing material. They are a valuable record of Middle English technical vocabulary, much of it previously unrecorded.The collection should appeal to a wide range of disciplines: students of medieval English, medieval historians, historians of fine art, and professional conservators, including those engaged in museum studies.

In 2008 Mark Clarke embarked on a journey to visit the highest point in each of the eighty-five historic counties in Great Britain. Over the course of four years, he walked over 500 miles and climbed over 100,000 feet, sampling all that is great about Britain along the way. Mark's journey took in the mountainous summits of Scotland and Wales (Ben Nevis, the county top of Inverness-shire, and Snowdon, the county top of Caernarfonshire) as well as dozens of less visited high points, such as the unfortunately named Boring Field in Huntingdonshire. High Point is Mark's account of his experiences and the challenges he faced in his travels - including suffering a broken leg on a remote hillside in Scotland while walking alone. It is rich with historical information and observations about Britain's counties and serves as an indispensable guide to the historic and modern counties of Great Britain and their highest points. Each county has its own gazetteer section with information about the county, the county top, Mark's ascent and local information. High point walk directions are accompanied by an Ordnance Survey map to help you plan your own High Point adventure.