Bedside Companions – serie

The sixth title in the beloved ‘Bedside Companion’ series, this anthology provides 366 extracts on the sea. A joyful mix of fact and fiction, prose and poetry, this anthology is the best way to enjoy the wonders of the sea while staying delightfully dry. This evocative collection will please anyone and everyone, from the most avid surfers to those who choose to observe from the beachy shore. Whether you dreamed of becoming a swashbuckling pirate as a child or you feel a thalassophobic fascination with huge bodies of water, there will be entries sure to intrigue and delight.Immerse yourself in salty scenes from classic literature taken from greats such as Herman Melville, Anthony Trollope and Virginia Woolf, and mark seaside-themed recipes for the next time you have to impress a sailor for dinner; linger in ghostly shipwrecks and wash up on desert islands; learn about coastlines and smugglers, and follow along with those who have sailed around the world. Keep this gorgeous anthology by your bedside for a nightly dip or a morning refresher into the mysterious world of the sea, with one entry for every day of the year.

Step into a world of enchantment with this captivating collection of prose and poetry, fact and fiction on myth and magic, folklore and faery.Bedside Companion to Folklore and Magic contains a rich selection of prose and poetry, fiction and fact, with one entry to read every night of the year. Within the pages of this beautifully designed volume you’ll encounter dancing fairies, ferocious dragons, trickster gods, witches and wizards, enchanted islands, shape-shifting animals, and magic spells. Fantastical delights to peruse include:• Tales from global folklore: Anansi the spider, Little Tieke the Dancing Thief from Maori legend, and Louise Erdrich’s accounts of North American Ojibwe tradition.• Fiction ranging from classic fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen to exciting modern fantasy such as Marlon James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf, and poetry including Christina Rosetti’s peerless GoblinMarket.• The very best of magical children’s literature: excerpts from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Peter Pan, His Dark Materials and, more recently, Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures.• Non-fiction sources: extracts from 18th-century grimoires containing bloodthirsty revenge spells, lively accounts of enduring folk wisdom, and classic anthropological texts such as James George Fraser’s The Golden Bough.If you’re in need of an escape into otherworldly realms, keep this book by your bedside and end every day with a fascinating flight of fantasy.

A delicious literary anthology all about food. With extracts from over 200 authors, it embraces fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and even a smattering of recipes, with one piquant extract for every night of the year.This absorbing book is a literary feast for every food lover. Within these pages, you'll discover a wealth of foodie extracts from around the world and throughout the centuries, from Christmas feasts in Tudor times to Nigella Lawson on how much cheese to buy for a dinner party. In addition to renowned food writers such as Elizabeth David, Madhur Jaffrey and Anthony Bourdain, it includes literary greats like Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Maya Angelou, and some intriguing curiosities such as the surreal recipes in 1932’s Futurist Cookbook. And, of course, Mrs Beeton makes an appearance. Also on the menu are:• Tantalizing gingerbread in Jane Austen's Emma.• The joys of Caribbean cooking in Sam Selvon’s The Housing Lark.• Ingenious wartime solutions in MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf and much, much more.Keep this delectable book by your bedside and savour a whole world of delicious food writing every night of the year – and it also makes the perfect gift for the foodie in your life!