Kirjahaku

‘I asked the sailor what an Elephant looked like; he replied that it was like nothing on earth.’ In the middle of the 18th century, a ship docks at Bristol with an extraordinary cargo: two young elephants. Bought by a wealthy landowner, they are taken to his estate in the English countryside. A stable boy, Tom Page, is given the task of caring for them. ‘The Elephant Keeper’ is Tom’s account of his life with the elephants. As the years pass, and as they journey across England, his relationship with the female elephant deepens in a startling manner. Along the way they meet incredulity, distrust and tragedy, and it is only their understanding of each other that keeps them together. Christopher Nicholson’s charming and captivating novel explores notions of sexuality and violence, freedom and captivity, and the nature of story-telling – but most of all it is the study of a profound and remarkable love between an elephant and a human being.

From the author of the Costa Best Novel-shortlisted 'The Elephant Keeper', a poignant imagining of Thomas Hardy's relationship with his last muse.

"Intensely moving. An] exceptional novel."--Boston Globe A poignant and magical story set in eighteenth-century England, The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson is the tale of two baby elephants and the young man who accidentally finds himself their guardian. Every reader who was enchanted by Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants or enthralled by When Elephants Weep will adore Nicholson's The Elephant Keeper--a masterful blending of historical novel, coming-of-age tale, animal adventure, and love story.

"Intensely moving. An] exceptional novel."--Boston Globe A poignant and magical story set in eighteenth-century England, The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson is the tale of two baby elephants and the young man who accidentally finds himself their guardian. Every reader who was enchanted by Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants or enthralled by When Elephants Weep will adore Nicholson's The Elephant Keeper--a masterful blending of historical novel, coming-of-age tale, animal adventure, and love story.

This book provides a complete, easy-to-use handbook for nurses who see patients with heart failure. In recent years heart failure has become a high priority in health care. With more nurses caring for patients with heart failure and making decisions that are often complex, there is a clear need for those nurses to have access to good quality clinical information and guidance. This book is designed to be a practical, ‘one-stop’, handbook for the practitioner, supported by case studies and up-todate references throughout, providing all the topics the Practitioner or student may need in their work with patients with heart failure.

We've been sending one another postcards for well over a century now - usually brief messages to our friends and family telling them about the weather on our holidays or where we're visiting next on our travels. A hundred years ago we sent postcards with more serious messages - important, personal information about births, marriages and deaths, urgent requests for help, or just to keep in touch before the use of the telephone became widespread. The choice of subjects featured on postcards today is vast, but amongst the most popular has always been the lighthouse - a symbol of safety and reliability, and evidence of Man's basic instinct to warn and reassure. Over the years, almost every British lighthouse has featured on a postcard of some description, and the ones with easy access are regularly updated with different views. This new book from Christopher Nicholson, author of the highly-acclaimed Rock Lighthouses of Britain, concentrates on vintage postcards featuring the remotest lighthouses of all. Within these pages are snapshots of the past and moments in time from the very edge of Britain - granite pillars rising from sea-swept reefs or the lights on uninhabited storm-lashed islets dotted around the coasts of England, Wales and Scotland. Some of these cards are artists' impressions, some are hand-tinted, while others are real sepia or black and white photographs - but they all show how things used to look and how life used to be at the very extremes of offshore Britain. Due to their age these postcards are now valuable documents of social history - keepers posing with their families or being relieved at the end of their stint of duty - and they also illustrate the changing appearance of the lighthouses, together with the appalling weather the keepers endured. Proof, if such were needed, that there was nowhere too isolated nor weather too rough that would daunt the determined postcard photographer! It was perhaps because of the very remoteness of the lighthouses that drew people to buy the postcards and these evocative photographs will invoke an appreciation of those bygone times. With chapters on 'pillar lights', 'island lights', 'relief days', 'wild winds and white water' and 'curiosities' the author has been given unique access to the collections of private individuals and lighthouse authorities to compile a fascinating and nostalgic work. Each lighthouse featured is accompanied by interesting historical details as well as a selection of vintage postcard views with extended captions - some over a century old.

As the summer draws to a close, a few snowbeds - some as big as icebergs - survive in the Scottish Highlands. Christopher Nicholson's Among the Summer Snows is both a celebration of these great, icy relics and an intensely personal meditation on their significance. A book to delight all those interested in mountains and snow, full of vivid description and anecdote, it explores the meanings of nature, beauty and mortality in the twenty-first century.