Welcome

to our shopping site for books and greeting cards - for when you're looking for something independently produced and a bit different

Christmas shopping offer

Sometimes purchasing online does help a small business if it’s completely independent. In the build up to Christmas I’m offering a gift wrapping service if you’d like to buy a book and a Christmas card (I can write in a bespoke message) and then it can be posted direct to a UK address so you only pay the postage once and can know that it’s a gift they’re not hugely likely to have already received!

Just let me know in the Any Request box and I will get it sorted. This offer will close on the 18th December 2024, to avoid disappointment.

If you are looking for greeting cards, we have a wide selection for you, these are unique, often quirky and/or beautiful

Particularly popular cards are our images of penguins and those of the beautiful South Downs
(If you have come to find our books, they can be seen lower down this page or more detail can be found by clicking the link above)

Suggested seasonal greeting cards

Cow parsley

Cards sent in the spring can celebrate the return of new life

Pink paeony

In the summer the flamboyance of flowers is a source of joy and much appreciated

Raindrops on autumn leaf

Autumn can provide surprise and beauty

Father Christmas at the Theatre Royal, Bath

Winter is a tricky time and the fun of playing around with images can help

Willow seeds

Our landscape is full of riches

London to Brighton bicycle ride

Activities in the summer are many and various

Sunshine through autumnal trees

Autumn sunshine has a richness to it

Penguins on a beach with Father Christmas

Fun and cheerful playfulness

Frazzled Parent

Greeting card: Frazzled Parent - a long-suffering parent wren with a beakful of food

Puffins

Greeting card: Puffins - from an original painting by Diana Harding

Ala Archa Gorge

Greeting card: Ala Archa Gorge - drawn for Is No Problem as well as a greeting card

Jersey lichens

Greeting card: Lichens on the coast, Jersey - also the cover photograph for the Lichens of Jersey

If you would like to see more greeting cards, please click HERE

Our own books

We publish books that have photography, ecological, landscape and history subjects. We aim for them to entertain as well as share knowledge, through the telling of stories.
Two books are now also available as downloads from the Amazon Kindle store

True stories of English garden wildlife

(Also available as a Kindle book)

Learn more about lichens in Jersey and the history of their influence on world lichenology

The story of a trainee twitcher on holiday on the Isles of Scilly

Is No Problem, Simon Davey

Tour leading joys and challenges as a natural historian

Featured Books

It's Warmer Down Below: the autobiography of Sir Harold Harding, 1900-1986

The long-awaited autobiography of Sir Harold Harding, founding Chairman of the British Tunnelling Society, which celebrated 50 years in March 2021.

Sir Harold was a civil engineer and pioneer of soil mechanics, best remembered for his extensive work in tunnel engineering. He was involved in the construction of significant projects including much of the London Underground and the feasibility study that underpinned the Channel Tunnel. He also sat on the Aberfan Tribunal and advised on troubleshooting for many tunnels around the world.

This book is enriched by the sense of history and well-developed wit that was key to the author's approach to his work.

Cover image for Sophie: An Edwardian Chlldhood - little girl with teddy bears

Sophie: An Edwardian Childhood

We also have the lovely, vivid and often funny book detailing the Edwardian Childhood of Sophie Blair Leighton, daughter of the renowned artist Edmund Blair Leighton (and Amanda's beloved grandmother - wife of Sir Harold Harding). Sophie's childhood was spent in Bedford Park, Chiswick and also Kirby Green on the River Waveney in Norfolk, in the years before the First World War. While she had nannys and there were servants, many other details are also evocative of a time that seems so far ago and yet is within the connected memory of so many of us.

In an early chapter, for example, she comments on the sweeper in the road outside, who for a penny would sweep a passage across the mud and horse droppings, to make it passable for the more daintier footed pedestrian or householder. Later on come the revelations of the naughty donkey Jack who played tricks on the household whenever he could.

News

New section on second-hand books from Simon's collection, especially bird books

Since January, I have been looking at Simon's collection of natural history books and feeling that they need to have a better chance to live a fulfilling life, rather than just sit on the shelves gathering dust. The other day I realised that there was no block to putting them up on this website to encourage naturalists of any style to buy them, so over the next few months this new section will have a build-up of titles, priced with guidance from the Bookseller website. Simon had some wonderful books and hopefully this will be obvious when I start sharing them. Where they relate to his tour leading, then I will also mention that in the posting, since I can!

The French team of Channel Tunnel STudy Group in the Sangatte tunnel of 1880

On this website you will find:

  • unique greeting cards designed with the chatty thoughtful writer in mind (blank inside), with evocative images for you to share memories, humour or thoughts of people who may be on your mind.
  • non-fiction books that have storytelling as their core, written and illustrated by Simon and Amanda Davey on topics celebrating the natural world, travel and history.