Welcome
to my shopping site for books and greeting cards - for finding something independently produced and different to the norm
If you are looking for greeting cards, there is a wide selection for you; unique, often quirky and/or beautiful
Particularly popular cards are the images of penguins and those of the beautiful South Downs
(If you have come to find books, the new ones can be seen lower down this page - or more detail can be found by clicking the menu link above)
Suggested seasonal greeting cards
Cards sent in the spring can celebrate the return of new life
In the summer the flamboyance of flowers is a source of joy and much appreciated
Autumn can provide surprise and beauty
Winter is a tricky time and the fun of playing around with images can help
Our landscape is full of riches
Activities in the summer are many and various
Autumn sunshine has a richness to it
Fun and cheerful playfulness
Greeting card: Frazzled Parent - a long-suffering parent wren with a beakful of food
Greeting card: Puffins - from an original painting by Diana Harding
Greeting card: Ala Archa Gorge - drawn for Is No Problem as well as a greeting card
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
New books by the family
These books have photography, ecological, landscape and history subjects. The aim is for them to entertain as well as share knowledge, through the telling of stories.
A few are available from Amazon and two as ebook downloads from the Amazon Kindle store
Newest Book - In their Landscape by Amanda Davey
This book is the result of 11 years of site visits, research and writing. Inside there are 273+ churches, chapels and ruined places of worship, all with their own page and two photographs (apart from some of the chapels and ruins). It is a dip into the landscape and history of special places in the South Downs National Park. It also includes insight into some of the personalities involved in and around them, especially the rectors/vicars and curates of the mid-nineteenth century, plus bishops and archdeacons. Jane Austen is referred to several times, including her second cousin, also called Jane Austen, who was married to the patron of Clayton church in Sussex.
It is a kilogram of fact nuggets.
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 in October 1984
Featured Books
It's Warmer Down Below: the autobiography of Sir Harold Harding, 1900-1986
The autobiography of the founding Chairman of the British Tunnelling Society, as well as ‘tunneller extraordinaire’.
Sir Harold Harding was a civil engineer and one of the core pioneers of British 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 ran the English side of the feasibility study that underpinned the Channel Tunnel. He also sat on the Aberfan Tribunal, from which came a report that saved many lives as a result of its recommendations and went on to advise on troubleshooting for many tunnels around the world.
This book is enriched by the sense of industrial and world history as well as the well-developed wit that was key to the author's approach to his work.
Sophie: An Edwardian Childhood
We also have the lovely, vivid and often funny book detailing the Edwardian Childhood of Sophie Helen Blair Leighton, daughter of the renowned Pre-Raphaelite inspired artist Edmund Blair Leighton (and Amanda's beloved grandmother - wife of Sir Harold Harding). Sophie's childhood was spent in Bedford Park, Chiswick and summers at 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 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 muddy horse droppings, to make it passable for the more daintier-footed pedestrian or householder. Later on come revelations of a naughty donkey, Jack, who played tricks on the household whenever he could.
News
Upcoming YouTube live readings for Indie Author Week UK 6-13th June
For the past six years it has been fun to be a part of Indie Author Week UK, an initiative begun by friends in the Liverpool area but which now encompasses contributions from across the UK. The aim is to promote awareness of independent authors, showing off diversity, talent and commitment to the written word outside the constraints of conforming to rigid expectations of celebrity or forced agendas.
This year my focus will be on short pieces around some of the existing books plus some light to shine on books I’m preparing for future publication. All will be at 6pm on YouTube @Amanda_Davey_TiliaP-UK Books and Landscape
6th June: My Life with Books - a short chapter in a collaborative book published imminently promoting child and adult literacy
7th June: Entertainment in It’s Warmer Down Below, probably my grandparents’ courtship at Piccadilly Circus Station, London
8th June: insight into an artist’s life from Sophie: an Edwardian Childhood
9th June: Cristina and the Painter. A look into world events in her lifetime 1609-1632
10th June: In their Landscape - a piece I wrote for the British Cartographic Society on the tithe maps I used
11th June: Another BCS piece on mapping of lichens and air pollution as part of the preparation for the forthcoming memoir on Dr Francis Rose
12th June: The day the bumblebee wrote off the car - a story from a collection of surprising tales from my mother’s world
13th June: I’ve been doing videos each week on themes from In their Landscape and this will be a return to those, but a live version rather than the canned ones - not that you’d notice much difference!
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.