A practical, everything-you-need-to-know guide to keeping chickens for people who are as interested in them as pets as they are in eggs and other poultry produce.

We often consider dogs to be our enduring sidekicks, but the truth is that domestic pigs have played a role in our lives for nearly as long. Pigs are highly social and super smart. They like to play. They have good long-term memories. They can tell which people are nice to them and which aren't. They sing to their young when they nurse them. They're inventive and crafty and belligerent - and incredibly single minded. If they want something, they'll...

David Kennard paints an honest and affectionate, often drily comic picture of a year in the life of a sheep farm and its very different canine and human personalities.

By the school house at Shancarrig stands a copper beech, its bark scarred with the names and dreams of the pupils who have grown up under its branches. This tree is the gateway to Maeve Binchy's portrait of a small Irish town.