Mum's the word
Above: A Harpenden Childhood Remembered
Above: How To Get A Celeb's Body
Above: Imperfectly Natural Baby and Toddler
Above: Hidden Trees of Britain
A Harpenden Childhood Remembered: Growing up
in the 1940s & ‘50s
If your mum likes a touch of nostalgia and grew up in the 1940s and 50s in Hertfordshire, this makes a lovely Mother’s Day present.
Although it is a boy’s tale there are many stories about events that everyone remembers, from national events such as rationing and the Coronation to more local events.
Author John Cooper has an amazing memory and the details, often funny and quirky, are accompanied by a wealth of photographs and ephemera, such as ration books and war leaflets. He describes the nearby prisoner of war camps and how the inmates would help out in the village, the haymaking at local farms, the smithy and Harpenden’s two cinemas.
Childhood was very different then and John describes the many ways he and his friends tried to earn themselves pocket money. In fact John’s first job aged eight was helping to deliver milk from a horse and cart.
A Harpenden Childhood Remembered: Growing up in the 1940s & ‘50s
John Cooper
Published by Sutton
ISBN: 9780750948920
Priced £12.99
Available from Life Books
How To Get A Celeb’s Body
If your mum is looking to get fit and change her shape, Hertfordshire’s own Elise Lindsay has a new book that she might find inspiring. Elise inspired Colleen McLoughlin into maintaining a fitness regime and after only a few weeks she began to look like a model and feel really good.
The book approaches fitness holistically by providing ideas for healthy eating and the psychological aspects leading to a change in attitude important for maintaining a new found fitness and body. Apart from the all important exercises there are helpful hints on posture and maintaining a lifestyle that is not punishing or restrictive.
How To Get A Celeb’s Body
By Elise Lindsay
Published by Penguin
ISBN: 9780718153373
Priced £14.99
Available from Life Books
Imperfectly Natural Baby and Toddler
This is a good book for Mother’s Day for those who want to live as holistically as possible. Or as the author, Hertfordshire’s Janey Lee Grace, points out, no one is perfect and the book aims to make it as easy as possible to be almost chemical free and just do what you can.
What I like about her book is that she acknowledges that once you have given birth, guilt becomes your middle name and that mothers also need to pamper themselves, be healthy, as well as maintain their own happiness and there is plenty in the book to remind new mothers that their welfare is important too.
The section on food for mother and baby is really helpful and inspiring with plenty of alternatives to bad ingredients such as sugar.
Imperfectly Natural Baby and Toddler
By Janey Lee Grace
Published by Orion Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780752869476
Priced £14.99
Available from Life Books
Hidden Trees of Britain
If your mother loves the countryside this is a gorgeous book full of wonderful places to visit. The photography is splendid and the author Archie Miles is an expert in the tree world and his love of them clearly shines through in his text. He writes about the trees in the 5,000-acre Ashridge estate, now owned by the National Trust, as if they were old friends. He identifies ‘the stars’ of the estate as the beeches, some of which are huge and you might stumble ‘on the great hulk of an
old coppice stool’ that looks ‘like some sleepy old rhinoceros dozing in the dappled shade’.
There are plenty of other places nearby to visit including Epping Forest to the east and the black poplar woods of the Vale of Aylesbury.
Hidden Trees of Britain
By Archie Miles
Published by Ebury Press
ISBN: 9780091901660
Priced £25
Available from Life Books
All listed titles are available from LIFE BOOKS - 10% discount plus free p&p for all readers - 0870 429 6661