The Rose The Lily

Prince Sterling must decide between beauty and character. The prince wishes to marry beautiful Princess Rose. The prickly, pampered and hilariously horrid princess sends the prince on a quest. Join Prince Sterling as he encounters miners mining for diamonds, a woodland fairy riding her pet peacock, a dragon with rainbow-coloured scales and Lily, a kind-hearted, plain peasant girl who lives in a cosy little cottage with a menagerie of animals. Ages 4-10. Make a crown. Instructions included.

'The story is equal parts Downton Abbey and wartime action, with enough romance and intrigue to make it 100% not-put-down-able.' -- Australian Women's Weekly on Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies Australian heiress Sophie Higgs was 'a rose of no-man's land', founding hospitals across war-torn Europe during the horror that was WW1. Now, in the 1920s, Sophie's wartime work must be erased so that the men who returned can find some kind of 'normality'. Sophie is, however, a graduate of the mysterious Miss Lily's school of charm and intrigue, and once more she risks her own life as she attempts to save others still trapped in the turmoil and aftermath of war. But in this new world, nothing is clear, in politics or in love. For the role of men has changed too. Torn between the love of three very different men, Sophie will face her greatest danger yet as she attempts an impossible journey across the world to save Nigel, Earl of Shillings - and her beloved Miss Lily. In this sequel to the bestselling Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies, Jackie French draws us further into a compelling story that celebrates the passion and adventure of an unstoppable army of women who changed the world.

The story of a little girl who takes part in the creation of John Singer Sargent's well-loved painting.

THE STORY IS EQUAL PARTS DOWNTOWN ABBEY AND WARTIME ACTION , WITH ENOUGH ROMANCE AND INTRIGUE TO MAKE IT 100% NOT- PUT- DOWN-ABLE. Australian Woman's Weekly A tale of espionage, love and passionate heroism. Inspired by true events, this is the story of how society's 'lovely ladies' won a war. Each year at secluded Shillings Hall, in the snow-crisped English countryside, the mysterious Miss Lily draws around her young women selected from Europe's royal and most influential families. Her girls are taught how to captivate a man - and find a potential husband - at a dinner, in a salon, or at a grouse shoot, and in ways that would surprise outsiders. For in 1914, persuading and charming men is the only true power a woman has. Sophie Higgs is the daughter of Australia's king of corned beef and the only 'colonial' brought to Shillings Hall. Of all Miss Lily's lovely ladies, however, she is also the only one who suspects Miss Lily's true purpose. As the chaos of war spreads, women across Europe shrug off etiquette. The lovely ladies and their less privileged sisters become the unacknowledged backbone of the war, creating hospitals, canteens and transport systems where bungling officials fail to cope. And when tens of thousands can die in a single day's battle, Sophie must use the skills Miss Lily taught her to prevent war's most devastating weapon yet. But is Miss Lily heroine or traitor? And who, exactly, is she?

This is the definitive study of John Tradescant the elder and his son, two remarkable men who traveled to new or little-known lands in search of botanical treasures--John the elder to Russia, the Near East, and North Africa, and John the younger to the new colony of Virginia. They worked for a series of eminent patrons including Robert Cecil, the Duke of Buckingham, and Charles I, for whom they supervised the creation of some of the great gardens of the period. Identifying the varieties of plants which were first grown by the Tradescants or introduced to the country by one of them, this study also features extensive appendices reproducing the complete texts of the Tradescants' lists of plants as well as the Musaeum Tradescantianum, the younger Tradescants' catalog of the museum collection. Each plant is identified with its modern botanical name, making this an essential work for all those interested in the history of gardening and British plants.

In 1837, while charting the Amazonian country of Guiana for Great Britain, German naturalist Robert Schomburgk discovered an astounding "vegetable wonder"--a huge water lily whose leaves were five or six feet across and whose flowers were dazzlingly white. In England, a horticultural nation with a mania for gardens and flowers, news of the discovery sparked a race to bring a live specimen back, and to bring it to bloom. In this extraordinary plant, named Victoria regia for the newly crowned queen, the flower-obsessed British had found their beau ideal. In The Flower of Empire, Tatiana Holway tells the story of this magnificent lily, revealing how it touched nearly every aspect of Victorian life, art, and culture. Holway's colorful narrative captures the sensation stirred by Victoria regia in England, particularly the intense race among prominent Britons to be the first to coax the flower to bloom. We meet the great botanists of the age, from the legendary Sir Joseph Banks, to Sir William Jackson Hooker, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, to the extravagant flower collector the Duke of Devonshire. Perhaps most important was the Duke's remarkable gardener, Joseph Paxton, who rose from garden boy to knight, and whose design of a series of ever-more astonishing glass-houses--one, the Big Stove, had a footprint the size of Grand Central Station--culminated in his design of the architectural wonder of the age, the Crystal Palace. Fittingly, Paxton based his design on a glass-house he had recently built to house Victoria regia. Indeed, the natural ribbing of the lily's leaf inspired the pattern of girders supporting the massive iron-and-glass building. From alligator-laden jungle ponds to the heights of Victorian society, The Flower of Empire unfolds the marvelous odyssey of this wonder of nature in a revealing work of cultural history.

Lady Elinor of Hardford has fallen in love for the first time, with Dan, her cousin and knight-in-training. But her father has other plans. She must marry his friend, Sir William of Courtney - and he's nearly 50! Ellie must draw on all her skills to work out a solution to her dilemma. Can she change her father's mind? And will she ever get to marry Dan?

Callan Rose.That hadn't always been his name.When we were children, he was nothing more than a servant boy in my family.He was an amusement to me. A nobody. A weak soul who refused to fight back.It was so easy to take advantage. But then my father died, and I was stolen. The family moved on without me. Until I was penniless with no place to go.I returned to the Rose Estate not knowing Callan was the head of it.He'd honed his body and temper in the underground fighting ring. The scars only made him more beautiful. Now I'm trapped by a seductively dark man who has nothing but vengeance running through his veins.I'd always wanted him to fight back, but you know what they say: Be careful what you wish for

Lily and Georgie's father has been imprisoned for being a magician - and they must rescue him. Yet the hidden jail is protected by dark spells, and the girls' own magic isn't strong enough to break through. Searching for someone to help, Lily and Georgie voyage far from home, and find a powerful magician named Rose. But in a world of secrets, is she all that she seems?