Most Popular Books by Jonathan Thomas

Jonathan and Jackie Thomas, founders of the world''s largest Anglophile website Anglotopia.net, set off on their biggest adventure yet as they drove from Land''s End to John o''Groats (aka LeJog), ticking off the top item on their ''Great British Bucket List.'' End to End is a new exploration of Britain from the southernmost tip of Cornwall to the northernmost tip of Scotland. Along the way, they explore stately homes, ruins, castles, the Queen''s private yacht, unique attractions, a bookshop or two, and even a motorway rest stop! This journey takes them over 900 miles through some of the most breathtaking scenery in the UK and to many special places that they''ve never been to before. Along the way, they encounter fascinating characters, experience unexpected challenges, and discover the true spirit of adventure as they get to know Britain in a they''ve never experienced. The journey also serves as a personal pilgrimage for the couple as they reflect on their lives, their business, their passions, and their love for each other. This inspiring and heartwarming tale showcases the beauty of the British countryside and the resilience of the adventurous human spirit. Join Jonathan and Jackie on their unforgettable journey and discover the magic of the UK like never before.

A collection of twelve short stories by Jonathan Thomas, including the title story, "Tempting Providence," which is set in H. P. Lovecraft''s native city, and other tales that depict the Lord of the Animals and a man''s quest for a rare psychedelic album.

Oliver, Emilia and Tim are the top students at a school for children gifted in science. They have dedcated their lives to the exploration and manipulation of the laws of physics. Now they have to forget everything they know when they find themselves trapped in a world where those laws don¿t apply. To make matter worse, something knows they¿ve arrived... something that wants to make sure they never make it home...

Americans and the British do not experience the same country. An American will happily pay £32 to wander the staterooms of Buckingham Palace and call it the deal of a lifetime. A Briton will call it highway robbery and never go. We chase the Cotswolds, Yorkshire, and Edinburgh; they escape to Spain. We see a fairy-tale island; they see the price of a cup of tea. Somewhere in that gap lives the thing every Anglophile is really chasing - the heart of Britain. For twenty-five years and twenty-two trips, Jonathan Thomas - founder of Anglotopia, the web''s largest community for American Anglophiles - has been on a quest to close that gap. Not to see Britain as a tourist sees it, but to understand it the way the British understand their own country, while never pretending to be anything other than the besotted American he is. Searching for the Heart of Britain is the record of that quest. Across thirty-six journeys, Thomas rides a Victorian steamer down Ullswater, spends New Year''s in a frozen Dorset cottage, sleeps in Churchill''s bedroom, hunts down the real Gold Hill that hung on his teenage bedroom wall, eats ham-and-cheese toasties at the literal edge of Britain, and rides a sold-out steam train to the Cornish seaside on the one perfect day of a very hard summer. Along the way he asks why Britain is so frugal for a "rich" nation, why the first suburb was a Dorset village, and why a country that invented the railway simply refuses to let its steam engines go. Part travel memoir, part love letter, part field guide to a culture Americans think they know, this is the third book in the trilogy that began with Adventures in Anglotopia and An End to End. It''s for anyone who has ever fallen for Britain from three thousand miles away - and wondered what they were really falling for. Come find the heart of Britain. It''s been waiting for you all along.

Soil is a heterogenous mixture, an accumulation of material from a particular place generated over time. Its components, be they grains, molecules, or microorganisms, are collaborators, working together to support the emergence of something new. It is with the idea of soil in mind, of complex and productive mixtures, that material about a small charter school in New Jersey, the School for the Renewal of Soil (SRS) was collected and is presented here. The school''s mission, ''education for a hopeful, sustainable future'' is infused in much of what they do, and was the primary reason it was chosen as the focal site for this study. The heart of this inquiry, the idea explored throughout the words that follow, is the belief that schooling has an important role to play as people look for ways to foster sustainable communities, that is, places that are socially just and ecologically sound. Accompanying this belief, and inseparable from it, is a concern: that schooling, as it is now, is part of the mechanism that transmits and reproduces a set of beliefs, or root metaphors, that underlie both the mistreatment of people and of the e/Earth. This work begins by naming these root metaphors, exploring some of their sources and manifestations, and discussing the role of education in their dissemination and, potentially, their disruption. Soil, a metaphor for complex, messy, placed collaborations is introduced, and is used to frame both how material about SRS was collected and how it is offered here. A collection of stories about the school is then presented -- a complex mixture of distinct, but collaborative pieces of writing. These stories are generative: they produce questions and ideas and offer opportunities to explore important connections between sustainability and schooling. Specifically, the school''s curricula, explicit, implicit, and null, are imbued with e/Earth and various aspects, from class content to school practices and administrative structure, challenge a hierarchical, value-laden view of the world. In addition to these findings, questions are raised and ideas are explored related to a school practice that influenced curricular decisions and left students without essential social and historical context during a class fieldtrip. In conclusion, the author explores his own teaching over the past year and wonders why, despite a strong commitment to bringing these ideas into his classroom, it was so difficult to do. In the midst of this wondering, the school''s mission, ''education for a hopeful, sustainable future,'' emerges again -- this school-wide commitment provides a structure that allows teachers to create and deliver earthen curriculum that challenges root metaphors and hierarchies, and connects the students with the land.