About the Company

The story of Sunflower Books began in 1973, when John and Pat Underwood first visited Madeira on their honeymoon and fell in love with the island. They returned year after year, making notes about their favourite walks – many of which were along the levadas (watercourses with adjacent footpaths, which penetrate virtually every part of the mountainous terrain). (For some additional information about levadas, click here.)

Seven years later, they decided to let other walkers in on their 'secret' paradise. At that time, John was a toxicologist and Pat, who had previously worked for a leading US publisher, had her own typesetting business – enabling them to publish the little 64-page book themselves. It was a big success. In its 3rd edition it won the prestigious Thomas Cook Award for Best Travel Guide and since then has been the most widely-used guide on the island; the current (8th edition) contains 100 long and short walks.

In 1983 a limited company was formed, and gradually more and more titles were added to the list, all modelled on the successful 'countryside guide' recipe for the first book. Almost all of the books are published in German as well as English. Selected titles are also published in Dutch and French. The Landscapes Series is Sunflower's major publishing achievement - the company's dedication to the series has made the books so successful in today's competitive travel guide market.

John and Pat Underwood still visit Madeira every year to recheck walks, write up new routes and take new photographs. (More recently, they have written two books that explore the Provence region of France and they have written two of the titles in our Walk & Eat series.) They write with enthusiasm, they care about the accuracy of the books, and they enthuse Sunflower's other authors with the same quest for reliability which has made Landscapes of Madeira a publishing phenomenon (the press has rightly commented that this book single-handedly transformed the nature of tourism on Madeira).

There is nothing else quite like the Landscapes series. As one user recently wrote to us "We have talked to many people of different nationalities – introductions merely being the blue Sunflower guide. It seems like we are all members of a club and we have become addicted to walking on holiday." Many other people say the same: wherever you go, if you use the Landscapes books, you'll see other people carrying them as well. You will have become a 'Landscaper' and will have joined a fraternity that will make you friends in every destination you visit covered by our books.

Company Information - how to contact us

Mail Order Department:

P.O. Box 115, Exeter, EX2 6YU, U.K.

You have the option of ordering by mail (this is the method to use if you want to order direct from Sunflower Books at its Exeter mail order office), by fax, by telephone or online. Click here to choose how you wish to order. If you have a query you need answered before you place an order, you are welcome to telephone us (normal office hours) on 01392 274686 or if that number is busy, 0207 589 1862, but please be aware that neither of these numbers accepts orders over the telephone - the freephone number for telephone orders is 0800 085 4080.

If you want to buy on-line, you can do this direct from the page for each destination and you will also find a link to the Amazon Internet bookstore. (If you use either of the online ordering options, please note that your order is not processed by Sunflower and Sunflower Books will have no record of the order. In the event of any query, or your wishing to cancel or amend your order, you will need to contact either amazon.co.uk or The Map Shop.) Amazon uses the "shopping basket" method of ordering. The Sunflower online option via their main stockist The Map Shop simply provides a secure e-mail order form for you to detail the book(s) you wish to order.

Guarantee of satisfaction. In the unlikely event of one of our guides proving unsuitable, provided it has been ordered by post direct from Sunflower Books, we will exchange it or give you a refund provided the book is returned to us in saleable condition, within 14 days of despatch date. The Map Shop and Amazon provide similar guarantees. We will also reimburse any postal costs incurred in returning a book purchased direct from ourselves. The sole exception to this guarantee is in respect of the book Plants and Flowers of Madeira. This hardback book, which we import from Portugal to meet requests for it from customers, is heavy and expensive to pack and post. In the event of your wishing to return it, we will refund the net cost of the book (£22.50) but not our cost of post and packing (£4.50) nor your own expenses in returning the book. Please read the description of the book and be certain that you require it if you decide to place an order.

Ordering errors. Should you order the wrong book by mistake, then provided you return it immediately in unused condition (and in any case within not more than 7 days after we despatched it) we will gladly exchange it for another title in the series. However, with an error such as this which is down to yourself, we ask that you enclose £1 worth of postage stamps to cover post and packing of the replacement book. (If we make a mistake, then of course we will rectify the error at no cost to yourself and we will refund your post and packing costs PLUS we will include a small gift by way of apology for our error.)

 

Head Office (editorial) and Registered Office:

P. A. Underwood Ltd (trading as Sunflower Books*) PO Box 36160, London SW7 3HG
Company registration details: Registered in England No: 1800900
VAT registration number: 241 3331 09

*'Sunflower Books' and the 'Landscapes' Series are registered trade marks in the UK.
  'Sunflower Books' is a registered trade mark in Germany and in the United States of America.

Telephone & Fax: within the UK: 0207 589 1862. From outside the UK, first dial the code used within your country for obtaining an overseas line, followed by 44 207 589 1862. Our head office handles editorial, marketing, public relations and press matters: only contact this number for general mail order enquiries in case of difficulty in getting through to our Exeter office. Note especially that orders are not handled by our London office and any orders sent there in the post may be subject to delay, as they have to be forwarded from London to Exeter. No book stock is held at our London office and we regret there is no facility to sell books to personal callers. If you are in London and particularly wish to look at one of our books before purchasing, we recommend trying one of the specialist travel bookshops such as Stanfords in Long Acre (nearest Underground Covent Garden; Stanfords is very close to the station). Note also that our Exeter office has no retail facility in the city.

AUTHORS who wish to submit manuscripts (proposals for books) should note that we publish just three series (the "Landscapes" series, the "Sunflower Complete" series and the "Walk&Eat" series) and under no circumstances can we consider books that would not fit into one of these formats. (We are sometimes sent proposals for children's books, poetry books and other unsuitable projects largely, we suspect, because the senders have seen the name Sunflower and have made assumptions about what we publish!). Items of this sort are immediately rejected. Moreover, manuscripts for possible inclusion in the Landscapes series have to be prepared in a clearly defined style to match our existing titles. For this reason, potential authors are strongly advised to contact us BEFORE commencing work on a title being written with a view to inclusion in either series. Proposals (in writing, please) should be addressed to the Commissioning Editor, Sunflower Books, PO Box 36160, London SW7 3HG. (Please do NOT submit proposals in the form of attachments sent by e-mail; we NEVER open attachments from senders not known to us. It is important that we receive proposals in hard-copy form as we cannot afford to spend time printing out submissions that may be of no interest to us.)

For TELEPHONE ENQUIRIES during office hours

(GMT 09.00-18.00 Mon-Fri). Within the UK telephone 01392 274686 OR 0207 589 1862. From outside the UK, check that you are telephoning within the GMT times shown. First dial the code used within your country for obtaining an overseas line, followed by 44 1392 274 686. Please understand that whilst we gladly answer telephone queries about availability of books, areas covered by specific titles, etc., we do not accept orders over the telephone - all orders MUST be in writing via mail, fax or our online facility.

E-mail : Our e-mail address is  mail@sunflowerbooks.co.uk
However, we use spam prevention software which removes any messages which include certain words or phrases - we don't even see these e-mails. Occasionally a bona-fide message gets deleted because it includes something that accidentally triggers the spam removal facility. So if you send us an e-mail which expects a reply and you do not receive a reply within 48 hours, your message has probably failed to reach us.
To be sure of your message reaching us, use our secure e-mail option by clicking here.

IMPORTANT Please do NOT send any attachments when e-mailing. Due to the risk of viruses we immediately delete any attachments except when they are from people who are well known to us. Please include anything you wish to send us in the e-mail, but keep e-mails as short as possible - we are inundated with e-mail every day. All proposals for books must be in hard copy form, addressed to our London office. Please do not send proposals by e-mail; they will not be considered.

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