Search results for ""fonthill media""

Flying the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom was a young man's dream but the path from "Civvy Street" to operational on a fighter squadron was long, arduous and beset with obstacles. To succeed meant the chance to fly one of the most iconic combat aircraft that ever took to the air but not every fledgling aviator who began the journey fulfilled their ambition to wear the coveted "Op. badge". "Per Ardua--Training an RAF Phantom Crew" describes how Cold War aircrew assimilated the skills needed to fly and fight the complex fighter jet. It follows the progress through every stage and explains why it cost millions to train each pilot and navigator. Philip Keeble and David Gledhill, both former Phantom aircrew, recount the challenges and the emotions encountered during the rigorous training process in a frank yet light hearted way that will leave you wondering how anyone achieved the goal.

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When most people think of the Italian Army in North Africa during the Second World War, they tend to believe that the average Italian soldier offered little resistance to the Allies before surrendering. Many believe the Italian Army, as a whole, performed in a cowardly manner in North Africa. The reality is not so simple. The question remains as to whether the Italians were really cowards or actually victims of circumstance. While the Italian soldier's commitment to the war was not as great as that of the German soldier, many Italians fought bravely. The Italian Littorio and Ariete Divisions earned Allied admiration at Tobruk, Gazala, and EI Alamein. The Italian Army played a significant role as part of the German Afrika Korps and made up a large portion of the Axis combat power in North Africa during 1941 and 1942. In the interest of determining how the Italian Army earned the reputation that it did, it is necessary to analyze why and how the Italians fought.

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After their initial inception as a schoolboy band named The Scorpions in 1962, and following a number of band name and personnel changes, Status Quo eventually hit the charts in 1968 with the massive hit single `Pictures of Matchstick Men’. However, it wasn’t until they ditched their psychedelic duds and took on the denim, accompanied by a radical gear-shift from teenage-friendly pop to out-and-out electric boogie that they came into their own, defining the rock music genre for many throughout the 1970s. A raft of hugely successful albums followed that are still held in awe by an army of loyal fans; the release of `Piledriver’ in 1972 heralded a purple patch in which twelve consecutive long-players charted in the UK top 10. The classic `Frantic Four’ lineup of Rossi, Parfitt, Lancaster and Coghlan started to disintegrate in 1981 and eventually imploded after Live Aid in 1985. Although Quo have gone on to post over sixty UK chart hits in no less than six separate decades, this publication focuses on those days of glory, song by song from their earliest recordings until the demise of the classic line-up.

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The Italian airship designer and pilot Umberto Nobile had flown to the North Pole and beyond in 1926. He resolved to go back to the Arctic with a new airship in 1928. There were areas of the Arctic that had not been explored and it was believed that new lands might be there to be discovered. The expedition had geographical and scientific aims, but the political environment was also an important motivator. Mussolini and his Fascist party had come to power in 1922 and a successful expedition to the Arctic would be good propaganda. Instead, however, the 'Italia' was to disappear on its return from Greenland, on 25 May 1928. By the time the expedition was over, eight of the crew and nine attempted rescuers were dead and scores more had been put in harm's way. This is the story of the search for Nobile, the 'Italia', and his crew, and the many men from many countries who searched for them.

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In the days when coal was king, an ambitious plan was laid for an east-to-west cross country rail route, connecting the Manchester Ship Canal at Warrington to a new dock near the small east coast village of Sutton-on-Sea. Grandly titled The Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway, history was to show that this line would reach neither Warrington nor Sutton-on-Sea with only the Chesterfield to Pyewipe Junction section and a branch to Sheffield ever being completed. Taken over by the G.C.R. in 1907, the route was primarily a coal-carrying railway, although it did have a passenger service that lasted until 1955. Discover the former LD&ECR, the self-styled 'Dukeries Route' and its branches, through the lenses of photographers from over 100 years. From the main line between Chesterfield and Lincoln, the Beighton Branch, the Sheffield District Railway and the Mansfield Railway, to the motive power depots at Chesterfield, Tuxford and Langwith Junction. This is a photographic journey bringing you the story of the railway from the early days to its final days, including the last coal train to use the route.

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'Many people say that Nick Ardley is a bit of an eccentric, or an anachronism from a simpler age, for the way he sails his clinker sloop around the Thames estuary, wending among the tide-riddled marshes to drop anchor where the fancy takes him, his trusty mate at his side. In this volume, he has a clear unabashed plan: a reflective journey between the Pools of Rochester and London, a path once of commerce, but now pleasure. Rochester was once of immense importance to Britain's past trading richness, but, even if the belching chimneys pouring acrid fumes and cement dust have evaporated, and oil refineries have slipped away; the wharves lining the banks remain alive. As a distraction, he wanders a little above Rochester and then again, a little above the Pool of London towards Richmond. Between, he lands amongst the marsh and mud, finding graves, the ribs of old sailors and farmsteads enveloped in purslane and lavender. Many towns sailed past were part of this heritage, supplying building materials, food and fodder carried by the tan sailed barge to London. Nick Ardley dips and dabbles into these communities and explores how they have metamorphosed.

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'Cuba Cars and Cigars' is full of glorious colour images of the rare and varied Cuban-owned 1950s American and European automobiles, trucks, and station wagons that were imported before 1961. Among the famous Marques that feature are Cadillacs, Chevies, Buick, Dodge, Oldsmobile, Ford, Packard, De Soto, Pontiac, Plymouth, Edsel, Mercury and Metropolitan, Hillman, Singer and Austin, Nash Sedans, a Lloyd 600 German 2-cylinder/4-stroke 596cc car, Ramblers and SAABs, Mercs, Humber, Standard Vanguard, Ford Consul/Zephyr, Hillman Husky and Minx, Singer Gazelle and Austin. Most of these vehicles are still in running order, and are passed down from generation to generation. Trucks include Fords, a Fargo, Dodges and Chevys, not forgetting cigars, street urchins, and the lovely ladies of Havana. All of these are uniquely photographed, written and compiled by 'our man in Havana'.

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This highly detailed, absorbing battlefield guide is the ideal companion for anyone considering exploring the terrain on which the epic battles along the Oderfront were fought between January and April 1945. Using his in-depth knowledge as a historian and battlefield guide, David McCormack vividly describes these last tumultuous weeks of the war on the Eastern Front, which saw the Red Army advance on Berlin in the face of a dogged, yet skilful German defence. Meticulous historical research, including searing eyewitness accounts and the author's intimate knowledge of the ground, have produced a guide that is both comprehensive and accessible. Prepare for a fascinating journey across the Oderfront battlefield as it is today. The Berlin Strategic Operation 1945 Battlefield Guide: Part One - The Battle of the Oder-Neisse is an essential guide to understanding the triumph of the Red Army and the final shattering defeat of the German land forces defending the approaches to Berlin.

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ELO (The Electric Light Orchestra) were devised by Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne of The Move as a fusion of rock and contemporary classical-style music, combining orchestral instruments, guitars, keyboards and drums in the same line-up. Their aim was to continue from where The Beatles' 'I Am The Walrus' left off. After the release of their debut eponymous album in 1971 and a few live dates at home and in Europe, it became increasingly apparent that both leaders' objectives were incompatible. Wood left Lynne in charge of the group to refine their sound, and their ambitious progressive rock epics gradually giving way to a more accessible style. With keyboard player Richard Tandy and drummer Bev Bevan the only other constant members in an ever-changing line-up, by the end of the decade the group were rarely out of the British and American charts. After disbanding in 1986, ELO Part II (minus Lynne) returned for two albums, but Lynne reclaimed the name with an album in 2001 and a long-awaited reappearance as Jeff Lynne's ELO in 2014. This book provides a comprehensive examination of all the group's studio albums.

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Digital photography equipment and software now give enthusiasts the ability to create images of exceptional quality. For those who want to develop their skills and improve their results, this book will show you how to get the best from your digital camera. It will help you create a collection or portfolio to be proud of, and show you how to achieve outstanding results without a huge investment in equipment. This book is a 'how to' guide for railway photographers. Intended for those comfortable with their digital camera, it will show you new techniques to try and the true capabilities of your camera. Using clear examples, you'll learn how to get the best image quality from prevailing conditions, and maximise the impact and creativity of your images. Once back at home in the 'digital darkroom', the book will offer tips and advice on how to use common imaging software. It will show you how to enhance an image, so you can bring out the best results in a creative manner without losing the inspiration or atmosphere of the original shot.

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This book is a companion volume to the authors Women in Ancient Rome, first published in 2013. It provides a much-needed analysis of how women behaved in Greek society, how they were regarded and the various restrictions imposed on their freedoms, movements and actions. Naturally, given that ancient Greece in most of its manifestations was very much a man's world, the majority of books on ancient Greek society even now tend to focus almost exclusively on men; this book redresses the balance by shining the spotlight on that other somewhat neglected or dismissed half: women had a significant role to play in many aspects of Greek society and culture and this book illuminates those roles. Women in Ancient Greece asks the controversial question: how far is the commonly accepted assumption that women were secluded and excluded just an illusion ?It answers the question by extending from the treatment of women in Greek myth, and the role of women in Homer and Hesiod through the playwrights, poets and philosophers to the comparatively liberated and powerful women in Sparta and Macedon until the end of the Hellenistic era; it covers women's lives in ancient Athens, Sparta and in other city states; it examines the role of women in Crete. It describes eminent women writers, philosophers, artists and scientists; it explores love, marriage and adultery, the virtuous and the meretricious, and the key roles women played in Greek death and religion. Crucially, the book is people- based, drawing much of its evidence and many of its conclusions from the lives lived by actual historical Greek women. In short, Women in Ancient Greece provides evidence for the important active role women played in ancient Greece, highlighting the contribution they made to one of the world's most influential and enlightened civilisations.Amongst many other ground-breaking things, the ancient Greeks developed a form of democracy; however, at the same time, to a large extent, they felt it necessary to keep their women secluded, and excluded from public business. This book acknowledges this seclusion and exclusion as inarguable fact, but contends that it is all very much a question of degree: the presumption through centuries of scholarship has been that women were locked in and at the same time locked out; Women in Ancient Greece goes further to question just how illusory this generalisation actually was.

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The book takes an in-depth look at the East Coast Main Line-King's Cross to Edinburgh-between 1939 and 1959. This is carried out in a series of chapters. In the first one a picture is painted of the state of the network in the late 1930s. It is followed by an account of the historical context of the changes on the ECML over the subject years. This includes wartime 1939-1945 and the fortunes of British Railways in the post-war period until the end of the 1950s; then follows an account of passenger services on the ECML in the summer of 1939 and in the war and changes thereafter. Towards the end of the book there are smaller chapters of specific interest. Amongst these are military and other government installations served by the ECML during WWII; specific wartime locomotive workings; the impact of war on the ECML at various locations along the line; accidents on the ECML September-December 1959 and snow and floods on the ECML in the 1940s and 1950s. The period covered is a crucial one in the history of the line and it is presented in an erudite yet readable manner.

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James VI & I, the namesake of the King James Version of the Bible, had a series of notorious male favourites. No one denies that these relationships were amorous, but were they sexual? Michael B. Young merges political history with recent scholarship in the history of sexuality to answer that question. More broadly, he shows that James's favourites had a negative impact within the royal family, at court, in Parliament, and in the nation at large. Contemporaries raised the spectre of a sodomitical court and an effeminized nation; some urged James to engage in a more virile foreign policy by embarking on war. Queen Anne encouraged a martial spirit and moulded her oldest son to be more manly than his father. Repercussions continued after James's death, detracting from the majesty of the monarchy and contributing to the outbreak of the Civil War. Persons acquainted with the history of sexuality will find surprising premonitions here of modern homosexuality and homophobia. General readers will find a world of political intrigue coloured by sodomy, pederasty, and gender instability. For readers new to the subject, the book begins with a helpful overview of King James's life.

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Pathan Rising tells the story of the large-scale tribal unrest that erupted along the North West Frontier of India in the late 1890s; a short but sharp period of violence that was initiated by the Pathan tribesmen against the British. Although the exact causes of the unrest remain unclear, it was likely the result of tribal resentment towards the establishment of the Durand Line and British 'forward policy', during the last echoes of the 'Great Game', that led the proud tribesmen to take up arms on an unprecedented scale. This resentment was brought to boiling point by a number of fanatical religious leaders, such as the Mad Fakir and the Hadda Mullah, who visited the various Pathan tribes calling for jihad. By the time the risings ended, eleven Victoria Crosses would be awarded to British troops, which hints at the ferocity and level of bitterness of the fighting. Indeed, although not eligible for the VC in 1897, many Indian soldiers would also receive high-level decorations in recognition of their bravery. It would be one of the greatest challenges to British authority in Asia during the Victorian era.

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The massacre and destruction of Civitella on 29 June, 1944 by the 1st Fallschirm Panzer Division 'Herman Goring' as reprisal for the shooting of three German soldiers in the village Dopolavoro-after work social club, left women widows and children fatherless. The book describes the journey of Captain John Percival Morgan and Father Clement O'Shea with the Eighth Army in Italy, to that hilltop village in Tuscany. Even though they had seen much death and destruction during their service in North Africa and Italy, they were moved by the plight of this small community. The two British officers adopted the village, and over a five-month period, regularly brought life-saving supplies and comfort to the women and children. The village organised a farewell Christmas party that survivors still remember today, treasuring gifts they received from their 'Santa in a truck'. Thanks to Keith Morgan, Captain Morgan's son, discovering Civitella in 1997, while retracing his father's wartime journey, this part of Civitella's history would have gone unrecorded and forgotten. In 2001, the village commemorated the work of this father and friends in the naming of a street Costa Capitano John Percival Morgan. A son found his father; a town its hero.

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`Belfast Transport’ is the story of public transport in Belfast from the horse buses of the 1860s to the Metro buses which were introduced in 2005. It is a fascinating story encompassing the change from horse buses to horse trams; the introduction of motor buses; 30 years of the trolleybuses; the closure of the tramways in the early 1950s; the closure of the trolleybus system in the late 1960s and the total dependence on diesel buses for intra-urban transport in Belfast. The story is told mainly through pictures with extended captions, describing not only the vehicles themselves but also their physical and social contexts. It covers the period of civil disturbances euphemistically known as `The Troubles’ from 1969 during which the Belfast Corporation and its successor Citybus lost members of staff, hundreds of vehicles and millions of pounds. It covers managers from the charismatic Andrew Nance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to the equally charismatic Werner Heubeck in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Different men; different methods but with the same purpose; to provide that best transport that they could in the climate in which they operated.

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Thunderbolt to War gives a remarkable insight into the structure and operations of a leading USAAF Fighter Squadron in England during the Second World War, together with personal thoughts and feelings of skilled fighter pilot, Clint Sperry. The 353rd Fighter Group was a rarely celebrated 'workhorse' of Eighth Fighter Command, but names of some of its charismatic leaders still resonate today. The 18-victory ace Walter Beckham and aggressive Glenn E. Duncan were among those who led Clint to war. He and his colleagues faced many frustrating and perilous experiences; encountering enemy fighters and flak and also treacherous weather and mechanical problems in the bloody battles over Europe. To survive was a lottery, but those with previous flying hours before entering service had the advantage of experience. Clint's successes and traumas are highlighted to give a true picture of a fighter pilot's war. He flew 106 missions in the P47 Thunderbolt, was awarded 3 DFCs, and credited with destroying or probably destroying five enemy aircraft as well as many targets on the ground by strafing and bombing.

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Kaiser Friedrich III and his consort Victoria, Princess Royal of Great Britain, had six children who lived to maturity, the eldest being Kaiser Wilhelm II. The three younger sisters, Victoria, Sophie and Margaret, were particularly supportive of their mother during her widowhood and remained close throughout their lives. Like their parents, they would know much sorrow as adults. Victoria's romance with Alexander of Battenberg, Prince of Bulgaria, was thwarted by Bismarck for political reasons and she married twice, firstly to a minor German prince and secondly to a young Russian adventurer who left her to die in poverty. Sophie married the future King Constantine of Greece, whose ill-starred reign saw them forced to leave their throne not once but twice, both dying in exile. Margaret married a prince of Hesse-Cassel, both became members of the Nazi party, and she lived to see her family and house become victims of theft on a major scale at the hands of occupying forces at the end of the Second World War. Using previously unpublished sources, this is the first biography to tell the lives of all three princesses.

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Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Daniel Reid was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. His body was never recovered; however, there is nothing singular about that. What is remarkable is that his eloquent journal has survived untouched for 100 years. The context for Alexander Daniel Reid's contemporary account of the Great War are provided partly by the memoirs of his brother, Harry, who was the transport officer in the same battalion, and partly from historical research. Although it is essentially a biography of two Scottish-born brothers in an Irish battalion on the Western Front, Harvest of Battle: Brother Officers of the 7th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the First World War is unique in that it reaches to the corners of the Empire and tells of conflicts from German South-West Africa to the Rand Rebellion of 1922. Alexander Daniel Reid was a professional soldier and served with the Indian Army before migrating to Canada. Harry began a career working for one of the wealthiest mining magnates in Johannesburg. Both knew that their chances of survival in the 'Fighting Seventh' Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers were slim. Theirs is a narrative common enough to serve as a general introduction to the First World War for a new generation of readers, yet it contains valuable new material to add to the historical record in this Centenary year of the outbreak of war.

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Bryan Wild joined the RAF in 1940, a raw recruit not long out of school. Over the next five years, he flew fourteen different types of aircraft and saw action over Britain, North Africa, the Mediterranean and Germany. His memoirs capture the daily life of this everyman of RAF pilots: the thrill of flying and experiencing a new aircraft for the first time; the frisson of night flying in the early days when planes were not equipped with inboard radar; the tedium of hanging around with nothing to do contrasting with the intensity and urgency of action; and deep comradeships and the devastating loss of friends in combat. Wild started the war with nine lives and ended up with just the one. He had close shaves with death in action, but also freak accidents such as radio breakdown in fog over the Welsh mountains, an undercarriage stick that broke off in his hand and a runway collision with an errant cook wagon. Flying Blind: The Story of a Second World War Night-Fighter Pilot portrays the flavour of wartime RAF life as much as one pilot's journey from boyhood to manhood.

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During the 1950s, Chris Helme was often asked by relatives: 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' A policeman was always his answer. A child of the Fifties, he was brought up to respect the local police who seemed to know everyone. Suffering from colour blindness and short of a few O-Levels, Helme was finally accepted to serve in Leeds City police; however, he joined the police in Bradford a year later. By 1975, he was in the West Yorkshire Police achieving his life's ambition by serving his hometown of Brighouse and was the local policeman on the same housing estates that he grew up on. All in a Day's Work: 30 Years as Brighouse Bobby is his journey to achieving that ambition culminating with being awarded the British Empire Medal for services to his community in 1990. A local bobby had to deal with everything that happened on his 'patch'. This book takes the reader through a catalogue of sad, humorous, and almost unbelievable incidents in the life of a local policeman.

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Early in 1945 the British Liberation Army (BLA), who had battled their way from the Normandy beaches to the borders of Germany, embarked on Operation Eclipse. This was the 'end-game' of the Second World War, the unique military campaign to invade and conquer Hitler's Third Reich and liberate 20 million enslaved nationals from Holland, Denmark and Norway; to free multitudes of displaced persons (DPs) or slaves; and inter alia to free the survivors of twenty concentration camps and many Allied POW camps. The Allied Military Government (AMG) brought law and order to 23 million German nationals in the allocated British zone of occupation (BAOR) and appropriate retribution too. A thrilling race with Stalin's Red Army ensued to reach the Baltic. A matter of a few hours and Denmark and Norway would have been swept into the evil Soviet empire. The author fought vigorously as a junior RHA officer in the five great river battles - Rhine, Dortmund-Ems, Weser, Aller and the Elbe. Soon after VE Day he was the junior officer in War Crimes Tribunals in Hamburg and Oldenburg and witnessed Mr Alfred Pierrepoint administering the hanging of prison camp guards.

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Prince Alfred, who was created Duke of Edinburgh in 1866 and became Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha in 1893, was the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. A patron of the arts, pioneer philatelist and amateur violinist, he joined the Royal Navy as a boy and rose to become Admiral of the Fleet. At the age of 18 he was elected King of Greece by overwhelming popular vote in a plebiscite, although political agreements between the Great Powers of Europe prevented him from accepting the vacant crown. The most widely travelled member of his family, he had visited all five continents by the age of 27, and while on a tour of Australia in 1868 he narrowly escaped assassination at the hands of a Fenian sympathiser. Married to Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, the only surviving daughter of Tsar Alexander II, at one stage he had to face the possibility that he might be required to fight on behalf of the British empire against that of his father-in-law. His last years were overshadowed by marital difficulties, alcoholism and ill-health, and the suicide of his only son and heir.

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No English king has suffered wider fluctuations of reputation than Richard III, perhaps the most controversial ruler England has ever had. Vilified by critics as a ruthless master of intrigue and a callous murderer, he has been no less extravagantly praised by defenders of his reputation against Tudor and Shakespearian charges of tyranny. Richard III: From Contemporary Chronicles, Letters and Records, by its presentation of contemporary and near contemporary sources, enables the reader to get behind the mythology and gain a more realistic picture of the king. An invaluable collection of the primary sources presented clearly and concisely, it demonstrates just why Richard has remained an enigma for so long. Established as an essential part of the literature on Richard III since its first publication under the title Richard III: A Reader in History, this new edition has been completely revised and considerably expanded to offer an indispensable source book for historians, students and the general reader. Also, this up to date edition includes a chapter in relation to the exciting discovery of Richard III's skeleton that was found under a car park in Leicester. The Genesis of this book came from a summary guide produced by Keith Dockray for all of his second year undergraduate students. Upon this foundation has been built an accessible and enjoyable history of this fascinating king, as seen by those who knew him at the time, or who were living shortly after his untimely death at Bosworth Field.

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During the Second World War, the RAF employed Special Duties pilots and aircrew on operations across a wide range of extraordinary and daredevil missions. In many instances, specially selected and trained crews flew specific sorties, seeking out small targets of utmost importance to the war effort. A number of these operations were filmed by cameramen and RAF Special Duties: A Collection of Exclusive Operational Flying Sorties by the Royal Air Force enables their stories to be told for the first time. The various exploits in this exceptionally well-researched and gripping book are supported, in many instances, by 'Flying Logbooks' and other materials stemming directly from the pilots themselves. These men were true originals - undertaking hugely dangerous missions against the odds, and often operating as individual aircraft in completely unknown conditions.Accounts in the book include:Cameramen flying on special raids to film precise low level Mosquito sorties, including on the Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen; A Mosquito pilot flying a single aircraft into Germany to cause disruption by setting off air raid sirens; A Stirling pilot flying with radar-jamming equipment to disguise the D-Day invasion; Mosquito pilots attacking targets identified by British SAS units in France; Experience as a wireless operator flying in Churchill's personal aircraft; Dropping supplies over Burma

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As we recall the recent forty-fifth anniversary of the end of steam working on British Rail, Steam North West is a fascinating journey along the West Coast mainline from Crewe to Carlisle, also visiting a number of lines which made a junction with this vital railway artery. Set in the final two years of steam working in North West England, we call in at well known places such as Preston and some less well known like Heysham and Barrow. Also included are visits to the last remaining steam sheds and infrastructure of the steam railway. Views range from the industrial and suburban scene to the beauty of the Northern Fells. Steam North West concludes with a look at the very end of steam working on British Rail in August 1968 with the very last workings recalled with a final tribute to the steam era by night. Many memories are remembered with a wealth of colour material, mostly previously unpublished and nearly all taken from the author's private collection.

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Life and Death in Bomber Command is an intimate account of the human cost of the bombing offensive against Nazi Germany and targets in occupied Europe. The story of Lancaster rear gunner W/O Sidney Knott, DFC, unfolds within a detailed assessment of the bomber war by author Tony Redding. Sidney Knott survived sixty-four operations. The first tour, beginning in January 1943, included many 'Battle of the Ruhr' targets. His aircraft attacked Duisburg five times and Essen on three occasions. They also participated in three raids on Berlin. In April 1944, Knott began a second tour as a Pathfinder. Another thirty-five operations included attacks on German cities, but the focus was the assault on V1 and V2 sites and French rail targets prior to D-Day and the Normandy landings. This unique combination of dramatic narrative and strategic overview includes controversial views about post-war perspectives on the morality of area bombing and its contribution to victory in Europe. It is a moving account of squadron life and describes how every individual lived with unspoken fears. The story is complete as it also portrays how former aircrew struggled to set aside traumatic wartime experiences and adjust to life on 'civvy street'.

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Meopham Changing Places is a collection of old photographs of the village of Meopham in Kent, with historical comment, accompanied by matching contemporary photographs of the same sites and buildings. This book will take its place in the Changing Places series which shows the changes bovver the years in English villages. It is based on the Meopham in Old Picture Postcards book published in 1986 and produced by our local historian and past president of the Meopham Historical Society Jim Carley. As Meopham is such a historic village, this new production has attempted to extend the range of the original work, but with the addition of matching present day photographs, contrasts are certainly striking. Likewise we see how faces differ over the passing decades.

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Air Commodore Pink chose RAF Manston as his final resting place and a number of aces from the First World War such as Squadron Leader Bartlett served there. After the uncertainty of the 1920s, RAF Manston grew rapidly during the 1930s to become one of the busiest airfields in the country. The School of Technical Training was at the forefront of the RAF where thousands of airmen trained each year and it was an integral part of the service's expansion scheme. Empire Air Days and air races became regular events during the 1930s and when Ramsgate Municipal Airport opened, RAF Manston had to compete with it to stage them. 48 Squadron was formed at Manston in 1936 with the Avro Anson and it was the RAF's first monoplane to have a retractable undercarriage. On the outbreak of war, various fighter squadrons operated from Manston and being the airfield closest to France, its squadrons proudly played a leading role in the evacuation of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain.

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Paul Lunney has been a devoted follower of Scottish football creating a vast archive of images and anecdotes. In this book he weaves a wonderful tapestry of imagery of players who have done so much for the club in its 124-year history. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 43 occasions, most recently in the 2011-12 season, the Scottish Cup 35 times and the Scottish League Cup 14 times. In 1967 Celtic won an unprecedented quintuple: not only becoming the first British team to win the European Cup but also winning the Scottish League Championship, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, and the Glasgow Cup. Celtic also reached the 1970 European Cup Final, and the 2003 UEFA Cup Final. This book encapsulates some of the glory by featuring star players down the ages.

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The pictures in this book were chosen from the many hundreds of 35mm colour slides Bill Reed took on and off the route stretching from London to Aberdeen. Station scenes, views on works and in sheds are featured. They roughly cover a period from 1951 to 1967 and depict the last gasp of steam before the introduction of diesels. As if on some imaginary journey, the book begins at King's Cross station wanders over to Liverpool Street steps into Great Eastern country then meanders north to finish at Aberdeen. It is noticeable that Bill has depicted marvellously the post WWII atmosphere on the railways when steam was on its last legs; the vast majority of the locomotives are in a very grimy condition and a number are seen on the scrap line. There is also evidence of how complicated and labour intensive it was to run a steam engine the vast coal hoppers and water tanks are examples to this submission. Looking back now at the 1950s and 1960s, Bill says he would have taken many more pictures of steam locomotives. But that is no matter, he has taken enough to give us more than a hint of what it was like in those last days.

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On 19 May 1928, just three months after the sport had been launched in this country at the pioneering High Beech meeting, Fred Mockford and Cecil Smith introduced speedway racing to Crystal Palace with the first international match between England and Australia, the forerunner of the Test matches. It was an immediate success with the public who flocked in their tens of thousands to witness these latter day black-clad gladiators hurtling their way round the track on bikes with no brakes at breakneck speed and flinging their bikes into a slide at the corners at impossible angles. This book looks at how speedway came to open at Crystal Palace and follows its history through the next six years as a league team operating in the world's first speedway league until its closure in 1933 and its brief revival in the late 1930s. Although one of the pioneering tracks little was known about its history until now as Norman Jacobs provides a comprehensive history covering the major events at the track, facts and figures, behind the scenes anecdotes and its larger than life characters including Johnnie Hoskins, Ron Johnson and Tom Farndon, who became the Star Riders' champion in 1933.

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Writing under the pseudonym Neil Gordon, A. G. Macdonell wrote several crime and thriller novels. In the classic genre of '20s and '30s crime fiction, Macdonell managed to introduce a different element, unusual twists that keep the reader captivated and anxious to discover what came next. Silent Murders begins with murder of an elderly tramp on the road between King's Langley and Berkhampstead. Nobody really knows who the tramp was or what his background was. To his gentlemen-of-the-road peers he was known as 'Stuck-up Sam'. The only unusual aspect of the crime was a square of cardboard tied to the last surviving button of the tramp's ragged overcoat and on which was written the word 'Three.' The next victim could not have been different; for the gentleman silently shot through the open window of a taxi, stationery in traffic, was Mr Aloysius Skinner, Chairman of the Imperial Cochineal Company. A clue, for what it was worth, was a piece of white cardboard on which was printed in ink the single word 'Four', presumably thrown through the open window by the murderer. Another murder took place at a quiet family tennis party in suburbia, with the host's elder brother being the unfortunate victim of the bullet. The police assumed the bullet was intended for the host, Mr Henry Maddock, a gentleman of great wealth with a dubious background in Africa from where poverty had changed with peculiar suddenness to riches. But with skill, ingenious twists, and a fast moving story-line, a tale is woven to show that not all was what it seemed...New Introduction by Alan Sutton

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Wilhelm II (27 January 1859 - 4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe, three notable contemporary relations being his first cousins King George V of the United Kingdom, Marie of Romania, Queen consort of Romania and second cousin to Tsar Nicholas II of the House of Romanov, the last ruler of the Russian Empire before the Russian Revolution of 1917 which deposed the monarchy.He became monarch in 1888 and ruled in peace for twenty-five years. Wilhelm's father had been the hero of three wars and his mother the Princess Royal of Great Britain. When his father died prematurely of throat cancer, Wilhelm succeeded him at age twenty-nine and became the icon of the new 'Wilhelminian' age. Germany excelled in commerce, agriculture, trade, science, cars, the arts, and medicine. Already having Continental Europe's greatest army, Wilhelm set about winning world power via overseas colonies and the building of a vast Imperial High Seas Fleet that rivalled Britain's.Eventually, he was defeated by the combined forces of the UK, US, France and Russia, and driven into exile by the red revolution. He remained politically active in exile, pressing for a return to the monarchy up to the time of his death in 1941.This is a fresh look at a much maligned figure, including his relationships with Bismarck, Hindenburg, Tirpitz, King Edward VII and Tsar Nicholas II, all on the precipice of global change. Was Wilhelm a visionary, a fool, or both?

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From 1967-1971, Stuart Steinberg served in the U.S. Army as an explosive ordnance disposal specialist. In January 1968, he was sent to Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, where chemical and biological weaponry was stockpiled, staying there until July 1968. Steinberg was involved in helping to clean up the worst nerve gas disaster in American history on March 13, 1968. As a result, he volunteered to serve in Vietnam from September 4, 1968 to March 24, 1970. This is What Hell Looks Like explores the difficult and traumatic situations faced by Steinberg and his teammates across their time in Vietnam. This volume also examines the causes and consequences of post-traumatic stress disorder though Steinberg's honest account of his experiences, including his subsequent addiction to prescription painkillers. Documenting Steinberg's personal journey through "Hell," his account casts further light on life during the Vietnam War.

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The Coupe d'Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider (commonly called the Schneider Trophy, or prize or cup) was a prize competition for seaplanes. Announced by Jacques Schneider, a financier, balloonist and aircraft enthusiast, in 1911, it offered a prize of roughly GBP1,000. The race was held eleven times between 1913 and 1931. It was meant to encourage technical advances in civil aviation but became a contest for pure speed with laps over a triangular course (initially 280 km, later 350 km). The races were very popular and some attracted crowds of over 200,000 spectators. Since 1977 the trophy has been on display at the Science Museum in London. The race was very significant in advancing aeroplane design, particularly in the fields of aerodynamics and engine design, and would show its results in the best fighters of WW2. The streamlined shape and the low drag, liquid-cooled engine pioneered by Schneider Trophy designs are obvious in the British Supermarine Spitfire, the American P-51 Mustang, and the Italian Macchi C.202 Folgore. This book is a history of the 100+ different aircraft types designed to contest for the Schneider Trophy from its inception in 1912 through to the final post-script in 1934. The narrative covers the political dynamics of the contests, the rivalries and the partnerships that led to the development of these aircraft. Each aircraft and engine is described along with the story of their construction and testing. The core of the book is a set of detailed 1:72 scale 3-view drawings and photographs from the author's personal collection, most of which have not been published previously. The text and drawings draw upon the author's comprehensive library of drawings, photographs, blueprints, reports, books and magazines on the subject and contain much new information. The majority of these aircraft, including some of the better known types, have been served poorly in the past in terms of availability of drawings. The book will appeal both to readers with a casual interest in the Schneider Trophy and to those seeking a comprehensive source of information on the subject. It will be of particular use to aircraft modellers. At present there are no books in print on the subject of the Schneider Trophy, the most recent in English was published in 2000. The majority of the more recent books date from 1981, the 50th anniversary of the final contest.

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This collection of stories shows passenger liners, large and small as well as famous and obscure, through the eyes of officers & crew, with tales of the great Cunarders, P&O, Holland America & Union Castle liners, providing added insight, understanding, and even color to these liners of another age. It is a voyage along maritime memory lane.

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U2 formed in 1976 and over forty years later are one of the most successful rock bands of all time releasing fourteen albums and over seventy singles. U2: Song by Song examines every song from the band's first album in 1980 to the 2021 single Your Song Saved My Life, including hits and lesser-known album tracks, written by a lifelong U2 fan.

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In February 1942, six Swordfish armed with torpedoes encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire in the English Channel and were shot down but not before two torpedoes were launched at a German battleship sailing at high speed. This attack was part of a wider British effort to stop the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau from making their way back to Germany. The Scharnhorst is one of the most famous capital ships to have served with the Kriegsmarine. Yet she and her sister ship Gneisenau have been largely overshadowed by the Bismarck and Tirpitz, despite the fact that they played a more proactive role in the Second World War and were Germany's most successful battleships. This book provides an authoritative and informative look at the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the first capital ships of the Kriegsmarine, from their conception through the first successful years of the Second World War to their respective losses. This is a detailed account of naval warfare against the Royal Navy off the coast of Norway and the war against Allied commerce from the German perspective.

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The Macchi C.202 was probably the most successful Italian fighter during the Second World War. It is generally agreed that the performance of the Macchi was superior to both the Hawker Hurricane and the Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk and on a par with the Supermarine Spitfire Mk. V. It is not by chance that virtually all the Italian top scoring aces flew this plane either with the Regia Aeronautica or the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana. At the same time, the Mc.202 is the symbol of the dysfunctions in the Italian military-industrial complex: the lack of sound industrial planning resulting in orders from the Regia Aeronautica for an exaggerated number of different aircraft; the lack of the development of adequate engines limiting aircraft performance and reducing capacity to house weapons with a proper punch; the corruption of politics and the culpable connivance of the high military spheres. The Mc.202 was therefore produced in limited numbers, while there is consensus that air war, especially in the African theatre, would have been different had the aircraft been adopted before.

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A photographic journey of the ever changing railway scene of southern England stretching from Cornwall to the Kent Coast, served from 1953 to the present day by the Southern Region and its successors. When our story begins steam west of the Portsmouth man line still reigns supreme whilst much of the rest of the network is served by Southern Electric. Many of the trains at work in 1953 were of pre-1939 origin, some even dating back to the first decade of the 20th century, although the influence of Oliver Bullied's revolutionary semi-streamline pacifics and high capacity suburban electric multiple units pointed to the future. By 1967 diesel would replace steam, and electrification would spread, whilst many less well used lines in Hampshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall would close. Electrification had begun in the London area in the early 1900s, expanding to the Kent, Sussex and east Hampshire coasts, in the process creating the greatest main line electrified system in the world: this would continue down to today.

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During the Second World War, thousands of young men volunteered for service with the Royal Air Force. Some of these became fighter pilots, but a great many more were destined to be trained as members of bomber aircrew; pilots, navigators, wireless operators, bomb aimers, air gunners and flight engineers. On completion of their training a number of these men were posted to XV Squadron, a highly regarded frontline bomb squadron which had been formed during the First World War. Bomber Squadron -Men Who Flew with XV relates the personal stories of a small number of these men, giving an insight to their anxious moments when flying on operational sorties, staring death in the face in the form of enemy night-fighters and ground fire, and relaxing with them during their off-duty hours. The book also reveals the motivations, emotions and personal attitudes of these men, who flew into combat on an almost nightly basis. Their stories encompass the whole six years of the war, over which period XV Squadron flew a range of different bomber aircraft including Fairey Battles, Bristol Blenheims, Vickers Wellingtons, Short Stirlings and Avro Lancasters.

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This is the dramatic, often erratic, and at times unbelievable story of the fortunes and misfortunes over 900 years to the present day of one of England’s premier aristocratic families, who in 1661 were given the Earldom of Essex by Charles II. This fascinating, previously untold story begins just after the Norman Conquest with a Hugh Capel in AD 1100 and ends at the present day, with Frederick Paul de Vere Capell, 11th Earl of Essex and the future heir presumptive, William Jennings Capell, a former shelf stacker, who lives in Yuba City, California. Over a period of 400 years the Capell family built a fortune, and over the next 500 years lost it due to an incredible number of mistakes bad judgment calls, and misfortunes. Lord Arthur Capel, one of England’s richest men, changed sides from Parliament to support Charles I, and after a further series of poor decisions, was executed at Palace Yard, Westminster at the age of 41 in 1649 by the same executioner, using the same axe as had executed King Charles I barely three months earlier. His son, also Arthur Capel, created 1st Earl of Essex by Charles II became involved in a plot against the king, and was mysteriously found with his throat cut whilst awaiting trial in the Tower of London. Did he commit suicide to avoid the consequences of treason and to save the estates and titles for his son? Conspiracy theories abounded. The king commented sadly that he owed the Earl’s father had died for his father, and he owed him a life and would have spared him. Arthur’s young son became the 3rd Earl and went down in history as `the most debauched young man in London.’ The long-lived 5th Earl had numerous mistresses and, as a close friend of the debauched Prince Regent, shared a well-known courtesan, Mrs Robinson with the Prince. Unhappily married, with no legitimate male heir, living at the family seat, Cassiobury in Watford, at the age of 81 he married secondly a 44-year-old actress and died shortly afterwards, accompanied to the grave by some very irreverent press comments. The three-times-married 6th Earl, whose father was a bankrupt debauched gambler, had an illegitimate son, George Ingerfield Capel, who had an illegitimate daughter who was the mistress of the `Sundance Kid.’ The 7th Earl, in 1892 struggling to keep Cassiobury and the family fortunes together married a title-hunting American heiress, Adele Beach Grant, who was not really an heiress, and who became a member of the Edwardian `fast set’. Her alcoholic husband, known as `sulky’ stepped in front of a cab outside his London club in 1916 and was killed. Adele was found mysteriously dead in the bath in 1922. Her step-son the 8th Earl had eloped with and married young, and by the 1920s the extensive family estates had to be sold. The much-married 9th Earl died heirless in Bermuda in 1966. A contest broke out over whom should now inherit the titles. Robert Edward de Vere Capel, the next Earl, born in 1920 was the son of a railway parcel porter and was a Royal Air Force flight sergeant during the Second World War. He fought a dramatic battle to prove his right to the Earldom. His son, Frederick Paul de Vere Capell, the 11th Earl of Essex, who lives modestly not far from Lancaster, is a retired assistant schoolmaster and a classical music devotee. He has no children and unless the inheritance laws change, the title will one day go to his American cousins in Yuba City, California.

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A unique book showing Cambridge in the late 1960s from different angles. Striking, previously unpublished photographs show famous buildings as well as the river and backstreets and some of the small towns, villages and countryside nearby. Students and distinguished members of staff are here, with builders, shoppers in the market, and men from the gasworks. This was a time of 'demos', protests and disruption to established, maybe complacent, academic traditions. The author draws on archive sources to illustrate 'official' concerns at that time with, for example, major worries about overreactions triggering widespread unrest. However, he also draws on personal recollections as a Cambridge student, together with anecdotes from others and further archive material to suggest that most students were far more interested in the quality of meals they were served, and the state of the showers. Cambridge students from any generation, and anyone else who knows the city, will find themselves entertained and challenged. But the book's appeal goes further: there are amusing reflections on moving from the north of England to Cambridge almost half a half century ago, and on student life in post-war Britain; the eye-catching photographs will have widespread appeal.

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Evelina van Millingen Pisani was a modern woman in the age of Queen Victoria. She was born in Constantinople in 1831 to an eccentric French mother and an English father, who was a doctor accused of having murdered Lord Byron. Educated in Papal Rome until the age of eighteen, she was whisked back to Constantinople by her father, now working for the sultan. While visiting Venice, this striking beauty of twenty-two met and married the wealthy Count Pisani. Evelina became an exotic star in the firmament of wealthy American and English socialites, artists, and writers, for whom the artistic decadence of Venice was an antidote to the factories, materialism, and homophobic laws they saw at home. In her circle of friends were Isabella Stewart Gardner and an admiring Henry James. When her husband died after twenty-seven years of marriage, the grieving countess unexpectedly found herself saddled with his mortgage debts. Inheriting the vast but rundown Pisani estate in the misty flatlands near Padua, Evelina took full charge. Becoming a hands-on farmer, she restored swampland, built an English garden, and created a model farm for hundreds of tenant farmers. Through it all, she remained a pillar in the admiring Venetian set.

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The New Kingdom of Egypt marks the apogee of military organisation and preparedness. Beginning the era under foreign occupation, the Egyptians built up an army to challenge the invaders and liberate their land. Using the newest battlefield technologies (bows, chariots and hand weapons) the new pharaohs pushed the frontiers of the New Kingdom into Syria and Ethiopia. This is the era of Set I, Ramses II and Thuthmoses III, the greatest military pharaohs in Egyptian history. This book narrates this incredible rise to power and then describes in detail the way in which the Egyptian war machine was structured, how it was supplied, and how it fought. It considers all aspects, some often neglected, such as campaign tents, logistics and rations, as well as the design of hand weapons and bows. Many pieces of kit have been reconstructed for the book, giving the reader a very immediate sense of what an Egyptian warrior's equipment looked like. --

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The Fairey Battle is best known for being one of the worst aircraft ever to serve in the Royal Air Force. On operations, it suffered the highest loss rate of any plane in the RAF's history, and the missions flown by its brave crews became a byword for hopelessness and futility. Born out of muddled thinking, condemned before it even reached the squadrons, and abandoned after the briefest of operational careers, the plane seems to thoroughly deserve its reputation. But was the Battle so useless? Why did it suffer such terrible losses? Was there nothing that could have been done to prevent the disasters of 1940? A fresh look at the documents of the time suggest there was. They reveal a very different story of ignored recommendations and missed opportunities. It was the way the plane was used rather than fundamental flaws in the design that ensured its operational career was such a dismal failure. It might even be argued that, in the desperate days of the summer of 1940, the Fairey Battle was exactly what Britain needed.

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