Search results for ""Author David Cooke""

Throughout recorded history Yorkshire has been a setting for warfare of all kinds - marches, skirmishes and raids, pitched battles and sieges. And it is the sieges of the Civil War period - which often receive less attention than other forms of combat - that are the focus of David Cooke's new history. Hull, York, Pontefract, Knaresborough, Sandal, Scarborough, Helmsley, Bolton, Skipton - all witnessed notable sieges during the bloody uncertain years of the Civil Wars. His vivid reconstructions allow the reader to visit the castles and towns where sieges took place and stand on the ground where blood was spilt for the cause - for king or Parliament. Using contemporary accounts and a wealth of maps and illustrations, his book allows the reader to follow the course of each siege and sets each operation in the context of the Civil Wars in the North.

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Yorkshire's past is replete with bloody battles and sieges. From the earliest times armies have marched across the Yorkshire countryside and have fought for control of the land, the towns and the cities. Roman, Viking, Norman and the Scottish invaders have all contributed ruthless episodes to the story. Christian fought pagan, Englishman fought foreign invader, and loyalist fought rebel, in some of the most destructive battles of British history. And bitter internal conflicts, which set neighbour against neighbour, created an equally violent heritage as rival lords and landowners contended for power and influence in the north. David Cooke gives a vivid description of the outbreaks of warfare that have punctuated the county's history. Using graphic contemporary accounts and numerous illustrations and maps, he creates a vivid narrative of a county that was a battleground until modern times.

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In the title poem to Sicilian Elephants, his most wide-ranging and ambitious collection to date, David Cooke imagines the short-lived paradise achieved by those miniature elephants whose bones have been found on the island. In poems gathered here he explores notions of home and the way humans aspire to define their space and achieve a life of ease. Starting out from familiar domestic settings, he explores the rituals of DIY and gardening. However, the inevitable tensions between us and our environment and the ways that human achievement is subject to time are further explored in new and startling situations as when in a poem about heaven, the quest for a spiritual homeland is set against territorial conflict. With Sicilian Elephants, in words from the Poetry Book Society Bulletin: 'Cooke's lyrical insight and precision make the personal universal.'

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Dinky Toys were introduced in 1931 and these diecast metal toys became bestsellers. More than 1000 different subjects were modelled, mostly transport related.

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Although the name Corgi Toys was not introduced until 1955, the roots of the original holding company, Mettoy, go back to 1932 when a German toymaker called Philipp Ullmann arrived in Britain to form a new toy manufacturing company. This company produced many types of toys, both before and after the Second World War, mainly in tinplate. In the 1950s Mettoy began to produce diecast metal toys and hence, in 1956 the first Corgi Toys were released to the children''s toy market and proved an immediate success. Over the next 30 years hundreds of miniature vehicles would be modeled on contemporary vehicles such as Vauxhalls, Rileys, Hillmans, Standards, Commers and ERFs. Corgi also made daring and successful ventures into film-and-TV related toys with their versions of James Bond, The Saint and Batmobile cars selling millions. Life-long collector David Cooke explores the history of Corgi Toys, describing the various models and illustrating how these simple children''s toys became

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Kampfgruppe Peiper formed the spearhead of the German drive on the Meuse during the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944 and fought one of the most famous actions of the Second World War. Its story is told, day-by-day, using contemporary accounts. A wealth of maps and contemporary and modern photographs allow the reader to follow the course of the action, and a full battlefield tour is provided

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