Search results for ""the history press ltd""

At the forefront of innovation and development in the rail world, the Southern Railway was the only main-line railway to embrace electrification wholeheartedly, creating what was at the time the world’s largest electric suburban network. It was also the only railway to use passenger train ferries, allowing its sleeping car service between London and Paris to operate as a true through service, and its ‘Golden Arrow’ all-Pullman day express even had its own luxury Channel ferry. These achievements would have been noteworthy at any time, but were set against the challenging background of worldwide depression. With the aid of stunning colour photographs, The Southern Railway Story explores this remarkable passenger-traffic-driven railway from its commuter trains, via its international express railway, to its role as a holiday railway serving many of the most popular seaside resorts.

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The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber, universally known as the ‘Wimpy’. The only bomber in construction throughout the Second World War, the Wellington played a pivotal role in training and combat from its conception in the 1930s, through active service in the Far Eastern, Mediterranean and German arenas of conflict, until its final use by the RAF in 1953. This book follows the fascinating story of the much-loved and innovatively designed Wellington throughout its life, including many tales from the aircraft’s years with Bomber Command. Illustrated with a wide selection of images, both colour and black and white, this book is a fitting tribute to a wonderful servant of the RAF.

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Nymans forms one of a group of gardens in the Sussex Weald which were created before the First World War and are still beautiful today, their owners sharing a passion for new material brought back from all over the world by intrepid plant hunters. Ludwig Messel bought Nymans in 1890 and, with his head gardener, James Comber, began extensive planting of exotics, determined to prove that many supposedly tender plants could grow outdoors in Sussex. After 1915, his son, Leonard, carried on planting and raising new hybrids. In 1954 the garden was bequeathed to the National Trust. This historic garden is undoubtedly one of our national treasures and this book pays tribute to its history and beauty.

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Eric Liddell is famous for being the man who would not compromise his religious principles and refused to compete in the Olympics on a Sunday - despite the fact that he was the red hot favourite for the gold. Instead he entered a different event that was not being competed on the Sabbath... and won a gold anyway. One of Scotland's finest athletes, Liddell was feted throughout the United Kingdom. At the height of his fame, however, he slipped quietly out of the limelight to become a missionary in China, where he later came to an unpleasant end in a Japanese internment camp.

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Late one evening in March 1924, a tipsy young nun was seen trying to slip into Balliol, an all-male Oxford college, just as the gates were about to close for the night. The nun – subsequently unmasked as the son of the college bursar – was returning after a fancy-dress party at a notorious Oxford social club, one known to the university proctors for its hedonistic ways, heavy drinking and wayward behaviour. This was the final straw; the club was shut down.Described by one habitué as ‘a kind of early twentieth-century Hell Fire Club’, the Hypocrites Club counted some of the brightest of the future ‘Bright Young People’ among its members. The one-time secretary was Evelyn Waugh, who used ten of his fellow Hypocrites as inspiration for his fictional characters – seven of them in Brideshead Revisited alone.The Hypocrites didn’t just lend themselves to Waugh’s fiction. Many went on to prominence themselves, including Anthony Powell, Robert Byron, Henry Green, Claud Cockburn and Tom Driberg. Hellfire is the first full-length portrait of this scandalous club and its famous members, who continued to be thorns in the Establishment’s side – throughout war and austerity – for the next five decades.

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Ever wanted to illustrate a book? Now you can. 'There goes the great Mr. Toad! And that's the gallant Water Rat, and yonder comes the famous Mr. Mole!' The Wind in the Willows follows the adventures of Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger. Their stories of friendship and mischief have captivated readers of all ages for over a hundred years. Join them as they scull on the river, deal with Toad’s latest fad and explore the mysterious Wild Wood. In this edition, the original story is accompanied by empty frames waiting to be filled with your own art. Bring this peaceful countryside to life in your unique version of this classic tale and capture Otter watching by the ford, wise Badger in his underground home and the recovery of Toad Hall from the wicked weasels and ferrets.

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In the nineteenth century true stories of cannibal tribes massacring white traders (and vice versa) and missionaries fed the morbid appetites of Europeans, North Americans and colonials. Accounts of cannibalism committed by seafarers on their dead shipmates quickened the pulses of landfolk even more, and pricked their moral disquiet. Acts of desperate men committing unspeakable atrocities. The warring frenzy of cannibal headhunters and their gruesome feasting. Such was the stuff of real-life ‘sixpenny romances’, rich in human butchery and garnished with treachery and terror. The more atrocious the at rocities, the more exotic the locations; the more sensational the narratives, the greater was the thrall of these thrilling tales of the sea.

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Scilly has been its own unique land for centuries, separate from England and cut off from Cornwall by twenty-five miles of rough sea – yet until now its folk tales have been poorly documented. Let Anthony the droll-teller and his companions guide you on this voyage around the wonderful Isles of Scilly: a place of smugglers and shipwrecks, pirates and privateers, legends and long lost tales.

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From the earliest FA Cup finals in the 1870s between teams of former public schoolboys to the glittering world of 21st-century Champions League matches contested by squads of millionaires, The Times has been at pitchside to write the history of football as it has happened.It is story of great matches: Hungary’s historic victory over England at Wembley in 1953, Manchester United’s triumph over Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final, Brazil’s thrashing of Italy in the 1970 World Cup final, Liverpool’s remarkable recovery to win the Champions League in Istanbul in 2005. It is a story of dazzling individual performances: Stanley Matthews finally winning an FA Cup winners’ medal at Wembley in 1953, Bobby Moore giving a masterclass in the art of defending for England against Brazil in the 1970 World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo’s virtuoso performance as Real Madrid won the 2017 Champions League. It is a story of national highs and lows, from Wembley in 1966 when England ruled the world after defeating West Germany to the humiliation of losing to Iceland in the 2016 European Championship.But above all it is a story of great players, great managers and great personalities in a sport that grips the attention of the world like no other.

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The Junkers Aircraft Company of Dessau, Germany forever changed the world of aviation when they produced several aircraft that revolutionised warfare during World War Two. Among them were the Ju 87 Stuka, which was key to the success of the Blitzkrieg, and highly versatile bomber and transport aircraft including Junkers Ju 86, Ju 52, Ju 90/290 and, later, Ju 88. Drawing on a multitude of photographs, diagrams and US government reports, Junkers Military Aircraft of World War Two reveals the history of this innovative aviation company and its many key aircraft that played a vital role in the war. From initiating unprecedented advancements in structural design to producing advanced turbojet engines and radical aircraft that provided a glimpse of the future of aviation, the Junkers Aircraft Company proved to be a true pioneer in the aviation world.

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During the Second World War, British artists produced over 6,000 works of war art, the result of a government scheme partly designed to prevent the artists being killed. This book tells the story of nine courageous war artists who ventured closer to the front line than any others in their profession. Edward Ardizzone, Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Anthony Gross, Thomas Hennell, Eric Ravilious, Albert Richards, Richard Seddon and John Worsley all travelled abroad into the dangers of war to chronicle events by painting them. They formed a close bond, yet two were torpedoed, two were taken prisoner and three died, two in 1945 when peacetime was at hand. Men who had previously made a comfortable living painting in studios were transformed by military uniforms and experiences that were to shape the rest of their lives, and their work significantly influenced the way in which we view war today. Portraying how war and art came together in a moving and dramatic way, and incorporating vivid examples of their paintings, this is the true story behind the war artists who fought, lived and died for their art on the front line of the Second World War.

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A Century of Kingston-upon-Thames offers an insight into the daily lives and living conditions of local people and gives the reader glimpses and details of familiar places during a century of unprecedented change. Many aspects of Kingston's recent history are covered, famous occasions and individuals are remembered and the impact of national and international events is witnessed. A Century of Kingston-upon-Thames provides a striking account of the changes that have so altered the town's appearance and records the process of transformation. Drawing on detailed local knowledge of the community, and illustrated with a wealth of black-and-white photographs, this book recalls what Kingston-upon-Thames has lost in terms of buildings, traditions and ways of life. It also acknowledges the regeneration that has taken place and celebrates the character and energy of local people as they move through the first years of this new century.

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On 2 September 1845, the convict ship Tasmania left Kingstown Harbour for Van Diemen’s Land with 138 female convicts and their 35 children. On 3 December, the ship arrived into Hobart Town. While this book looks at the lives of all the women aboard, it focuses on two women in particular: Eliza Davis, who was transported from Wicklow Gaol for life for infanticide, having had her sentence commuted from death, and Margaret Butler, sentenced to seven years’ transportation for stealing potatoes in Carlow. Using original records, this study reveals the reality of transportation, together with the legacy left by these women in Tasmania and beyond, and shows that perhaps, for some, this Draconian punishment was, in fact, a life-saving measure.

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For the devotee of Irish heritage, mythology or folklore, County Sligo has everything. From the Curlew mountains in the south, where Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill defeated an English army under Sir Conyers Clifford, to Benbulben’s slopes in the north, where St Colmcille battled the High King of Ireland, every hill and valley is linked by the gossamer threads of myth, folklore and legend. These stories, some age-old legends and fantastical myths, some amusing anecdotes and cautionary tales, are a heady mix of the bloodthirsty, funny and passionate and a selection of the best are retold here by writer and local historian Joe McGowan. In these pages you will find little-known anecdotes of the traditional ways of Sligo’s residents, their customs and superstitions; you will find stories of epic battles and heroic deeds; and you will also hear the fantastical accounts of mythical creatures, faeries, witches and the ghosts of Connacht itself.

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Donegal has a rich heritage of myths and legends which is uniquely captured in this collection of traditional tales from the county. Discover the trails where Balor of the Evil Eye once roamed, the footprint left by St Colmcille when he leapt to avoid a demon and the places where ordinary people once encountered devils, ghosts, and fairies. In a vivid journey through Donegal’s varied landscape, from its spectacular rugged coast line to the majestic mountains of Errigal and Muckish, and on to the rich farmland of the east, local storyteller Joe Brennan takes the reader to places where legend and landscape are inseparably linked.

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Harry Clarke was Ireland’s greatest stained glass artist and arguably the finest of his time in any country. He was also an illustrator of genius, whose works have been collector’s items for decades. Out of print for over 15 years, this new edition will be an enormous contribution to the literature of Irish art, and a collector’s item in itself. “The research that has gone into this handsome book is enormous. I cannot see anybody superseding it.” - Irish Independent “Nicola Gordon Bowe has undoubtedly produced the definitive study of Harry Clarke, in a lively and lucid style, with profound insight.” - Irish Arts Review

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Based on extensive research, The Naval History of Wales tells a compelling story that spans nearly 2,000 years, from the Romans to the present.Many Welsh men and women have served in the Royal Navy and the navies of other countries. Welshmen played major parts in voyages of exploration, in the navy’s suppression of the slave trade, and in naval warfare from the Viking era to the Spanish Armada, in the American Civil War, both world wars and the Falklands War.Comprehensive, enlightening, and provocative, The Naval History of Wales also explodes many myths about Welsh history, naval historian J.D. Davies arguing that most Welshmen in the sailing navy were volunteers and that, relative to the size of national populations, proportionately more Welsh seamen than English fought at Trafalgar.Written in vivid detail, this volume is one that no maritime or Welsh historian can do without.

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John Tye’s job at British Airways was supposed to be only temporary, a way for him to pass the summer before starting university. Instead, it would kickstart a forty-six-year career in aviation and take him all over the world.Told in an irrepressible and infectious style, Life of a Concorde Pilot is the story of how, despite a somewhat turbulent start to life in a Middlesex orphanage, John would go on to fly the world’s only supersonic airliner.A true insight to the life of an airline pilot, with many amusing anecdotes along the way, it follows his ups and downs from his career on the ground at BA to flying with Dan Air and then back to BA, through to Covid and his reluctant retirement at the end of 2022. Full of the fascinating details only a pilot can give, this is a memorable journey to the edge of space and beyond.

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Running a railway is a complex business. However organised it is, there will always be surprises: often hilarious, frequently unexpected, but sometimes serious.Along Different Lines includes such bizarre ‘everyday’ events as coping with hurricanes, rogue locomotives and runaway wagons; PR successes and otherwise; the Brighton Belle, Flying Scotsman and Mallard; training-course capers; a wino invasion; trackside antics; the Eurostar backdrop; the birth of a prison; and royal and other special occasions.Expert authors Geoff Body and Bill Parker lovingly compiled this entertaining collection in which railway professionals recall notable incidents from across their careers. This illustrated compilation provides an enjoyable look back at life on the railways.

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‘A riveting detective story … Revelation follows revelation.’ – Benedict Allen, author, explorer and TV presenterJames Fitzjames was a hero of the early nineteenth-century Royal Navy. A charismatic man with a wicked sense of humour, he pursued his naval career with wily determination. When he joined the Franklin Expedition he thought he would make his name; instead the expedition completely disappeared and he never returned. Its fate is one of history’s great unsolved mysteries, as were the origins and background of James Fitzjames – until now.Fitzjames packed a great deal into his thirty-two years, from trips down the Euphrates to fighting with spectacular bravery in Syria and China. But he was not what he seemed. He concealed several secrets, including the scandal of his birth, the source of his influence and his plans for after the Franklin Expedition.In this definitive biography of the captain of HMS Erebus, William Battersby draws extensively on Fitzjames’ personal letters and journals, as well as naval records, to strip away 200 years of misinformation, enabling us to understand for the first time this intriguing man and his significance.

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In the early hours of Thursday, 8 August 1963, sixteen masked men ambushed the Glasgow–Euston mail train at Sears Crossing in Buckinghamshire.Making off with a record haul of £2.6 million, the robbers received approximately £150,000 each (over £2 million in today’s money). While twelve of the robbers were jailed over the next five years, four were never brought to justice – they evaded arrest and thirty-year prison sentences, and lived out the rest of their lives in freedom. In stark contrast to the likes of Ronnie Biggs, Buster Edwards and Bruce Reynolds, they became neither household names nor tabloid celebrities.Who were these men? How did they escape detection for so long? And how, almost sixty years later, are their names still not common knowledge? In No Case to Answer, Andrew Cook gathers and examines decades of evidence and lays it out end to end. It’s time for you to draw your own conclusions.

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Wilfrid Brambell was one of Britain’s most loved and complex character actors. As Albert Ladysmith Steptoe, the unscrupulous rag-and-bone man with questionable habits in Ray Galton and Alan Simpson’s long-running Steptoe & Son, he quickly became a household name with co-star Harry H. Corbett. But despite scores of other successes in roles on stage, TV and film, Brambell died a sad and lonely man.Alongside fame and fortune, ‘You Dirty Old Man!’ reveals how Brambell suffered unbelievable personal heartache, battling an inner turmoil that eventually drove him to drink as his marriage collapsed in the most deceitful circumstances imaginable. His torment led to a secretive life off camera where he did everything possible to stay out of the public eye.Featuring original interviews with film directors Richard Lester, Terence Davies and Tony Palmer, as well as recollections from his own family members, the family of Harry H. Corbett and those who worked alongside him, author David Clayton seeks to re-examine the legacy of a man whose loyal fanbase remains undiminished sixty years on from his heyday.

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‘Compelling, authoritative and as readable as the best airport thriller. It fizzes with crime, fame, power and illicit sex.’ Jeremy Vine‘A timely and important book. It’s quite remarkable how one building has played host to such debauchery. If only the walls could talk…’ Iain DaleDesigned as a city dwelling for the modern age, Dolphin Square opened in London’s Pimlico in 1936. Boasting 1,250 hi-tech flats, a swimming pool, restaurant, gardens and shopping arcade, the complex quickly attracted a long list of the affluent and influential. But behind its veneer of respectability, the Square has become one of the country’s most notorious addresses; a place where the private lives of those from the highest of high society and the lowest depths of the underworld have collided and played out over the best part of a century.This is the story of the Square and its people, an ever-evolving cast of larger-than- life characters who have borne witness to, and played pivotal roles in, some of the most scandalous episodes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. From Oswald Mosley and the Carry On gang to allegations of systematic sexual abuse, it is a saga replete with mysterious deaths, exploitation, espionage, illicit love affairs and glamour, shining a light on the changing nature of British politics and society in the modern age.

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In 1697, a 34-year-old woman mounted her horse and set off on a 3,000-mile journey which over two summers would take her to every county in England. Her name was Celia Fiennes. It was a time when women didn’t do such things. It could be gruelling, unhealthy and dangerous. As she discovered, most roads were unsigned, marshy tracks, lodgings could be filthy and vermin-ridden, and highwaymen lay in wait for the unwary.Luckily for us, Celia Fiennes kept a detailed diary about the places she saw and the people she met. She reports on the brutal justice system and political shenanigans of the time, and is fascinated by industry and commerce – workshops, shipping and especially coal-pits and tin mines. What she tells us is significant as the Industrial Revolution would soon change England forever.Yet this remarkable woman and her story have, until now, been largely neglected.In England From a Side-Saddle, historian and journalist Derek J. Taylor seeks to put that right. As we follow the route Celia Fiennes took, we see through her eyes an England of 320 years ago, and learn of the courage, determination and curiosity of one woman who was centuries ahead of her time.

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RMS Majestic's history was shaped by war. Built in Germany for Albert Ballin's HAPAG, she was launched just before the start of the First World War as Bismarck. Following Germany's defeat, she was allocated to the United Kingdom and purchased by the White Star Line from the British government. Renamed Majestic, she earned the affectionate nickname The Magic Stick' during the Roaring Twenties, when she was the largest and one of the most popular liners in the world. The merger of the Cunard and White Star Lines and the Depression of the Thirties led to her withdrawal from service after only fourteen years, after which the British government acquired her as a naval training ship. She became Caledonia and served until fire consumed her in September 1939.RMS Majestic: The Magic Stick' was the first book devoted to her history. This revised and expanded edition is a lavish illustration of her life and times, showcasing many rare or previously unp

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Born in 1902 in Seattle, Washington, Frances Lovell Oldham left her hometown in her early twenties to pursue a journalism career in Europe. At a time when women rarely found independent success, Frances transcended boundaries as a working woman in London, becoming fashion editor first at British Vogue then later at Harper’s Bazaar, when the magazines were expressively modernist in their design and output.Her story is even more remarkable given she made a career comeback after fracturing her spine during a house fire that killed her first husband in 1933. At Harper’s Bazaar, she would raise the morale of British women during the Second World War, and embarked on a fearlesss trade mission to the United States to boost British exports. After marrying Captain Alwyne Farquharson, the 16th Laird of Invercauld, in 1949, Frances threw herself into life as the queen’s neighbour at Balmoral and brought glamour and eccentricity to the grouse moors of Deeside.Drawing on interviews with Frances’ daughter and friends, and staff who once worked with her, as well as archival material and extracts from her own unpublished memoirs, The Fabulous Frances Farquharson offers a glimpse into the life of a remarkable woman and will not fail to fascinate and enthral.

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On 1 September 1909, American explorer Frederick Cook caused one of the biggest sensations in exploration history when, after a year with no word from him, news arrived that he had not only survived his Arctic expedition but had become the first person to ever reach the North Pole.Cook was instantly transformed into one of the heroes of the age. With his boat due to arrive in Copenhagen a few days later, journalists from across Europe scrambled to get there in time to meet him.One of them was Philip Gibbs, an obscure British reporter whose chance encounter in a Copenhagen café led to an exclusive interview with Cook before he reached land. But the interview left Gibbs doubting the explorer’s story, and so he decided to gamble his career and credibility by making it clear he thought Cook was lying. And so began a frantic few days when Cook was showered with accolades while Gibbs tried to prove his claim was a fraud.The Explorer and the Journalist is the extraordinary story of a high-stakes confrontation from which only one of Gibbs and Cook would emerge with their reputation intact.

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Black Beauty is a novel that changed our world. Intended to ‘induce kindness’ in a Victorian audience who relied on horses for transport, travel and power, it remains a dearly loved children’s classic. Writing Black Beauty is the story of the remarkable woman who wrote this phenomenal book.Born in 1820 to a young Quaker couple, Anna Sewell grew up in poverty in London. She was 14 when she fell and injured her ankle, leaving her permanently disabled. Rejecting the limitations that Victorian society forced on disabled people, she developed an extraordinary empathy with horses, learning to ride side-saddle and drive a small carriage.Rebellious and independent-minded, Anna left the Quaker movement as a young woman but remained close friends with the women writers and abolitionists who had been empowered by its liberal principles. It was not until she became terminally ill, aged 51, that she wrote her own book. It was published in 1877, but Anna tragically died just five months later.After modest success in Britain, Black Beauty was taken up by American activist George Thorndike Angell, who made it one of the bestselling novels of all time. Using newly discovered archive material, Celia Brayfield shows how Anna Sewell developed the extraordinary resilience to rouse the conscience of Victorian Britain and make her mark upon the world.

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John Massey’s story is unique. Part of a notorious duo that the Flying Squad dubbed ‘Laurel and Hardy’, his criminal activities included hijacking a police car after robbing a bank of £25,000 and relieving the Sunday Mirror of £50,000 – and all before he was arrested for murder, aged 27.But that was just the beginning. Given a life sentence, with a minimum term of twenty years, Massey would find himself incarcerated for forty-three years, give or take a prison break, in almost every prison in the country. In Locks, Bolts and Bars, one of Britain’s longest-serving prisoners reflects on a life spent on the ‘inside’, from corrupt guards to notorious criminals, and the real value of freedom.

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How much do you know about Scottish history?We all know bits of it. This book by the authors of Scottish History: Strange but True sets out to show how these ‘bits’ fit together – how the characters and events of Scottish history made the country of Scotland.We do not ponder ‘WHY?’ we demand ‘HOW?’How was Scotland founded by refugees?How did the Vikings make Scotland happen?How did King David save Scotland AND give it away?How did Robert the Bruce forget Scottish history?How did a King of Scots declare war on Scotland?How did the Jacobites win every round, yet get smashed in the final – twice?How did Scotland embrace kilts and tartan after it banned them?

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In this enchanting book, self-confessed reindeer geek Tilly Smith leads the reader through the extraordinary natural history of the reindeer with charming anecdotes about her own Scottish herd.From their flat ‘clown-like’ hooves to their warm furry noses and majestic antlers, fall in love with nature’s most adaptable arctic mammal.

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It was inevitable that the Allies would invade France in the summer of 1944: the Nazis just had to figure out where and when. This job fell to the Abwehr and several other German intelligence services. Between them they put over 30,000 personnel to work studying British and American signals traffic, and achieved considerable success in intercepting and decrypting enemy messages. They also sent agents to England – but they weren’t to know that none of them would be successful.Until now, the Nazi intelligence community has been disparaged by historians as incompetent and corrupt, but newly released declassified documents suggest this wasn’t the case – and that they had a highly sophisticated system that concentrated on the threat of an Allied invasion. Written by acclaimed espionage historian Nigel West, Codeword Overlord is a vital reassessment of Axis behaviour in one of the most dramatic episodes of the twentieth century.

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After the Second World War, war crimes prosecutors charged two of King George VI’s closest German relatives with ‘crimes against humanity’. American soldiers discovered top-secret documents at Marburg Castle that exposed treacherous family double-dealing inside the Royal Family. Two of the King’s brothers had flirted dangerously with the Nazi regime in duplicitous games of secret diplomacy.To avert a potential public relations catastrophe, George VI hid incriminating papers and, with Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt’s help, whitewashed history to protect his family. Three of Philip Mountbatten’s sisters were banned from Westminster Abbey and the wedding of their brother to Princess Elizabeth because their husbands were senior Nazi officers.This dilemma was Queen Victoria’s fatal legacy: she had hoped to secure peace in Europe through a network of royal marriages, but her plan backfired with two world wars.Tea With Hitler is a family saga of duty, courage, wilful blindness and criminality, revealing the tragic fate of a Saxe-Coburg princess murdered as part of the Nazi euthanasia programme and the story of Queen Victoria’s Jewish great-grand-daughter, rescued by her British relatives.

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In the fifth century, the Roman Empire collapsed and Western Europe began remaking itself in the turmoil that followed. In south-west Britain, old tribal authorities and identities reasserted themselves and a ruling elite led a vibrant and outward-looking kingdom with trade networks that stretched around the Atlantic coast of Europe and abroad into the Mediterranean. They and their descendants would forge their new kingdom into an identity and a culture that lasts into the modern age.The Western Kingdom is the story of Cornwall, and of how its unique language, culture and heritage survived even after politically merging with England in the tenth century. It’s a tale of warfare, trade and survival – and defiance in the face of defeat.

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Nottinghamshire’s position at the very heart of England has given it important strategic significance throughout two millennia, underlined by the number of roads, waterways, and later railways, criss-crossing the county. An endless succession of armies have used the Great North Road: the Romans, the Vikings, the Normans, the Lancastrians and the Jacobites. Strategic river crossings and road junctions have been guarded by Roman camps, Viking and Saxon burhs, medieval castles, Parliamentarian and Royalist forts, and the anti-invasion defences of the Second World War. The area has traditionally provided a rallying point for armies to be gathered, from Richard III’s in 1485 to Kitchener’s in 1914. Building on the experience of the great training camps of Clipstone and the Dukeries and the extensive munitions works of Chilwell and Nottingham, in the Second World War the county expanded such provision, becoming home to a concentration of flying training centres, key components of the army’s and the RAF’s logistical support networks and further munitions plants. Much of this military activity has left its mark on the landscape, some of it relatively untouched, and some adapted to meet the demands of change. Some monuments are of enormous national importance; Newark-on-Trent, as well as retaining its unspoilt medieval castle ruins, boasts the best single concentration of Civil War-period fortifications anywhere in Britain.

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A richly illustrated history that explores every aspect of life in Leeds. This new history of Leeds covers all the main political, social and economic developments of the city: The Harrying of the North devastated the surrounding area in 1069; the Civil War saw a battle fought in the town itself; cholera and typhus epidemics raged in the nineteenth century; the building of the Middleton Railway in 1758 established the oldest railway in the world; and Richard Oastler, the Factory King, launched the campaign for the Ten Hour Bill in the Leeds Mercury. Due emphasis is given to the place of the wool textile industry, the principal industry until the twentieth century. The story is brought right up to date, as are recent changes in the townscape. An intriguing look at this great city’s remarkable history.

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The name Titanic has become synonymous with catastrophe, the story of this luxurious liner legendary. Wrecked after colliding with an iceberg on her maiden voyage, the loss of around 1,500 lives among her passengers and crew has gone down in history as one of the most emotive and tragic disasters in history. In this evocative collection of photographs the authors of Titanic The Ship Magnificent tell her full story, from the shipyards of Harland & Wolff and its early vessels, with the backdrop of the great race to build the biggest and best passenger liner, to the frenzy of excitement surrounding her launch. Looking at her officers and crew, as well as her stops at Cherbourg and Queenstown – including some special, rare photographs – the book follows the story to its inevitable conclusion, considering the lifeboats, the presence of the Carpathia and the aftermath of the disaster.

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Cardinal Wolsey is a controversial figure: a butcher’s son, a man of letters and the Church, a divisive political expert, a man of principle – yet, to some, an arrogant upstart. As Lord Chancellor to the incorrigible Henry VIII he achieved much both at home and abroad, but his failure to achieve the mighty monarch’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon saw him brought to his knees. John Matusiak explores the pragmatic cardinal’s life and career to uncover a man of contradictions and extremes whose meteoric rise was marked by an equally inexorable descent into desperation, as he attempted in vain to satisfy the tempestuous master whose ambition ultimately broke him. Far from being another familiar portrait of an overweight and overweening spider or cautionary tale of pride preceding a fall, this is the gripping story of how consummate talent, noble intentions and an eagle eye for the main chance can contrive with the vagaries of power politics to raise an individual to unheard of heights before finally consuming him.

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London's Underground is one of the best-known and most distinctive aspects of the city. Since Victorian times, this remarkable feat of engineering has made an extraordinary contribution to the economy of the capital and played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. Stephen Halliday’s informative, entertaining, wide-ranging history of the Underground celebrates the vision and determination of the Victorian Pioneers who conceived this revolutionary transport system. His book records the scandal, disappointments, and disasters that have punctuated the story and the careers of the gifted, dedicated, sometimes corrupt individuals that have shaped its history. It also gives a fascinating insight into the neglected, often unseen aspects of this subterranean system - the dense network of tunnels, shafts and chambers that have been created beneath the city streets.

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The name Flying Scotsman is renowned across the world, but the detailed story of the globally famous locomotive is often less well known. In this illustrated history, James S. Baldwin takes the reader on a railway journey through time, documenting the years of public and private ownership, from the Great Northern Railway in the early days, right through LNER and British Railways possession, to the tenure of Alan Pegler, Sir William McAlpine, Pete Waterman and beyond. With the engine having been acquired by the National Railway Museum in 2004, the future looks secure. Complete with stunning black-and-white and colour illustrations, this is the perfect package to allow Flying Scotsman enthusiasts, young and old, to get a real taste of the rich history of the ‘most famous steam locomotive in the world’.

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Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers realised his life’s ambition when he was selected for Captain Scott’s Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic, yet he also met his death on the journey. Born to a sea-faring father and adventurous mother on the Firth of Clyde, Bowers’ boyhood obsession with travel and adventure took him round the world several times and his life appears, with hindsight, to have been a ceaseless preparation for his ultimate, Antarctic challenge. Although just 5ft 4in, he was a bundle of energy; knowledgeable, indefatigable and the ultimate team player. In Scott’s words, he was ‘a marvel’. This new biography, drawing on Bowers’ letters, journals and previously neglected material, sheds new light on Bowers and tells the full story of the hardy naval officer who could always lift his companions’ spirits.

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In January 1959, ten experienced young skiers set out for Mount Otorten in the far north of Russia. While one of the skiers fell ill and returned., the remaining nine lost their way and ended up on another mountain slope known as Kholat Syakhl (or ‘Mountain of the Dead’). On the night of 1 February 1959 something or someone caused the skiers to flee their tent in such terror that they used knives to slash their way out. Search parties were sent out and their bodies were found, some with massive internal injuries but with no external marks on them. The autopsy stated the violent injuries were caused by ‘an unknown compelling force’. The area was sealed off for years by the authorities and the full events of that night remained unexplained. Using original research carried out in Russia and photographs from the skier's cameras, Keith McCloskey attempts to explain what happened to the nine young people who lost their lives in the mysterious ‘Dyatlov Pass Incident’.

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The events which unfolded south of Brussels on 18 June 1815 conferred instant immortality on those who took part in them. For the Duke of Wellington, Waterloo consummated victory in a long battle for what he considered to be his due recognition. Whilst he guarded that reputation jealously, he also jeopardised it by his decision to enter politics in what proved to be an especially partisan age. Even the outpouring of national grief which accompanied his death in 1852 could not totally obscure the ambivalence he had aroused in life. The memory of Waterloo, meanwhile, followed its own trajectory. Travellers initially flocked to the battlefield as if drawn by a magnet. What the triumph meant for Britain, and the wider world, moreover, became a battle in itself, one fought variously in the political, literary and artistic theatres of war. As the nineteenth century advanced, it was only Waterloo’s less-exalted participants who, relatively, faded from view – or were ignored. Drawing on many under-utilised sources to illuminate some less familiar themes, this timely study offers fresh perspectives on one of Britain’s best-known figures, as well as on the nature of heroism. The reader is also given pause for thought as to appropriate forms of commemoration and how national celebrations are prone to manipulation, for their own purposes, by those in government.

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The landscape has had a huge impact on the history of Liverpool and Merseyside. The ice age glaciers carved out the Rivers Mersey and Dee; the Sefton coast provided a perfect place for the earliest humans to hunt and gather food; and the Pool and the Mersey, and England’s position on the coast gave King John the perfect base from which to launch his Irish campaigns. This book explores the landscapes from these earliest times, and charts the changing city right through to the present day. It explains why Liverpool looks the way it does today, and how clues in the modern landscape reveal details of its long history. You’ll see how the landscape created Liverpool, and how in turn Liverpool recreated the landscape.

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The steam locomotive was a British invention and even today, the world speed record for steam remains with a British locomotive, Mallard. Steam’s first significant contribution to British industry was through powering pumping engines for mines. When steam was applied to the railways, the ‘railway age’ began. The steam locomotive went through several distinct phases during its long life, which came to an end on regular service in the late 1960s. The early phase was followed by the trend for large single driving wheels, then compound locomotives with connected driving wheels once steel became strong enough for the connecting rods. Further developments included tank engines that could run equally well forwards and backwards; the 4-6-0 and 4-6-2 expresses; the passion for speed records and streamlining; and the standardisation years of British Railways. This insightful, fully illustrated story book follows the history of the steam locomotive and will delight all those interested in the steam age.

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This colourful history covers the SS United States’ active service from 1952 to 1969 when she dominated the seas of Atlantic, sweeping all rivals before her. The astonishing operational capacity of this national icon of the United States, with her red, white and blue funnels, sleek streamlined hull and silver coated fittings, was shrouded in secrecy in case she was ever required to be converted to a troop carrier. Andrew Britton presents a revealing insight into the record-breaking liner, how she performed in the secret sea trials and her epic maiden voyage. Compiled from a wealth of previously unpublished material, drawn from the author’s own unparalleled collection and others from around the world, this special commemorative book is packed with historical colour photography from both sides of the Atlantic, including the maiden voyage departure from New York. This evocative book will be a must for all shipping enthusiasts and is sure to enhance the fine reputation of the preserved SS United States for future generations.

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The Allied landings in France on 6 June 1944 were a turning point in world history. This book is a compilation of 200 images relating to all aspects of D-Day and the Normandy landings, beginning with the years of planning and preparations, all conducted in great secrecy. Next the focus is on the naval and air force operations, the airborne landings, and the British, American and Canadian forces who came ashore on 6 June. The book also covers the months of hard fighting during the Battle of Normandy, and through to the end of the war. Using the extensive archives of the Portsmouth D-Day Museum, this is a moving and unique record of a momentous time. Andrew Whitmarsh is military history officer for Portsmouth Museums & Records Service, a role which includes the curatorship of the D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery. The D-Day Museum opened in 1984 and is the United Kingdom’s only museum with the sole purpose of telling the story of D-Day. He has been its curator since 2001. He has written a variety of popular and academic articles on military history, as well as D-Day in Photographs and Portsmouth at War for The History Press.

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Based on extensive research, The Naval History of Wales tells a compelling story that spans nearly 2,000 years, from the Romans to the present.Many Welsh men and women have served in the Royal Navy and the navies of other countries. Welshmen played major parts in voyages of exploration, in the navy’s suppression of the slave trade, and in naval warfare from the Viking era to the Spanish Armada, in the American Civil War, both world wars and the Falklands War.Comprehensive, enlightening, and provocative, The Naval History of Wales also explodes many myths about Welsh history, naval historian J.D. Davies arguing that most Welshmen in the sailing navy were volunteers and that, relative to the size of national populations, proportionately more Welsh seamen than English fought at Trafalgar.Written in vivid detail, this volume is one that no maritime or Welsh historian can do without.

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