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Growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, Bill Perrins was a young man hell-bent on a career as a pilot. He made it through RAF pilot training—thanks more, perhaps, to sheer determination than aptitude—and finally graduated to the role of Vulcan pilot in time to take part in the 1982 Falklands War. After the RAF, Bill entered the world of commercial aviation, flying Boeing 747s and Dreamliners on long-haul, though he still found time to pilot the world’s only privately owned nuclear bomber, the mighty Vulcan XH558, at air shows, along with P51 Mustangs, Yaks and the legendary Spitfire. Way back in his boyhood, the fantasy of one day flying the Spitfire was where it had all begun—and it did not disappoint. From Vulcan to Spitfire and Back: A Life in Aviation is a humorous, unguarded, and often self-deprecating account of what it was like to be part of an RAF squadron during the Cold War—everything from burning pianos to a mid-air collision in a Tornado. It is also about the simple joys of flying, whether in the cockpit of the enormous delta-winged Vulcan or behind the sprightly controls of the inimitable Spitfire, and the camaraderie that comes with it, both in military and civil aviation.

We take brands for granted: they surround us and pervade our everyday life. But have you ever wondered where they come from, and why they became successfu? he histories are sometimes remarkable: how did Reebook emerge from a town in North West England to become one of the leading athletic apparel brands in the world? Ever wondered how McDonald’s convinced a sceptical British public to eat hamburgers? Or how Hall’s cough drops became the highest-selling sweet in the world? Are you curious as to what really constitutes the secret recipe of Dr Pepper or Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauc? his book breaks new ground by combining depth with readability, and uncovers previously forgotten facts. At its heart, this is a story about people: brilliant individuals who defied the odds to succeed, and introduced products that have ultimately improved peoples’ lives. The book covers history from the 18th century with the foundation of the Schweppes, Crosse & Blackwell and Gordon’s gin businesses, right up to the present day with modern brands including Greggs and Costa Coffee. If you want to delve beyond the official company histories and learn the truth, to be entertained, educated, amazed and engaged, then this is the book for you!

The three main constituent companies of the Southern Railway had different policies for tank engine design. The London & South Western built tank engines for suburban, branch and heavy goods work, the London, Brighton and South Coast had many designs for express passenger, mixed traffic and goods work as their main routes were short enough to be resourced by tank engines with limited water capacity and the South Eastern and Chatham ventured into a similar policy in its last days with the ‘River’ class only for the Southern Railway to be dissuaded from further development following the disastrous Sevenoaks accident in 1927. Unlike the other three post-Grouping railways, the Southern made no further effort to adopt the tank engine design for passenger or mixed traffic purposes apart from Maunsells ‘W’ and ‘Z’ for freight and shunting until Bulleid’s revolutionary (and unsuccessful) ‘Leader’ class. This book describes the design, construction, operation and performance of all these pre- and post-Grouping classes and the final adoption of the LMS and BR Standard 2-6-4 and 2-6-2 tank engines to fill the void in the Southern Region’s locomotive fleet.

Dispersed throughout the centuries and across the globe – a sleepy Devonshire village, a 1950s Hollywood film set, a horse hurtling on a Victorian racecourse, the Beatles meditating in India, a border dispute in South America, and a storm raging in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 1993… they all lead back to Sir Walter Raleigh. He is the man of paradoxes: the outsider who wanted access to the royal court, a monarchist who later became a republican hero, a lover and a fighter, a pirate and a poet, the last great Elizabethan superstar and the first victim of the Stuart dynasty. Let’s chart his rise, his fall, and his legacy.

The ‘ShipCraft’ series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeller through a brief history of the subject, highlighting differences between ships and changes in their appearance over their careers. This includes paint schemes and camouflage, featuring colour profiles and highly detailed line drawings and scale plans. The modelling section reviews the strengths and weaknesses of available kits, lists commercial accessory sets for super-detailing of the subjects, and provides hints on modifying and improving the basic kit. This is followed by an extensive photographic gallery of selected high-quality models in a variety of scales, and the book concludes with a section on research references – books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites. This volume completes Les Brown’s coverage of British cruisers of the Second World War, concentrating on ships with a primarily anti-aircraft role. It begins with the innovative inter-war conversions of old ‘C’ class ships and moves on to the Dido class – not originally designed as AA ships but armed with a new 5.25in dual-purpose gun that made them effective air-defence ships. Also included are the small number of merchant ships converted to cruiser-standard AA ships. With its unparalleled level of visual information – paint schemes, models, line drawings and photographs – this book is simply the best reference for any modelmaker setting out to build one of these famous cruisers.

Despite the Falklands War between Argentina and the UK lasting only ten weeks, it still had an enduring impact on military technology worldwide. Not since the Second World War had two capable navies and air forces clashed in open ocean. In a logistical master class, the British mustered 115 ships with no warning and sent them 8,000 miles south within days/ weeks. They initiated their campaign by sinking a large Argentine warship with a nuclear-powered submarine (SSN); the only time this has happened. It was also the first time that sea-skimming anti-ship missiles dominated naval tactics. In addition to this, the British launched an amphibious landing in the jet era, with only 28 serviceable Harrier fighters against 112 fighter jets – it was also the first time air-to-air combat depended entirely on a fighter aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing (the Harrier). On the first day of Britain’s recovery effort, an RAF Vulcan bomber dropped twenty-one bombs to get one on target. After considerable ‘research under fire’, on the war’s last full day an RAF Harrier dropped a single laser guided bomb and scored a bullseye. As such, the war marks an important transition in British aviation technology. While both sides had six ships sunk, the British use of SSNs forced the entire Argentine navy to retreat to port. High British ship losses remain controversial, and they are compared here with losses in Operation Pedestal, the long-range naval action on a similar scale to save Malta in the Second World War. Losses were overall lower in the Falklands War, and the reasons behind this are discussed. The book also reveals what might have happened if the Argentine dictators had launched their war several months later, as originally considered.

During winter 1944/45 few German officers believed that the Allies would attack the wooded Reichswald Plug on the narrow neck of land between the rivers Rhine and Maas. Consequently, relying on the natural defences of the forest, the vaunted Siegfried Line had been allowed to peter out. The 84th Infantry Division held field defences that had been worked on all autumn, but the defenders were thinly spread, and most German soldiers now faced the certainty of defeat.Originally hoping to use the frozen winter ground for a speedy assault, days before Operation VERITABLE began a thaw set in and the Allies faced attacking in the worst possible ground conditions. On the morning of 8 February, after protracted bombardment, delays multiplied as vehicles became bogged in saturated fields and shell holes, and roads broke up under heavy armour. However, just enough assault engineer equipment reached the outer German defences, where they found the enemy infantry largely stunned by the bombardment.It took all of the first day to break through the mud and defences into the Reichswald, while to the north, Canadians and Scots struggled across equally sodden open country with the Rhine floods rising fast. Despite the conditions, overnight the Canadians took to the flood waters to seize what were now island villages and the Scots dashed to capture the vital Materborn, which overlooked Kleve.With heavy rain compounding difficulties, mud and flood waters made movement of men and supplies increasingly difficult. Despite this and the arrival of German reinforcements, the Allies fought their way forward, forcing the Reichswald Plug and opening the way into the Rhineland and the final phases of the war.

At the beginning of the 20th century Morris dancing had all but died out in much of England. It was militant suffragettes and slum girls who kick-started the revival that returned the forgotten dances of the countryside to towns and villages across the nation. As a result of their commitment to preserve and pass on the dances, the Morris survived as a living tradition that is still performed to this day. And the impetus to do so came from the women’s aspiration to change society for the better, the same impetus that drove them to militant action and to prison.The Morris revival and the militant suffrage movement were inextricably linked. The leader of the dance revival, Mary Neal, was a life-long radical campaigner for the rights of women and children. With her friend Emmeline Pethick she ran the Esperance Girls’ Club in one of London’s most deprived areas. She and Emmeline both sat on the national committee of Mrs Pankhurst’s militant Women’s Social and Political Union, the most notorious of the groups campaigning for the vote for women.The women’s embrace of traditional dance was rooted in Mary’s aspirations for equality and her commitment to social and political reform. The beginning of the dance revival and the launch of the militant suffragette campaign in London coincided almost exactly. Launched by a rather forlorn band of rebels, the WSPU grew into a movement capable of inspiring loyalty and loathing in equal measure. The Morris revival developed from an entertainment in a club for impoverished girls into a nationwide initiative. Mary and Emmeline’s associates in the dance revival ranged from young girls who worked in the militant campaign’s offices to hunger-striking daughters of the aristocracy.Mary and Emmeline provided the leadership and commitment that enabled two radical movements to flourish in the early years of the 20th century, but both found themselves marginalised after policy disagreements – with the folklorist Cecil Sharp and Mrs Pankhurst respectively - led to devastating splits in their respective organisations. Both then found themselves misrepresented and written out of the histories of movements which might never have got off the ground without them. Only in recent decades have women begun to reclaim their place in the Morris dance movement, the very existence of which is a legacy of the militant campaign for the vote.

The railway station first appeared in Britain when the new railway companies began to carry passengers as well as the freight for which they had originally been built. From humble beginnings behind the bar in the local pub, to state of the art travel hubs, Britain’s railway stations have become a key part of society, even impacting how time is measured. As Britain’s railway network grew, so did it’s stations. Competing companies arrived in the same town and built magnificent structures to attract passengers to their lines over those of their competitors. Architectural styles were as varied as the companies who commissioned them, although all were built to provide a feeling of permanence and dynamism to the local communities they served. In this new introduction to the history of Britain’s railway stations, industrial and railway historian Dr Richard Marks examines why railway stations were built where and how they were. The impact of railway politics, rail heading and competition is clearly explained, to provide a new perspective on the railway station. Perhaps more than just a travel hub, the railway station was also place of sorrowful separations, and joyful reunions, new opportunity or departure to war something which is examined throughout the new book. The evolution of railway stations, be they magnificent city centre statements or humble branch line or light railway facilities, is a fascinating and complex subject to which this new volume aims to provide a readable introduction.

This is an extraordinary account of courage, survival, and sacrifice in the aftermath of one of the Second World War’s most daring missions. While the Doolittle Raid on Japan is often celebrated for its audacity and strategic importance, this book focuses on the tortuous journey of the Raiders once their mission was complete, as they descended – quite literally – into the unknown. After striking targets in Japan on 18 April 1942, the Raiders, flying their North American B-25 bombers, faced an impossible challenge: reaching safety with dwindling fuel reserves. While one crew landed in the Soviet Union, the remaining fifteen crash-landed or baled out over Japanese-occupied China, initiating a desperate struggle for survival. Spread across rugged terrain, the Raiders battled severe weather, injuries, starvation, and the constant threat of capture or death at the hand of the Japanese forces. This book delves deeply into the human stories of the Doolittle Raiders during their escape through hostile territory. It highlights the critical role played by Chinese villagers and resistance fighters who risked – and often lost – their lives to protect the stranded Americans. Through their heroic efforts, many Raiders made it to safety, but not without significant losses. The Japanese retaliated mercilessly against the Chinese in one of the largest manhunts the Japanese ever mounted, killing tens of thousands in the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, underscoring the devastating costs of the mission. With its rich blend of action, human drama, and historical depth, and drawing on declassified military records, personal diaries, and interviews with descendants of the Raiders and their Chinese allies, The Doolittle Raiders’ Battle of Survival vividly reconstructs the Raiders’ perilous journey to safety – or not. From parachute landings into dense forests and dangerous mountain crossings to encounters with guerrilla fighters and near-capture by Japanese troops, the narrative is both suspenseful and deeply moving.

Adolf Hitler may be history’s most notorious tyrant. Surely no one’s name is more often evoked to epitomize evil and the deliberate infliction of suffering on vulnerable individuals and group? hrough exceptional will and luck Hitler struggled up through the ranks of political power until he became Germany’s master. He then sought to dominate Europe. Determined to unite all German-speaking peoples in one nation, he embarked on a series of aggressions that culminated in a war that engulfed and devastated most of Europe and North Africa, and left tens of millions of people dead, maimed, or homeless. Along with his political opponents, he condemned Jews and other ‘inferior peoples’ as Germany’s enemies, and eventually had around six million of them arrested and systematically slaughtered. Adolf Hitler and the Art of Tyranny answers with depth and clarity three core questions. What made Hitler who he was; why did he do what he did; and what were the results? Many other questions radiate from these. For instance, how did Hitler get tyrannical power? Or why was the Third Reich destroyed after just a dozen years? Many more crucial questions and arrays of answers follow. Hitler, of course, did not act alone. He enthroned himself atop power pyramids that included the Nazi Party, government, military, secret police, industrial associations, religious institutions, and other social organizations. He commanded countless ‘willing executioners’ of his plans and orders. To a rational, knowledgeable person, Hitler’s mass appeal is puzzling. How could someone as histrionic, vulgar, shallow, bullying, and extreme as Hitler inspire such adoration and fanatical acts by millions of people?

Mary Poppins is a publishing phenomenon of eight books written across 55 years, translated into 20 languages, including Swahili. The 1964 Disney film starring Julie Andrews remains one of the most popular children’s movies of all time. Yet the author did not want it to be known whether she was ‘man, woman or kangaroo’. The elusive PL Travers was, in fact, born in outback Australia in the penultimate year of the 19th century. She became a pioneering journalist in Russia, wrote propaganda for the war effort in New York, lived on a Navajo Indian reservation and was only the second Western woman to study Zen in Kyoto. Deeply spiritual, as one of the inner sanctum of the mystic GI Gurdjieff, she wanted to communicate through Mary Poppins more than carpet bags and parrot umbrellas. With new source material taken from interviews with PL Travers’ family and friends, this biography shares a new perspective on this extraordinary and complex author.

Since the early days of motoring, car owners with an engineering background have customised production cars, normally for increased speed for racing, but also for off-road work, touring, commercial work, or for added comfort and reliability. Jowett owners are no exception, with unique sporting models being owner-built since the 1920s. In fact there are racing Javelin saloons and Jupiter sports cars taking part in historic races today that are considerably faster than the production cars of the late 1940s and early 1950s.There’s the full gamut of Jowett specials featured here, covering pre-Second World War models through to modified versions of the post-war Bradford van. The Javelin and the Jupiter are also featured. Jowett Specials: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a celebration of them all, and the intrepid, mechanically minded owners who built them.

When you pick up the latest Emily Henry novel, or settle in for an evening with the newest volume of your favorite romantasy, you are taking part in a process stretching back two millennia. The ancient Greeks considered it a highlight of one's life to hear with one's own ears the words of the great romantic poets of their day. The Romans enjoyed sprawling romantic epics that only reunited their lovers after continent-spanning struggles against foreign armies, pirates, and treacherous monarchs. The Middle Ages sung hushed stories of lust far from the ears of the Church, while its great poets probed the darker boundaries of courtly love, and the writers of the seventeenth century delighted in giving young women ten-volume romances, delivered over the course of a decade, to fill their bookshelves and lonely hours. Writing about love, its complexities, and resolutions, has been a part of the literary tradition since its inception, but it is only in the last three centuries that the format has grown into the publishing juggernaut we know today. From the intensely observed novels of Jane Austen, through the great Sensation Novels of the 1860s that fused romance and mystery, and into the great industrial and marketing machine that was Mills & Boon and Harlequin at their height, new developments in publishing have linked up with new ideas about womanhood, sex, and romance, to produce an ever-evolving approach to the romance novel, culminating in our own modern Golden Age, where more people from more backgrounds are writing more types of romance than ever before for a readership than is larger than it has ever been, and is consuming its favourite literary form in convenient new formats. A History of Romance Novels: From Trembling Innocents to Hunky Werewolves explores the long story of our love affair with love stories, during both its eras of creative flourishing, and the long periods of industrially motivated stagnation, to give even the most dedicated romance reader a few new veins to mine, and a few more characters to fall in love with.

What historically has been called the Dark Ages since the 14th century has proved to be less dark than previously thought. It would be true to say that the 600 year period following the Roman withdrawal from Britain until the Norman Invasion of 1066 was more ‘obscure’ than ‘dark’. It was a time of Angle, Saxon and Jute invasions of Britain prompted by mass migrations westward from Eastern Europe by warring tribes like the Goths, Vandals and Huns, by Vikings from the north, Moors from the east and Scotti tribes from the west. Most of these diverse peoples left scant written record of their history or culture, evidently more intent on conquest. What is known of them comes from Early Medieval sources, like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from religious Irish clerics and medieval writers like Bede, Nennius and Gildas who often relied on earlier unverifiable narratives. Later accounts by Henry of Huntingdon and Geoffrey of Monmouth were more akin to storytelling than history and were often lavishly interspersed with ancient myths and folklore. In the light of contemporary studies and extensive archaeological research, this book attempts to cast a light into some of that obscurity.

In the summer of 1943, Hitler set his sights on a decisive blow that he believed would turn the tide of war on the Eastern Front. That blow would be dealt at Kursk – site of a huge Soviet salient measuring some 120 miles wide and 75 miles deep, and the stage for what would become the largest tank battle in history. Fuelled by confidence in his elite Panzerwaffe and Waffen-SS divisions, Hitler launched Operation Citadel, unaware that the Red Army was not only prepared, but vastly superior in numbers, firepower, and defensive depth – they outnumbered their opponents by approximately 2.5 to 1. What followed was a brutal clash of steel and strategy, where German ambition collided with Soviet resilience. Tanks and Armour at Kursk 1943 presents a vivid and richly illustrated account of the German armoured forces that spearheaded this historic assault. With in-depth analysis, detailed captions and a wealth of rare and unpublished photographs, this book brings to life the machines, units, and men behind the last great German offensive on the Eastern Front.