In 1968 the world's largest antique went to America. But how do you transport a 130-year-old bridge 3,000 miles? And why did Robert P McCulloch, a multimillionaire oil baron and chainsaw-manufacturing king, buy it? Why did he ship it to a waterless patch of the Arizonan desert? Did he even get the right bridge?
Chronicles London's highwaymen and a few other criminals up until the end of the 1700s, who in addition to using horses, also used ice-skates and coaches.
A London Year is an anthology of short diary entries, one or more for each day of the year, which, taken together, provides an impressionistic portrait of life in the city from Tudor times to the twenty-first century. There are more than two hundred featured writers, with a short biography for each. The most famous diarist of all - Samuel Pepys - is there, as well as some of todayâ??s finest diarists like Alan Bennett and Chris Mullin. There are coronations and executions, election riots and zeppelin raids, duels, dust-ups and drunken sprees, among everyday moments like Brian Eno cycling in Kilburn or George Eliot walking on Wimbledon Common. Vividly evoking moments in the lives of Londoners in the past, providing snapshots of the cityâ??s inhabitants at work, at play, in pursuit of money, sex, entertainment, pleasure and power, A London Year is the perfect book for all who live in or love this eternal, ever-changing city.
A fascinating look into how and why the English love to be beside the seaside.
In December 2005, London lost one its most famous symbols: the Routemaster bus - a bus designed and made in London, by Londoners for Londoners, which was to London what the gondola is to Venice. This work tells the story of the routemaster's invention, rise and decline, of the people who worked on it, and of the enthusiasts who were mad about it.
Pocket Essentials is a dynamic series of books that are concise, lively, and easy to read. Packed with facts as well as expert opinions, each book has all the key information you need to know about such popular topics as film, television, cult fiction, history, and more. In this Pocket Essential Travis Elborough guides the reader through the difficulties of Friedrich Nietzsche's life, his friendship with Wagner, his years as an itinerant scholar up to his 1889 full-scale mental collapse, and the twilight years of madness under the care of his sinister sister, Elizabeth. Each of Nietzsche's major works is summarized and the central concepts in his philosophy examined. Nietzsche's influence on 20th century thought is explored, as is the posthumous hijacking of his name by the Nazis.
'We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed' Martin Luther King, Jr. In an era where our liberties are often under threat, Letters to Change the World sends reminders from history that standing up for - and voicing - our personal and political beliefs is not merely a human right but our duty, if we want to make change happen. Featuring Emmeline Pankhurst rallying her suffragettes, George Orwell's warning against totalitarianism, Nelson Mandela's consoling his children from prison, Time's Up condemning abuses of power, and much more, this collection will inspire you to stand up and speak up - now, for what really matters. 'Remarkable, timely ... At a time of political uncertainty, the collection demonstrates the importance of speaking truth to power' Guardian
The history of the pop album, from the invention of vinyl and the LP 60 years ago to its revival in our iPod age.
Being a Writer is an inspiring assemblage of wit, wisdom and hard-won practical advice from some of the world's greatest authors musing on the art of writing and how they came to define themselves as writers. It is an anthology for dipping into, but also for drawing genuine lessons about the whole messy business of writing literature and what it takes to be a writer. Its contributors range from the canon to the contemporary: from Samuel Johnson in eighteenth-century London to Lorrie Moore in twenty-first-century Wisconsin, Being a Writer covers more than 250 years and features novelists and short-story writers from across the world. Through its text and beautiful, original illustrations, the book explores and illuminates the pleasures and pitfalls of the compulsion to write, and aims to inspire and delight writers and readers in equal measure. Chapters include Becoming a Writer, Methods & Means, Failing, The Art of Writing and A Sense of an Ending.
'A fascinating, informative, revelatory book' William Boyd, GuardianParks are such a familiar part of everyday life, you might be forgiven for thinking they have always been there.