From the glamorous drivers on the great mainline locomotives to everyday commuters and trainspotting schoolboys, this collection of stories gives a glimpse into the lives of those who lived and worked in the steam era.
Following on from the hugely successful London's Strangest Tales, Tom Quinn plunges even deeper into the endlessly beguiling past of one of the world's greatest capitals, and once more unpicks the quirkiest tales that characterise London.Why would Winston Churchill ask to be lowered in a bucket into the sewers of London? Why is the name George so important to certain elitist London clubs? Why did the market for human teeth become such a booming industry? As with many old cities, a wealth of bizarre and astonishing tales makes up the history of London: stories ranging from the churches and streets of the city to the incredible actions of monarchs and mavericks.Inside these pages you will uncover the stories of a king who enjoyed cross-dressing and the schoolboys who played football with a pancake; you will learn which prestigious department store once sold cocaine over the counter and why Napoleon's nose is built into the structure of Admiralty Arch. More London's Strangest Tales promises to be an incredible collection of the weird and wonderful, a city guide proving once and for all that truth is stranger than fiction.Tom Quinn is the author of many titles including London’s Strangest Tales, Backstairs Billy: The Life of William Tallon, the Queen Mother's most Devoted Servant, and The Cook’s Tale: Life Below Stairs as it Really Was. He also writes occasional obituaries for the Times and edits Country Business magazine.
Presents the social history of post-war Britain, from 1945-1951, through hundreds of interviews and photography. This book draws on individual experiences to revive the struggles, the triumphs and the changes that took place in the years following the Second World War.
Tom Quinn charts the history of angling in art from its earliest beginnings in ancient Egypt, Greece and China, through the golden age in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the prolific artists of modern times.
Barking Mad taps into the British passion for dogs by bringing together a unique collection of extraordinary, touching and sometimes bizarre but true stories covering sporting dogs (and hounds) military mascots, eccentric companions, war heroes and Royal dogs.
4to landscape. A good copy with minor bumping to cover corners and slight shelfwear to illus dw.
This book provides an alternative tour of the country, taking in archaeological sites, such as Cissbury Ring in West Sussex, stately homes, including the 17th-century Stanway House in Gloucestershire, pubs, such as Southwark's historic George Inn, and wildlife and nature reserves, including Britain's oldest nature
Here are stories of the Midland and Great Northern Railway - known to its staff as the 'Muddle and Get Nowhere Railway' - where drivers were not unknown to stop their trains near Sandringham to help themselves to the odd rabbit from a poacher's snare, and of young engine cleaners' pranks that blew up the cabin stove by dropping a detonator down its chimney. And, above all, here is the subtle, sooty, hot and sweaty art of firing and driving a great steam locomotive, with its glowing firebox, Yorkshire Hard steam coal, and gleaming brass. For anyone who looks at a lovingly restored steam engine on one of Britain's preserved lines and wonders what it was like in the days when such great beasts would have been hard at work, More Tales of the Old Railwaymen will be a wonderfully nostalgic evocation of a vanished world.
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A quirky collection of true stories from the stranger side of the world's railways, featuring weird weather conditions, audacious robberies, hair- raising accidents, vanishing passengers, an infestation of maggots and a mysterious missing mummy.
