-
Manchester United in Tears
This book takes you back to that black and white era, in the days of the maximum wage, when football was still fun. The ‘Busby Babes’, seeking a third consecutive Championship title made a blistering start to the 1957/58 season and, with three England regulars – Byrne, Edwards and Taylor – attracted huge crowds wherever they played as spectators revelled in their adventurous, attacking football. As the season progressed, surprisingly United's form became patchy and by the end of the year, they sat in fourth position. The New Year brought more consistency and progress to the F. A. Cup Fifth round and Quarter Finals of the European Cup.Fate was to play a terrible hand when, on returning from Belgrade via Munich, their chartered plane crashed whilst attempting a third take-off, killing seven players and other passengers. Tragically, fifteen days later, Duncan Edwards also lost his fight for life. Manchester United completed the season and amazingly reached the F. A. Cup Final.The story of this eventful season is told on a day by day, match by match basis, providing a fascinating insight into the world of football in the 1950s.
£11.99 -
Kenmore Psychiatric Hospital - Wednesday's Child
Large mental care institutions such as Kenmore and Morisset once accommodated up to 1400 and 1500 mental health patients respectively. Here was a serious attempt to provide for the needs of the disadvantaged. This is a reflective history of the large mental health institution at Kenmore. Curiously there are some who envisage a return in part to institutionalism. Protected environments where select patients can freely wander throughout picturesque rural/ lakeside settings hold much appeal. Such were the enlightened perceptions of our state's founding fathers; the institutions at Kenmore and Morisset were their handiwork. Unfortunately, calming and natural sanctuaries such as Kenmore appear as expensive dinosaurs in the health and well-being of the mentally ill today. In this regard, an old North American adage rings particularly clear.The spirit of man separate from nature will quickly wither and die.Whatever your feelings on this axiom are, it was the belief of Dr Manning, an early Inspector General of the Insane who fought to establish a psychiatric hospital in the serene estate at Kenmore. What sense does it make to incarcerate lonely and confused, mental patients in stressful, concrete jungles amidst often hostile and uncaring populaces?But for the grace of God go both you and I.
£11.99 -
Kendall's Longitude
Lost at sea: every mariner’s fear.Maritime navigational tools could find latitude, but finding longitude remained elusive until Harrison developed the reliable sea clock, H4. Building on H4’s success, Kendall made a series of nautical timekeepers, K1, K2 and K3. This is the story of the K2 timekeeper; its adventurous voyages, the people it touched, and its place in history. K2’s first voyage, accompanied by the young Nelson, was nearly its last in the crushing Arctic ice. The next two expeditions saw it survive kidnappings, nautical intrigue, and gunpowder plots of the American revolutionary wars. The slave coasts of Africa followed.Bligh took K2 on the Bounty, but lost it in a fight with the mutineers in 1789. It was recovered by an American Quaker from Nantucket, only to be stolen by the Spanish. It rode on mules along the Andes before sailing into the Opium Wars. K2 finally returned to Greenwich in 1963.DRAMATIC, THREE NATION 'STORY OF TIME'
£9.99 -
Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson
Francis Thompson in 1888.He was an ex-medical student with a dissecting scalpel, and a history of mental illness and trouble with the police. He had just broken up with a prostitute and had written about cutting women's stomachs open.At the same time, a few yards from his refuge, a woman was knifed, as part of a spate of prostitute murders, which one coroner said was by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge.Richard A. Patterson sets out a compelling case for English poet Francis Thompson as the prime suspect for Jack the Ripper in this must-read for Ripperologists the world over.
£9.99 -
Italy: From Subjugation to Independence
Enter a world of cloak-and-dagger intrigue and military rivalry, secret societies and revolution!The story opens with the rise and fall of the glorious Roman Empire, to be followed by the unceasing wave of invasions, in particular France, Spain and Austria. The rising city communes transform into powerful and wealthy city-states which, against the background of the flowering Renaissance, begin to resist foreign interlopers, whilst the Papacy vies with the Habsburg emperors for control of the Peninsula.The scene shifts to the Age of Enlightenment which not only kick-starts the foundations of the Italian economy, but also motivates the quest for independence. Masterminded by the revolutionary Mazzini, revolts snowball. Cavour’s international wheeler-dealings are followed by Garibaldi’s clinching victory over the Austrians at Volturno in 1860, by which he presents half of Italy to his king, Vittorio Emanuele II. The creation of a united and independent Italy is, at last, achieved.A ‘must’ for invaluable reading for those who seek a deeper understanding of Italy and the Italians.
£9.99 -
Intimidation: The History, The Times And The People Of The Sheffield Outrages
Anonymous threatening letters, hamstrung horses, arson attacks, beatings, 'rattenings', bombings, shootings and murders; all at the hands of trade union thugs, orchestrated by William Broadhead, the tyrannical saw grinders' union leader. Such is the folklore of the Sheffield Outrages. However, acts of intimidation against 'obnoxious' workers and defiant employers stretched beyond Sheffield and across many trades.The story of the Sheffield Outrages is not just about the infamy of William Broadhead and the saw grinders, it is about a way of life in 19th century Sheffield; it is about conflict between hard-working skilled men and their exploitative masters; it is about a time of transition in industrial relations and the development of trade unionism.The story of the Sheffield Outrages is a significant and important aspect of Sheffield's social history and for far too long has been an understated one.Cover illustration: 'The Smoke of Sheffield', Allan F Barraud (1847-1913)
£9.99 -
From Our House to Penthouse
From Our House to Penthouse takes you on a nostalgic trip down memory lane to a London that disappeared not so long ago. Pubs gutted to make way for coffee chains! Arenas and cinemas bulldozed to make way for hotels! Dog tracks and football grounds now apartments!London went through a huge change in the first two decades of the 21st century, and From Our House to Penthouse pays homage to the venues and places that were lost in that time. Featuring photos of iconic London landmarks that no longer exist, author Matthew Bazell has compiled a historical record to keep memories alive.
£27.99 -
Franco - History to the Defeated
The death of General Franco in 1975 was followed by an exemplary transition from dictatorship to democracy. Today, Spanish people enjoy rights and liberties that were ruthlessly denied for forty years, and Spain is a respected and enthusiastic member of the international community. Unfortunately, the price of national reconciliation was the impunity of those responsible for acts of extreme brutality, not only during the Civil War (1936-39), but also in the years that followed the conflict. Franco – History to the Defeated describes a chain of events and circumstances which define the dictatorship, and explores both the role of Spain in the Second World War and the role of the many Britons involved on both sides of the political divide.
£9.99 -
Empire Made: Two Centuries of British Influenced Globalisation
This broad history traces many of the key political and educational events that shaped two significant centuries of the British Empire. This vast imperial enterprise presided over a quarter of the world’s landmass and came close to achieving a world economy. A commercial expansion that was backed by Britain’s aristocratic gentry but governed by a new breed of university educated administrators. An elite group produced to manage Britain’s overseas interests – and to incidentally create the image of the stereotypically unflappable ‘Brit’. Universities and Empire advanced in a loose confederation that underpinned the progress of globalisation – a process that interconnects international trade and economics via technological advances in communication and transport. Globalisation permeates territorial boundaries and borders, it blurs the perception of distance – the sun may have long since set on the British Empire, but its administrators contributed mightily to shrinking the world it left behind.
£11.99 -
Double Gloucester
In The King's England Arthur Mee wrote of Gloucestershire that "nowhere is England more like herself than in the county of the Severn and the Thames". John Hedley aims to celebrate Mee's words in this book, Double Gloucester, a compendium of drama scenes from the history of Gloucestershire linked by a narrator. Extracts and titles of works by poets and composers who had connections with the county abound. But the main purpose of Hedley's book is not to highlight the achievements of Gloucestershire's artists, but of its people in peace and war. Arguably the county's motto, 'Prorsum Semper', meaning 'Ever Upright' is relevant here, but perhaps that begs too many questions.
£7.99 -
Colonial Mandarin: The Life and Times of Alexander Macleay
/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:'Table Normal'; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:''; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:'Calibri',sans-serif;} The Scot, Alexander Macleay (1767-1848), was an entomologist and notable political figure in the nineteenth-century pioneer days of Sydney, Australia. Criticised for his salary, his free house and the large land grants he received, he was also ridiculed for his stature and his fat legs, that he survived this crude sniping until his retirement in 1846 is testament to his endurance and indefatigable nature. Macleay won through to become a major administrative, scientific, cultural and philanthropic contributor in the developing colony of New South Wales. James Donaldson’s Colonial Mandarin: The Life and Times of Alexander Macleay draws from many sources including the Linnean Society of London for which he served as Secretary and the journals, political writings and newspapers of Sydney. Donaldson paints a strong portrait of a man who became Colonial Secretary for New South Wales in 1825 and whose scientific curiosity made his insect collection one of the most extensive in the world. With those of his son, William Sharp Macleay and nephew, Sir William (John) Macleay it is preserved in the University of Sydney’s Macleay Museum.
£9.99 -
Brilliant! Scottish Inventors, Innovators, Scientists and Engineers Who Changed the World
Over eight hundred great minds are introduced in Brilliant! Scottish Inventors, Innovators, Scientists and Engineers Who Changed the World. Metal-works, medicine, astronomy, surgery, architecture, machinery, transportation, geology and mathematics; among many others, those are only a select handful of fields explored in this collection of brief accounts of life-altering Scottish accomplishments. From 1453 to present day, countless inventions and discoveries are presented in a chronological order.With the criteria of Scottish nationality, Andrew G. Paterson showcases the intelligent and creative endeavours of Scots with many motivations. Hailing from war-times and in peace, through the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions, and located in all corners of the world, Scottish men and women gifted the world with time-changing and original contraptions, devices, procedures and theorems.
£19.99
We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience and for marketing purposes.
By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies