Jeff Brouws & Wendy Burton have been collecting American vernacular railway photographs for many years, poring through boxes of snapshots at train shows & enthusiasts` gatherings. Seeking out the unusual, the lyrical, the pastoral & the urban, they have assembled a collection that

Includes:: railway landscapes, locomotives, bridges & people primarily during the age of steam. This fascinating assemblage is accompanied by an essay that

Includes:: a brief discussion of the aesthetic evolution of railway photography in the early to mid-twentieth century & the phenomenon of the International Engine Picture Club, which acted as a clearing house & swapping mechanism for rail fans.



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` The death was an odd one, it was true; but there was after all no very clear reason to assume it was anything but natural.` In the winter of 1942, England lies cold & dark in the wartime blackout. One bleak evening, Councillor Grayling steps off the 6.12 from Euston, carrying GBP120 in cash, & oblivious to the fate that awaits him in the snow-covered suburbs. Inspector Holly draws up a list of Grayling`s fellow passengers: his distrusted employee Charles Evetts, the charming Hugh Rolandson, & an unknown refugee from Nazi Germany, among others. Inspector Holly will soon discover that each passenger harbours their own dark secrets, & that the councillor had more than one enemy among them. First published in 1943, Raymond Postgate`s wartime murder mystery combines thrilling detection with rich characters & a fascinating depiction of life on the home front. ...

This is a biographical study of Arthur Rimbaud`s ”lost years”, the years after he turned his back on poetry, fame & France, for a life of wandering & obscurity in the wilds of East Africa. Charles Nicholl pieces together the story of Rimbaud`s life as a trader, explorer & gun-runner in Africa. We follow his trail across the Somali desert, through the backstreets of Djibouti, & into the highlands of Ethiopia. We glimpse him with his Abyssinian mistress in Aden, walking the ”souks” of Cairo with 20 pounds of gold around his waist, & crossing the desert with a camel-train of Remington rifles. The journey leads also into the strange psychological terrain of Rimbaud`s desire to escape. ...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKBrave, illuminating & inspiring, Somebody I Used to Know gets to the very heart of what it means to be human. What do you lose when you lose your memories? What do you value when this loss reframes how you`ve lived, & how you will live in the future? How do you conceive of love when you can no longer recognise those who are supposed to mean the most to you? When she was diagnosed with dementia at the age of fifty-eight, Wendy Mitchell was confronted with the most profound questions about life & identity. All at once, she had to say goodbye to the woman she used to be. Her demanding career in the NHS, her ability to drive, cook & run
- the various shades of her independence
- were suddenly gone. Philosophical, profoundly moving, insightful & ultimately full of hope, Somebody I Used to Know is both a heart-rending tribute to the woman Wendy once was, & a brave affirmation of the woman dementia has seen her become.

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It is summer 1990, only months after the border dividing Germany has dissolved. Maria, nearly seventeen, moves in with her boyfriend on his family farm. A chance encounter with enigmatic loner Henner, a neighbouring farmer, quickly develops into a passionate relationship. But Maria soon finds that Henner can be as brutal as he is tender
- his love reveals itself through both animal violence & unexpected sensitivity. Maria builds a fantasy of their future life together, but her expectations differ dramatically from those of Henner himself, until it seems their story can only end in tragedy. Someday We`ll Tell Each Other Everything is a bold & impressive debut in which love & violence, conflict & longing, are inextricably entwined.
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A big, intensely involving & evocative Indian novel, perfect for fans of Vikas Swarup`s Slumdog Millioniare, with its emotive &, ultimately, redemptive story. ` Will she recall that night? Or is it one of those too horrible times that her brain, taking pity on her soul, will choose to wipe out the memory? When she realizes what happened, she will recall it as the night she did her duty for her family, with no sense of shame or lingering fear. She will be matter-of-fact about it, resigned &, therefore, resilient.` Mamta, born low-caste & female in rural India against a backdrop of poverty & prejudice, is destined to be some man`s property. Her father says that bringing her up is only `tending someone else`s garden` until a husband is found for her. Eventually saved from becoming one of the nameless & faceless millions of rejected humanity, Mamt survives but at a terrible cost. Lyrically told, this powerful story of a woman`s struggle to find acceptance compels us to question: Is life random? Or do we have a destiny? ...

A creepy, compelling thriller, Someone to Watch Over Me is the fifth Thora Gudmundsdottir novel from Yrsa, ' Iceland's answer to Stieg Larsson' (Daily Telegraph). Berglind hurried to her son & pulled him forcefully from the window. She held him close & tried at the same time to wipe the windowpane. But the haze couldn't be wiped away. It was on the outside of the glass. Pesi looked up at her. ' Magga's outside. She can't get in. She wants to look after me.' He pointed at the window & frowned. ' She's a little bit angry.' A young man with Down's Syndrome has been convicted of burning down his care home & killing five people, but a fellow inmate at his secure psychiatric unit has hired Thora to prove Jakob is innocent. If he didn't do it, who did? & how is the multiple murder connected to the death of Magga, killed in a hit & run on her way to babysit? ...

A creepy, compelling thriller, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME is the fifth Th?ra Gudmundsd?ttir novel from Yrsa, ` Iceland`s answer to Stieg Larsson` (Daily Telegraph). Berglind hurried to her son & pulled him forcefully from the window. She held him close & tried at the same time to wipe the windowpane. But the haze couldn`t be wiped away. It was on the outside of the glass. Psi looked up at her. ` Magga`s outside. She can`t get in. She wants to look after me.` He pointed at the window & frowned. ` She`s a little bit angry.` A young man with Down`s Syndrome has been convicted of burning down his care home & killing five people, but a fellow inmate at his secure psychiatric unit has hired Thora to prove Jakob is innocent. If he didn`t do it, who did? & how is the multiple murder connected to the death of Magga, killed in a hit & run on her way to babysit? ...

The 1:50, 000 topographic map gives a more general picture of the ground features than a basic map. It shows settlements, houses, roads, cultivated areas, waterways, cutting areas, mires, rock exposures, & relief. One map sheet covers an area of 30 x 40 km & one centimetre corresponds to 500 metres on the ground. The 1:50, 000 topographic map is also an ideal complement to nautical charts as it provides useful information about the land areas adjacent to waterways. For example, all Finnish sea areas are covered by 1:50, 000 topographic map sheets. ...

Somerset in a series of colourful reproductions of attractive county maps by John Speede from about 1610-1611, printed on thick art paper & ideal for framing. Each title, 58 x 45cm / approx. 23” x 18”, is decorated with additional notes, drawings, coats of arms, street plans, etc. Little drawings are used to show locations of towns, larger villages, hills & woodlands or parks. Rivers & lakes are also drawn, as are boundaries of the administrative subdivisions with the names of the Hundreds. Surrounding the county are decorative panels filled with additional information which differs from title to title: street plans, coats of arms of notable local families, geographical features, notes about local history, etc. ...