In the 1930s, as the world hurtled towards terrible global conflict, speed was all the rage. It was described by Aldous Huxley as `the one genuinely modern pleasure`, & one of the fastest & most thrilling ways to attain it was through the new sport of bobsledding. Exotic, exciting & above all dangerous, it was by far the most popular event at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. It required an abundance of skill & bravery. & the four men who triumphed at those Games lived the most extraordinary lives. Billy Fiske was an infamous daredevil, blessed with a natural talent for driving. He would later become the first American airman to die in the war
- flying for the RAF. Clifford Gray was a notorious playboy & a player on both Broadway & Hollywood. Or was he? His identity was a mystery for decades. Jay O` Brien was a gambler & a rogue who, according to one ex-wife, forced women to marry him at gunpoint. & Eddie Eagan, a heavyweight boxer & brilliant lawyer, remains the only man to win gold at both the Summer & Winter Olympics. This is their story, of loose living, risk-taking & hell-raising in an age of decadence, & of their race against the odds to become the fastest men on ice. We will never see their like again. Especially after the world did descend into that second, terrible global conflict.
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A leading Japanese journalist gives an analysis & descriptive account of Tokyo's current youth culture & modern Japanese society. He examines why 40 million young people between the ages of 15 & 30 are breaking away from traditional society to seek quick money & new ways of life
- technology, drugs, free sex, punk rock. Many school drop-outs join the tribes of lawless bikers hoping to be accepted into the immensely wealthy underworld gangs of the Yazuka. Each chapter of the book tells the story of a single character, & the range is broad
- from drug dealers, office girls & hostesses, to students at Tokyo's most prestigious university.

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Speed-Time-Distance Calculator Simple to use slide rule which calculates the third variable given the other two (distance covered, given speed & elapsed time). Outer sleeve manufactured from high impact plastic. NATO size also available. For more information or to enquire about Blundell Harling products, please email us at maritime@stanfords.co.uk. ...

Speed-Time-Distance Calculator with NATO Pattern Simple to use slide rule which calculates the third variable given the other two (distance covered, given speed & elapsed time). Outer sleeve manufactured from high impact plastic. Standard size also available. For more information or to enquire about Blundell Harling products, please email us at maritime@stanfords.co.uk. ...

Speke & Garston Docks in 1905 in a fascinating series of reproductions of old Ordnance Survey plans in the Alan Godfrey Editions, ideal for anyone interested in the history of their neighbourhood or family. Selected towns in Great Britain & Ireland are covered by maps showing the extent of urban development in the last decades of the 19th & early 20th century. In this title: the map is double-sided. The main map covers much of Garston Docks, stretching from the Old Dock southward & inland to Bank's Road. Features include the Old Dock, part of the New Dock, Garston Rocks, Cornholme Bobbin Works, Garston Relief & Labour Test Yard, Hamilton Iron Works, Graving Dock, ship yard, railway connections. The adjacent sheet 114.13 extends coverage eastward to the village of Speke. This map is altogether more rural, & features include All Saints church, Greyhound Farm, Speke Town Farm, many fields & the northern tip of Speke Hall. About the Alan Godfrey Editions of the 25 ...

This is a unique journey through English spelling, untangling the fascinating origins of its greatest eccentricities. Why is there an `h` in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press & his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to hand in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it sounded to their foreign cars, & it stuck. Seventy-five per cent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five per cent is complicated, & in Spell It Out our foremost linguistics expert David Crystal extends a helping hand to the confused & curious alike. He unearths the stories behind the rogue words that confound us, & explains why these peculiarities entered the mainstream, in an epic journey taking in sixth century monks, French & Latin upstarts, the Industrial Revolution & the internet. By learning the history & the principles, Crystal shows how the spellings that break all the rules become easier to get right. ...

The long awaited sequel to SPELLBOUND, which was listed by Kirkus Reviews among the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2011. ` Blake Charlton has created one of the few truly original magical systems we`ve seen in fantasy fiction` Tad Williams ` An absorbing read` Robin Hobb Leandra Weal has a bad habit of getting herself in dangerous situations. While hunting neodemons in her role as Warden of Ixos, Leandra obtains a prophetic spell that provides a glimpse one day into her future. She discovers that she is doomed to murder someone she loves, soon, but not who. Leandra`s quest to unravel the mystery of the murder-she-will-commit becomes more urgent when her chronic disease flares up & the Ixonian Archipelago is plagued by natural disasters, demon worshiping cults, & fierce political infighting. Everywhere she turns, Leandra finds herself amid conflict. As chaos spreads across Ixos, Leandra & her troubled family
- her misspelling wizard father Nicodemus Weal & dragon-of-a-mother Francesca De Vega
- must race to uncover the shocking truth about a prophesied demonic invasion, human language, & their own identities-if they don`t kill each other first.

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This title presents an accessible & beautifully illustrated introduction to the Books of the Dead the collections of magical spells on papyrus that the Egyptians believed would help them safely reach their afterlife. It presents a concise introduction to the perennially fascinating subject of ancient Egyptian attitudes to death & the dead. The British Museum holds an unequalled collection of Book of the Dead manuscripts on papyri. New photography captures the exquisite detail of the painted vignettes that accompany the spells. It is published to accompany a major exhibition at the British Museum, 4 November 2010 6 March 2011. For most ancient Egyptians, life on earth was short. But death was not an end; it was merely the entering of a new phase of being. They believed that the afterlife was a real place, but various obstacles, torments & judgements had to be overcome to reach it. To ensure a safe passage, wealthy Egyptians took with them specially commissioned compilations of spells, written on papyrus rolls. There was a large number of spells to choose from: spells for obtaining air, food & water; for transforming your body into another form, such a bird or lotus; for warding off hostile snakes & crocodiles; for preventing your heart from disclosing all your sins; for not permitting others to steal your body parts & soul; for not doing work in the realm of the dead; &, so on. Through these fragile papyrus texts & vignettes & a selection of other funerary objects, this book reveals what the ancient Egyptians believed lay between life & the afterlife. The Author John H. Taylor is a curator at the British Museum specializing in ancient Egyptian funerary archaeology. ...

Sperrin Mountains at 1:25, 000 on a large, double-sided Activity Map from the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland designed with outdoor enthusiasts in mind: waterproof & tear-resistant, topographic & GPS compatible, with hiking & cycling routes & tourist information for the area, plus coverage of the north-western part of the country at 1:100, 000. On one side a detailed map at 1:25, 000 shows the Sperrin Mountains with contours at 10m intervals & an overprint highlighting waymarked hiking trails. On the reverse is touring map of north-western Northern Ireland at 1:100, 000, with altitude tints & contours at 100m intervals showing the region`s topography, plus colours and/or graphics indicating different types of woodlands, beaches, etc. Road network highlights scenic routes & Sustrans National Cycle Network. A wide range of symbols mark various places of interest including campsites, nature reserves, antiquities & historical remains, recreational facilities, etc. Both sides of the map are GPS compatible, with the Sperrin Mountains map showing Irish National Grid at 1km intervals. Also provided is general information about the area & contact addresses of various relevant organizations. To see the list of titles in this series please click on the series link. ...

Map No. 763, Spessart, in a series of hiking maps from Kompass providing extensive coverage of Austria & Germany plus the Slovenian Alps, with hiking routes on a topographic base, various types of accommodation, recreational facilities, places of interest, etc. Many titles are now published as competitively priced sets of two or more maps, offering a wider coverage. Kompass are Europe ...