The Great Western Railway Map 1924: Paddington to Penzance, folded version, from The Old Book House presents the whole 305 miles long route divided into two separate panels, printed side by side on one, over two metres long strip. All stations along the route are marked & annotated with distances from Paddington & to Penzance. The map also shows tunnels & other railway lines connecting to or crossing the route, indicating sections closed since 1924. All along its course the route is annotated with comments on various features of the line & local sights, etc, including text describing changes since 1924. The map is presented in an elegant paper envelope & comes with a separate small booklet providing more historical background. This title is also available as a wallmap. ...

American wine
- once an object of ridicule
- now holds its own against the world`s best. In ” The Great Wines of America”,

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The complete picture of Earth as it is today is presented in this definitive atlas of the world. Cloud-free satellite images, stunning ...

NOW A RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her husband Philip, a GP. With Philip spending long hours on call, Isabel finds herself isolated & lonely as she strives to adjust to the realities of married life. Woken by intense cold one night, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under it for warmth, she starts to dream. & not long afterwards, while her husband is out, she is startled by a knock at her window. Outside is a young RAF pilot, waiting to come in. His name is Alec, & his powerful presence both disturbs & excites her. Her initial alarm soon fades, & they begin an intense affair. But nothing has prepared her for the truth about Alec's life, nor the impact it will have on hers.. . ...

In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her husband Philip, a GP. With Philip spending long hours on call, Isabel finds herself isolated & lonely as she strives to adjust to the realities of married life. Woken by intense cold one night, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under it for warmth, she starts to dream. & not long afterwards, while her husband is out, she is startled by a knock at her window. Outside is a young RAF pilot, waiting to come in. His name is Alec, & his powerful presence both disturbs & excites her. Her initial alarm soon fades, & they begin an intense affair. But nothing has prepared her for the truth about Alec`s life, nor the impact it will have on hers... ...

Civilizations have been fighting each other for thousands of years. Some mighty civilizations have left few traces except descriptions of their greatest martial endeavours & some ancient conflicts remain unresolved today. The Greatest Battles in History is an authoritatively written & brilliantly illustrated reference work to the key wars & battles fought from ancient times up to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Arranged in chronological order from the early Middle Eastern conflicts such as Megiddo & Kadesh through to the Napoleonic Wars, each entry

Includes:: full-colour illustrations either maps or artworks as well as information boxes containing key facts & figures & a description of the context, the course of battle & the conflict`s aftermath. An easily accessible guide to more than 160 battles & campaigns, The Greatest Battles in History is essential reading for enthusiasts & general readers alike.

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From a creative crisis to a dissatisfied editor, & from a bizarre twist of fate to an untimely death, behind each unpublished book lies a unique & compelling story. One of the giants of modern literature, Ernest Hemingway, saw three years of work, including a novel & several short stories, vanish when his wife`s suitcase was stolen in the Gare de Lyon in Paris. Evelyn Waugh, on the other h&, burned the manuscript of his first novel & attempted to drown himself after a friend gave it a bad review. Covering an eclectic range of international authors, both living & dead, The Greatest Books You`ll Never Read unearths an alternative literary history that is fascinating & heartbreaking in equal measure. Each ill-fated book, from Karl Marx`s comic novel Scorpion & Felix to Stephenie Meyer`s Twilight spin-off Midnight Sun, is examined in an in-depth essay, with selected entries featuring manuscript extracts. Specially commissioned covers by acclaimed designers illustrate each entry, bringing to life these lost literary wonders. At once entertaining & enlightening, The Greatest Books You`ll Never Read will be loved by bookworms everywhere. ...

Before Pep Guardiola & before Jose Mourinho, there was Bela Guttmann: the first superstar football coach, & the man who paved the way for the celebrated coaches of the modern age. He was also a Holocaust survivor. In 1944, much of Europe had wanted Guttmanndead. He hid for months in an attic near Budapest as thousands of fellow Jewsin the neighbourhood were dragged off to be murdered. Later, he escaped from aslave labour camp before a planned deportation & almost certain death. Hisfather, sister & wider family were murdered. But by 1961, as coach of Benfica, he had lifted Europe`s greatest sporting prize, the European Cup, a feat he repeated the following year. This biography spans two contrasting visions of Europe: one of barbarism andgenocide, & one of beauty, wonder & romance, of balmy evenings inmagnificent cities, where great players would stretch every sinew in a bid towin football`s holy grail. With dark forces rising once again in thatcontinent, the story of Bela Guttmann`s life asks the question: which visionwill triumph in our times? ...

Throughout history, a handful of unusually driven individuals have been inspired to explore the limits of the known world, inspiring us & changing our perceptions of our planet through their courageous adventures. What is it that makes these men & women risk their lives in desperate, often fatal efforts to discover distant & inaccessible places? Robin Hanbury-Tenison, himself one of the most distinguished explorers of the 20th century, looks at the greatest of their kind in history, bringing their experiences to life in vivid & compelling anecdotes & drawing on their own first-hand accounts. Among the explorers he features are some who are well known, like James Cook & David Livingstone, & some less so, such as Herodotus, the first European to record an expedition & Nain Singh, who walked huge distances to map the forbidden lands of Tibet, counting every pace. & he asks: what was it, & is it, that motivates these unusual people? & how have they enriched our world through their adventures? ...

Laying out Manhattan`s street grid & providing a rationale for the growth of New York was the city`s first great civic enterprise, not to mention a brazenly ambitious project & major milestone in the history of city planning. The grid created the physical conditions for business & society to flourish & embodied the drive & discipline for which the city would come to be known. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York celebrating the bicentennial of the Commissioners` 1811 Plan of Manhattan, this volume does more than memorialize such a visionary effort, it serves as an enduring reference full of rare images & information. The Greatest Grid shares the history of the Commissioners` plan, incorporating archival photos & illustrations, primary documents & testimony, & magnificent maps with essential analysis. The text, written by leading historians of New York City, follows the grid`s initial design, implementation, & evolution, & then speaks to its enduring influence.A foldout map, accompanied by explanatory notes, reproduces the Commissioners` original plan, & additional maps & prints chart the city`s pre-1811 irregular growth patterns & local precedent for the grid`s design. Constituting the first sustained examination of this subject, this text describes the social, political, & intellectual figures who were instrumental in remaking early New York, not in the image of old Europe but as a reflection of other American cities & a distinct New World sensibility. The grid reaffirmed old hierarchies while creating new opportunities for power & advancement, giving rise to the multicultural, highly networked landscape New Yorkers thrive in today. ...