From its south-eastern tip Sussex is little more than sixty miles from continental Europe & the countys coastline some seventy-six miles long occupies a large part of Britains southern frontier. Before the days of Macadam & the Turnpike water travel could prove more certain than land transportation & the seas that define the borders of our nation aided rather than deterred the invader. Though the last successful invasion of Britain took place almost 1 000 years ago the gently shelving beaches of Sussex have tempted the prospective invader with the promise of both an easy disembarkation & a short & direct route to London
- the last time being just seven decades ago. As the authors demonstrate the repeated threat of invasion from the Continent has shaped the very landscape of the county. The rounded tops of the Iron Age hill forts the sheer walls of the medieval castles the squat stumps of Martello towers the moulded Vaubanesque contours of the Palmerstone redoubts & the crouched concrete blocks & bricks of the Second World War pillboxes constitute the visible evidence of Sussexs position on Britains front line.
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The launch in 1906 of HMS Dreadnought the world's first all-big-gun battleship rendered all existing battle fleets obsolete but at the same time it wiped out the Royal Navy's numerical advantage so expensively maintained for decades. Already locked in an arms race with Germany Britain urgently needed to build an entirely new battle fleet of these larger more complex & more costly vessels. In this she succeeded spectacularly: in little over a decade fifty such ships were completed almost exactly double what Germany achieved. It was only made possible by the country's vast industrial nexus of shipbuilders engine manufacturers armament firms & specialist armour producers whose contribution to the creation of the Grand Fleet is too often ignored. This heroic achievement & how it was done is the subject of this book. It charts the rise of the large industrial conglomerates that were key to this success looks at their reaction to fast-moving technical changes & analyses the politics of funding this vast national effort both before & during the Great War. It also attempts to assess the true cost
- & value
- of the Grand Fleet in terms of the resources consumed. & finally by way of contrast it decribes the effects of the post-war recession industrial contraction & the very different responses to rearmament in the run up to the Second World War.

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As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics
- The New 52 event of September 2011 Batwomans new series finally begins! The creative team
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An extraordinary epic brilliantly-imagined new novel from a world-class writer & author of The Name of the Rose. Discover the Middle Ages with Baudolino
- a wondrous dazzling beguiling tale of history myth & invention. It is 1204 & Constantinople is being sacked & burned by the knights of the fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage & confusion Baudolino saves a Byzantine historian & high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors & proceeds to tell his own fantastical story.
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Her family's cottage was a place of innocence for twelve-year-old Julie Bauer
- until her sister was murdered. It's been many years
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Baychimo is the legendary Hudsons Bay Company ship that survived for years in the Arctic after being abandoned by her crew in 1931. In the 1920s the crew of Baychimo set up trading posts in eastern Canada sailed on fur-trading expeditions to Siberia during the turbulent years of the Russian Civil War & eventually made the dangerous annual voyage around Alaska to Canadas western Arctic coast shouldering her way through the ice floes to re-supply the HBCs remote trading posts. Anthony Dalton tells the story of the hardy ship & her sometimes irascible captain Sydney Cornwell & through them brings to life the larger story of the community of northern traders hunters & sailors of which Baychimo was a part. But this ships story had a remarkable twist. When Baychimo was caught in 1931 in an ice floe that refused to let go her crew expected her to sink at any moment & abandoned ship. But she was as stubborn as the ice & she floated away unharmed to begin what would prove to be the longest phase of her seemingly charmed career: for the next four decades she would appear on the horizon at unexpected times & places always defiantly upright & afloat becoming the legendary ghost ship of the Arctic. ...

Machine learning methods extract value from vast data sets quickly & with modest resources. They are established tools in a ...

The Bayeux Tapestry is a fine 11th century masterpiece which has proved of exceptional documentary value towards our current ...

Who were the embroiderers of the Bayeux Tapestry? What were their tools their materials & how could such a massive project have been designed & organised? These questions & many others have been avoided for so long due to a lack of hard facts but in this book the author has drawn upon her own experience as an embroiderer & artist to piece together all the clues she could find in the tapestry itself. After extensive research Jan Messent has compiled a fascinating & colourful account which will help to place this famous embroidery in a plausible context. This new study is essential reading for anyone wishing to know more about The Bayeux Tapestry Embroiderers. ...

Countryfile Magazine is packed full of great ideas for you to explore the British countryside. In every issue you will get fresh ideas for visiting Britain’s most beautiful landscapes watching wildlife & discovering our heritage & traditions plus the best of local food.
Our expert writers show you the best walks nature reserves market towns & villages & recommend the most interesting places to eat & stay as well as revealing the stories & traditions of the countryside that others overlook.
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