The story of Isleworth Studios is essentially that of the British film industry from 1914 to 1952. Beginning with the first British Sherlock Holmes screen adaptation & ending with its Oscar-winning swansong The African Queen in the intervening years it was one of the most technically advanced studios in the country & home to some of the best & the worst examples of British cinema. It experienced the transition from silent films to talkies. Britains only movie mogul Alexander Korda arrived looking to rival Hollywood followed by Douglas Fairbanks Jnr looking to rival Korda. Buster Keaton struggled with alcoholism; Richard Burton made his screen debut; Bogart Hepburn & Huston made a classic; & Emeric Pressburger directed his first & only film at Isleworth. Little by little the dream factorys physical shape is now crumbling or altered or is disappearing altogether. Soon it may be gone. Isleworth Studios has a history worthy of more than just an addendum in the annals of the British film industry. This is its story told for the very first time ...

What kind of Royal Navy does Britain need now? The 21st century promises to be one of huge uncertainties & challenges for the senior service. Does Britain have the right naval strategy to cope with emerging threats (does it have a naval strategy at all & should it?) & if so does the Navy have the right ships & enough of them to implement it? Given the time taken to introduce changes & develop new systems policymakers naval chiefs & designers are confronted with 50-year decisions. But future choices are likely to be clouded by economic uncertainties produced by the current crisis which could have implications for decades. Nick Childs looks at the changing strategic environment (including ever greater maritime trade & the growth of other navies such as China India South Korea revolutions in North Africa & the Middle East). He asks what Britains role in the world could or should be
- is she still interventionist? (Libya says yes). If so should our forces be designed purely to work with US UN or Western European forces? What are the options for a naval strategy? The author then considers what kind of navy would be needed to support such options. What kind of ships are needed & how many? What of aircraft carriers & the nuclear option? What are the technological developments affecting current & future warship design projects? Is the new Type 45 destroyer what is needed & worth the cost? Given the depths to which the RN has shrunk in terms of numbers public profile & strength relative to its peers this probably is a critical period in terms of determining the RNs future.
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British TV comedy in its glorious forms
- from sitcom to sketch shows -is a much-loved highlight of the small-screen schedules.
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Britain fought in the Second World War to save the world from fascism. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler came the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya
- a mass armed rebellion by the Kikuyu people demanding the return of their land & freedom. The draconian response of Britains colonial government was to detain nearly the entire Kikuyu population of one-&-a half-million
- to hold them in camps or confine them in villages ringed with barbed wire
- & to portray them as sub-human savages. From 1952 until the end of the war in 1960 tens of thousands of detainees
- & possibly a hundred thousand or more
- died from the combined effects of exhaustion disease starvation & systemic physical brutality. Until now these events have remained untold largely because the British government in Kenya destroyed most of its files. For the last eight years Caroline Elkins has conducted exhaustive research to piece together the story unearthing reams of documents & interviewing several hundred Kikuyu survivors. Britains Gulag reveals what happened inside Kenyas detention camps as well as the efforts to conceal the truth. Now for the first time we can understand the full savagery of the Mau Mau war & the ruthless determination with which Britain sought to control its empire.




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The British Isles have a long rich & celebrated seafaring history stretching from the earliest times through the victories of Drake & Nelson the voyages of discovery of Cabot & Cook & the defence of the realm by vessels of all types in the present century. Much of this history is recorded in literature & in museums but reaches its most tangible form in the large number of historical ships that have been preserved & are continually restored as monuments to a proud past. This lavish new volume explores twenty of the most celebrated & accessible ships & offers a comprehensive history of each vessels design construction active service & subsequent restoration & preservation. Presented in order of a ships launch date each entry is written by the acknowledged expert on a particular vessel gives full

Specification details & is sumptuously illustrated with contemporary photographs historical illustrations & a full set of scale plans. In addition to the featured entries an appendix presents all of the necessary contact details & opening times where applicable. The appendix also lists (and provides details for) other vessels of historical importance including a small number of working replicas such as the Matthew & the recently commissioned eighteenth-century frigate The Grand Turk featured in the current Hornblower television series. Principal vessels include: Mary Rose HMS Victory HMS Trincomalee SS Great Britain Cutty Sark RRS Discovery HMS Warrior HMS Belfast HMY Britannia HMS Alliance HMS Cavalier Gypsy Moth IV HMS Plymouth.

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Beautifully elegiac...a memento mori of British civic pride lost to the shopping centres & ring roads of the 1960s... This masterful book should be placed in every council planning committee in the country Tristram Hunt BBC History Magazine The destruction of Britains city centres by the combined efforts of the Luftwaffe & postwar planners is legendary. Mediaeval churches Tudor alleyways Georgian terraces & Victorian theatres vanished for ever to be replaced by concrete office-blocks & characterless shopping malls. Now for the first time Gavin Stamp shows us exactly what we have lost. Reproduced in this haunting volume are hundreds of finest top quality photographs of cities from Plymouth to Dundee all of streets & buildings that are gone for ever. In the accompanying text Stamp traces their creation & destruction remembering the massive campaign to save the Euston Arch wantonly demolished in 1962 & mourning the loss of lovely mediaeval Coventry which was already doomed by the city planners even before German air-raids intervened. Alternately fascinating enraging & heartbreaking this is an extraordinary evocation of Britains architectural past & a much-needed reminder of the importance of preserving our heritage. One of Britains best-known architectural historians Gavin Stamp is author of numerous books including Lutyens Houses. He is an energetic campaigner against demolition of important buildings & writes for numerous publications including Country Life Apollo & Private Eye. ...

Featuring 60 superb color plates this is an easy-to-use photographic identification guide to the 51 orchid species native to ...

The story of Britains prime ministers is also the story of Britains key moments in history. From the first PM Sir Robert Walpole to William Pitt the Younger the charismatic Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington to the reforming Victorians Sir Robert Peel Disraeli Gladstone & in the twentieth century Lloyd George Baldwin the gret Sir Winston Churchill through to Markaret Thatcher Tony Blair & to the present day this illustrated guide is an insightful look at the development of Britain & parliament. ...

British post-imperial decline has been much examined. In these memoirs David Hannay one of Britains leading behind-the-scenes players in this process provides fascinating frontline information & insights into Britains complex relations with Washington & Europe. From his early career in the Middle East to his role as a top diplomat Hannay presents a detailed & authoritative narrative of British foreign policy in the second half of the 20th Century. A key player in European policy-making he was directly involved in bringing about the UKs entry into the European Community as well as being closely involved in the Annan plan while he was the UKs Special Representative in Cyprus. Hannay illuminates vital themes in the early relationship between Britain & the EU that are increasingly relevant today: British membership EU enlargement & Britains contribution to the European budget. From the complex relations between Margaret Thatcher & her diplomatic establishment to Britains decisions leading up to the 1970s oil supply crisis Hannay analyses the causes & consequences of major British foreign policy decisions over the past 50 years. An informed & balanced ringside view of diplomatic history over 50 years this book will fascinate general readers & prove essential reading for specialists. ...

This detailed guide to the reptiles & amphibians of Britain Ireland & the Channel Islands has been produced with the collaboration of the Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Trust with the aim of inspiring an increased level of interest in these exciting & fascinating animals. It is designed to help anyone who finds a lizard snake turtle tortoise terrapin frog toad or newt to identify it with complete confidence. It features stunning photography; an easy-to-use approach to identification; superbly illustrated introductory sections on the biology & conservation taxonomy lifecycle & behavior of each species group; profiles of the 16 native reptiles & amphibians that breed in Britain Ireland & the Channel Islands & the 5 marine turtles that visit Britains seas; profiles of 7 established nonnative species & a summary of 8 more with a history of release/escape; & distribution maps based on the latest available information Hints & tips on where when & how to watch reptiles & amphibians. ...