At the start of the 1960s there were approaching 100 municipal operators in the UK; these ranged from Belfast in Northern Ireland to Aberdeen in the north of Scotland & from Exeter & Plymouth in the southwest to Maidstone in the southeast. By the mid-1970s as a result of the creation of the PTEs (which saw the demise of municipal operators in the countrys major conurbations) & the demise of a small number that were taken over by local NBC operators
- most notably Luton & Exeter
- the number of municipally owned operators had declined to just over 40. Following privatisation & deregulation the number of council-owned operators has declined to less than a dozen
- ranging from the 600-strong Lothian Buses to barely 60 operated in Widnes by Halton Transport. Although the rate of decline has diminished in recent years the municipally-owned companies in Plymouth Bournemouth Chester Blackburn & Eastbourne have all been sold in recent years. This is a narrative history of the 40+ municipal operators that survived the creation of the final PTEs in 1974/75. The book will include c 30 000 words of text allied toC 150 predominantly colour illustrations.


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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. ...

Britains Secret War" tells the astonishing story of how Britains spies boffins & special operations teams helped to win the Second World War. The work of the Bletchley Park codebreakers in breaking the German Enigma cipher is estimated to have cut the length of the war by around two years saving countless lives while the Double Cross system in which German secret agents were "turned" by the British to feed their Nazi agent-runners with false information ensured the success of the D-Day landings. " The Secret War" not only reveals new details about these remarkable operations but also tells the real story of how MI6 turned the disaster of lost networks across Europe into triumph. The stories range from extraordinary courage to the bizarre with even astrologers & a stage magician brought in to help get intelligence & allied aircrew out of Nazi-occupied Europe. Intelligence historian Michael Smith describes the work of all the participants in the Secret War revealing a host of new heroes & heroines along the way." ...

Murder is rare. Rarer still are those killers who get away with it
- but they are out there walking our streets. Included in this
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This title was selected for Guardian" books of the year. The familiar image of the British in the Second World War is that of the plucky underdog taking on German might. David Edgertons bold compelling new history shows the conflict in a new light with Britain as a very wealthy country formidable in arms ruthless in pursuit of its interests & sitting at the heart of a global production system. The British indeed Churchillian vision of war & modernity was challenged by repeated defeat by less well equipped enemies. Yet the end result was a vindication of this vision. Like the United States a powerful Britain won a cheap victory while others paid a great price. " Britains War Machine" by putting resources machines & experts at the heart of a global rather than merely imperial story demolishes some of the most cherished myths about wartime Britain & gives us a very different & often unsettling picture of a great power in action." ...

The coastline of Victorian & Edwardian Britain provided beauty entertainment & the venue for most peoples holidays. But it was also a thriving centre of industry
- shipbuilding & fishing plus the numerous trades associated with dockyards coastal transport & the leisure industry. This book travels around Britains coast
- clockwise from London
- looking at the industries that could be found at many of the cities & towns en route. Illustrated with an amazing collection of coloured postcards & other early photographs the working coast of Britain is brought to life in all its bustling detail.


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Full-colour guide to over 260 pubs throughout the UK which have interiors of real historic significance
- some of them stretching
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