Winner of the Society for Nautical Research's prestigious Anderson Medal 2010. Nicholas Black examines the role of the Naval Staff of the Admiralty in the 1914-18 war reassessing both the calibre of the Staff & the function & structure of the Staff. He challenges historians such as Arthur Marder & naval figures such as Captains Herbert Richmond & Kenneth Dewar who were influential in creating the largely bad press that the Staff has received subsequently showing that their influence has at times been both unhealthy & misinformed. The way in which the Staff developed during the war from a small overstretched & often manipulated body to a much more highly specialised & successful one is also examined reassessing the roles of key individuals such as Jellicoe & Geddes & suggesting that the structure of the Staff has been misunderstood & that it was a rather more sophisticated body than historians have traditionally appreciated. Black also looks at how the Staff performed in various major naval issues of the war: the role of the Grand Fleet the war against the U-boat the Dardanelles Operation & the implementation of the economic blockade against Germany. Overall the book complements & at times challenges both operational histories of the war & biographies of the leading individuals involved. NICHOLAS BLACK is Head of History at Dulwich College. ...

In August 1944 the British Pacific Fleet did not exist. Six months later it was strong enough to launch air attacks on Japanese territory & by the end of the war it constituted the most powerful force in the history of the Royal Navy fighting as professional equals alongside the US Navy in the thick of the action. How this was achieved by a nation nearing exhaustion after five years of conflict is a story of epic proportions in which ingenuity diplomacy & dogged persistence all played a part. As much a political as a technical triumph the BPF was uniquely complex in its make-up: its C-in-C was responsible to the Admiralty for the general direction of his Fleet; took operational orders from the American Admiral Nimitz; answered to the Government of Australia for the construction & maintenance of a vast base infrastructure & to other Commonwealth Governments for the ships & men that formed his fully-integrated multi-national fleet. This ground-breaking new work by David Hobbs describes the background creation & expansion of the BPF from its first tentative strikes through operations off the coast of Japan to its impact on the immediate post-war period including the opinions of USN liaison officers attached to the British flagships. The book is the first to demonstrate the real scope & scale of the BPFs impressive achievement. ...

*1 000 colour photographs help students learn the words in context *3 500 words in topic areas such as Food Housing Clothes for everyday life as well as Computers Jobs Sports & Animals. * Conversation Activities on each page for practice in class. * Writing Activities help students learn vocabulary in an enjoyable way & help them use words in full sentences *3 Audio CDs with all the words pronounced ...

Tony Wrights Very Short Introduction to British Politics is an interpretative essay on the British political system rather than merely an abbreviated textbook on how it currently works. He identifies key characteristics & ideas of the British tradition & investigates what makes British politics distinctive while emphasizing throughout the book how these characteristics are reflected in the way the political system actually functions. Each chapter is organized around a key theme such as the constitution or political accountability which is first established & then explored with examples & illustrations. This in turn provides a perspective for a discussion of how the system is changing looking in particular at devolution & Britains place in Europe. ...

So
- you want to be knowledgeable about British politics but don't know where to start. The rich history complex statistics & tricky
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The authors previous two-volume history of British private aircraft between the wars is the seminal work on the topic. He has now extended the story into the post-war years & describes the many changes & developments in the industry after 1945. From being a world leader in private light aircraft the British industry struggled & ultimately failed to compete with the US & French industries. How & why this happened is described in detail by someone who was heavily involved in the industry & suitable blame is apportioned between governments financiers & designers! Volume 1 is profusely illustrated with photographs from the authors unrivalled collection & 3-view plans of all significant aircraft. ...

The second volume in a two-part series on post-WW2 British light aircraft this book describes & illustrates all the designs built & flown from 1945 on. It features full technical descriptions 3D-view drawings & photographs for each type to complement the full history of the period covered in Volume 1. This is an invaluable resource for all those interested in light aircraft & in the British aviation industry. ...

This is a comprehensive railway atlas covering the state of Britains railways on 1 January 1955 at the dawn of the modernisation era. Despite some closures the system was still as it was at Nationalisation with many rural branch lines still operating & thousands of stations open. The lines of each of the six regions are identified using the traditional colour associated with that region
- orange for Northern Eastern Region green for Southern etc
- & passenger & freight only lines are further distinguished. Based on Ian Allan Publishings computer database of the railway network British Railways Atlas 1955" is a fascinating snapshot of the nations railway network in the era immediately prior to the wholesale closures of the 1960s."

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Designed specifically for modellers of the modern scene this new book provides a comprehensive reference to all the livieries that have come & gone on the network since the wholesale privatisation of the mid 1990s. It is now more than 70 years since the first DMUs made their first appearance on the British railway system & more than 50 years since DMUs were introduced onto the BR network in large numbers. From the late 1950s onwards several thousand DMU vehicles were brought into service as replacement for steam services over branches & secondary routes & from the mid-1980s onwards this first generation of DMU was gradually replaced by a second-generation of DMU although the final elimination of the first-generation units did not occur until the first years of the 21st century. On the privatised railway of the 21st century virtually all non-electrified passenger services are now operated by DMUs of one design or another & on the preserved railways many examples of the first generation of stock continue to earn their living. Although initially ill-favoured as the years passed so the humble DMU has attracted an ever-growing army of enthusiast fans & this is reflected in the number of web-sites devoted to the subject to the increasing number of models that are emerging
- a reflection of the fact that virtually no model railway covering the BR scene post 1955 can avoid operating DMUs. Fully illustrated throughout this is the perfect volume for all serious modellers!
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To the uninitiated the reign of the Southern Region diesel-electric multiple-unit sets in public service
- the fleet comprising
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