Faced by the necessity of replacing its classic Pacific type steam locomotives on the East Coast main line British Railways constructed the 22-strong Deltic class. Developed from the prototype DP1 & now preserved as part of the National Collection the class derived its nickname from the use of the Napier Deltic diesel engine. Initially allocated to three depots; Haymarket Gateshead & Finsbury Park the locomotives proved to be highly successful on the East Coast express services for which they were designed. However as a small class the cost in maintenance was such that when the replacement Inter City 125s were introduced the decision was taken to withdraw the class. In later years the class was also to see operation away from their traditional haunt being used on services between Liverpool & Newcastle. The entire class was taken out of service between January 1980 & January 1982 with six of the class eventually being preserved. In the 30 years since the types withdrawal the surviving members of the class have been seen on a number of preserved lines & on the main line. The continuing interest in the class was evinced in early 2007 when it was announced that there was a possibility that one of the preserved examples No 55016 Gordon Highlander might be cannibalised for spares & the remains scrapped. This led to a considerable outcry amongst interested parties & the creation of a new preservation group dedicated to the locomotives preservation. Although the group was unsuccessful in its bid the locomotive was secured & is now likely to be restored for main-line use. This brand new all-colour album celebrates 50 years of the Deltic type. The book

Includes:: 85 colour illustrations which concentrate almost exclusively on the types service on BR & also on a small number of post-preservation images. These images of which the vast majority will be previously unpublished will also be accompanied by highly detailed & informative captions.

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The last of the Western Regions diesel-hydraulic classes of main-line locomotives to enter service the Westerns (or Class 52s) were first to enter traffic in December 1961. The most powerful of the hydraulics by some margin the 74 members of the class were all in service by December 1963 having been constructed by Swindon & Crewe works. Used on the Westerns main-line passenger services following the demise of steam the class was eventually to see service on a wide range of both passenger & freight traffic as diesel-electric traction came to dominate. This last class of diesel-hydraulics to remain in service was withdrawn in early 1977 though seven examples of the class survive in preservation. This volume is a wholly new all-colour album celebrating 50 years of the type; the book

Includes:: c 1000 words of introductory text allied toC 85 colour illustrations the vast majority of which are previously unpublished. The book concentrates almost exclusively on the types service on BR but a small number of post-preservation images are also included. The examples that survive in preservation are located in: West somerset railway Severn valley railway East lancs railway National railway museum Birmingham railway museum Midland railway

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I like to hear his name especially when he says it. His voice is rich & dark like those jams they sell in tiny pots at twice the price of normal jars & they call preserves" to justify the cost. I chose him for his name in fact -- half Mayfair hairdresser & half Vatican incumbent. So speaks Nial a woman with a mans name & confused about her gender -- uncertain about most things save her obsession with John-Paul. She shares this obsession with modest Mary & conscientious Bryan. All three lead secret lives. Mary a conventional housewife with a dream-home in the suburbs is inflicting burns on her genitals & stockpiling vibrators; Bryan a mother-harried city clerk updates his Disaster Scrapbook & takes his snake to bed seeking refuge from Chaology & the horrors of the quantum revolution; Nial swaps sex for blood-drenched dreams of an ex-Naxi butcher in the High Street. All seek help & healing from the mysterious John-Paul but is he sage & saviour or untrained unlicensed con-man? In her powerful & hilarious new novel Wendy Perriam mixes the blackest of black comedy with a serious examination of madness in its many forms -- the religious excesses of miracles & visions; the crazy chaos of modern phsyics; & especially the distortions of the fifty-minute hour itself; those wild or weeping sessions on the analysts couch. With her usual wit & gusto she explores the murky world of the psychologically disturbed -- a world as comically bizarre as it is genuinely tragic. A screamingly funny book which almost blows the mind & will outrage the prudish. Sunday Telegraph" ...

Norman Mailers The Fight" focuses on the 1975 World Heavyweight Boxing Championship in Kinshasa Zaire. Muhammad Ali met George Foreman in the ring. Foremans genius employed silence serenity & cunning. He had never been defeated. His hands were his instrument & he kept them in his pockets the way a hunter lays his rifle back into its velvet case. Together the two men made boxing history in an explosive meeting of two great minds two iron wills & monumental egos." ...

Every weekend in basements & parking lots across the country young men with good white-collar jobs & absent fathers take off their shoes & shirts & fight each other barehanded for as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes & loosened teeth & the sense that they can handle anything. Fight Club is the invention of Tyler Durden projectionist waiter & dark anarchic genius. & it's only the beginning of his plans for revenge on a world where cancer support groups have the corner on human warmth. ...

Its not only food & inactivity that can make you fat in midlife
- so can stress. After the age of forty the accrued stresses of
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Rome 61 BC Recruited as a gladiator young Marcus Cornelius Primus faces a new life of brutal training governed by strict rules as he learns the skills of an elite warrior. But Marcus cannot simply forget his past. His father lies murdered by soldiers & his mother has been kidnapped & forced into slavery. Marcus is determined to find his fathers old commander Pompeius the Great to seek justice for his family & set his mother free. Yet unbeknown to him Marcus is hiding a life-threatening secret. & if the Romans discover it there will be no escape.. . ...

Jonah Delacroix cant stand the real world
- so he lives most of his life inside a global computer-based virtual world called the
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Pen & Sword Books are proud to be re-issuing this the only book that the legendary legless ace Douglas Bader (immortalised by the film Reach For The Sky) wrote. He tells the inspiring story of the Battle of Britain from the viewpoint of The Few. Using superb illustrations he traces the development of the Spitfire & Hurricane & describes the nail-biting actions of those who flew them against far superior numbers of enemy aircraft. As an added bonus other well-known fighter aces including Johnnie Johnson Laddie Lucas & Max Aikten contribute to Douglass book no doubt out of affection & respect. This is a really important contribution to RAF history by one of the greatest -and certainly the most famous
- pilot of the Second World War.
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