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The first hardback photobook celebrating London's greatest record shops
The First World War largely directed the course of the twentieth century. Fought on three continents, the war saw 14 million killed and 34 million wounded. Its impact shaped the world we live in today, and the language of the trenches continues to live in the modern consciousness. One of the enduring myths of the First World War is that the experience of the trenches was not talked about. Yet dozens of words entered or became familiar in the English language as a direct result of the soldiers' experiences. This book looks at how the experience of the First World War changed the English language, adding words that were both in slang and standard military use, and modifying the usage and connotations of existing words and phrases. Illustrated with material from the authors' collections and photographs of the objects of the war, the book will look at how the words emerged into everyday language.
Within seventeen years of the first public broadcast in Britain, the nation again found itself at war. As the Second World War progressed, the BBC eventually realised the potential benefits of public radio and the service became vital in keeping an anxious public informed, upbeat and entertained behind the curtains of millions of blacked-out homes. The Radio Front examines just how the BBC reinvented itself and delivered its carefully controlled propaganda to listeners in the UK and throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. It also reveals the BBC's often-strained relationships with the government, military and public as the organisation sought to influence opinion and safeguard public morale without damaging its growing reputation for objectivity and veracity. Using original source material, historian and author Ron Bateman tracks the BBC's growth during the Second World War from its unorganised and humble beginnings to the development of a huge overseas and European operation, and also evaluates the importance of iconic broadcasts from the likes of J.B. Priestley, Vera Lynn and Tommy Handley.
How did our ancestors use the concept of demons to explain sleep paralysis? Is that carving in the porch of your local church really what you think it is? And what's that tapping noise on the roof of your car..? The fields of folklore have never been more popular – a recent resurgence of interest in traditional beliefs and customs, coupled with morbid curiosities in folk horror, historic witchcraft cases and our superstitious past, have led to an intersection of ideas that is driving people to seek out more information. Tracey Norman (author of the acclaimed play WITCH) and Mark Norman (creator of The Folklore Podcast) lead you on an exploration of those more salubrious facets of our past, highlighting those aspects of our cultural beliefs and social history that are less 'wicker basket' and more 'Wicker Man'.
Everyone knows the story of the codebreaker and computer science pioneer Alan Turing. Except ... When Dermot Turing is asked about his famous uncle, people want to know more than the bullet points of his life. They want to know everything – was Alan Turing actually a codebreaker? What did he make of artificial intelligence? What is the significance of Alan Turing's trial, his suicide, the Royal Pardon, the £50 note and the film The Imitation Game? In Reflections of Alan Turing, Dermot strips off the layers to uncover the real story. It's time to discover a fresh legacy of Alan Turing for the twenty-first century.
E. H. Gombrich's Little History of the World, though written in 1935, has become one of the treasures of historical writing since its first publication in English in 2005. The Yale edition alone has now sold over half a million copies, and the book is available worldwide in almost thirty languages. Gombrich was of course the best-known art historian of his time, and his text suggests illustrations on every page. This illustrated edition of the Little History brings together the pellucid humanity of his narrative with the images that may well have been in his mind's eye as he wrote the book. The two hundred illustrations—most of them in full color—are not simple embellishments, though the...
As the third and largest sister of the famous Olympic-class trio, Britannic is often and unjustly overlooked in comparison to Olympic and Titanic. Launched on the eve of war in February 1914, Britannic would never see service on the White Star Line's express service on the North Atlantic mail run for which she was built. After being requisitioned by the Admiralty in November 1915 His Majesty's Hospital Ship Britannic instead became indispensible to the thousands of injured and sick troops that needed transporting back to Britain from the Mediterranean theatre of war. However, as was the fate of many liners during the conflict, her life was cut tragically short when she was suddenly wracked b...
Coward. Brute. Yellow-livered. For over 100 years, J. Bruce Ismay has been the scapegoat of the Titanic disaster. He is the villain of every film and TV drama: a fit and able-bodied man who sacrificed the lives of women and children in order to survive. Some even claim that it was his fault the Titanic sank, that he encouraged the captain to sail faster. But is this the true story? In Understanding J. Bruce Ismay, Clifford Ismay opens up the family archives to uncover the story of a quiet man savaged by over a century of tabloid press. This is a must-read for any enthusiast who wishes to form their own opinion of the Titanic's most infamous survivor.
For centuries, living afloat on Britain's waterways has been a rich part of the fabric of our social history, from the fisherfolk of ancient Britain to the bohemian houseboat dwellers of the 1950s and beyond. Whether they have chosen to leave the land behind and take to the water or been driven there by necessity, the history of the houseboat is a unique and fascinating seam of British history. In Water Gypsies, Julian Dutton – who was born and grew up on a houseboat – traces the evolution of boat-dwelling, from an industrial phenomenon in the heyday of the canals to the rise of life afloat as an alternative lifestyle in postwar Britain. Drawing on personal accounts and with a beautiful collection of illustrations, Water Gypsies is both a vivid narrative of a unique way of life and a valuable addition to social history.
Stunning illustrations to colour in, charting the 100-year history of the RAF