20 Great Britain


so new rubs shoulders with old, the streets, lanes, mews, crescents, roads, squares and courts intersect at delightfully irregular angles and history and tradition are as much an influence as commercial concerns in what “planning” that has gone on. Once the centre of the greatest mercantile empire ever, and today one of the world’s most important financial centres, London has always been much more than just a capital city, and this splendid, idiosyncratic anthology features the opinions of writers as diverse as Dickens and Joe Orton, Dostoyevsky and Lenin and Boswell and Martin Amis. Here are high life and low life, beggars and politicians, criminals, royals, intellectuals and criminals, and, of course, the buildings and byways, railways and canals, the street level and subterranean that form the very fabric of the city. 493 paperback pages.


£14.99 NOW £6


74898 LATE EXTRA!: Hackney in the News by David Mander


Here David Mander, Borough Archivist for Hackney, paints a vivid picture of life in Hackney over the past 250 years as it was reported and recorded in local newspapers and, prior to their founding, from national publications. Arranged thematically it looks at


subjects such as housing, health, welfare, local government, education and schools, transport, law and order, wartime, religion, race issues, politics, social attitudes and entertainment through a wide range of publications. The newspapers themselves are looked at in detail too; the editors, journalists, proprietors and the way each one went about its reporting. Extracts from the later 18th and early 19th centuries present a wonderful picture of the lives and concerns of local people, with reports of duels, bull baiting, elopements, sudden deaths, highwaymen, “balloon foolery”, pageants, boxing and petty crime (usually warranting not very petty punishment!) all featuring prominently. Police and court reports, violence and accidents are part of the story, but so too are hospitals, business, social occasions and the cinema, as the bizarre, tragic and comic episodes of Hackney sit alongside its routine workaday life. Over 150 b/w illus and original transcripts. 124pp softback.


£10.99 NOW £4.50


74902 POPLAR MEMORIES by John Hector


Much has already been written about the East End of London but the 85-year-old author of these vivid recollections of a Cockney area before and during WWII brings to his narrative a happy simplicity that is totally endearing. With spell- binding accuracy, he conjures up a picture of a vanished era when Poplar, set in what was, at that


time, the teeming rundown docklands neighbourhood, was famous only for being at one end of the Blackwall Tunnel under the Thames. These were the halcyon days of ‘talking pictures’ and pavement buskers, Saturday night knees-ups round the piano, eel and pie stalls, chimneysweeps, Clarnico’s toffees and Lloyd Loom furniture, and a little shop called Woolworth’s selling ‘nothing over sixpence’, which is 2.5p to those who have forgotten the times before Britain went decimal. John Hector was disabled by infantile paralysis but he went on to become School Captain and, at 14, embarked on a successful career, surviving extreme poverty, panel doctors, dockers’ riots and Hitler’s Luftwaffe. He never lost his unshakeable belief in the ordinary people of Poplar. A beautifully nostalgic 121 pages filled with b/w archive photos. £14.99 NOW £5


75098 LONDON OBSERVED: A Polish Philosopher at Large, 1820-24


by Krystyn Lach-Szyrma The earliest description of British society to be written in Polish (translated here), this book aroused great interest at a time when both English and Scottish institutions were widely admired, and London had become the most vibrant city in Europe. The philosopher and


writer Krystyn Lach-Szyrma came to Britain in the early 19th century as tutor to two Polish princes. Over a period of 18 months in London they visited prisons, hospitals and factories as well as art galleries and museums, and were entertained by people of the caliber of Elizabeth Fry and Robert Owen. They familiarised themselves with the Houses of Parliament, the Stock Exchange and Westminster Abbey, but were also intrigued by London’s inns and theatres. Looking at the capital’s financial, religious and academic institutions, they analysed the class system and problems of law and order, and pondered such mysteries as the origins of the term ‘Cockney’ and the nature of English breakfasts. With insatiable curiosity and good humour, in perceptive and readable style, the philosopher recorded their impressions of London and Londoners. 13.9 x 21.6cm, 332 paperback pages illustrated in b/w. First edition, 2009.


£12.99 NOW £6


74526 YORK BOOK OF DAYS by Robert Woodhouse


A day by day potted history of quirky, eccentric, amusing and important facts about the City of York. 1816, the first steam packet that ever came to York appeared in our river and in 1662 on April 26th King Charles II issued the Royal Charter of Incorporation of the Company of Merchant Tailors of the City of York who were licensed to export wool. Newspaper reports from the Yorkshire Herald and Yorkshire Evening Post, much about trains, MPs, businesses and museums, gardens and education, county cricket, suffragettes, Dick Turpin executed at Tyburn in 1739 and much more. 368 pages.


£9.99 NOW £4


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74320 CLARISSA’S ENGLAND: A Gamely Gallop


Through the English Counties by Clarissa Dickson Wright From Cornwall to Cumbria, Norfolk to Northumbria, she brings her extraordinary local knowledge, huge interest in food, forthright opinions and inimitable wit to the distinctive history and regional character of every corner of England. Here is a cornucopia of cookery lore and


history, revealing such strange info as the fact that Boudicca was the original Essex girl, that Lincolnshire has a coriander crop second only in size to India’s, and disclosing just why a Cornish pasty should never contain carrots. 422 pages with map, line drawings and colour and b/w plates.


£20 NOW £6.50


74474 CANTERBURY BOOK OF DAYS by Paul Crampton


For each day of the year this glorious book of days contains a quirky, eccentric, amusing or important event or fact from different periods of history. Many had a major impact on the religious or political history of England as a whole and for this volume (The York Book of Days also available code 74526) the Kentish Gazette and City Council records are quoted copiously. The Pedigree factory closed in the 1980s. Roller skating at the Agricultural Hall, Mound used as a gun platform, the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury Hubert Walter in 1220 where we learn that the heads carved into the tomb is thought to depict the Muslim, his friend Saladin. Fascinating details about Canterbury Cathedral, town lamps, fires and much more. 368 prettily decorated pages.


£9.99 NOW £3.50


74560 ROLLING THROUGH THE ISLES A Journey Back Down the Old Roads that Led to Jupiter’s Travels by Ted Simon


Takes readers on an unforgettable trip by motor bike with a celebrated adventurer and writer. The result is a revealing portrait of modern Britain. It is also a witty and affectionate journey back to the past, when Ted would hitchhike


across the country visiting friends, and girlfriends. En route, he returns to the site of his old school with its astonishing wartime history and visits familiar haunts where he did his National Service and got his first job in newspapers. He also visits less familiar places. Some, like Winchester Cathedral, inspire him. Others, such as a tax office in Nottingham, defeat him. 249 pages, colour. £20 NOW £5


74504 NARROW DOG TO WIGAN PIER


by Terry Darlington


The Narrow Dog series recounts the exploits of Terry and his wife Monica aboard their narrow boat the Phyllis May, together with their two whippets Jim and Jess. Just as Terry is reluctantly wondering whether at age 75 he should pocket his pen and stow his mooring ropes, the Phyllis May is destroyed by a


fire. In no time at all the Darlingtons have got themselves a new boat, the PM2, and are planning a round trip up the Trent and Mersey from Stone via Wigan to Tewitsfield, then another foray on the other side of the Pennines via the Aire and Calder and Trent and Mersey Canals. In the process Terry decides to tell his life story, so the journeys are punctuated with flashbacks, from his childhood in Pembroke Dock to a stay as a Lever Brothers executive in Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel, designed in 1912 with a decor to imitate the Titanic. Terry sprinkles the text with his own poetry, and his anecdotes include drinking with Roger McGough and the other Liverpool poets. The Huddersfield Narrow is unnavigable, but finally they make it home to a drink by Aston Lock. 352pp, maps, decorations. £14.99 NOW £5


74515 DEVON AND CORNWALL by Debbie Stowe


An excellent Thomas Cook Traveller’s Guide which invites us through the staggeringly beautiful and varied scenery of Britain’s longest national trail, the 630 mile long South West Coast Path. Surf with the Newquay crowds, sample one of Devon’s delicious cream teas, find out about the Beast of Bodmin, walk on Dartmoor, visit Jamaica Inn and Daphne Du Maurier country, discover the legends of King Arthur, the delights and hospitality of food, Sir Francis Drake, Exeter city centre and the charming village of Clovelly. With places to eat, stay, sights and tours, colour maps and photos, 176pp in paperback.


£9.99 NOW £3.50


73824 THE ENGLISH LAKES: A History by Ian Thompson


A strange combination of events saw the Lake District’s popular image transformed in the space of 50 years. The Georgians had developed a fascination with the Alps, but the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars made travel there impossible. So, our budding mountaineers turned their attentions closer to home, providing the spark for a national and international love affair with the Lakes. Add to this the arrival of the likes of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and De Quincey and their transformation from a region of “horrid mountains” to one of “vales of peace” was complete. Over 20 million people a year visit the Lake District. What is the source of its magnetic attraction and how did it come to exert its spell? As well as the poets, artists, climbers, conservationists and storytellers like Turner, Ruskin, Beatrix Potter and Arthur Ransome have added to our perception of this magical place, and how could we not mention the legend that is Alfred Wainwright. Superb colour photos, paintings, etchings and archive photography. 343pp. $45 NOW £7


74568 WAINWRIGHT FAMILY WALKS VOLUME ONE: The Southern Fells


by A. Wainwright and Tom Holman


20 walks ranging from one to seven miles in length on the Southern Fells. The routes are adapted to provide up-to-date and manageable walks, mostly circular with options from a gentle evening stroll to an easy day’s walking at a leisurely


pace. It is a selection of 20 wonderful fell walks with sketches and notes reproduced from Alfred Wainwright’s timeless ‘Pictorial Guides’. Alongside his handwritten text are Tom Holman’s practical information on public transport, where to park, facilities, directions and a little history. 240pp in pocket sized softback. £9.99 NOW £4.50


74776 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE: A Shire County Guide by Ian F. W. Beckett


A model village, a brewery, canal cruisers, a rest home for horses, a rare breeds park, West Wycombe caves and mausoleum and the Hell Fire Club, vineyards, and not to mention of course the famous Marlow suspension bridge, industrial architecture, beautiful halls in the Chalfonts, a gothic temple at Stowe, Disraeli’s house Hughenden Manor, ancient monuments like Grim’s Ditch, quaint villages like Latimer, old pubs, wild orchids in flower, wildlife centres, parks and cottages, discover the treasures of Buckinghamshire. Plus notes on famous people, Chiltern footpaths and nature reserves and archaeological sites. Colour and mono illus. Location maps. 104pp in paperback.


£5.99 NOW £3


72123 LYTTLETON’S BRITAIN by Iain Pattinson


The ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue’ team in the company of their esteemed chairman Humphrey Lyttelton, began recording their popular BBC Radio show in 1971. At each venue Humph would present a short history of the location, written by Iain Pattinson, to the mutual delight of the audience, the team and their delightful scorer Samantha. From Greenwich and Covent Garden to Southsea, Stoke-on-Trent and Chester, Belfast and Wales, here are great vignettes and useless information, photos and maps. 224pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £2.50


72732 MOST AMAZING ROYAL PLACES IN BRITAIN The Palaces, Battlefields and Secret Retreats of Britain’s Kings and


Queens edited by Jo Bourne et al A regional guide to the great estates, historic houses and special places made famous by the monarchs of England, Scotland and Wales, over 400 sites. They range from the White Tower, built by William the Conqueror to somewhat more humble White Eagle pub at Rhoscolyn on Anglesey. Each entry has directions and postcodes for satnavs and there is a full description and potted history featuring all the important facts, figures and people. 223pp softback. £14.99 NOW £4


73886 WRITTEN IN STONE: England’s


Literary Heritage by Jill Sharp For centuries, England’s historic and prehistoric monuments have inspired writers and poets. The journey begins at Stonehenge and follows a broad sweep clockwise around England. Here are John Cowper Powys’ Maiden Castle, Hound Tor Medieval Village - home to the Hound of the Baskervilles - the romantic Tintagel where King Uther Pendragon fell in love with Ygerna or Igraine. Here is the Royal Garrison Church in which the Family Price worshipped in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. There are just too many delights to enumerate. 150 paperback pages, colour, maps and list of 81 authors with the places that attracted them.


£9.99 NOW £5


73063 CROSS COUNTRY: English Buildings and Landscape from Countryside to Coast by Peter Ashley


Here are abandoned Cornish tin-mines above tide- washed caves, Norfolk boat sheds leaning crazily over salt marshes, Romney Marsh shepherds’ houses hidden behind roadside willows, a sheep-wash in the Cotswolds and a disused petrol pump in Herefordshire. Throughout, the wry commentary and superbly unusual pictures allow us to rediscover and delight in what we may have deemed to be familiar territory. 240 pages 25cm x 19.5cm, colour photos and maps.


£24.99 NOW £4.50


73970 LONDONERS: The Days and Nights of London Now As Told By Those Who Love it,


Hate It, Live It, Left It and Long For It by Craig Taylor


In an epic oral portrait in 80 voices, an acclaimed writer and editor succeeds in producing a fresh and compulsively readable autobiography of the inhabitants of one of the world’s most fascinating cities. Together, these voices paint a vivid and wholly original picture of 21st century London. Here is a West End rickshaw driver, a nightclub door attendant, a mounted soldier of the Queen’s Life Guard at Buckingham Palace, a squatter, a dominatrix, a street cleaner and dozens more - including a couple who fell in love at the Tower of London and now live there! 413 rough cut pages with coloured map and sketch map of districts.


$29.99 NOW £5.50


74523 WALKING WITH WORDSWORTH IN THE LAKE DISTRICT by Norman and June Buckley


A three mile walk in Grasmere village, along Ambleside, Loughrigg Tarn, Hawkshead, Keswick, Derwent Water, Martindale and Ullswater, each of the 20 hikes range from 1½ to 7¼ miles. Here are 20 walks connected to Williams Wordsworth, set out with maps and clear directions, advice on car parking, refreshments, mostly circular and how to return to the starting point by bus or boat if linear. See one of the finest waterfalls in the country and enjoy green meadows, rocks and woods. 160pp, index, colour photos and maps. Paperback.


£8.99 NOW £3.50


74082 CHELTENHAM by Stephen Morris


In the 18th century, when society had a passion for ‘taking the waters’, Cheltenham’s chalybeate springs were endowed with almost magical curative qualities by speculators anxious to emulate Bath’s legendary success. In what was still an obscure agricultural community below the Cotswold Hills a cabal of entrepreneurs raised fancy pump rooms in which the great and the good might dance, flirt and be cured of mostly imaginary diseases. With George III’s visit, Cheltenham became the most fashionable resort in England, where wealthy arrivals were greeted by a band in the street, and deposed European royalty took refuge. Today, Cheltenham remains England’s most complete Regency town, where the literature and music festivals, the racecourse and colleges continue to draw visitors. 112 pages 27cm x 25.5cm in gorgeous colour. £16.99 NOW £6


74035 BIRMINGHAM SPORTS & RECREATION: From Old Photographs


by Eric Armstrong and Rosemary Stafford Edgbaston had become the home of Warwickshire CCC and was a Test venue by 1902, and other ball games such as rugby, hockey, netball and tennis flourished. Many swimming pools and gymnasiums were also built around the turn of the century and swimming, gymnastics, weightlifting and boxing became very popular as a result. Cinemas, music halls and theatres popped up all over the city and suburbs, attracting impressive numbers of patrons, and the rivers and lakes soon filled up with boats in the summer and skaters in the winter. All of these sports and entertainments were popular subject matter for local photographers and postcard makers, and here over 200 b/w images. 128pp softback.


£12.99 NOW £5


74043 PENRYN THROUGH TIME by Ernie Warmington


The Cornish port of Penryn is an attractive town with a lot of history and lies in a sheltered position at the head of the Penryn River, which flows into Falmouth Harbour. In this fascinating selection of over 180 colour and b/w photos we see the many ways in which Penryn has changed and developed over the past century - and, in some cases, how it has not! Ernie Warmington shows us plenty of “then and now” shots. Here are the docks, wharfs, shipping and the river, schools, old town dignitaries, sports teams, trains and the railway, roads, cars, buses and lorries, weddings, churches and a wealth of other local ephemera such as old bills, invoices, adverts, bill posters and newspaper cuttings. 96pp softback.


£14.99 NOW £4.50


74168 SHAKESPEARE’S LOCAL by Pete Brown


Shakespeare’s local was the galleried, half-timbered George Inn at the head of Borough High Street next to the Globe Theatre. In King John there is a reference to St. George swinging on the sign at Mine Hostess’s door, which seems likely to be a reference. In the 16th century the George remained in the ownership of the Sayer family, burning down twice and being rebuilt with improved facilities. In 1634 the landlord Henry Blundell was in court before the Archdeacon for opening up during divine service on a Sunday. In the 18th century three landladies in three generations were called Valentina. In the 19th century it passed into the ownership of the Great North Railway company and today it is owned by the National Trust and is leased to the Greene King group. A rollicking social history. 352pp, illus.


£16.99 NOW £6


74224 EMPIRE HALTS HERE: Viewing the Heart of Hadrian’s Wall by Stan Beckensall


The Roman army had conquered most of Britain by the time it moved to what is now Cumbria and Northumberland. The Wall was massively tall, still surviving to three metres at its greatest height, with two turrets equally spaced between mile castles - all with


garrisons and connections with each other by road, track and signals. Here is a replica wall at Vindolanda, which gives a sense of overpowering scale. Here is the great Whin Sill outcrop - a series of basalt pillars in clusters that were once volcanic lava oozing along the fault lines in sandstones and limestones, cooling quickly so that the rock rapidly crystallised and became very tough. This produced rock that was used in places to make a core for the Wall. 159 paperback pages lavishly illus in colour.


£16.99 NOW £4.50


74228 LIVERPOOL CITY CENTRE THROUGH TIME


by Ian Collard


Although recorded in the Domesday Book in 1087, Liverpool was not mentioned in any Royal Charter until 1178 when the region was gifted to Henry II’s falconer, Warine de Lancaster. In 1207 the then King John created Liverpool as a Borough and port. It was not until the 17th century that the city began to grow on the profits of trade with America. The results of this fascinating history is shown here in this excellent collection of “then and now” photos and paintings of surviving buildings and recognisable parts of town, 85 locations in all. The Strand, Lime St, Parker St and Bold St, Exchange Flags, Blacklers department store, Beetham Plaza, the Pier Head, the Cunard Offices, the Victoria Building, the Olympia. 96pp softback.


£14.99 NOW £6


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