the history press ltd united kingdom stroud (Over 2,300 results)

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Good. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. For more than 300 years the legend of the man in the iron mask has held a place on the stage of human enquiry and debate. From the time of his incarceration during the reign of Louis XIV right through to modern day the awful fate of the man condemned to live a lifetime with his face encased in iron has inspired, depending on the era, anger, horror, pity and fascination. The author presents all the known facts of the prisoner's existence chronologically as they have been discovered, together with all the myths that have flourished, from the preposterous stories put about by his gaoler in 1669 to the famous legend immortalized in the 19th century by Alexander Dumas, and on into modern times with the supposed discovery of his skeleton in an old tower in Cannes in 1977. As the prospective candidates, including the twin brother of Louis XIV, the Duke of Monmouth, Richard Cromwell, Moliere, Nicholas Fouquet, an Armenian archbishop, an Italian astrologer and the mysterious Eustache Dauger, are brought before the reader's attention. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Planned by the Manchester & Birmingham Railway in 1845 - partly to antagonise the Grand Junction Railway - the Trent Valley line ran between Stafford and Rugby, passing through Lichfield, Tamworth and Nuneaton en route. Various railway companies were involved initially, but the line was soon absorbed into the London & North Western Railway, and became part of the West Coast Main Line. In his new book Mike Hitches tells the complicated story of the TVR in a clear and accessible manner, primarily through over 200 well-captioned photographs (including stations, engines, rolling stock, and the ill-fated 'tilting' Advanced Passenger Train of the early '80s, which was trialled on this line), track plans and maps. Sample shed allocations are included, as are appendices that examine various aspects of the TVR's history in more depth. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Draws attention to one of the secrets of the Second World War. This work explains the difficulties of the missions, utilizing the first-hand recollections of the men who completed the dive-bombing raids. It is intended for those who are interested in the Second World War. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The age of steam is past, the heyday of Swindon Works is long gone but the legend lives on. What made the Great Western Railways Swindon Works iconic? Was it its worldwide reputation; perhaps its profound impact in shaping the new town of Swindon; or that it melded those who worked there into one big family? In a new and exciting format, this book, by popular railway historian Rosa Matheson, helps explain why the never-ending love story endures. With big facts and fascinating stories, it is a must read not only for ex-Works employees and their families, nor just for GWR fans and railway enthusiasts, but also for any newcomer seeking to find a good way into railway history. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. During the Second World War, the only way Winston Churchill and his American counterpart Franklin D. Roosevelt could communicate was via a top secret transatlantic telephone link. All other Atlantic telephone cables had been disconnected to prevent the Germans intercepting information. Ruth Ive, then a young stenographer working in the Ministry of Information, had the job of censoring the line, and she spent the rest of the war listening in to the conversations across the Atlantic, ready to cut the line if anything was said that might compromise security. Ruth was sworn to secrecy about her work, and at the end of the war all documentation proving the existence of the telephone line was destroyed. It was not until 1995, when Churchill's private files were finally declassified, that Ruth was able to research her story. Now, for the first time, one of the Second World War's key workers describes the details of her incredible story, and the private conversations of two of the war's most important players can be revealed. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. An exciting new addition to any family historians library, Family History: Digging Deeper will take your research to the next level. Joined by a team of expert genealogists, Simon Fowler covers a range of topics and provides clear advice for the intermediate genealogist. Helping you push back the barriers, this book details how to utilise the internet in your research and suggests some unusual archives and records which might just transform your research. It will teach you about genealogical traditions, variants of family history around the world and even the abuse of genealogy by the Nazis. It will help you understand current developments in DNA testing, new resources and digitised online material. Problem-solving sections are also included to help tackle common difficulties and provide answers to the brick walls often reached when researching ones ancestors. If you want to dig deeper into your family tree and the huge array of records available, then this book is for you. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This volume traces the origins of the Puritans in the religious and political turmoil of 17th-century England with the foundation of New England and the English Civil War as the double climax. It concludes with a chapter exploring and assessing the Puritan heritage of the United States and its influence on the modern world. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Across a 12-foot wall and the width of a white painted line at Checkpoint Charlie, East and West confronted each other for nearly 30 years. Yet it is the individual stories that are perhaps most telling. Astonishingly, these memories are largely untapped, so until now the complete story of the Berlin Wall - the people's story - has remained untold. Christopher Hilton, a journalist and writer, has been captivated by Berlin's unique past for three decades, visiting it many times and conducting hundreds of interviews there since the Wall came down. Leading world politicians, the American military, the British military, East German border guards and ordinary people on noth side all feature here, their memories interwoven into the narrative. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The well-known history of the First World War is one of the trials and tribulations of men on the Western Front, in ditches and dug-outs in atrocious conditions, but it is easy to forget this was the first truly global war that stretched out to touch civilians and soldiers alike. German submarines and their blockades saw rationing introduced across Britain, women went to work to replace men fighting in the trenches and the nation was shelled by battleships, bombed by Zeppelin and even attacked by plane. Here, for the first time, Peter Cooksley looks at the effects of the war on the civilian population and gives a new insight into what 'mummy and daddy did in the war', a propaganda slogan of the time. Carefully researched and illustrated by a wealth of contemporary photographs and ephemera, this volume tells the story of those left at home. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Drawing upon personal recollections, contemporary Mass Observation reports, newspaper articles and advertisements, personal and archive photographs, Mike Brown and Carol Harris look at each wartime Christmas on the British Home Front, from 1939 to 1944. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. John Ruskin was one of the greatest Victorian critics of art and society, but he was also preoccupied with politics, economics and education. This pocket-sized biography explores his influence on his own age and ours, examining his work, his relationships and his creative life. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This pictorial history of Essex County Cricket Club traces the history of the club from its early beginnings in 1876 through the golden age, the 1930s, the 1940s and 1950s to their first championship trophy in 1979 and beyond. From the breakthrough in 1979 until 1998, Essex won the county championship six times, the Benson & Hedges Cup twice, the National Westminster Bank Trophy twice and the John Player Sunday League three times. The famous names of Essex cricket are all documented and include: Charles Kortright, Percy Perrin, Johnny Douglas, Ken Farnes, Tom Pearce, Maurice Nichols, Peter Smith, Trevor Bailey, Brian Taylor, Keith Fletcher, Graham Gooch, Neil Foster, Mark Ilott, Ronnie Irani and James Foster. The wealth of overseas talent that has represented the country is also included - Lee Irvine, Keith Boyce, Norbert Phillip, Allan Border, Mark Waugh, Salim Malik, Stuart Law and most recently, Andy Flower. The variety of grounds from Chelmsford and Colchester to the metropolitan Ilford and seaside at Southend used for first-class and limited-overs cricket together with potted statistics and illustrations of Essex memorabilia are available for supporters to view amd remise. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Brunel's main line from Paddington to Bristol was, and still is, the most important of the Reading railways. For over 125 years steam dominated this great route, its green-liveried engines, adorned with brass and copper trim, each exhibiting the characteristic style that typified the designs of the Great Western Railway. Among the photographers who regularly recorded the railway scene at Reading was Walter Gilbert, whose trademark was quality. Wally, as he liked to be known, took his camera both east and west from Reading. Captured here through the lens of his camera are striking reminders of the years between 1950 and 1963 - so different from the modern experience of high speed trains and turbo units. Taken from the collections of a number of other enthusiasts, Kevin Robertson illustrates locations such as Henley-on-Thames and Didcot and shows locomotives and trains both at work and at rest. This superb collection of photographs will evoke strong memories for many, and prove an important guide to this part of our railway heritage. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. These journals, written in the early part of the 19th century, provide an insight into Gloucestershire life and the world of the Victorian parson. Witts describes his life, work and pastimes, just before rail transport made travel a lot faster. He notices how the fashionable world behaves as he passes through Cheltenham, and how the building of the town progresses. The reader discovers that John Forbes, the architect of the beautiful Pittville Pump Room, was sentenced to transportation for life for fraud, even though it was subsequently commuted to a few years in prison. The parson describes the countryside through which he travelled, and the country houses in which he stayed, particularly Prinknash, where he was a frequent visitor to the Howell family, and Lydney, where he stayed with the Bathursts. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. A celebration of the days when steam reigned supreme in Dorset. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Riversdale Robert 'Barney' Barnfather was an RAF fighter pilot who flew Spitfires in action almost continuously from November 1941 until the end of the war in Europe. Barney was often in the thick of the fighting and saw action in the offensive sweeps over France, in the desperate air battle for Malta, the fighting in North Africa, the invasions of Sicily and Italy, and finally on the fringes of the Third Reich over Austria in 1945. This type of experienced and brave pilot formed the backbone of Fighter Command and after many operational flying hours, clashes with enemy aircraft and even a mid-air collision, he survived it all relatively unscathed. Thanks to the fascinating personal log book that Barney kept of his experiences, the contributions from his former colleagues and extensive historical research, Angus Mansfield has produced a detailed and enthralling history of a Spitfire pilot's escapades thousands of feet above the battlefields of the Second World War. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Ancestry-tracing is fun; it brings history to life and it gives a greater sense of personal identity. Our ancestors become real people; they may have been ordinary, blue-blooded or famous, but whatever they were the search itself is rewarding. Tracing a family history and gradually constructing one's own unique pedigree is an absorbing hobby, a never-ending detective investigation. This book tells the beginner exactly how to set about it: how to collect information from living relatives, how to make full use of all existing clues and traditions, how and where to find written records and what information they can be expected to provide as well as the likely problems that may be encountered and possible ways to solve them. Many books have been written for the would-be genealogist but none has ever equalled the success or popularity of Arthur Willis's Genealogy for Beginners. Since it was first published in 1955, this readable little guide has introduced far more ancestry-tracers to the subject than any other. Now it has been completely revised and re-written by Karin Proudfoot, so that it is once more the most up-to-date book on the subject and the best buy for the beginner of today. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. It is the third of September 1939. It is just after half past eleven in the morning. I am fifteen years and sixteen days old. The radiogram at my home, the Woodman Hotel in Clent, has just been switched off, the silence resonates around the room, and a deathly hush has fallen. The Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, has declared that, despite the best efforts of the politicians of the day to secure peace in our time, the inevitable has befallen us; despite pledges to the contrary, Germany has invaded Poland, Hitler has ignored requests to back down and so, therefore, Britain is now at war with Germany. Minutes after the broadcast ends, my Father, Sidney Wheeler, goes quietly up to his room where he methodically loads three bullets into his First World War revolver. This is the true story of a fifteen-year-old girls experience of the Second World War, based around her parents hotel in a sleepy Worcestershire village. As war is declared, her father prepares three bullets for the invasion. He will shoot the family and himself when the Germans come. In their village, local Germans are imprisoned (guilty or not). The blackout is immediate and has tragic consequences. There is a court case over an alleged poker game. An abortion nearly results in tragedy. Handsome young airmen fly low over the hotel. Pamela has a premonition of death. The business fails. An air raid very nearly kills them all. She is called up first to factory work and then to the Land Army. She marries by special licence. As the war comes to an end she is living at home with her parents and a small baby, at which point she is just twenty-one years of age. Amusing and entertaining, surprising and often moving, Pamela's account vividly captures one familys life on the home front in Worcestershire. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Through Squadron histories, log books, official reports and interviews with the people who flew clipped winged Mark XVI Spitfires to dive-bomb V1 and V2 rocket sites at night in 1944; a story as fascinating as the Dam Busters raid or the Battle of Britain is at last fully told, the 60th anniversary of Operation Big Ben, having previously been cloaked in secrecy. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. For years hillwalkers and climbers have struggled to understand the complexities of weather systems. Written by a professional weather forecaster, Weather for Hillwalkers provides invaluable insight to the beginner and veteran alike. Now in a new edition, Malcolm Thomas offers an understanding of the principles of the elements the causes of wind, rain, snow, cloud, fog, thunder and clear skies and looks at how they are affected by mountains and high ground. Readers will learn the terminology of depressions, warm and cold fronts, air masses and more; how to interpret weather maps; and how to make short-term weather forecasts from observations. This is essential reading for those tackling the elements amongst the hills. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. A study of Richard III that looks behind the myths to present a accurate picture of the man. This also looks at why he has remained an enigma for so long. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This collection of over 200 old photographs illustrates scenes from the communities of Willenhall and Horseley Fields. These pictures show how relatively unchanged the streets and buildings of Willenhall are. A walk around the town today shows that it is still possible to see many of the features which appear in the oldest photographs in this book. By contrast, the old area of Horseley Fields has all but disappeared. The history of Willenhall or Humpshire as it is affectionately known, as a world-renowned centre for lockmaking is illustrated and we see people at work, leisure and sport. The book also looks back to the more industrial days of Horseley Fields. Through the medium of photography the book captures the essence of life as it used to be in Willenhall and Horseley Fields and will appeal to both young and old. This is the third book written by the author, in a series which, by the millennium, will cover all the environs of Wolverhampton. Codsall and Claregate and Tettenhall and Pattingham are already available and four more are in preparation. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The Conservative Party is Britain's most successful political party. For large parts of modern British history it has been the dominant party, though it has always suffered from internal division and periods of defeat. This colourful account of the Party's history since the late 18th century takes the reader on a voyage of discovery. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.