Rain, glorious rain! Here are the outdoor swimmers at Windermere, fields of daffodils with their heads bowing and speckled with raindrops, a stranded wooden sailboat, tourists under umbrellas in beautiful Kendal, Bowness-on-Windermere queueing for boats, a canoe paddling down a flooded road, an image of the day Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite almost became one with the fields inbetween flooded, benches left festooned with debris and leaves after catching the full force of a flood, a beautiful rainbow over Blelham Tarne, a flooded Stone Circle, rain-washed Martindale with a lady watercolour artist capturing the scene, cyclists making tracks along muddy paths and mud, mud, glorious mud at sheepdog trials and festivals. Lots of outdoor activities like sailing, picnics, camping, fishing, hiking, boating, all slightly soggy under the Lake District's vast rolling skies. A colour (!) photography book with a sense of humour and a difference, one for all Brits who just love our weather.

The English Civil War between King Charles I and Parliament during the 1640s caused some of the most tumultuous years in British history as society found itself 'by the sword divided' and neighbours disagreed on politics, religion and the economy. This stunning book looks at the conflict by taking apart the history of London at the time. Discover how a rift began to grow between King Charles I and parliament in January 1642 when the monarch made two constitutional errors, firstly invading the Commons, and then Guildhall, in search of five members of parliament, and secondly by leaving London entirely, abandoning the government as a result. Learn about the monumental Militia Ordinance, passed on 5 March 1642 to give parliament the power to appoint military commanders without the king's approval. While the ordinance itself asserted its purpose was to protect the king and kingdom's safety, it is thought of as one of the first steps that led to war in August that year. The book includes fantastic black and white photos of parts of London today to help readers visualise the history. The site of the Haberdashers' Hall in Gresham Street appears via a shot of the City of London plaque, a photographic reference to the book's detail that the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers purchased 150 muskets for the parliamentarian cause in 1643. There is a photo of a section of the old Roman Wall, with enhancements, which formed the inner ring of defence for the City of London during the war. Busts are also pictured, including likenesses of King Charles I and Oliver Cromwell who rose from military commander during the civil wars to the country's Lord Protector. Paperback, black and white images, thorough endnotes, 140pp.

The popular historian and author of 'The Berlin Airlift' turns his attention to September 1939. The British Home Front prepared itself for a massive air attack followed by German invasion, but Hitler was biding his time, and the people of Britain settled in to wait. With the Nazi threat in the background, daily life descended into false alarms and official incompetence, the Phoney War. Theatres and cinemas were closed and football matches cancelled, causing a plunge in morale. Thousands of women and children were evacuated to the countryside, only for many to flood back to the cities, preferring the dangers to being separated from their families. Control of the news was heavy-handed - by 1940 almost 30% of Britons were listening to German propaganda broadcasts, feeling that they gave a truer picture of the war. In fact the period from September 1939 to May 1940 was a time of intense political and military activity - the Blitzkrieg on Poland, the start of the U-boat menace, the disastrous Norwegian campaign, the political manoeuvrings that brought Churchill to power, the first evidence of Hitler's genocidal plans. Barry Turner skilfully weaves these events into a fresh and original tale of the British Home Front partly told with contemporary letters from his own collection, evoking the humour and the absurdities of everyday life in those dark days. Some of the 16 illustrations include evacuees returning home to London and villagers saying goodbye to the children they adopted for the war, instructional and propaganda posters, salvage of waste products, and the Essex farmer who had his herd of black cows painted with white stripes in case they should wander on the road after dusk, air raid trenches in St James's Park and an Austin Therm balloon car with a bag full of coal gas to fuel the car strapped to the roof! 370pp.

Royalty was popular in Barnsley in the early 20th century, and in 1912 King George V and Queen Mary paid a highly successful visit, attracting masses of cheering crowds to the town centre. Featured in the Domesday Book, Barnsley became an important centre in the 13th century when a market was established by Royal Charter, and in later centuries it was a staging post for coaches travelling further north. In 1914 Barnsley's Territorial Army numbered 220 and when war was declared they headed for Rotherham to receive their orders after listening to a patriotic address form Barnsley's Mayor. As the Battle of the Marne commenced, a fundraising concert at the Barnsley Empire raised over £44 for the war effort. At this time only about 30 per cent of the workforce was female, and most were in domestic service, but from the start of hostilities women began to work in a larger range of jobs. In October Mrs W K Peace signalled her willingness to receive a wounded soldier during his recuperation, and soon afterwards a group of about 35 Belgian refugees arrived in the town. At Christmas the Barnsley Union Workhouse, housing 100 women, 144 men and 44 children, received Christmas treats including a threepenny piece for each child. In April 1915 an outbreak of pilfering from local shops was traced back to a gang of children who were put on probation except for one girl who was sent to a reformatory. In October a new Variety Theatre was opened in the presence of the local aristocracy and dignitaries. The town rose to the demands of warfare, but by 1917 women working in jobs such as engineering were being warned they would have to relinquish them to men when the war ended. 198pp, paperback, black and white photos from the Barnsley Chronicle.

For more than a millennium, criminals in the British Isles were beheaded, garrotted, hung, drawn and quartered for crimes as varied as serial murder to impersonating a Chelsea Pensioner. Certain forms of execution, such as beheading, were reserved for the nobility, and up to the 18th century decapitated heads were displayed publicly on London Bridge. Hanging became the principal method of punishment at about the same time as the beginning of the movement for the abolition of the death penalty. In 1861 the number of capital crimes was reduced to four, and the last judicial executions took place in 1964 with permanent abolition in 1969. A number of high-profile miscarriages of justice contributed to the abolition, among them the trial of serial strangler John Christie in 1953, during which it emerged that a fellow housemate had been executed a few years earlier for a crime of which Christie was now found guilty. Another controversial case was the hanging of 19-year-old Derek Bentley, a mentally challenged young man whose younger accomplice had fired the lethal shot. Starting in 1900, the author lists all the judicial executions in Britain, totalling 865. Most entries are brief, giving the name, age, crime, date of hanging and name of the hangman, but some celebrated cases are described in detail. These include Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged, who was executed at Holloway in 1955 by Albert Pierrepoint, a member of a dynasty of chief hangmen. Ruth admitted killing her lover when she found him with another woman and made it clear she felt she deserved to die. By contrast, George Joseph Smith, the "brides in the bath" murderer, cold-bloodedly drowned a series of women for their money. 142pp, paperback, photos.

The day after war broke out in 1914 a battalion of the Durham Light Infantry set up camp in the city centre, accompanied by the Royal Field Artillery trundling their heavy weaponry. A recruiting drive had begun which was ultimately to see 360 of Durham's young people killed in warfare. When Corporal Bellaby was wounded at Mons in October it made the local news, but by the end of 1914 tens of thousands of soldiers had lost their lives, including members of Durham's mining community. 1914 had been a great year for England's rugby team, and local hero Arthur Dingle, who graduated from Oxford and then returned to teach at his old school in Durham, was a rugby international player. By the end of the war, 11 of the 30 members of the pre-war team had been killed, including Dingle who died at Gallipoli. 1915 saw the death of colourful Durham coal-owner Charles Stewart Vane Tempest Stewart, the 6th Marquess of Londonderry, who had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and a Conservative politician. The Durham Light Infantry managed to raise a total of 43 battalions during the whole war, including a "bantam" battalion where the height requirement was reduced to five feet. In 1916 the Mayor of Durham took delivery of a captured German field gun, and although the purpose of the acquisition was unclear, the Dean of Durham Cathedral made a rousing speech. Many aspects of life went on as normal, and in 1917 two men were up before the magistrates charged with spitting on the floor of a train. Women were active in the town's two Voluntary Aid Detachment hospitals during the war, mainly in nursing and catering. 144pp, paperback, photos.

When the author was assured by a taxi driver that "there was no wildlife in Britain", she took up the challenge and this charming and informative book is the result. Isla Hodgson sweeps the reader along with her enthusiasm for the rich diversity of the natural world, describing not only moments of high excitement but also the humdrum waiting in the cold and wet. Hodgson shows us that wildlife can be found in our back garden and the local park, and that we can make exciting discoveries on a shoestring budget. Coastal, freshwater, inland and urban habitats are her four categories, and gorgeous photography accompanies them all. The stacks and arches of our varied coastline are home to some of the largest colonies of seabirds in Europe, while inter-tidal rock pools harbour rubbery beadlet anemones and nippy little hermit crabs. The Ythan estuary north of Aberdeen has an enormous seal colony, and a feature page gives the reader some facts about "Seals and where to find them", while an inset box on Seal Etiquette tells you what to do if you find an injured seal. Freshwater habitats such as the Montrose Basin are home to herons, kingfishers, and warblers, and it is here that after 24 years of effort Isla finally sees brown hares in their famous "boxing" ritual. Lochs are natural habitats for swallows and martins, while an osprey is spotted as far south as Rutland Water. The Scottish Highlands welcome not only grouse and stags but also birds ranging from cuckoos to hen harriers, while urban spaces have foxes in gardens and lichens in graveyards and millipedes in allotments. 192pp, softback, numerous colour illustrations.

Pen & Sword Military Books presents a comprehensive history of Leeds during the Second World War. The book starts with the optimistic state of the city in 1939 before the war began, noting that there was a sense of enterprise as advertisements in local press read 'Leeds is Prosperous' alongside images of modern factories with the sign 'Factory sites available'. From there, the book looks at the city's experience during the war, including the first of the bombing raids on Leeds in March 1941 during which time, the author's own grandfather, Joe Schofield was an ARP warden in Beeston. The lives of citizens are shared in the book, whether that is their choice to shelter in coal sheds rather than public shelters, their eagerness to engage in the football season between 1940 and 1941 (even if Leeds lost to Middlesbrough), and the naivety of children who would use the roads for cricket, football, hopscotch, piggy as 'nobody in the area had a car'. Learn about the important role of the Women's Voluntary Service in Leeds which helped with a request for clothes for Dutch and Belgian refugees in Rotherham and was so successful that the branch not only sent a full lorry to the main Leeds Refugee Headquarters but also stored large quantities at the Public Assistance Board Centre. Discover the life of Sue Ryder, one of Leeds' most famous women who volunteered with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry at the age of 15 and took care of Polish flying aces. The photographs in the book offer fantastic insight into life in Leeds, including shots of aircraft production bungalows for Yeadon workers in Nunroyd, children from Guiseley at a VJ Day party organised by the British Legion and a gas car owned by Gillroyd Mills from Morley which was driven by gas pumped into the container from a roof. Paperback, black and white photos, 152pp.

Devon is a county rich in vintage buses and 200 colour photos taken by heritage enthusiast Roger Malone capture the excitement of driving out with these superbly restored and maintained vehicles. The Kingsbridge Vintage Bus Running Day was established in 2007 by Colin Billington, and Exeter's annual Twilight Running was initiated a few years later by Dan Shears, whose late father had created the West of England Transport collection. Most of the buses taking part were former Exeter City Transport vehicles, the oldest of which was a 1938 Leyland "Tiger" half-cab single-decker. Another notable event was a cavalcade to mark the demise of the Bretonside bus and coach stations, which included Royal Blue, Grey Cars and Devon General companies. 2018 saw a recreation of the ride across Dartmoor as it was in 1968, rising to a height of 1430 feet and accompanied by sixties music from the Beatles and Beach Boys. The book's picture section starts with a red double-decker in Devon General livery on the seafront at Torquay, and on the same page a 1934 AEC Regent with open top deck heads along the coast to Paignton. The single-decker green Agatha Christie bus, a 1947 Leyland Tiger, belongs to the National Trust and is pictured here outside her home "Greenway" on the banks of the River Dart. A 1964 London Transport red double decker is pictured at Buckfastleigh, a village with a tradition of vintage transport. East Devon sees a number of single-decker Bristol vehicles plying between Sidmouth, Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton, while photos of the Twilight Run showcase the enticing glow that beckons you inside a 1963 Leyland Titan or a rare 1950 Albion Victor resplendent in bright yellow livery. Back in the daylight, a 1929 Burlingham-bodied Leyland Lioness charabanc is pictured with the hood down passing a thatched cottage in a scene of nostalgic perfection. 128pp, over 200 colour photos.

Beautiful reprint of the pioneering 1904 colour book Familiar London with Rose Barton's original paintings enlarged and placed in contemporary context with related images from period maps and postcards, newspapers and railway tickets and line art as well as a narrative on London in the early 20th century. There are images of people standing in the Strand waiting for election news about Home Rule for Ireland and Gladstone's advocacy of Irish rights with an image of a crowd of well-dressed Victorians waiting patiently outside the offices of the Daily Graphic. There is the Changing the Guard, Whitehall (little changed), Cromwell Road and the museum district, Villiers Street, Charing Cross where Rudyard Kipling resided at number 43, small self-confident children watching ducks in a London park, tiny children walking hand in hand under Hungerford Bridge, a horse and carriage on a hot afternoon in Piccadilly, sailing boats on the Serpentine, waiting for royalty, and lining the streets of Horse Guards Parade and Hyde Park, the Royal Exchange on Lombard Street, the old River Wall at Chelsea, the dark water and overhanging warehouses beautifully painted in greys and blues and the completely unchanged entrance to the Apothecaries' Garden, now known as Chelsea Physic Garden. We counted 61 exquisite images from gentleman's clubs to flower girls, Nelson's Column in a fog, to hospitals and the Bell Inn, Holborn. Eight maps are reproduced from the 1902 Philips' handy-volume Atlas of London with information on public buildings, railways, tramways and steamboats reproduced across two pages in colour and with postcards alongside and an explanation about the original book and the new world of colour printing when the late Victorians and Edwardians embraced technology and the strides in printing and ink technology. Also maps on endpapers. 26 x 29.2cm, 176pp, colour.