Bowman is one of Britain's leading aviation authors and here presents an unparalleled account of events as they unfolded in the skies above Holland during Operation 'Market-Garden' in September 1944. It was a heroic failure conducted at great cost combining both airborne and ground losses and killed, wounded and the missing amounted to more than 17,000. The airborne part of the operation spanned ten allied lists in a calamitous nine days of operations, often in foul weather. 4,050 aircraft saw employment - most of them towed the 1,205 Hamilcar and Horsa gliders, and were confronted by an unknown number of Luftwaffe aircraft. Stories of individual heroism punctuate this narrative, such as that of David Lord, an RAF Dakota pilot who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Here is the valorous contribution of the RAF Dakota, Stirling, Halifax, Albemarle, Horsa, Hamilcar, and Glider Pilot Regiment Crews together with those of the USAAF C-47 Troop Carrier Group of the IX US Troop Carrier Command, the Waco and Horsa Gliders, and the B-24 Liberator Re-Supply Crews. All of their incredible, illuminating and often understated accounts of extraordinary courage, camaraderie, shared terror and encounters with the enemies offer a more personalised view of 'Market'. With the author's background information of each air operation, many photos, 330pp.

The Garrick Theatre (telephone Southport 5000) poster entices listeners to come and hear the latest tunes by Joe Loss, see George Formby or watch Babes in the Wood at the Pier Pavilion. In a superb gallery of steam trains, we follow the rise of cinema and the decline of music halls, Morecambe and Wise getting their act together on a train while touring the provinces, the bread and butter circuit, the theatre architect extraordinaire Frank Matcham and right back to the good old days when Charles Dickens catches the train during Hard Times. This beautiful and nostalgic book by Lancashire-based social historian Hindle embraces more than 320 excellent colour photographs and black and white images of steam-hauled passenger trains that once conveyed passengers to the great Victorian and Edwardian music halls and variety theatres. Supported by copious variety bills, anecdotes and personal reminiscences, here are the seaside shows, the famous Blackpool Tower, the Moss Empire circuit and the infamous Glasgow Empire. Railways brought mass mobility for passengers long before the age of the car and special trains accommodated complex sets and all the paraphernalia to be transported for the performing companies around the country. They enabled famous London and northern-based performers such as Marie Lloyd to travel the country and reach their matinées and twice-nightly performances on time. The passing of Ken Dodd signalled the last of the genre of music hall performers and the end of an era, recorded beautifully in this 184 glossy page book. Colour. Satin pagemarker.

Whenever vessels have foundered off the coasts of Britain, there have always been those willing to give their all to save those in peril. But in 1823 Sir William Hillary decided that this admirable but impromptu approach was not enough. He believed that many more lives could be saved by the establishment of a national, organised rescue service and his idea was realised the following year. We read here of the exploits of Harry Blogg of Norfolk, the most decorated life boatman ever and the only one to be awarded three gold medals other than Sir William Hillary himself; the merchant ship spared by a WW2 U-boat 'ace' whose crew were rescued by Paddy Murphy of the County Down Lifeboat later in the war; Lieutenant Parry of the coastguard, the Trafalgar veteran who earned his gold medal rescuing the crew of a French fishing vessel only to be shot during an encounter with smugglers three months later, causing his premature retirement, and Father O'Shea, the Waterford priest who initiated a rescue attempt with a cry of 'Come, boys! Who will help me to man the lifeboat?' And Grace Darling who has a worthy place in any story collection featuring lifeboat heroism. Above all these are human stories using information gleaned from archives, contemporary newspaper accounts and genealogical records. 261pp in large softback, photos.

Here is a tale of armies of men travelling halfway round the world to shovel foreign soil into English wheelbarrows, a story of high finance with millions raised in London for such exotic sounding enterprises as the Ferrocarril al Oeste, or the Bombay, Baroda and Central Indian Railway. The first 'railways' were used in mines in Germany with trucks running on plain wooden tracks with a groove down the middle. The development of steam engines paved the way for the locomotive. This special book tells the story of how the British were responsible for the construction and management of a large proportion of the railways constructed in Africa, South America and Australasia, not to mention many thousands of miles of mileage in Asia, India, Malaya, Burma, China and Japan. The book looks at the political, economic and technical aspects of this development. 264 glossy white pages with over 100 colour and archive images and woodcuts for example of Robert Stephenson the great engineer, photos of American railroads, navvies at Balaklava and a McIntosh Caledonian Railway locomotive built by North British for the Belgian Stage Railway circa 1908.

'By Road, Rail and Water 1948-1972' is the sub-title of this lavish heavyweight Silver Link Silk Edition, a companion to code 94649 By Rail to The Music Halls. Turn back the calendar to the mid 20th century and the wet cobblestones of Preston Station, a strategic junction on Lancashire's railways in 1962 with the 11.30am departure for Southport waiting, one of the 'call offices' and an old wooden telephone booth still visible. When your train arrived it was anything from six to 14 coaches long with a guard's/luggage van at one end for large luggage, prams, bicycles, motorcycles, small merchandise and baskets of racing pigeons under supervision of the guard. When we ride these coaches on preserved steam railways today we contrast them with the hard-padded, airline-style seating in the claustrophobic modern coaches with their masked views from the seats behind. The steam locomotive on the head of your train barked and hissed as it blasted its way out of town in a volcanic cloud of black smoke and white steam and gathered speed, the exhaust echoing against bridges and lineside buildings. We galloped through the countryside at 70mph on a well oiled network. The author's father passed down his 1925 vintage Kodak Brownie No.2 box camera to him when he was 10, and this photographer always looks back. This combined edition covers all of the country from Kent, London and Sussex, Wessex to Cornwall, Norfolk to Cheshire, Widnes to Furness, Yorkshire to the Border, Wales, Man and Scotland. Approximately 500 quality nostalgic colour and black and white images witnessing the twilight of the canal trade, tramways, steam railways, trolleybuses, ocean liners, harbours, shipyards, horse-draw vehicles and steam road locomotive. 336 glossy colourful pages, satin pagemarker.

In a colourful tin box, all you will need for this kit is a paper stapler which is not included to assemble two slingshot launchers, 20 colourfully designed paper airplanes and 20 stabiliser hooks. Fire away! Pull the launcher back and release to watch your plane fly over 100 feet into the air! With illustrated folding instructions and metal travel case, for ages eight to adult, CE safety approved.

Bibliophile adores pop-up and concertina books and this one is especially intricate with images of Victorian figures, horse and carriage, steam trains in a busy town scene with smoking chimneys and bridges in the background. The second pop-up scene has two railway lines, one in front of the other with long red steam trains and a station all on a huge steel bridge with horses and carriages and gas lamps and people in the foreground beneath. The third pop-up is a close up of a signalman, five signals in different angles complete with brightly coloured lights and ladders, and two small children in the foreground, a big steam locative at rest behind numbered 4472 LNER and a red and yellow carriage. The fourth and last pop-up is a much more modern railway station with a bullet style train at Platform 3, huge overhead electric track and 15 busy travellers pulling their cases in the foreground and more behind, and even a little dog, happy to be travelling with his owners' pulling suitcases. A quality Thames & Hudson publication by the talented Argentinian illustrator who is based in Paris, one of the world's greatest paper engineers. 9.4" x 7".
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'Creation of The Great Western Railway', this is a superb history of what was otherwise known as God's Wonderful Railway which stood above the rest as an international byword for excellence in the field of transport technology. These were the halcyon days when Stars, Castles and Kings either set the world alight or filled it with steam and smoke aplenty. The sight of Brunswick green-liveried engines big and small or in chocolate and cream-liveried coaches or long rakes of wagons was a mark of prestige for Britain. The company's Cheltenham Spa Express was the fastest train in the world, before the mighty London & North Eastern Railways glamorous streamlined A4 Pacifics made their debut on the East Coast Main Line. From the chairman, board of directors and chief mechanical engineers down to the ticket collector and station porter, the Paddington and Swindon empire was an immense source of pride to everyone who worked for it. Engineering genius Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway was bigger, wider and faster than any other. It linked London to New York via great steamships from Bristol. His unique broad gauge 'Super Railway' also connected Paddington to Plymouth and Penzance and took millions of people to these summer holiday destinations and inspired schoolboys who watched as the immaculately turned-out locomotives thundered down the lines. Two centuries on, many of Brunel's historic structures along the route have been given Listed Building protection and the book looks at the surrounding towns and villages during the construction of the railway and the affects such as how a GWR Medical Funds Society financed a cottage hospital in Swindon including dental and eye clinics used as a blueprint for the NHS a century later. Beautiful colour photographs include a replica carriage, the magnificent Clevedon Pier built from second-hand rails, and the Evening Star on display at the National Railway Museum at York. 32 pages of colour photographs, artworks, paintings and archive images. 168pp.

The Railway Junction by Walter de la Mare, A Local Train of Thought by Siegfried Sassoon, the battle of the gauges, famous locomotive engineers, From A Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson, British Rail Speed Records, famous loco designers, Dr Beeching, four into one equals BR, King's Cross Station by G. K. Chesterton, The Send-Off by Wilfred Owen, from gunboats to corpses, cliffhangers to the king of the castles, the Welsh Phoenix and along the route is the Great Central, here are poems and facts and tracks and crashes, a table of Worst Railway Accidents, an eccentric railway empire, the Tay Bridge Disaster, Brunel, streakers and more. Why did Brunel's atmospheric South Devon railway fail? What is the story between Mallard's speed record? From the euphoric to the poignant, travel through this enthralling history of our railways. First published by David & Charles in 2007 and reprinted many times. All original line art and photos. 144pp.

Among the bright lights and comfortable surroundings, the hustle and bustle of embarkation and the petty dramas and excitements of exploring a new ship, how many could have foreseen that in a little over 100 hours' time three quarters of their number would be dead and adrift on the freezing Atlantic, and the world's largest moving object - the apotheosis of human engineering achievement, wrought in iron and crewed by master mariners - would like broken up in stone cold pitch darkness 12,000 feet down on the sea bed, never to reach her destination a thousand miles away? It is a story with all the elements of high drama, tragedy, heroism, hubris, humanity and at times grim comedy - at every stage the Titanic's story is a highly sensory tale. Discover which novel predicted the disaster a whole 14 years before the maiden voyage, how a bottle of whiskey saved one of the crew and was a fire burning within the ship the real cause of its downfall? Find the answers to many amazing aspects in this absorbing collection of stories and trivia from stowaways to kidnapping, conspiracy theories and wreckage. The story travels from Belfast, Liverpool, Southampton, America and the characters of Captain Smith, Chief Officer Henry Wilde, John Jacob Astor IV, bedroom steward Henry Etches and stories from steerage to dressing Guggenheim. And stories of the Carpathia to the rescue, Cunard collecting the casualties, the tragic inactivity of the Californian, US and British enquiries, the indomitable Violet Jessop to memorabilia and Titanic in the cinema, it is a story of tragedy, tourism and trade. 144pp, line art.