Sub-titled 'The Generation Who Built, Supported and Flew Britain's Most Beloved Fighter', the book chronicles the extraordinary national effort to construct the fighter aircraft that gave the Allies a critical edge over the Luftwaffe. It is the story of how these fast and lethal little planes helped win the Second World War and the book is peppered with women and many of the stories are told in the decades since the conflict. Despite the many films and TV programmes with spiffy moustaches and aerial acrobatics, the Battle of Britain was in the main actually fought and won by teenagers. The average age of an RAF fighter pilot was just 20 years old. Many of the men and women who designed and built their planes were even younger. Based on a BBC World Service podcast Spitfire: The People's Story, the book uses contemporary diaries and memoirs, many previously unpublished, to tell the story of the Spitfire through the voices of the young people who risk everything to design, build and fly her. It is a story of young people tested to the very limits of their endurance, an incredible tale of courage and sacrifice that celebrates arguably Britain's greatest generation. They were vital in keeping the RAF fully operational, building parts, constructing radar systems, coordinating supplies, ferrying planes, while the Luftwaffe above tried to bomb them into destruction. Through fresh interviews and war diaries and personal correspondence, BBC Radio Producer Alasdair Cross recounts an incredible tale together with historical advisor David Key who has researched and reconstructed the stories of the men and women who designed and built the Spitfire. 359pp, paperback. Photos.

Late in 1938 the German Navy Supreme Command commissioned a report into the combat effectiveness of its airborne divisions. As a result of its findings, the German High Command instigated a major construction programme for planes with a specifically maritime role - carrier-borne, reconnaissance, mine laying and most importantly, long-range units were all developed. In this volume in the outstanding series, the author showcases a photo history of the development of the Kriegsmarine airborne capability from the early Condor missions to the introduction of Me262 A-1a jet fighters in 1944. More than a hundred rarely seen pictures illustrate the gradual turning of the tide against Germany in the war for the skies over the Atlantic. As the German war machines struggled to match demand for aircraft, so the pilots attempting to control crucial supply routes struggled to compete with mounting Allied technical and numerical superiority. It also discusses other Gruppen of KG40, the He177A, Do217 and Ju88 before those units were renamed or disbanded. Includes colour photos and the text closes with proposals for experimental aircraft to be used in the Atlantic battle. 72 pages, large paperback, some colour.

A penetrating look at near-future disruption as truly autonomous vehicles arrive. Anthony Townsend argues that the driverless car is a red herring. When self-driving technology infects buses, bikes, delivery vans and buildings, a wild future awaits. Technology will transform life behind the wheel into a high-definition video game that makes our rides safer, smoother, and more efficient. Meanwhile, autonomous vehicles will turbo charge our appetite for the instant delivery of goods, making the future as much about moving stuff as it is about moving people. Companies will link the automated machines that move us to the cloud, raising concerns about mobility monopolies and privatisation of 'the curb'. Our cities and towns will change as we embrace new ways to get around. The book explains where we might be heading with driverless vehicles, and the choices we must make as societies and individuals to shape that future. Extensively researched from many articles including curiously titled ones like 'The Rate of Decline in Licensing Was Already Slowing Down' and 'In The Future Commutes You Won't Have to Focus', 'The Cost of Traffic Control Grew Tenfold' and 'Car Was Cheap, Rugged and Simple to Repair?, the robots are coming! 318pp, line art.

A high percentage of air crew in World War II failed to return home, but among those who did there are innumerable stories of miraculous escapes against the odds - which were that an airman would be dead before his 25th operation. This book collects 37 survivors' accounts, all of them guaranteed to have you on the edge of your seat. Flight Lieutenant Lewis Bevis was delivering a Hurricane fighter to the Desert Air Force (DAF) in support of the Eighth Army in north Africa, taking the route considered the most dependable via Gibraltar and over the Sahara to Egypt. He took off in a flight of six Hurricanes, developed engine trouble, repaired at Kano, joined another flight but got separated in a sandstorm and came down among villagers who stripped the Hurricane overnight. Bevis got it airborne again but hit another sandstorm, and when it blew over he knew he only had one more chance to fire the engine. In August 1943 Flying Officer Penny took part in a raid on Berlin but was badly hit by flak and managed to bale out. Uncertain whether he was in Germany or Holland he took the risk of knocking on the door of a farm and found to his relief that the occupants were Dutch patriots who with the help of the resistance got him over into France, with a new identity and fake papers at every stage of the journey. From Paris he was smuggled to the Pyrenees which he had to cross on foot before presenting himself at a British embassy in Spain. In September 1943 Pilot Officer Alan Peart had to undertake a 30-minute defensive patrol over the Salerno beachhead to cover the Allied warships. Breaking off to give chase to three Dornier bombers, Peart found his Spitfire at the centre of a dog-fight, and only just made it back to base. Chapter headings are along the lines of "Baling out at 15000 feet - into the Battle of the Bulge", and each one is a cliff-hanging read. 290pp, glossary, maps, photos.

First published in 1973, Behind the Steam received huge critical acclaim from day one. It is the working memoir of one Bill Morgan who, in 1916, signed on as a cleaner at the GWR terminus in Neyland, Pembrokeshire, aged just 14, with an ambition to go all the way to the top - become a GWR express driver. When he retired 50 years later, he had indeed achieved his ambition, driving the newly introduced British Rail diesels, but what a weird and wonderful career path it was! By the age of 15 he already had one derailment to his credit and his rise up the ranks, next to fireman (his vivid description of keeping a coal-hungry express up to steam on a run to Paddington is captivating) and right to the top is recounted in such warm-hearted, hilarious and compelling words that you feel you are on the footplate - or the coal truck, his lodgings, the cloakrooms, the markets, the pubs... As well as cleaning, fuelling and driving the trains, his "off the track" recollections add immense interest. An unofficial purveyor of anything from lobsters to rabbits, he turned the Neyland line into a mobile grocer he also recounts tales of making wireless sets, cockle-gathering, training greyhounds and absconding bookies, and here too are grimmer events - the General Strike, wartime work on the potentially lethal ammunition trains and the bombing of Swansea. This book is the 2003 revised edition which includes many more photos from Bette's collection of the Neyland area than the original and is sure to lapped up by all steam enthusiasts, a book that just oozes with the flavour of the railways and the characters that ran then. 222pp with 20 pages of b/w photos.

Soar with straight-wing jets and swept-wing fighters through the sky between 1944 and 1954. Through nearly 200 archive photographs, this book traces the development of British and American jet fighters over a decade, from the end of the Second World War to the advanced designs which were key during the Korean War. Admire the first operational Meteor squadron 616, which was introduced in July 1944, proving to be an adaptable airframe and produced in several versions, including a two-seater trainer, a photo reconnaissance vehicle and a night fighter. Read about how the onset of the Cold War and the threat of Soviet bombers armed with nuclear weapons pushed the United States to transform its 'virtually non-existent' air defence system, developing an interim jet all-weather fighter which supplemented the F-89 Scorpion. But the greatest assets for this book are the hundreds of photos of planes during the period, each accompanied by a detailed description. The book displays a publicity photo of an F-84E Thunderjet at Elgin in 1953 which carried two Tiny Tim 500lb warhead rocket bombs as well as 24 five-inch HVAR (although the normal operational load for this plane would only have been 16 HVAR). Study a shot of the Supermarine Type 508 prototype flying low at Chilbolton during early trials in 1951 with its clean lines and Vee tail. There is also a stunning image of a modified Meteor F.4 in September 1946 which raised the World Air Speed Record to 616mph, beating the F.3 model from November 1945 which flew at 606mph. Marvel also at a fantastic bird's eye view of a wartime Essex class carrier at sea with jets resting on it and note that, in 1953, the carrier USS Antietam was the first to incorporate the British concept of an angled. Paperback, black and white photographs, 134pp.

Luxury railway travel exerts a glamour associated with the Orient Express, the Golden Arrow, the Blue Train, and the Flying Scotsman, all of them created by 19th century entrepreneurs who saw their chance to profit from an elite network of luxury travel to equally luxurious destinations. With the development of lavish civic amenities in fashionable resorts, by 1914 there were few major British cities without an upmarket railway hotel. The high point of luxury travel was the Edwardian era, with affluent middle class passengers taking the train to healthy spas, race meetings and stately homes, but there was a resurgence during the wars and then a renewal in the post-war period. This beautifully produced book focuses particularly on the UK, where in the 1870s the Midland Railway's Pullman carriages set a standard of luxury that included the elegance of uniformed attendants and a gourmet experience in the dining cars. Buffet cars were introduced by Pullman as early as 1883, and by the 1890s sleeping cars had been established running off a corridor with berths sleeping crosswise to the direction of travel, an American style quickly adopted in the UK. An LNER poster from 1924 headlined "August the 12th" advertises the sleepers from King's Cross to Inverness for the start of the grouse season, always big business for Anglo-Scottish companies, with a large number of American visitors also on board. The author devotes a whole chapter to the "Three routes to Scotland". The East Coast train from King's Cross, called the Scotch Express and then the Flying Scotsman, had 24 carriages and by 1932 included a cocktail bar and hairdressing salon. The west coast route was built in stages, finally heading to Carlisle along the Lune valley via Shap, hauled by the Stanier-designed Royal Scot. Finally the central route was constructed via Settle and Carlisle, a latecomer but nowadays the most iconic of them all. 366pp, numerous colour reproductions of archive posters.
Click YouTube icon to see this book come to life on video.

First published in 1936, these 12 stories of daring battles by sea and air have a vividness that can only come from eyewitness accounts. Picking up 16 men from the wreckage left by a submarine attack, Gordon Campbell, Commander of the armed Decoy Q ship Pargust, knew there was imminent danger, and soon a torpedo tore through his engine room. A carefully rehearsed panic party descended to the lifeboats, complete with stuffed parrot, while the rest of the crew lay silent and invisible. The periscope of the sub was seen circling the boat, then broke surface, but Campbell held fire while the bogus "Master", pretending to escape with his crew in a lifeboat, led the sub even closer. Finally, half an hour after being torpedoed, they opened fire and sank the sub, managing to rescue only two crew of what proved to be a minelayer. For their uniform gallantry the Victoria Cross was awarded to the whole of HMS Pargust. In another cliff-hanging chapter, Captain Carpenter gives his account of the celebrated attack on the Zeebrugge Mole, designed to divert attention from the simultaneous blowing up of a railway bridge by submarines and the deliberate sinking of blockships across the entrance to the canal. Rain and off-course smokescreens impeded progress but that gave even more of an element of surprise when Vindictive reached the Mole. The resulting bombardment resulted in the deaths of many brave men but the heroic action on the viaduct is a breathtaking story. In the thick of Gallipoli the novelist Compton Mackenzie recounts an unexpected meeting with a fan, the second battle of Ypres is described by one of the pilots providing air cover, while a commander at the battle of Jutland describes with unsparing realism the psychological realities of close fighting. 168pp, paperback, photos.

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.

The Design and Careers of Capital Ships of the World's Navies 1880 - 1990. Big and beautifully produced, this is a comprehensive study of 21 capital ships, the most important vessels in a navy's armoury. Each one has a full chapter written by an expert, ranging in time from China's Chen Yuen built in 1882, closely followed by Argentina's Garibaldi (1885), to Italy's 1937 technological showcase Littorio, immortalised in the iconic wartime photo showing her leading her sister ship Vittorio in gunnery exercises. Among the most impressive is the United States' magnificent Missouri ("The Mighty Mo") of 1944, selected by President Truman to be the location of the Japanese surrender after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then ignominiously stranded in 1950 on the Thimble Shoal in Hampton Roads, but finally redeeming her reputation during service in the Korean War. Following a modernisation package in the mid-eighties, Missouri saw action again a few years later in the Persian Gulf, and is now berthed in Pearl Harbor as a naval museum. The British Navy is represented here by the legendary battleship HMS Hood, commissioned in 1920, and representing a 130 per cent increase in displacement compared with the earlier HMS Dreadnought. Cutting edge technology combined with advanced design to make this one of the most beautiful battleships, seen at her best in an aerial shot above Scapa Flow in 1940. Life aboard the Hood is captured in Cdr Rory O'Conor's "Ten Commandments" of 1933, covering punctuality to gambling. During the first months of the war Hood was sweeping for enemy raiders but tragically in May 1941 she was ordered to chase Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, resulting in the loss of the ship and over 1400 men. The Bismarck was sunk a few days later. Other ships in the volume include Russia's Slava (1903), Australia's Australia (1911), Sweden's Sverige (1915) and Germany's Scharnhorst (1936). Each chapter has its own bibliography, as well as a full history of the ship, technological details and specifications. 440pp, archive photos on most pages, individual and general bibliographies.