Sub-titled 'Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Travelled and Worked Aboard Them', this is an engaging and anecdotal social history which explores how women's lives were transformed by the golden age of travel between Europe and North America. Transatlantic travel was the province of the great ocean liners and an extraordinary undertaking made by many women. Some travelled for leisure, some for work and others to reinvent themselves or find new opportunities. They were celebrities, migrants and millionaires, refugees, aristocrats and crew members whose stories have remained mostly untold until now. The ocean liner was a microcosm of contemporary society, divided by class: from the luxury of the upper deck, playground for the rich and famous, to the cramped conditions of steerage or third class travel. In first class you will meet A-listers like Marlene Dietrich, Wallis Simpson and Josephine Baker; the second class carried a new generation of professional and independent women like pioneering interior designer Sibyl Colefax. Down in steerage you will follow the journey of émigré Maria Riffelmacher as she escapes poverty in Europe. Bustling between decks is a crew of female workers including Violet 'The Unsinkable Stewardess' Jessop, who survived the Titanic disaster and Maida Dixson who reluctantly went to sea as a stewardess in 1937 and defied wartime torpedoes to escort evacuees to safety around the globe. And Austrian-born Hedwig Kiesler who embarked on the Normandie in 1937 and arrived in New York a week later as MGM's latest signing, renamed Hedy Lamarr. Here are the GI brides and their babies during Operation Diaper Run, newly married British born wives reunited with their husbands in America. Victoria Drummond MBE, Britain's first female seagoing marine engineer, is pictured with anti-aircraft guns in March 1942. Deck games, chic swimwear and swimming pools, formal evening dress, refreshments on deck, the interior designed by the Ritz Hotel recalling aristocratic country houses in the luxurious Aquitania and a poster for the Cunard Line are among the 16 pages of illustrations. 354pp with fairly large print and by the author of Queen Bees code 92482.

Hop into the driver's seat of towering icons like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and Corvette, everyman sportsters from Triumph, MG, Sunbeam and Miata to oddballs like Crosley, Sabra and DB as these well known authors tell the story of each one with humour and reverence giving the history, specs and experience of driving some of the greatest and lamest sportscars of all time. Also among the 365 are Alfa Romeos like the 8C Spider and 1956 Giulia T-Z2 with its huge sloping back window, the Audi Quattro, the Carabo which now resides in Alfa Romeo's museum, Bugatti, the Caparo T1, the civilised Formula 1 car, Ferrari 340 Mexico, Fiat Barchetta, or the Coupé pictured here in bright yellow and as owned by our Editor Annie! Fords, Hondas, Jaguars, Jensen-Healey's, Landseer's, Lotus, Maserati, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz to TVR and Volvo P1800, each has a beautiful colour photograph, specifications, country of manufacture, notes on design, special features, a short description, engine, horsepower, 0-60, top speed, price when new and value now in dollars. 320 page large softback.

The author has written more than 30 books on maritime history and this glorious 2015 first edition from Seaforth Publishing was written when Victory was awaiting massive restoration on her hull, slowly being crushed by its own weight. This work brings to the fore the significance of her career so far, and is an eloquent testimonial to her remarkable survival. She first took to the water in May 1765, and was almost wrecked on her launch. Diplomacy conducted onboard her played a crucial role in provoking Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. In 1914 Kaiser Wilhelm set the First World War in motion at a desk made from Victory's timbers. Lavery's book also tells the story of Horatio Nelson, who was born a few weeks before his most famous ship was ordered, and whose career paralleled her in many ways. Of course he does not ignore the Battle of Trafalgar and indeed offers new insights into the campaign that led up to it. Victory was at different times a flagship, a fighting ship, a prison hospital ship, a training ship for officers and boys, a floating courtroom, a signal school in the early days of radio, tourist attraction and national icon. Lavery looks at her through many eyes including those of Queen Victoria, admirals, midshipmen and ordinary seamen, and even Beatrix Potter who visited as a girl. Victory literally collided with the modern age in 1903 when she was hit by the battleship Neptune. In 1922 she entered dry dock to become a pioneering preserved ship, and survived despite being hit by a German bomb. The book also deals with her designers, the dockyard workers who built her, and the thousands of men and boys who sailed, fought or trained on board her. Admire the beautiful oak from which she is built, the magnificent golden windows of her curved bow and dozens of beautiful colour paintings, contemporary colour photos, diagrams, maps and cartoons in this big glamorous 22.9 x 27cm 208 page tribute.

Ever since the first horse drawn trams wobbled onto the road in the 1870s, the status of these useful vehicles has been debated. Did they represent an outdated concept, or might they hold the key to a flexible future? The tram's Edwardian heyday was followed by a mid-20th century decline, but in the 21st century a number of Britain's major cities, including Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham and Edinburgh, not to mention London's pioneering Docklands Light Railway, have reinstated a fixed-rail model of public transport. This comprehensive book tells the detailed story of Britain's tram systems, with fascinating archive photos on every page. The first horsedrawn street tramways opened in London and Liverpool in 1870, and in Dublin, Belfast and Cork two years later. Glasgow was the first city to embrace steam trams, and a few years later, in 1883, a battery tram was trialled in London, with an overhead trolley wire service being introduced in Leeds in 1891. Although a cable tram was in use on Highgate Hill for a time, by the end of the century electric trams with a pantograph had become the norm. An archive photo in Clapham High Street suggests that, although the buses of the time were also horse-drawn, a tram's rail tracks enabled them to carry far greater loads. Women tram conductors were employed for the first time in Glasgow during World War I, and the last horse-drawn tram ran in Morecambe in 1926. In the 1930s Britain's major cities started replacing trams with trolley or motor buses, and during the 1950s trams virtually disappeared. Then in the 1980s new light rail systems began to spring up, with cities like Nottingham and Manchester integrating them closely with other form of public transport. Who knows what the future will bring? 269pp, archive photos.

Charles A. Lindbergh's transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in his Ryan monoplane is given the Owners' Workshop Manual treatment in this comprehensive account of the flight, the plane, the context and the personalities. The first non-stop Atlantic crossing had been achieved in 1919 by Alcock and Brown in a Vickers Vimy bomber, winning them a Daily Mail prize of £10,000. This prompted Raymond Orteig to offer a bigger prize for the first flight from New York to Paris, and the race was on. A German airship made a transatlantic flight in 1924, though it did not quality for the prize, and in 1926 Sikorsky pilot Rene Fonck attempted a crossing which ended in tragedy for two of his crew as the overloaded plane crashed on take-off. In the following year Lindbergh finally claimed the prize, only just beating his rival Charles Levine whose Wright Bellanca was grounded by legal wrangles. Several other transatlantic flights quickly followed, including Ruth Elder's attempt which ended in her ditching in the Atlantic, but Lindbergh's is the name that has passed into history. Lindbergh had entered the US Army Air Service aged 22, and in 1926 took a job with the newly formed Air Mail, which entailed navigating at night over poorly marked routes, an experience which stood him in good stead on the transatlantic crossing. In the run-up to the flight, Ryan airlines met Lindbergh's deadline of a 60-day construction period for the Spirit of St Louis, which had a wider wingspan and undercarriage than its prototype. The construction process is illustrated by archive photos and also numerous shots of a reconstructed model. On the flight Lindbergh had to contend with storm clouds cutting off his vision and above all the urge to sleep, but the final touchdown at Le Bourget entered the history books. Lindbergh's later life was complex and tragic, including the sensational murder of his son in 1932. 180pp, numerous photos in black and white and colour, diagrams, maps.

When you walk into what was a 17ft square double garage you enter another world. There is an 8ft high oil painted backdrop with watercolour landscapes of the Pennine hills, a cotton mill with 166 windows. With the old Morris Minors, motorbikes with side cars, red telephone boxes, British Railways Chadbury Station in miniature comes alive with its wood and boarded station made entirely from mountboard with card strips overlayed for the roof tiles. The use of mini-posters and timetable boards adds to the veracity, and the tiny figurines like the child carrying suitcases and the station porter in the foreground, the steam train engine in the station, passengers waiting, and the Yorkshire background of rolling hills, the sidings, the pub, the horse, the back-to-backs alongside the canal from the ironworks, the window cleaner, the housewife, the painter, the coalman, all populate this miniature town. A continuous circular track is bridged by a girder bridge, to the left the shed area, to the right the station. It is DCC operated, and the loco stock is ex-LMS and LNER in a begrimed BR livery. To inspire the would-be modeller or please the eye of all transport enthusiasts, craftspeople, or those interested in the miniature world and collecting, the book includes over 100 close up colour photographs and a detailed track plan. 156 glossy landscape pages, colour.

A nostalgic selection of colour images, most of which are previously unseen, featuring fighter, bomber, transport and training aircraft in British Military or Ministry service during the 1960s. The decade saw the heyday of many of Britain's iconic post-war aircraft such as the long-serving Hawker Hunter and the English Electric Canberra which spent its entire active career as a test aircraft principally with the A&AEE whose motif is displayed on the fin. VX181 last flew in June 1969 when it was flown to RAF Pershore, Worcestershire, for use in a ground training role. Both aircraft remained in frontline service with major air forces through the 50s and 60s. Derived from its fighter predecessors as an advanced trainer for the RAF, the de Havilland Vampire T.11 brought about a revolution in flying training and survived into service into the 1960s. Pictured is the XD542 'H' which served with the Central Gunnery School and then with the Fighter Weapons School serving at Leconfield Yorkshire then Driffield in 1957. Equally the Vickers Valetta was required to supplement then replace the ubiquitous Dakota within the RAF. Due to its principal role as a humble transport, it has been largely overlooked - until now. With a superb commentary, comprehensive captions accompany the photographs to explain the various types in full detail. Serial numbers, units and aircraft histories are all covered, and four-view artwork derived from specific photographs is also included and hundreds of colour photographs. 96 bog glossy pages, softback.

Gleaned from three decades of motoring writing and driving, here is a collection of classic car moments, Plastique Fantastique, Lancia Lamentation, Rear Engine Entities, Madame Itier's Bugatti, Tales of Malcolm Sayer, Sydney Allard, Erik Carlsson, Jacques Gerin, Giovanni Michelotti and Innes Ireland are just a few of the names that can be found in these pages. Chapters include The Porsche Passion, Old Saabs and Old Sods, Fiat's 'Fake' Ferrari, Citroën GS, Mazda Cosmo, Volvo-It is, Rover's Revenge and The Last Chance Saloon. This heavy glossy book of classic car images and details is designed to be read as a companion and dipped into anywhere for a classic car fix with stories old and new details presented. It is a compilation of the author's published and unpublished adventures and opinions about the design and the driving of some of the greatest cars in motoring history from vintage to modern classic, pristine to oily-rag, car design and the men that made the motor industry. The sleekest black old sloping roof Saab features on the front cover and the final image is captioned 'Rust in Peace', with old Renault grilles in a museum's auto jumble. With 22 colour images, several from Goodwood, and dozens of black and white photos and posters.

Over the last century, Britain has become one of the major centres of motorsport, with many of the greatest names in the business such as Maclaren based in the UK. Beginning prior to WWII, competitive motorsport has been very popular amongst spectators and since the creation of Formula 1 Championship in the post-war years, the British Grand Prix has been one of the most important fixtures on the calendar. Racing in Britain has taken place over a number of circuits, and the author examines the history from its relatively humble origins through to the 1970s when the buccaneering spirit of those early days was replaced by the rise of corporate sponsorship. Britain has become a pioneer in the growth of off-road motorsport with the development of the famous circuit at Brooklands and its dramatic banking. Captured in splendid colour artworks, contemporary drawings, photographs, the rough and ready approach to early motorsport is all too evident in this fantastic nostalgic handbook. Colour and black and white illus. throughout with appendices listing winners, European Grand Prix events and non-championship Formula 1 races held in Britain. 64 page paperback, colour.

In 1929 there were over one million men out of work, and the government of the day took steps to create jobs in the construction industry by offering to pay the interest on loans raised for the development, reconstruction and re-equipment of public utilities. The railways were the main participants, and the Great Western Railway, which ran from London Paddington to Devon, Cornwall, and South Wales, implemented a development programme covering all sections of railway and dock operations, including the upgrading of station facilities at Paddington, Bristol, Taunton and Cardiff. Bristol and Cardiff were also relieved of congestion by the quadrupling of lines, and a diagram here showing the track layout at Bristol Temple Meads is a mind-bending tangle of criss-crossing lines. At Wolverhampton the repair shops were reconstructed to an up-to-date specification, while new engine sheds were supplied to rural Welsh communities such as Pantyffynnon and Treherbert. Coloured lights were introduced at selected junctions instead of semaphore signals. The 85 engineering projects listed here are accompanied by fascinating archive photos, including the 3-ton hydraulic cranes at Penarth Docks, movable coal hoists at Bute Docks in Cardiff, a new marshalling yard at the west end of the Severn Tunnel Junction, impressive 30s architecture such as the goods shed at Herbert Street, Wolverhampton, and the big electrically operated West Signal Box at Cardiff. Improvements to Paddington Station include the 1936 modernisation of the ticketing area and the aesthetic transformation of the dismal "Lawn" area. Bridge building yields particularly impressive photos, for instance Westbourne Terrace Bridge near Paddington, the steel flyover at Cogload in Bristol, the rebuilding of the land spans of the Royal Albert Bridge over the River Tamar going into Cornwall, and the Swansea North Dock Lock drawbridge. 225pp, archive photos, diagrams.