A smuggler was 'a wretch who, in defiance of justice and the laws, imports or exports goods as either contraband or without payment of the customs,' according to Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language in 1755. Smuggling, or 'Free Trade', may have peaked in the 17th and 18th centuries but it first began in response to a toll on wine imports by Anglo-Saxon king Aethelred II (966-1016) who needed to pay for holding off Danish invaders. As a result, wine traders used any port or harbour except the toll ports. The book explains how, over the years, women could help unload and carry smuggled contraband as silk, bladders filled with alcohol and even ropes of tobacco could be wound around the legs and body and safely hidden beneath voluminous layers of skirt and petticoats. The cup of tea may be an established part of life today, but the history highlights that Portuguese merchants in the 1500s would smuggle tea into Europe and the fashion of tea drinking was supposedly introduced to England in the 1600s by Portuguese-born Catherine of Braganza when she married King Charles II in 1662. The chapters are dotted with "little known facts" including the detail that when smugglers were arrested during the 18th century, they received the sympathy of local magistrates reliant on receiving goods and, on one occasion, the magistrate dismissed the charge and ordered the arresting officer to be flogged for his impertinence instead. The facts are often amusing, from the story of a Dorset smuggler who taunted the revenue men by dropping his breeches and mooning them, to Joss Snelling who was still smuggling in his nineties and was presented to Queen Victoria. Photographs of routes which smugglers travelled are also included, a shot of a West Country lane that was typical of a hidden highway, Mermaid Street in Rye and graveyards and old ruins. Paperback, black and white images, 170pp.

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.
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Sub-titled 'Maker-Inspired Projects for Building Your Own Robots', this step-by-step illustrated guide features brand new projects and specially commissioned photography. Easily-sourced components including lollipop sticks and plastic drinks bottles on page 82 or a BBC micro:bit to provide the brains for a cool project like an Avatar, a Skuttle Bot, a Catapult Bot or a Walking Robot. There are templates and diagrams and step-by-step colour photo sequences to teach you simple electronics and programming. The book helps you design and build your very own custom-made creations that can walk, draw or even guard your home - the possibilities are endless. Featured robots include Spiro Bot, a machine that creates psychedelic patterns of an amazing variety, Butterfly Bot which skips along on its own, Garden Guardian which alerts your phone when a plant needs to be watered, a CNC Writer which allows you to perform repetitive jobs at high speed and with great precision (computer numerical control). If you tinker and love such antics like building a spud cannon or ant-weight robots, take a pincer and grab this bargain. 160pp in large softback, colour photos.

Connect, control and secure your home network set up the easy way in this superb introduction to Alexa, Google, Siri and many other miraculous devices of today's smart home. Learn how to choose between them, set them up for all your gadgets to operate smoothly together, get the most out of the features they offer and what to do when things go wrong. Learn how to make your devices read the news out aloud, light the way to the bathroom the moment you wake up, play your favourite piece of music, share your lists and passwords with friends and family securely and how to stop hackers. The real home hub today can offer a plethora of wireless technology and in effect home helps whether to get the best out of your television or simply shout at Alexa to watch Star Trek Discovery. There are naming tips when setting up sensible sensitive lights, smart switches and plugs and moving on from voice activated kitchen radios and speakers, Internet technology has started looking to fridges, ovens and hobs. Add additional thermostats and create a zonal temperature control, using smart radiator valves. Robot recycling is coming soon with smart bins, kettles and coffee makers. Then there is of course monitoring and security with cameras recording and notifying you automatically. In terms of health there are not only baby monitors made to look like bunny rabbits which can also be useful as just an intercom between you and your partner in the garden shed or reading at the bottom of the garden, but also to help keep an eye on your health, body fat, or blood pressure with no more mercury temperature controls. Then there are floor cleaners, pet care, and the WeMo Smart Plug which does not even need a hub and can work directly with your phone or assistant like Alexa and can be told when to turn on the coffee pot and set to 'on' before you go to bed. 160pp in large softback with big clear diagrams and colour photos throughout its careful step-by-step design.

Chic and functional to fit all sizes of iPads snugly, this soft fabric protective cover has a super soft padded fleece lining, teal zip closure on three sides and has a uniquely handcrafted feel. The design is from the team behind Sukie.co.uk who create textiles from their home in Brighton. The artwork chosen is a city skyline with pointed towers and skyscrapers against a pale blue sky. Muted colours in teal, blue, green, dark pink and maroon on both sides. 22.86 x 2.54 x 27.31cm. Would make a lovely gift for ladies, gents or kids.

Unlucky with her job choices and full of bad language, be prepared for a quick read and plenty of bitching, lying, high salary, office romances and sleezy behaviour. Life as the Personal Assistant to some of the most wealthy and powerful men in the country is a poisoned chalice. As the first line of communication between the big boss and the outside world, a PA also becomes the last frontier of secrecy, confidentiality and trust. Given the right boss, an exhilarating working life can blossom but with the wrong boss it can become a living hell. Surely we know that you get more work out of people if they feel respected and valued? Not here! Victoria Knowles's unique inside perspective as a woman fighting to thrive in a vice-filled world dominated by men is revealing, scandalous and a shocking exposé about the men who have everything and still want more. Beware she cries a lot in this sobbing memoir. The high-flying city boss lifestyle has been scrutinised many times in the press with revelations of sexist bullying, elicit affairs and pornography in the office, and here is a furious memoir about Victoria's decade working in the City of London. 296pp, paperback.

The head of TED has produced in the words of Tim Harford 'The single best book on public speaking I've ever read' in his official TED New York Times bestseller. It is an insider's guide to creating talks that are unforgettable, an inspiring, contemporary guide to the venerable art of oratory. It is also a brilliant and profound look at how to communicate for anyone ready to create an impact with their ideas. It includes everything from how to craft your talk's content, be more effective on stage, and key tools that empower any speaker. He also shares insights from favourites such as Sir Ken Robinson, Amy Cuddy, Jamie Oliver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Jon Ronson and dozens more as he shows how the carefully crafted short talk can be the key to unlocking empathy, stirring excitement, sharing knowledge and promoting a shared dream. Done right, a talk can electrify a room and transform an audience's world view. He also looks at talk styles to avoid and drills down to what is your point, the presentation process, rehearsal, notecards, voice, presence and even wardrobe, mental prep and the lectern. 269pp, paperback.

This handy history of Mr. Whippy takes readers from the introduction of mobile soft ice cream on the streets of Britain in the spring of 1959, to the beloved brand's acquisition by an industry giant in the mid-1960s and its final demise as part of the Wall's empire in the 1990s. The story of Mr. Whippy begins in 19th century Italy where Enrico Facchino and his wife, Angela Maria, made the decision to move from Sora outside Rome to Birmingham where they began selling ice cream traded from handcarts. It was Enrico's third son, Dominic Facchino, who became the driving force behind the launch of the Mr. Whippy brand and in 1958 decided to use the advertising agency Longleys & Hoffman to help create a professional and uniquely identifiable image which was most notable for the choice of pink and cream livery on their ice cream vans - a direct contrast to the rival, Mister Softee's blue and white vans. The book celebrates Mr. Whippy's success overseas, including in Australia where people were 'enthusiastic' at the arrival of the first Mr. Whippy vans and, in January 1963, a new depot in Sydney had to be opened to receive a second batch of 24 vans. The author uses information, advertising and promotional material from the 1960s and 1970s and the book includes news published pictures. Admire a photo of early Mr. Whippy vans which were hand-painted, a portrait photo of Dominic Facchimo, and a shot of Warwick House, Leamington Spa, which was the hub of Mr. Whippy's operations in the mid-1960s. Paperback, colour and black and white images, 64pp.

Sub-titled 'Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business', Paul Jarvis left the traditional world of business when he realised that devoting his days to a high-pressure, high-profile corporation was not his idea of success. He quickly discovered for himself the immense benefit of deliberately cutting out the outdated corporate hierarchy that constantly demands more productivity, more output and more annual growth. His book is a refreshing new approach to running a successful business that focusses on getting better rather than bigger. Jarvis shows how remaining small can provide the freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life, and help you avoid the headaches that routinely arise in the day-to-day grind of a traditional growth-orientated business. Learn how to set up your business, determine your desired revenues, deal with an unexpected crisis, keep your key customers happy, and of course accomplish all of this on your own terms. His chapters cover what is required to lead, growing a company that doesn't grow, determining the right mindset, personality, scalable systems, teaching everything you know, utilising trust and scale, and the hidden value of relationships. He gives one example of the oldest continuously run hotel in the world, in existence for about 1,300 years (it opened its doors in AD705) which has been managed by 52 generations of the same family in the picturesque countryside of Japan's Yamanashi prefecture where the focus has been on customer service. Penguin paperback, 249pp.

The book asks who was John Lewis? Born into poverty, he was orphaned at the age of seven when his father died in a Somerset workhouse. Dreaming of a better life, the young man travelled to London at the start of what would become a retail revolution. From early years as a draper's apprentice, we see how Lewis's first pokey little business opened on Oxford Street in 1864, and expanded as an emerging middle class embraced the department stores as a recreational experience. Award-winning biographer Victoria Glendinning captures the toxic relationships that unfolded between Lewis and his two sons Spedan and Oswald, as they collided over the future of their retail empire. Their worst moments included emotional blackmail, face-slapping and a kidnapping, and much litigation between father and both sons. Behind the glass windows and displays of soft furnishings, she reveals the eccentricities of the family whose relationships became blighted by conflicts of epic proportions as their wealth bloomed. Yet the family never broke up, and Spedan's vision of a Partnership model to act as an ethical corrective and foster a community of happier, more productive workers was eventually realised and survives to this day and is now much copied in business as a model. This brilliant group biography has riveting details of this rags-to-riches story and a tempestuous family saga, all unfolding against the dramatic social and political worlds of 19th century London. The book concludes with an assessment of the position John Lewis holds in British sensibilities, and whether John Lewis and institutions like it have a place in our future. She also writes about the 157-year-old commercial enterprise famous for affordable haberdashery, wedding-list glassware, and more recently producing rather cute Christmas TV commercials. 16 pages of photos including colour and one of Spedan's radical new flagship store Peter Jones, now a listed building. Plus colour reproductions of original advertising on the endpapers, 338pp.