AD 130. Rome is the dazzling heart of a vast empire and Hadrian its most complex and compelling ruler. Faraway Britannia is one of the Romans' most troublesome provinces: here the sun is seldom seen and "the atmosphere in the country is always gloomy." What awaits the traveller to Britannia? Chapters include setting sail from Ostia, through Gaul to Ocean, westwards to Silchester, to touristy Bath, the Amphitheatre and fortress at Caerleon, a new foreman at Wroxeter capital of cattle country. How will you get there? What do you need to pack and what language will you speak? How does London compare to Rome? Are there any tourist attractions and what dangers lurk behind Hadrian's new wall? Combining an extensive range of Greek and Latin sources with a sound understanding of archaeology, Bronwen Riley describes an epic journey from Rome to Hadrian's Wall at the empire's northwestern frontier. In this strikingly original history of Roman Britain, she evokes the smells, sounds, colours, and sensations of life, people and politics in the second century. With checklist of Latin and English place names. 336 page paperback, maps.

Camden town tube station escalator was built through a burial pit! "A fabulous boxed collection of maps and informative brochures in addition to the text I had expected to receive. A real surprise - packed full of interesting info on History of Medicine & much more. Makes me want to get down to London and seek out the Physick Garden and other sites." "The book is written in an engaging style, with glimpses into London's diseased past with themed chapters. The gazetteer is a handy guide to all of the medical institutions (apart from hospitals) such as fraternities, historic spots, museums, etc. The self-guided walks are beautifully printed and designed, but the walks only take you in the general area of the sites of interest, rather than pointing you directly to them, which had I known would have brought along the gazetteer." A unique, stunningly-presented guide to London's past and a treasure trove of information for historians, residents, medical professionals and tourists, Medical London charts the many roles that diseases, treatments and cures have played in the city's sprawling story and charts the rise of asylum and the care of the mentally ill. It also reveals how London, in turn, has shaped the professions and practices of modern medicine. The set comprises a 216 page illustrated history paperback. The hardback Anatomy of the City leads you to points of interest like the British Red Cross Museum and Archives in Moorfields, the British Optical Association Museum and Library, the Florence Nightingale Museum, the Alfred Dunhill Collection, Hogarth's house, the Galton collection, the Wellcome Library, the Ragged School Museum, Royal London Hospital archives and museum, to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The six fold out walking guides to pop in your pocket begin with along the medieval Thames from Westminster (duration 3 hours and 3 miles), the East End and the city (5 miles) with Daniel Defoe immortalising the sufferings of the Great Plague, a day in the life of an 18th century medical student, the British Empire in Greenwich in a circular walk from the Cutty Sark, Soho by Night and the slums of St. Giles, a famous bone setter, the lodgings of a notorious Regency junkie and a Crimean nurse from the Caribbean among them; and the last walk bohemian medicine in Chelsea with the Royal Hospital, the houses of Oscar Wilde, hospitals for cancer, tuberculosis and women. Two books, line art and photo illus, burgundy blood red cloth bound slipcase.

A rollicking tour of the English country home after World War II, when swinging London collided with aristocratic values. As the sun set slowly on the British Empire, its mansions fell and rose. Ancient families were reduced to demolishing the parts of their stately homes they could no longer afford; dukes and duchesses desperately clung to their ancestral seats, and a new class of homeowners bought their way into country life. Tottering under the weight of rising taxes and a growing sense that they had no place in 20th century Britain, hundreds of ancestral piles were dismantled and demolished. Perhaps even more surprising was the fact that so many of these great houses survived, as dukes and duchesses clung desperately to their ancestral seats and tenants' balls gave way to rock concerts, safari parks and day trippers. From the Rolling Stones rocking Longleat to Christine Keeler rocking Cliveden, the book takes us on a lively tour of these crumbling halls of power, as a rakish, raffish, aristocratic Swinging London collided with traditional rural values and the Americans invaded too. Capturing the spirit of the age, historian Adrian Tinniswood proves that the country house is not only an iconic symbol, but a lens through which to understand the shifting fortunes of the British elite in an era of monumental social change. It's all about keeping up appearances, grandeur fit for a queen, a rich interior, country pursuits and balls, plus some jolly bad behaviour. Many colour plates, over 50 photographs. 422 pages.

In 2020, the editors decided to compile a short series of iconic images to mark Country Living magazine's 35th birthday and the result is this beautiful book celebrating a magazine that has always championed all things country and the ever-changing seasons across the whole of the British Isle. Here you will find candid portraits of farmers, fishermen, craftspeople and artisans going about their daily work, majestic land and seascapes and nature in all its glory from newborn lambs in the field to rescued ponies grazing in an idyllic woodland. March begins tentatively with wild primroses and bluebells peeping through the woodland floor tempting hungry bees from their hibernation. Honeysuckle and dogroses overrun hedgerows in summer. Starlings dive and twist over nesting sights in autumn and evergreens reign supreme during the winter months, strong branches ready for the first falls of snow. Here are beautiful speckled eggs in close up, cherry blossom overhanging clean laundry, puffins, horned sheep jumping across the river, big white feathered honking geese during egg season, Dunnottar Castle, a medieval fortress on a rocky headland, a collector of rare daffodils and narcissus, a quail in a farmer's hand, an artist with her canvas, Durdle Door, a globe being handcrafted, oyster mushrooms grown on recycled coffee grounds in Sussex, a sow in the snow and a farmer and his sheepdog Meg harvesting festive mistletoe among the stunning full page stunning colour photographs included in this collection from the brilliant visual story tellers of the magazine. With extended captions and quotes in large print, a beautifully designed large hardback, 237pp.

Drawn from the Francis Frith Collection photographic archive, this volume of over 400 photographs from the period 1865 to 1928 shows urban and rural Britain, people at work and play and tourist attractions such as Stonehenge and Bodiam Castle. Quaint cottages with rose bedecked walls, old stone-built pubs, ancient buttressed abbeys, ruined Franciscan priories, strange rock formations and tree-lined lanes - all sights we can still see today, but here the people bring the photos to life. Here are children paddling in the sea at Weymouth in 1909 with the girls in wide-brimmed hats, their white dresses tucked into their drawers. Other photos include solemn-faced boys packed onto an elephant in 1913 at London Zoo, ladies in straight shifts and cloche hats walking along a low bridge at Newquay in 1925 and a bowler-hatted young man posing with his horse-drawn delivery cart outside the shop. Though the pace of life was slower and the surroundings more picturesque, people still enjoyed visiting the beach, rummaging around a street market strolling on the pier, peering in shop windows or relaxing in a deckchair just watching the world go by, exactly like us. Covers family, church, military, school, parks, traffic and trains, high streets and shops, town halls, beauty spots and lakes, trade and attractions like donkey rides, paddling at Barry Island and Redcar, The Yorkshire Pierrots on Clacton-on-Sea 1912 with newly discovered leisure time for the masses. Goodwood races, golfing and boat races have changed very little. Wonderful snapshots of a bygone era, many 1880s-1910s all around Britain. The photos are from the Francis Frith and Archie Miles collections. Large, square format 11½", 400 full page mono very nostalgic photos, a real glimpse of past lives and times. Text in German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. 320 pages, 27.8 x 29cm.
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An ingenious pre-cut cardboard kit which creates a layered landscape and hand-drawn icons which makes traffic move and brings London to life. The London Eye, Nelson's Column, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Post Office Tower and Big Ben, the Bank of England and city skyscrapers, there are full instructions of which pieces to glue together and piece to the base top or on to the back of buses which should shake when turned! Also a crowd can move too and finally when your model is ready, turn the handle and watch the wheel of the ginormous blue London Eye rotate with a tube train below. A quality National Gallery product, large resealable wallet. Colour.

This collection of early colour photographs of the Scottish coastline comes from the heyday of the picture postcard, driven by the explosion in railway travel and the popularity of Scottish scenery inspired by Queen Victoria's love of the Highlands. These postcards provide a route back into long-vanished townscapes, while the costumes and millinery give us a real insight into fashion and the social life of the time. Starting on the west coast we visit the charming town of Kirkcudbright, a magnet for artists, whose picturesque harbour and sailing ships have long disappeared. Nearby Stranraer is the home of the ferry to Ireland, shown here in 1909 with the last of two paddle steamers to serve the route. Further north, McBrayne's paddle steamer is shown in 1908 entering the canal system at Fort William. In the 19th century Girvan was the embarkation point for emigrants to Canada, and its beaches became a tourist attraction with the arrival of the railway. Campbeltown at the base of the Kintyre peninsula had over 30 distilleries and 600 fishing boats at the start of the 20th century. In 1853, angry locals in Garelochhead blockaded the town's pleasure steamer from an invasion of tourists, while nowadays the town repels invasion as Britain's submarine base. Port Glasgow and Clydebank prospered because of the ships of awesome size built in the docks. On the east coast, Aberdeen has been transformed from a fishing town into a powerhouse of energy supplies. A photo from 1880 shows the partially collapsed Tay Bridge, while further down the east coast, a magnificent photo foregrounds the ferry Forfarshire on the South Queensferry slipway. 132pp, softback, handcoloured postcards on every page.

Compare a charabanc packed with strawberry fruit pickers on a wooden cart pulled by two horses with Cambridge Science Park to see how much has changed in fenland farmland. Homerton College has not changed at all in the two comparative pictures from 1973 with an S shape of students lined up with A shape in 2009 and we read that two famous alumni include Olivia Coleman and Sandi Toksvig. The illuminating tour contrasts past and present of this beautiful city with historic images paired with specially commissioned colour photographs to show the same scenes as they look today, revealing the timelessness of the city as well as some surprising changes. The enduring and peaceful view of King's College Chapel from the backs stands just two miles away from the high-tech business centre of Silicon Fen. See the cobbled Trumpington Street looking towards the Fitzwilliam Museum, First Court Peterhouse, Old Court Corpus Christi College, King's Parade, Clare College, the Wren Library Trinity College, Jesus College Gatehouse, Peas Hill and learn about Bronze Age remains, a Roman crossing point, an Anglo-Saxon hamlet and a Viking trading settlement. In 1068 at what was then known as Grentabrige, a Norman castle was built as well as a Holy Sepulchre. Read about the Round Church which still stands today and how a few teachers and students from Oxford settled in Cambridge after escaping a mob uprising in 1209. And of course from here came the famous names of Newton, Darwin, Rutherford, Turing, Crick and Hawking. 144 large pages measuring 27.9 x 24.4cm and approximately 200 colour and archive full page photos. A now rare 2011 remainder with low cover price.
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Published in conjunction with the Wildlife Trusts, this superb guide comprehensively covers more than 500 of the UK's top nature reserves, with hundreds of ideas throughout the year for both nature lovers and families looking for a special day out. Discover the Cabilla and Redrice Woods near Bodmin with a Did You Know? that the adits that the bats occupy were mined for silver and lead in the 18th century, that parts of the wood have not changed for over 400 years, and the network of paths are exactly the same as shown on a 1602 map. For each entry there is an OS map reference, how to get there, access and conditions, walking time, suggestions for a 30-minute visit and what one of the members of the Trust says. There are farms, dunes and broads, heaths and marshes, waterways, tunnels and meadows, Flamborough Cliffs, North Cave Wetlands and it is all organised by regions of Great Britain - the Southwest, Southeast, East, East Midlands, West Midlands, North, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. With Glossary and Maps and a foreword by Chris Packham and symbols for parking and toilets, shops and picnic areas, dogs on leads, cycle hire etc. 500 entries with a chance to discover some of the countryside's best-kept secrets. 320pp, quality heavyweight softback packed with colour photos.

The first examination of the seedier side of the canal routes which were, for almost two centuries, Britain's major transportation network. Even when traffic routes on canals imposed a speed limit of four miles an hour, criminals were still aboard and in what was seen as the fastest growing area of Britain's leisure industry. Books have been written retelling tales of bandits, footpads, highwaymen attacking the lone traveller, horseman, coachman, shipping line, locomotive engineer, lorry or van driver and even pilot. For almost two centuries the majority of goods travelled on Britain's famed canal network and this also attracted felons of all kinds, yet many of these tales have been largely ignored until now. From murders to muggings, parental problems to pilfering, arson, assault, smugglers, counterfeiters and even road rage canal-style, we follow the policeman on foot chasing down a thief on board the narrowboat and discover what really lies beneath the waters of the canal. Learn also about canal etiquette, the hardships, the kindness and the cruelty. Chapters cover dozens of characters from William Hancock in 1826, Ann Bridges in 1847 to Southwick's Iron Foundry, Counterfeit Coin and one character just named Annie (just like our editor!) in 1915; Annie being the name of the vessel central to the story when she struck something beneath the waterline while travelling the Forth and Clyde Canal in a prosecution described as 'an act of piracy'. Fascinating social history. 120pp in illustrated large paperback.