JAMES MAY'S MAGNIFICENT MACHINES

First published in hardback as 'James May's 20th Century', the book looks at how men in sheds have changed our lives in an unashamedly personal selection of magnificent machines, inventions and discoveries. In the space of just 100 years, the sky has filled with aeroplanes, humans set foot on another planet, the globe was shrunk by radio and television, the common man was liberated by the car and the motorcycle, we swam with exotic undersea creatures purely for recreation and we listened out for signs of life from the other side of the universe. We also investigated the nature of ourselves, learning to discover in our own bodies that there is just as much to discover as there is in the vastness of space. Here is the former Windows on the World Bar in the World Trade Centre 107 floors up making Manhattan look like a trophy cabinet of gleaming towers as we learn that only the hard Manhattan schist provides the ideal bedrock to support the massive foundations needed to build into the sky. Design, science, space travel, UFOs, electricity, cats? eyes and traffic signals, nylon stockings, artificial legs - the excitement of discovery is captured in the mood of the most exciting 100 years in history. Sharp writing from James May, 324pp in illustrated paperback.