A smooth ride through the golden age of car travel, looking at both its cultural and architectural impact on the world.The culture of road travel and the road trip is arguably best reflected in the stationary spots found along the way. Christopher Beanland journeys through these built environments the world over, whose sole purpose is to cater to cars and those who drive them, and examines what makes them so alluring.Illustrated with 65 stunning photographs...

A glorious global celebration of modern railway architecture in the mid-20th century and beyond.Many railway books are about nostalgia for the steam age, but this one is different: a global study of railway architecture from the 1950s onwards and into the future. In 50 fascinating entries, renowned travel and architecture writer Christopher Beanland looks primarily at stations but also covers starkly brutalist signal boxes and depots, charming art-adorned undergrou...

A visually stunning and beautifully written celebration of park life around the world.Parks are an absolutely essential part of modern life. From the author who brought you Lido, here are 50 of the world's greatest parks – but not just a list of the examples we already know. Yes, we'll tell you about those storied greats such as Central Park in New York and Phoenix Park in Dublin, but we'll also take you to the Philippines, to Australia, to provincial Brit...

**"A lively journey around the world's brutalist buildings" Frieze.com"A dazzlingly shot whistle-stop of the much-maligned style's greatest hits ... the book showcases confidence, clarity and the historical importance of the movement." Monocle**No modern architectural movement has aroused so much awe and so much ire as Brutalism. This is architecture at its most assertive: compelling, distinctive, sometimes terrifying. But, as Concrete Concept shows, Bruta...

**"A lively journey around the world's brutalist buildings" Frieze.com"A dazzlingly shot whistle-stop of the much-maligned style's greatest hits ... the book showcases confidence, clarity and the historical importance of the movement." Monocle**No modern architectural movement has aroused so much awe and so much ire as Brutalism. This is architecture at its most assertive: compelling, distinctive, sometimes terrifying. But, as Concrete Concept shows, Bruta...

'Christopher is a sick, sick puppy. I love it.' Yasmin Selena Butt, author of Gunshot Glitter'A touch of Keith Waterhouse. Spinning Out of Control is a fine comic novel, and a worthy satire of today's media - both local and national... there are even poignant moments of loss.' Jon Bounds, Paradisecircus.com and author of Pier ReviewSpinning Out of Control is a satire about the media and what it's done to us.Tom Wroxham is a hard-nosed, hard-living London PR. This mo...

A celebration of outdoor swimming – looking at the history, design and social aspect of pools.Few experiences can beat diving into a pool in the fresh air, swimming with blue skies above you. Whether it's a dip into a busy and bustling city pool on a sweltering summer day, or taking the plunge in icy waters, the lido provides a place of peace in a frenetic world.The book begins with a history of outdoor pools – their grand beginnings after the buttoned-up V...

Unbuilt tells the stories of the plans, drawings and proposals that emerged during the 20th century in an unparalleled era of optimism in architecture.Many of these grand projects stayed on the drawing board, some were flights of fancy that couldn't be built, and in other cases test structures or parts of buildings did emerge in the real world. The book features the work of Buckminster Fuller, Geoffrey Bawa, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Archigram, ...

What happens when the one that got away comes back? Find out in this sparkling comedy from #1 bestseller Mhairi McFarlane‘Think of the great duos of history. We're just like them.’‘You mean like Kylie and Jason? Torvill and Dean? Sonny and Cher?’‘I think you’ve missed the point, Rachel.’Rachel and Ben. Ben and Rachel. It was them against the world. Until it all fell apart. It’s been a decade since they last ...

A dark, addictive thriller, ingeniously plotted with a twist that will make you gasp, LIE IN WAIT is perfect for readers of Angela Marsons or Rachel Abbott.A man is dead. A woman is missing. And the police have already found their prime suspect...Owen Hall drives into a petrol station to let his passenger use the facilities. She never comes back - and what's more, it seems she never even made it inside.When Owen raises a fu...

Hilarious, heartwarming and inspirational, this is the number 1 Sunday Times bestselling autobiography by comedian Sarah Millican. The funniest book of the year!*****'The naughtiest, helpiest, laughieoutloudiest and goodest book I've ever done reading on. Give that girl a banana!' DAWN FRENCHSARAH MILLICAN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH, FEEL NORMAL AND PROBABLY SNIFF YOUR LEGGINGS.Part autobiography, part sel...

Would you like to eat whatever you want and still lose weight?Who wouldn't? Keep dreaming, imbecile.In the meantime, if you'd like to read something that alternates between laugh-out-loud-funny and apocalyptically angry, keep holding this book. Steal it if necessary.In his latest collection of rants, raves, hastily spluttered articles and scarcely literate scrawl, Charlie Brooker proves that there is almost nothing in this universe, big or small, that can't reduce a...