Silliness is to be savoured. It exposes the cracks in our reasoning, raising a gleeful two-finger salute to convention and common sense. In a world awash with stupidity and cruel politics, silliness is childish, anarchic, mischievous, rude and sometimes shocking. But it's not new. This delightful yet informative book reveals the surprisingly rich history of silliness, going all the way back to the madcap plays of Aristophanes in the fourth century BC. Medieval fools and jesters, strange "e...

MONA has done a lot more than just rescue a flagging tourism economy. It has changed the city's body language, teaching it to stand up straight and look others squarely in the eye, even putting a swagger in its step.Peter Timms leads us on a journey through his adopted city of Hobart, Australia's smallest, most southerly, least prosperous, but arguably most beautiful state capital.From Hobart's convict legacy, its spectacular natural setting, heritage architecture ...

Two men started the transformation from sleepy hilltop community into a thriving town. Gooch and Brunel chose the area near Swindon to build a factory for the Great Western Railway and for more than 140 years The Works was renowned for high-quality heavy engineering. Gooch, Armstrong, Dean, Churchward and Collett would be responsible for the design and building of some of the world’s finest locomotives and stock. In 1948 the GWR became British Railways and later diesels replaced steam. In ...

Swindon Works 1930–1960 is a fully revised and enlarged edition of Working at Swindon Works 1930–1960, first published in 2007. It describes various aspects of the famous railway works of the Great Western Railway, later British Railways Western Region. Despite the disruption caused by economic depression, the Second World War, nationalisation and the transition from steam to diesel manufacture, the 1930s through to the 1950s was, in many ways, the greatest period in the Works’ long histor...

In and Around Swindon Works covers further aspects of the famous manufacturing centre of the Great Western Railway during its heyday of 1930 to 1960. This is the second half of a detailed work begun with the book Working at Swindon Works 1930 - 1960. In piecemeal form, much has been written about Swindon Works but many aspects of it have remained, until now, neglected. From ex-employees, both male and female, and printed material such as surviving GWR circulars and internal documents, the ...

In this updated edition, Peter Timms leads us on a journey through his adopted city of Hobart, Australia's smallest, most southerly, least prosperous, but arguably most beautiful state capital. He reveals a city in transition, shaking off its dark and troubled past to claim its special place in the post-modern world: 'going boutique, nice and slow', as one overseas visitor notes. From Hobart's convict legacy, its spectacular natural setting, heritage architecture and climate, to crime rate...

The bestselling, Man Booker Prize-winning novel, a breathtaking feat of storytelling where everything is connected, but nothing is as it seems ...**"A true achievement. Catton has built a lively parody of a 19th-century novel, and in so doing created a novel for the 21st, something utterly new. The pages fly." —**New York Times Book ReviewIt is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to stake his claim in New Zealand's booming gold rush. O...

In Signalman's Twilight, Adrian continues the story of his railway life in rural West Berkshire. Adrian revelled in the gentle, old-world atmosphere and seized every opportunity, on duty and off, to talk to the older railwaymen, many of whom had begun their careers on the GWR in 1919 - 21, some of whom had served in the trenches with the Wiltshire Regiment in 1916 - 18, and others of whom had worked for the Midland & South Western Junction Railway in 1913 on to 1921, 'when we took over the...

The formative years of Britain's railway network produced a host of ideas, activities and characters, quite a few of which now seem not only highly unusual, but sometimes little short of ridiculous. Weird schemes and designs, extravagant behaviour, reckless competition and larger-than-life characters all featured in the genuine struggle of the railway system to evolve. While the dawning of regulation and common sense brought about more uniform and responsible practices, fa...

As Britain moved from austerity to prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s, it became clear that British Railways needed to modernise its equipment and rationalise its network if it was to hold its own in the face of growing competition from road and air transport.After attempting to maintain pre-war networks and technology in the 1950s, a reversal of policy in the 1960s brought line closures, new liveries and the last breath of steam, as Dr Beeching and his successors s...

A loving and hilarious—if occasionally spiky—valentine to Bill Bryson’s adopted country, Great Britain. Prepare for total joy and multiple episodes of unseemly laughter.Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to discover and celebrate that green and pleasant land. The result was Notes from a Small Island, a true classic and one of the bestselling travel books ever written. Now he has traveled about Britain again, by bus and train and re...

Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. This time in Australia.His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned Country is his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and ...