Search Results for: General Interest

Belt up and enjoy this 365-day ride as you cruise past the most momentous motoring events in history. Packed with fascinating facts about races, motorists and the history of the mighty engine, this book is a must-have for any car enthusiast.

Tired of airport security queues, delays and all those extra taxes and charges, Tom Chesshyre embarks on a series of high-speed adventures across the Continent on its fast trains instead. From shiny London St Pancras, Tom travels to places that wouldn’t feature on a standard holiday wish-list, and discovers the hidden delights of mysterious Luxembourg, super-trendy Rotterdam, much-maligned Frankfurt and lovely lakeside Lausanne, via a pop concert in Lille. It’s 186 mph all the way – well, apart from a power cut in the Channel Tunnel on the way to Antwerp. Is our idea of ‘Europe’ changing as its destinations become easier to reach? And what fun can you have at the ends of the lines? Jump on board and find out!

HOP ON BOARD, SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE RIDE!

Whether you pine for the romantic age of the steam engine, thrill at the speeds of today’s
superfast trains, dream of travelling on the world’s great long-distance rail journeys or yearn to take the ‘Toy Train’ to Darjeeling, this book offers a fantastic, whistle-stop tour of train travel.

Between soaring mountains, across arid deserts, parched plains and valleys of fruit orchards and olive groves, down glittering coastlines and along viaducts towering above plunging ravines… there is no better way to see Spain than by train.

Rail enthusiast Tom Chesshyre, author of Slow Trains to Venice, Ticket to Ride and Tales from the Fast Trains, hits the tracks once again to take in the country through carriage windows on a series of clattering rides beyond the popular image of “holiday Spain” (although he stops by in Benidorm and Torremolinos too).

From hidden spots in Catalonia, through the plains of Aragon and across the north coast to Santiago de Compostela, Chesshyre continues his journey via Madrid, the wilds of Extremadura, dusty mining towns, the cathedrals and palaces of Valencia and Granada, and finally to Seville, Andalusia’s beguiling (and hot) capital.

Encounters? Plenty. Mishaps? A lot. Happy Spanish days? All the way.

Great British Cars celebrates the cars commonly seen on the nation’s roads during a golden age of motoring. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Britons drove such models as the Ford Zephyr, Hillman Imp, Triumph Herald, Ford Capri, Vauxhall Viva and, of course, the Morris Minor 1000. While rarely seen now on our roads, the 40 models described here still have a special place in many drivers’ hearts. Join Stephen Barnett on a nostalgic road trip back in time, in this beautifully illustrated celebration of classic cars.

Experience the world by train alongside best-selling travel writer Tom Chesshyre, as he takes a whistle-stop tour around the globe in 49 unique journeys

Why do people love trains so much?

Tom Chesshyre is on a mission to find the answer by experiencing the world through train travel – on both epic and everyday rail routes, aboard every type of ride, from steam locomotives to bullet trains, meeting a cast of memorable characters who share a passion for train travel.

Join him on the rails and off the beaten track as he embarks on an exhilarating whistle-stop tour around the globe, on journeys on celebrated trains and railways including:

– India’s famed toy train
– Sri Lanka’s Reunification Express
– The Indian Pacific across the Australian outback
– The Shanghai maglev
– And the picturesque rail journeys of the Scottish Highlands
Plus trains through Kosovo, North Macedonia, Turkey, Iran, Finland, Russia, America and France, with short interludes in North Korea, Italy, Poland, Peru, Switzerland, England and Lithuania. All aboard!

Do you love trains? Do you love adventure? If so, join Tom Chesshyre on his meandering rail journey across Europe from London to Venice.

Escaping the rat race for a few happy weeks, Chesshyre indulges in the freedom of the tracks. From France (dogged by rail worker strikes), through Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland, he travels as far east as Odessa by the Black Sea in Ukraine. With no set plans, simply a desire to let the trains lead the way, he heads back via Hungary, the Balkans and Austria. Along the way he enjoys many an encounter, befriending fellow travellers as well as a conductor or two.

This is a love letter to Europe, written from the trackside.

All aboard the puzzle train!

This book is fully loaded with 200 railway-themed puzzles, perfect for aficionados as well as inquisitive commuters

More than just a means of transport, trains have changed the world. Across centuries and continents, they’ve been unstoppable. But when you’re sitting back in your seat on a long rail journey, why not pause for a puzzle or two?

From quick quizzes and riddles to more leisurely crosswords and sudoku, whether you’re a locomotive obsessive or just enjoy the occasional trip, there’s plenty in these pages to fire up your mental furnace and keep you going full steam ahead to the end of the line.

Inside you will find a rich variety of puzzles, including these:

– Find the names of world-famous locomotives within word searches
– Shuffle the letters of anagrams to identify essential railway paraphernalia
– Guess the meaning of some technical train-related terms
– Figure out what happened during strange-but-true incidents from railway history

“A vibrant, often hilarious emotional and physical journey. And let’s be honest, who hasn’t wanted to drift away on a narrowboat?” – Ian Moore, author of Death and Croissants

All Boats Are Sinking is a memoir of love, life and chaos on a narrowboat, perfect for fans of Dolly Alderton, Helen Fielding and Phoebe Waller-Bridge

“All boats are sinking, Hannah, just at different rates.”

After a break-up, some hit the gym; some cut their hair; others have a one-night stand. In the aftermath of her break-up, Hannah bought a narrowboat.

Newly single and plunged into life on the water, Hannah had to learn quickly how to grapple with exploding toilets, disappearing hulls, and the curious glances and questions from pedestrians on the towpath. But when career burn-out, a global pandemic and an ill-advised rebound relationship threatened to sink her, Hannah felt the need to escape. In a bid to let go of the past and restore her sense of self-worth, she embarked on a narrowboat odyssey which took her from the bustling streets of London to the tranquil yet dramatic waterways of West Yorkshire.

Suffering from an apparent magnetism to drama but buoyed by her brilliant friends, Hannah tells of the challenges of off-grid life as a single 30-something on the water. All this as she tries to balance the tension between owning her singledom and giving in to a deep desire to find love.

Peppered with lists, recipes, maps, footnotes and diagrams, and spanning hundreds of miles of the British waterways, it’s an uplifting and often hilarious story of adventure and personal growth, and of a woman trying to keep her boat and life afloat. And to answer that perennial question: yes, it’s cold on the boat in winter.

Pocket-sized gophers, fuzzy finger-monkeys and cuddly koalas are just a few of the cute and loveable creatures you’ll find in this book. From the teeniest to the fluffiest, this collection of the world’s cutest animals contains lavish photographs, interesting facts and ‘snuggle ratings’ for Nature’s most adorable creatures – so sweet you’ll want one of each!

Man-eating maggots, poisonous birds and freshwater fish with teeth as big as a tiger’s are just a few of the dangerous and deadly creatures you’ll encounter in this book. From tiny terrors to raging beasts, this collection of the world’s deadliest animals contains amazing photographs, gruesome descriptions and shocking stats on real-life monsters of the natural world – proceed with caution!

At home, I’m a cantankerous old git. On the boat, after a week’s cruising, I’m just a cantankerous old git with dirty hair.

Steve Haywood has a problem. He doesn’t know where he comes from. In the south, people think he’s a northerner; in the north, they think he’s from the south. Judged against global warming and the sad demise of Celebrity Big Brother, this hardly registers highly on the Richter scale of world disasters. But it’s enough to worry Steve. And it’s enough of an excuse for him to escape the routine of his life in London for a voyage of discovery along England’s inland waterways.
Travelling by traditional narrowboat, he heads north from Banbury in deepest Oxfordshire, through the former industrial wastelands of the now vibrantly modern Manchester, to the trendy affluence of Hebden Bridge at the centre of West Yorkshire’s ciabatta belt. With irrepressible humour he describes the history of the canals, his encounters with characters along the way, and the magic that makes England’s waterways so appealing.

Whales that look like unicorns, lizards that squirt jets of blood from their eyes, naked rats that can sprint backwards… It seems as though some creatures have been put on this earth just to amaze us.

From the harmless but hilarious to the truly frightening and deadly, the animals in this book are guaranteed to keep you enthralled, astonished and extremely amused.

‘For the first time in my life I felt that death was a possibility; a stupid, pointless, lonely death on the aptly named Mondulkiri Death Highway.’

The Ho Chi Minh Trail is one of the greatest feats of military engineering in history. But since the end of the Vietnam War much of this vast transport network has been reclaimed by jungle, while remaining sections are littered with a deadly legacy of unexploded bombs. For Antonia, a veteran of ridiculous adventures in unfeasible vehicles, the chance to explore the Trail before it’s lost forever was a personal challenge she couldn’t ignore – yet it would sometimes be a terrifying journey.

Setting out from Hanoi on an ageing Honda Cub, she spent the next two months riding 2000 miles through the mountains and jungles of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Battling inhospitable terrain and multiple breakdowns, her experiences ranged from the touching to the hilarious, meeting former American fighter pilots, tribal chiefs, illegal loggers and bomb disposal experts.

The story of her brave journey is thrilling and poignant: a unique insight into a little known face of Southeast Asia.

This beautifully illustrated guide contains specific month-by-month ‘to do’ lists for ornamental gardens, edible crops and general maintenance, as well as tips on things to look out for, such as pests and how to eliminate them. With diary pages for making your own notes each month, this pocket-sized calendar is a must-have whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out. 

She was particularly taken with the small narrow ledges that ran along either side of the boat. For a cat, four inches is an airport runway – she could dance a Moonwalk along them on her two hind legs, juggling at the same time.

Steve has a new member of crew aboard his narrowboat, Justice – but maybe not the kind he’d have wanted if he’d known the trouble she’d cause. Kit, an untidy bundle of fur with all the attitude you would expect from a ‘sarf Lunnun’ cat, joins him on a mission to discover lost parts of England. Steve gets a different perspective on the modern world as he cruises the canals through a landscape unchanged for centuries, visiting picturesque towns and waterway festivals along the way.

If I’d really been serious about getting to grips with my mid-life crisis, then I’d have been better opting for a course of therapy than going off travelling. Or if I had to travel, I’d have been better opting for somewhere warm with a beach…

In an attempt to get to grips with a BIG birthday, Steve sets out from Oxford to explore what makes the English… well, so English. His quirky humour is inspired by Tom Rolt, who took to the canals on a similar journey immortalised in the book ‘Narrow Boat’, kick-starting the revival of Britain’s waterways. Prepare for a generous helping of mayhem, mishaps and the staple of every English summer: torrential rain. First published as ‘Fruit Flies Like a Banana’ this revised edition with new material is published to coincide with the 70-year anniversary of Tom Rolt’s own classic trip.

Do you know…
What are the most unusual things left behind by passengers on British trains? How China is using trains to recreate the ancient Silk Road? How many of the sixty Sherlock Holmes stories feature travel by rail? The appeal of trains travels far and wide. More than just a means of transport, these revolutionary machines connect communities, evoke memories and promise adventures galore. This fact-packed miscellany tracks their development across the globe from the earliest steam locomotives through to the superfast trains of today, stopping off along the way to explore great railway journeys, iconic stations and memorable depictions in the arts. Whether you’re a rail aficionado or a curious newcomer, this companion will keep you engrossed and entertained to the end of the line.

When three friends – Paul, Johno and Leigh – clicked ‘buy’ on an iconic London cab, little did they know what they were letting themselves in for. Leaving the Big Smoke in their taxi bound for Sydney, the lads began a 43,000-mile trip that would take them off the beaten track to some of the most dangerous and deadly places on earth. By the time they arrived home, they would manage against all the odds to circumnavigate the globe and break two world records.

From altercations with the Iranian secret police to narrowly escaping the Taliban, the trio’s adventure is filled with hair-raising escapades. Feel the fear, revel in the fun and meet some of the hundred passengers the taxi picked up along the way, as the authors take you on their action-packed journey.

“Tom Chesshyre is the consummate traveller, who makes you want to experience all his adventures and mishaps for yourself.” – Christian Wolmar, author of British Rail: The Making and Breaking of Our Trains

From London via Paris, Naples, Nuremberg, the Swiss Alps, Budapest, Athens and into the furthest corners of Eastern Europe across Romania and Bulgaria, join Tom Chesshyre on his fascinating journey to Istanbul and back

Ever dreamt of dropping everything and adventuring cross-country to the edge of Asia? That’s just what rail enthusiast Tom Chesshyre did, hitting the tracks for a 4,570-mile adventure on 55 rides, shadowing the old Orient Express route.

Interrailing was once the realm of young backpackers setting off to “find themselves” – and for many, it still is. But it’s also a joyful and eco-friendly twenty-first century adventure that’s open to us all, no matter our age or agenda. Dodging striking train drivers in Germany, getting stuck by the Bulgarian-Greek border, and negotiating tricky passport officials in Turkey is all part of the fun in this illuminating and meandering journey around Europe.

Europe by rail awaits. The freedom of the lines awaits. Why not hop on board?

What’s stopping you acing your exams? This handy little book identifies the most common stumbling blocks and is crammed with practical tips on how to overcome academic angst. This is your one-stop expert guide to coordinating your revision and your lifestyle during any exam period, no matter what level of education you are at.

Book of the Month, Countryside magazine

‘[this] fascinating new book… provides a detailed insight into the snow-white species’ Waterways World


A wildlife writer and photographer’s celebration of the mute swan, Britain’s most iconic breed, exploring the bird’s significance across myth and history alongside vivid observations on its habits and habitats.

The swan is both a lover and a fighter. A graceful angel and a clumsy oaf. Immortalized by artists over the ages yet misunderstood and threatened in the present day. The mute swan – with its orange beak and aura of stately silence – is the breed we know best in Britain.

Dan Keel has been captivated by these birds since boyhood, studying their contrasting qualities over more than three decades. He’s spent countless hours documenting their power, beauty and vulnerability as a writer of nature journalism, as a wildlife photographer looking for the perfect shot, and as a pilot sharing the skies.

In this labour of love, Dan speaks up for the mute, answering the essential questions about its nature and its future. Along the way, weaving his first-hand observations into the narrative, he shows us how swans have been portrayed in myth, art and culture for millennia, and how they have been venerated and imitated as well as harmed by humans.

Does anybody still eat swan? Can a swan really break your arm? Does the Queen own them all? With an eye for the humour as well as the tragedy of the swan’s story, Dan lays out the facts, guides us to our lakes and riverbanks, and urges us to see these familiar creatures in a fresh light.

What’s stopping you acing your exams?
This handy little book identifies the most common stumbling blocks and is crammed with practical tips on how to overcome academic angst. This is your one-stop expert guide to coordinating your revision and your lifestyle during any exam period, no matter the level of challenge you face.

Language is one of the key paths to awareness, acceptance and empowerment but honestly, it can be confusing for many people. This easy-to-use dictionary introduces some of the most essential terminology surrounding gender, sexuality and LGBTQIA+ identity. If you have questions about yourself or about the terminology, or even if you’re simply interested in learning more, this essential guide will help you navigate the world with knowledge and kindness.