Böcker i Shire Library-serien

This new Shire Album is primarily an introduction to narrowboats. It is illustrated by modern colour photographs of boats on the inland waterways today and will act as a guide to those who want to search out the heritage of the working canals.

The author describes the evolution of the first practical stationary engines and illustrates some of the many designs, with notes on their important features and information on the better-known manufacturers.

In 1967 Beaulieu held the first autojumble in the United Kingdom and collectors of anything remotely connected with motoring found they had a huge market place. Now anything to do with petrol retailing is a collectable item and this book outlines some of the thousands of pre-Second World War items.

John Ruskin, one of the most prolific of nineteenth-century authors, first made a name as a writer on art with Modern Painters. His study of art and architecture in Britain and Europe led him to a consideration of the conditions of the people who lived in the same world as his art. His interests broadened to embrace social and political economy, and ideas which he propounded in such books as Unto This Last have had a profound effect on life today. William Morris, Bernard Shaw and many othe rearly socialists practised what Ruskin had preached. His Utopian Guild of St. George sought to establish a community where life was fair and the Companions found happiness and satisfaction through the work of their hands. Meanwhile in art he championed J.M.W. Turner, introduced the English to Tintoretto and other early Italian artists and helped the Pre-Raphaelites on their way. The effects of his teaching can be see today in green belts, town planning, smokeless zones, the Rent Restrictions Act and the National Trust. Ruskin was truly one of the prophets on the nineteeth century.