When the Beatles burst onto the pop scene in 1962, they not only took the music world by storm but they also brought with them a counter culture that was to have far-reaching effects. With their long hair, humour and irreverent attitude towards authority, they were a breath of fresh air to a generation who had grown weary of the greyness of the post-war years. Beatlemania was to unleash a revolution against an outdated age. The 1950s with its oppressive and authoritarian attitudes was ready for change and young people, desperate to escape suburbia with its stifling formality, were set to lead that rebellion. In politics, fashion, education, the arts, religion, television, womenâ¿s rights and universities, the time had come to challenge the old order. And in came the swinging sixties with its more liberal attitudes offering hope of change and a more peaceful and just world. The introduction of the contraceptive pill, legalized abortion, gay rights, easier divorce and the relaxing of censorship were all part of this social revolution. And it wasnâ¿t just in Britain. The influence of the Beatles reverberated across Europe and, most of all, in America where teenagers not only campaigned against a war in Vietnam but also for civil rights in their own country. This book tells the story of the Sixties and how the Beatlesâ¿ influence had such an impact on British society. Itâ¿s a social history of Britain told by Stephen Kelly who regularly watched the Beatles at the Cavern and experienced first hand the changes that were to take place.
The battle of Byland, on 14 October 1322, was a crucial battle in the Wars of Scottish Independence. This absorbing study from Harry Pearson sheds new light on one of the most overlooked battles in British history. The area of the North York Moors National Park contains some of the most dramatic and scenic landscapes in the North of England, and none more so than the section of the Cleveland Way, which clings to the edge of the escarpment that marks the western boundary of the Hambleton Hills. On a clear day, the entire Vale of Mowbray can be seen. When visiting the area today it is hard to imagine thousands of English and Scottish troops engaged in bitter conflict there. At first light on the morning of October 14th in 1322, the armies of two kings confronted each other over this same ground. The soldiers of King Edward II of England looked down from the heights at a force of several thousand men led by King Robert I 'the Bruce' of Scotland, as they deployed below Sutton Bank in the area around Gormire Lake, with thousands more approaching from the direction of Northallerton to the north-west. Although a daunting sight for the English defenders, they no doubt had confidence in the strength of their seemingly impregnable position. The early morning air would have been thick with the call of shouted orders and war cries and the clamour of the readying of weapons, armour and harness as the Scots drew up into battle-formation, ready to attack up the steep, narrow, and heavily defended pass. Complete with fresh research and over 100 images and maps, this new edition of _Clash of Crowns_ tells the story of the ensuing battle, the dramatic circumstances which brought it about and the impact of the outcome on the history of the British Isles.
_Empire Javelin_ an American-built LSI (Landing Ship, Infantry) in Royal Navy service, played an important role on D-Day. She carried A Company 116th RCT (the famous â¿Bedfordâ¿ Boysâ¿) across the Channel and her landing craft put them ashore on Dog Green sector as part of the initial assault or â¿suicide waveâ¿, onto Omaha beach. In telling her story, Philip Kay-Bujak does justice to the contribution of the Royal Navy at Omaha Beach, which has been underappreciated in the past (when directing Saving Private Ryan, Stephen Spielberg notoriously said there was no British involvement). Drawing heavily on first-hand accounts, the author covers the actions of the ship herself and of the landing craft launched from her in great detail. One third of her landing craft were lost in the first wave alone. He also reveals _Empire Javelinâ¿s_ earlier life, from design and construction, through launch and training. Similarly, he relates her service after that fateful day in June 1944, when she continued to ferry troops across the Channel for several months. The events surrounding her sinking in December 1944, either by U-boat or a mine, while laden with troops, are also fully examined. The authorâ¿s skilful narrative is supported by archive photos, the whole forming a fitting testament to the contribution of _Empire Javelin_ and ships like her, which, though less glamorous than battleships and destroyers, played a vital role in Operation Overlord and the liberation of Europe.
Bill Adlamâ¿s hair-raising escape from Dunkirk, his dramatic commando raids and his storming the D-Day beaches reads like fiction. But it all happened. Bill escaped the Dunkirk disaster via a bayonet charge into Nazi machine guns. He was presented with the Military Medal â¿for gallantry under fireâ¿ by King George VI. Later, Bill volunteered for commandos: he thrived on adrenaline. Number 4 Commando took him to a surgical strike in the north of Norway. The stated objective: to destroy oil installations. It was a feint. Ian Fleming of the Secret Intelligence Service had masterminded the raid. Its objective: to help break the Enigma Code. Number 4 Commando then sent him on a raid to Dieppe in August 1942 to spike naval guns to enable a landing by Canadian forces. Billâ¿s commanding officer was Lord Lovat: cousin to Ian Fleming and (allegedly) template for the fictional James Bond. Billâ¿s prowess as a commando saw him headhunted to a top secret location in the wilds of Scotland. Here he trained others in the dark arts of â¿butcher and boltâ¿. On the morning o 6 June 1944, D-Day, Bill passed over the sands of Normandy in minutes. The next two months saw him up against Hitlerâ¿s elite army and Waffen SS divisions. The reader will ask the same question that Bill asked: how would he ever come out alive?
PURCHASED to replace London Transport's ageing RT-type fleet, and also to ease staff shortages by extending one-man operation, the MB-types were not only a disappointment, but an unmitigated disaster! Their successors, the SM-types, were if anything worse, being underpowered as well as equally unsuitable for London operation. In this new volume of his photos, Jim Blake takes a critical look at what were therefore some of the most unsuccessful buses ever operated by London Transport, operating only between 1966 and 1981, most of them however achieving only six or seven years' service - if that. Most of the pictures featured have never been published before and many show rare and unusual scenes, several inside LT's garages and Aldenham Works, now themselves no longer in existence. In addition to the buses themselves, Jim also catches glimpses of London life spanning the period from the "swinging 'sixties" to the harsh first years of the Thatcher regime. The MB and SM family of vehicles also saw service with London Country, the latter being delivered new to them - but they fared just as badly in the outlying countryside around London as in Central London. They brought to a sad end London Transport's long association with A.E.C. buses, and could not have been more different from the legendary, long-lived RT, RF and Routemaster classes produced by that manufacturer!
Sarah Siddons grew up as a member of a family troupe of travelling actors, always poor and often hungry, resorting to foraging for turnips to eat. But before she was 30 she had become a superstar, her fees greater than any actor - male or female - had previously achieved. Her rise was not easy. Her London debut, aged just 20, was a disaster and could have condemned her to poverty and anonymity. But the young actress â¿ already a mother of two - rebuilt her career, returning triumphantly to the capital after years of remorseless provincial touring. She became Britainâ¿s greatest tragic actress, electrifying audiences with her performances. Her shows were sell-outs. Adored by theatre audiences, writers, artists and the royal family alike, Sarah grasped the importance of her image. She made sure that every leading portrait painter captured her likeness, so that engravings could be sold to her adoring public. In an eighteenth-century world of vicious satire and gossip, she also battled to manage her reputation. Married young, she took constant pains to portray herself as a respectable and happily married woman, even though her marriage did not live up to this ideal. Sarahâ¿s story is not just about rags to riches; this remarkable woman also redefined the world of theatre and became the first celebrity actress.
ARNHEM-OOSTERBEEK 1944 Then and Now shows and tells the story of the most daring part of operation Market-Garden: the landing of the British 1st Airborne Division west of Arnhem to capture the bridges over the Rhine. The operation did not go according to plan and the British soon had to go on the defensive. After the area around the Arnhem road bridge had completely fallen into German hands, a six-day siege of the remnants of the airborne troops followed in a small area in Oosterbeek.
The Victorian and Edwardian periods saw the development of the steam locomotive in Britain from a comparatively simple machine to a powerful main line express capable of speeds of a hundred miles an hour. The book starts with an introduction dealing with the main lines of development in the north of Britain and that is followed by a picture section with over a hundred photographs. Each illustration has an extended caption giving details of the engine and its history. The material is arranged geographically, with sections dealing with the north of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and a separate section on light railways. The photographs are all of the locomotives in their working days, many showing them in action on both passenger and goods trains. This splendid collection shows the rich diversity of Britainâ¿s railways and how different companies and their engineers produced engines of great individuality. This is a book that will be enjoyed by all lovers of the golden age of steam railways.
Why do bad things happen to good people? The current battle between superstitious and prejudiced forces from the past, against more enlightened modern ones, began when Winston Churchill was appointed colonial secretary in 1920\. With the defeat of the shadowy Turkish Empire in 1918 by the Allies, he was challenged by three grim forces of menace and coercion: Communism, Fascism, and Islamist Fundamentalism. Each aimed to extinguish every spark of democratic freedom across the Middle East and the West. Since every new generation tends to rearrange the past, todayâ¿s new young generation might want to know how it led to the present situation when subversives undermined democracy from within and without. Churchillâ¿s Challenges describes how it really was. This book combines a social and cultural history of 1918-1940 with a biography of Winston Churchill, to reveal how he responded to his society at that time, and his impact on it. His own character transformed just as dramatically from the eager and ambitious youth to the shrewd and successful politician he became. This account of the first half of Winston Churchillâ¿s life will help readers focus on how the world developed as a consequence of his influence in each ministerial position he filled. It discusses how the changes in Churchill came about as a consequence of his experiences of the changing world with all its complexities. His decisions still impact world politics today.
When the Nazis came to power in January 1933, they began a programme of transforming Germany from a democracy into a totalitarian state, but it was not a matter of simply enforcing compliance. The people had to be coaxed into believing in the new regime. Hearts and minds had to be won over and one of the ways the Nazis did that was to create an ideal of German nationhood in which everyone could feel proud. This was especially the case with art, which came to be used as a powerful tool of propaganda both to disseminate the myth amongst the population and indicate to the Nazi administrators the sort of cultural environment they should create. It was not an easy thing to do. While the nation was being re-created as a dynamic, modern, and powerful industrial giant, all the signals coming from Hitler indicated that his own idyllic view of the German nation was of a traditional, rural people deep-rooted in a romantic-mystical aesthetic. Hitlerâ¿s own experience as an artist in Vienna before the First World War had shown that, whilst technically proficient, his work was detached and impersonal. Despite being rejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts he continued to see himself as artistically gifted, especially in the field of architecture. This book looks at how the artistic side of Hitlerâ¿s personality dominated Nazi aesthetics and the ways in which the Third Reich manipulated public opinion and advanced its political agenda using the power of art. Despite his early setbacks, Hitler always thought of himself first and foremost an artist. He would frequently break off discussions with diplomats and soldiers to veer off on a lecture about his ideas on art and architecture which had been formed during his time in Vienna. _Nazi Propaganda Through Art and Architecture_ explores how Hitlerâ¿s artistic and architectural vision for Germany led to the monumental structures which we now associate with the Third Reich, alongside the rural idyl he sought to espouse, and how they came to symbolise the re-emergent power of a German nation which would dominate Europe.
The first in-depth study of this innovative cruiser design and the modified classes that followed it.
This book is the first full length biography of Elizabeth Heyrick and it sets her life in the context of the British anti-slavery movement of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The fascinating story of how a tiny island in the Irish Sea helped shape a global super-company.
During the 1,000-year history of the English monarchy there have been eight kings with the name of Henry. The Eight King Henrys of England is the history of the reigns of these sovereign lords.
Describes the narrow gauge railways of Belgian West Flanders and French Flanders before WW1.
Examines the tense and complicated relationship between General de Gaulle as leader of the Free French and Churchill and the British Government.
Find out more about the twelfth and thirteenth-century women inhabitants of Outremer.
London's Mini and midibuses takes a look at the various types of mini and midibuses that have operated on routes in the Greater London area.
This is the fascinating story of one wartime bomber crew and the part they played in supporting Special Operations Executive's work in Occupied Europe.
A first hand account of the beginnings of the Russian Campaign.
The third in an eight-volume history of the Battle of Britain.
A register of memorials to British and Allied soldiers who served in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo.
A case study of the introduction of a new weapon system.
Well researched, this book synthesises the ancient sources and modern scholarship into an exciting and captivating narrative.
Explores the Women's Social and Political Union's window smashing Great Militant Protest in great detail.
Account of The Battle of Itter Castle, 1945 - one of only two known times in the Second World War when Americans and Germans fought side by side.
Discover the major political scandals from Nixon to Trump. Find out more about the scandalous presidencies that shaped America. Read about their international origins and international consequences.
Written in a light, easy to read style, the book also raises issues and creates debate about both film and history.
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