UK

High Wycombe, or simply Wycombe, has had a long and remarkable past: the Royal military academy was founded in the town in the late (read more)

High Wycombe, or simply Wycombe, has had a long and remarkable past: the Royal military academy was founded in the town in the late eighteenth century before moving to Sandhurst; Charles I passed through on his way to the scaffold in 1649; and Benjamin Disraeli, MP for the town between 1874 and 1880, made his first political speech from a portico in the high street. His home, Hughenden Manor, was used by bomber command planners during the Second World War, and it was there that the maps for the Dambusters raid on the Ruhr dams were created. Beneath the main high street is a honeycomb network of secret tunnels, originally thought to serve some clandestine purpose but in fact used by the brewery to transport beer to the many pubs throughout Wycombe as it was easier than negotiating the crowded streets.

Nearby is the village of Penn, the ancestral home of William Penn, founder of the city of Philadelphia and from whom the state of Pennsylvania takes its name. His sons lie buried in the churchyard. Bizarrely, the same churchyard contains the graves of David Blakeley, murdered by Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and the infamous Soviet spy, Donald Maclean.

Pub Date:01/01/2017 (hide)

A personal tour of twenty of the UK's most beguiling houses in this much loved area of western England. Author and architectural (read more)

A personal tour of twenty of the UK's most beguiling houses in this much loved area of western England. Author and architectural historian, Jeremy Musson, and Cotswolds-based photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas, offer privileged access to twenty houses, from castles and manor houses, as well as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mansions, revealing their history, architecture and interiors, in the company of their devoted owners. In the footsteps of artists and designers including Humphry and George Repton, and Victorian visionary, William Morris, who inspired the arts and crafts movement, and others such as Detmar Blow, Norman Jewson, Clough Williams-Ellis and Oliver Hill, we find a series of fascinating country houses of different sizes and atmospheres, which have shaped the English identity. (hide)

Let Secret Liverpool guide you around the unusual and unfamiliar. Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Liverpool guide (read more)

Let Secret Liverpool guide you around the unusual and unfamiliar. Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Liverpool guide book and let our local experts show you the well-hidden treasures of an amazing city. Ideal for local inhabitants and curious travellers alike.

The places included in our guides are unusual and unfamiliar, allowing one to step off the beaten track. A brand-new guide, Secret Liverpool features 130 secret and unusual locations. Inside Secret Liverpool :Discover for yourself the haunts of slave traders, privateers and press-gangs, the hideaway of a suspected assassin and the desecrated grave of a self-professed Jack the Ripper, track down the birthplace of rail travel and the oldest pavilion at a first-class cricket ground, marvel at a lifesize replica of the world's first submarine and the original home of the Epsom Derby, be gobsmacked by burial stones older than Stonehenge and one of the earliest human settlements to be found anywhere in the UK, take a turn on John Lennon's first musical instrument and snigger at the sight of Queen Victoria's dildo, meet toads that sing, World War II's best-kept secret and the world's first (and smallest) skyscraper, toast the UK's greatest female athlete in a brew named in her honour or go for a spin on the only purpose-built F1 race track in the country.
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This new edition (the thirteenth) provides a comprehensive description of Sir John Soane's Museum in London's Lincoln's Inn Fields (read more)

This new edition (the thirteenth) provides a comprehensive description of Sir John Soane's Museum in London's Lincoln's Inn Fields and reflects recent changes to the Museum including the immaculate recreation of the Private Apartments, the Lobby off the Breakfast Room, and the Catacombs, all of which were opened after the previous edition went to press. It will serve both as a souvenir and as the most accurate account of Sir John Soane's remarkable creation. (hide)

For over 100 years the world's best motorcycle racers have pitted themselves against the gruelling 373/4 -mile Isle of Man Mountain (read more)

For over 100 years the world's best motorcycle racers have pitted themselves against the gruelling 373/4 -mile Isle of Man Mountain Course at the annual event known worldwide simply as 'the TT'. The Tourist Trophy meeting - to give its proper name - represents perhaps the greatest challenge that the sport of motorcycle racing can offer. The top names in road racing - Collier, Wood, Duke, Hailwood, Agostini, Hislop, Jefferies, McGuinness, Hutchinson and the Dunlop dynasty - have all considered the pursuit of a Tourist Trophy to be the ultimate goal.

From riding the earliest single-cylinder, belt-driven machines with outputs of under 10bhp, to coping with today's sophisticated four-cylinder machines giving well over 200bhp, generations of riders have risked their lives to satisfy the desire to go faster than the next man and to win a TT. In the process they have lifted lap speeds by almost 100mph. Exactly how that huge increase has been achieved is told within these pages, set against the background of the triumphs and the tragedies of the TT history.

Published:22 May 2017 (hide)

The Story of the English Garden is the National Trust's accessible history of the nation's gardens, sumptuously illustrated and artfully (read more)

The Story of the English Garden is the National Trust's accessible history of the nation's gardens, sumptuously illustrated and artfully curated. From tiny medieval gardens to vast Georgian parks, from Victorian glasshouses crammed with exotic specimens to the elegant outdoor 'rooms' of the Edwardians and the functional, ecologically aware gardens of today, this book explores the love affair between the English and their gardens for over 500 years. It's a fascinating story about passion - and power and politics too.
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A Londoner for over twenty years, moving from flat to Tube to air-conditioned office, Melissa Harrison knew what it was to be insulated (read more)

A Londoner for over twenty years, moving from flat to Tube to air-conditioned office, Melissa Harrison knew what it was to be insulated from the seasons.

Adopting a dog and going on daily walks helped reconnect her with the cycle of the year and the quiet richness of nature all around her: swifts nesting in a nearby church; ivy-leaved toadflax growing out of brick walls; the first blackbird's song; an exhilarating glimpse of a hobby over Tooting Common. (hide)

Suffolk has long been a place of retreat, somewhere to escape to, far from everyday life. It may have its busier town centres, but (read more)

Suffolk has long been a place of retreat, somewhere to escape to, far from everyday life. It may have its busier town centres, but in the main Suffolk remains a rural area of enormous variety , from heather covered heathland to softly rolling hills, long shingle spits to genteel coastal enclaves and kiss-me-quick seaside resorts. Whether you are looking for a morning hike or an afternoon stroll, Darren Flint and Donald Grieg's hand picked selection of 40 walks is guaranteed to fit the bill - or the boot.

Suffolk boasts 5,600km of public rights of way; take your pick, put your best foot forward and discover this most gentle of English counties. (hide)

In an old wooden sloop, Philip Marsden plots a course north from his home in Cornwall. He is sailing for the Summer Isles, a small (read more)

In an old wooden sloop, Philip Marsden plots a course north from his home in Cornwall. He is sailing for the Summer Isles, a small archipelago near the top of Scotland that holds for him a deep and personal significance. On the way, he must navigate the west coast of Ireland and the Inner Hebrides.

Through the people he meets and the tales he uncovers, Marsden builds up a haunting picture of these shores - of imaginary islands and the Celtic otherworld, of the ageless draw of the west, of the life of the sea and perennial loss - and the redemptive power of the imagination. The Summer Isles is an unforgettable account of the search for actual places, invented places, and those places in between that shape the lives of individuals and entire nations. (hide)

The UK's second-largest protected landscape and the largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England and Wales, the Cotswolds (read more)

The UK's second-largest protected landscape and the largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England and Wales, the Cotswolds is what novelist J B Priestley once described as 'the most English of all our countrysides'. The AA Guide to The Cotswolds gives you all you need to know to get the most out of your visit to this wonderful region. From the panoramic views at the top of Broadway Tower to the stunning autumn colours of Westonbirt Arboretum, each entry is packed with the very best sites to see, things to do, recommendations for eating and drinking, and places to explore nearby.
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