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Eric Hill

Join Spot on the farm with this tractor-shaped board book for babies and toddlers, featuring brightly-coloured pictures and moving wheels! 
 
Rumble rumble beep! 
 
Spot is having a great day out on the farm, riding in the tractor and helping out with lots of jobs. 
 
But when Spot comes across a lost lamb, will he be able to save the day and find its mother? 
 
This tractor-shaped board book with interactive wheels is the perfect way to entertain your little one! 
 
Look out for more fun-filled Spot books: 
Where's Spot? 
Spot's Tractor 
Spot's Fire Engine 
Spot's Magnet Fun 
Spot Goes to the Farm 
Spot Goes to the Park 
Spot Goes to School 
Spot Says Goodnight

Spot's Tractor

An interactive board book for babies and toddlers

John George Freeman

Wryly humorous and quintessentially British, Three Men and a Bradshaw collects the previously unpublished holiday journals of John Freeman, who travelled Britain with his brothers during the 1870s. Each year the trio would settle upon a destination, buy their tickets and set off – armed, of course, with their trusty Bradshaw's Descriptive Railway Hand-book. 
 
John's delightful records of their trips contain much that will resonate with the modern traveller, from the eccentricities of fellow passengers and locals to the tender mercies of the British climate. At the same time they offer insights into the experiences particular to a Victorian tourist, and are full of valuable local history on everywhere from Devon and Jersey to Scotland and Wales. 
 
Beautifully illustrated throughout with John’s original drawings, this is a fascinating and uniquely personal historical artefact, as well as an enchanting and frequently hilarious evocation of a distant but still wholly recognisable Britain.

Three Men and a Bradshaw

Kate Moore

This funny and touching book is bursting with more of Felix's adorable escapades, from a run-in with a rosemary plant to a frustrating encounter with a pigeon, but her role at the station goes far beyond all that: when romance blossoms, danger strikes and tragedy befalls the station, she is always there to support her team through all the highs and lows. 
 
Felix's online fame is ever increasing and she has more visitors to greet every day, but there is only so much attention that one cat can handle and isn't long before Felix's colleagues recruit Bolt: a fluffy, springy kitten-apprentice to help shoulder the burden. 
 
But will the two of them get on? And will the diva of Huddersfield station make room for the new kid on the block?

Full Steam Ahead, Felix

Adventures of a famous station cat and her kitten apprentice

Robert Pirsig

Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, this modern epic became an instant bestseller upon publication in 1974, transforming a generation and continuing to inspire millions. A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, the book becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions of how to live. Resonant with the confusions of existence, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a touching and transcendent book of life.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

40th Anniversary Edition

Sam Philip

A globe-spanning tour of the very pinnacle of automotive design from the experts at Top Gear - with awe-inspiring photography and all-encompassing reviews. The perfect gift for car enthusiasts - young and old! 
 
'This book is a must have for any car fanatic' -- ***** Reader review 
'An absolute belter of a book' -- ***** Reader review 
'Super cool book!' -- ***** Reader review 
'For car lovers of any age!' -- ***** Reader review 
 
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Whether it's through raw power, elegant curves or just an eye-watering price tag, there are a small number of cars that mark the pinnacle of automotive design - and now the experts at Top Gear have chosen the very best of them. 
 
Top Gear: Dream Cars - The Hot 100 is a celebration of the cars that achieve that perfect blend of art and engineering. 
 
From the supercar muscleof the Porsche 918 and Ferrari LaFerrari to the technological prowess of the Nissan DeltaWing and the mighty McLaren P1, with stunning visuals, including jaw-dropping photography (some 3D) and detailed reviews of each car, Top Gear: Dream Cars - The Hot 100 will take you on a whistlestop tour of the latest and greatest automotive creations on the planet today.

Top Gear: Dream Cars

The Hot 100

Sophie Elmhirst

**THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER** 
**WINNER OF THE NERO AWARDS GOLD PRIZE BOOK OF THE YEAR** 
**A BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR** 
 
An extraordinary true story of shipwreck, survival and love 
 
'An enthralling, engrossing story of survival' Bill Bryson 
‘An absolute jewel of a book’ India Knight 
‘A gripping tale of adventure’ Elizabeth Day 
‘An extraordinary survival story’ Sunday Times 
 
Bored of 1970s suburban life, Maurice and Maralyn plan their escape: sell the house, build a boat, set sail for New Zealand. Then, halfway around the world, their beloved boat is struck by a whale and the pair are cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Alone on a tiny raft, their love is put to the test. This is a book about human connection and the human condition; about how we survive – not just at sea, but in life. 
 
‘This skilful storytelling drew me in…very touching indeed’ James Rebanks 
‘With the adrenaline kick of Jaws . . . A remarkable portrait of a marriage kept afloat against the odds’ Financial Times 
‘This dramatic, profound human story is so beautifully told. I really could not put it down’ Nina Stibbe 
 
A Guardian, Observer & Waterstones Non-fiction Book of the Year 
 
**READERS ADORE MAURICE & MARALYN** 
‘A riveting tale of survival . . . and of the power of love when all appears lost’ 
‘A mind-blowing story of resilience and love in the face of adversity’ 
‘The very best kind of true story, and beautifully written’ 
‘I couldn’t put this book down’ 
‘I was absolutely hooked from the outset’ 
 
Published as A Marriage at Sea in the USA

Maurice and Maralyn

An extraordinary true story of shipwreck, survival and love

A Whale, a Shipwreck, a Love Story

David Blatner

Whether you fear, thrill at, or, like many, have never bothered to stop and think about the wonder of commercial flight, The Flying Book will inform, surprise, reassure, and entertain. David Blatner takes readers from the cockpit to the runway, the control tower, the baggage and security systems, the airplane manufacturing plant, and beyond, explaining the many factors that make airline travel possible. There are stops along the way to examine airplane maintenance, pilot training, the effects of weather, safety statistics, tips for staying healthy, oddball aviation inventions such as the air car, and what aerodynamicists have learned from birds and bugs. With a brief history of aviation just to put it all in perspective, as well as minibiographies of some of history's great aviators, The Flying Book is a treasure trove of fascinating aviation facts. A delight for travelers-business, pleasure, or armchair-or any readers who like to indulge their sense of curiosity, The Flying Book captures the spirit, illuminates the science, and reveals the magic of flight.

The Flying Book

Everything You've Ever Wondered About Flying on Airlines

Michael Williams

This beautifully-packaged book will take the reader on the slow train to another era when travel meant more than hurrying from one place to the next, the journey meaning nothing but time lost in crowded carriages, condemned by broken timetables. On the Slow Train will reconnect with that long-missed need to lift our heads from the daily grind and reflect that there are still places in Britain where we can stop and stare. It will tap into many things: a love of railways, a love of history, a love of nostalgia. 
 
This book will be a paean to another age before milk churns, porters and cats on seats were replaced by security announcements and Burger King. These 12 spectacular journeys will help free us from what Baudelaire denounced as 'the horrible burden of time.' 
 
Updated for the paperback.

On The Slow Train

Twelve Great British Railway Journeys

Mark Vanhoenacker

**Sunday Times Bestseller** 
**Book of the Week on Radio 4** 
 
'A beautiful book about a part of the modern world which remains genuinely magical’ Mark Haddon 
 
'One of the most constantly fascinating, but consistently under-appreciated aspects of modern life is the business of flying. Mark Vanhoenacker has written the ideal book on the subject: a description of what it’s like to fly by a commercial pilot who is also a master prose stylist and a deeply sensitive human being. This is a man who is at once a technical expert – he flies 747s across continents – and a poet of the skies. This couldn’t be more highly recommended.' Alain de Botton 
 
Think back to when you first flew. When you first left the Earth, and travelled high and fast above its turning arc. When you looked down on a new world, captured simply and perfectly through a window fringed with ice. When you descended towards a city, and arrived from the sky as effortlessly as daybreak. 
 
In Skyfaring, airline pilot and flight romantic Mark Vanhoenacker shares his irrepressible love of flying, on a journey from day to night, from new ways of mapmaking and the poetry of physics to the names of winds and the nature of clouds. Here, anew, is the simple wonder that remains at the heart of an experience which modern travellers, armchair and otherwise, all too easily take for granted: the transcendent joy of motion, and the remarkable new perspectives that height and distance bestow on everything we love. 
 
‘A beautiful, contemplative book… What Skyfaring gives is something we need: elevation; another perspective… Normally when I find a volume where prose style and subject matter fuse so pleasingly, I tear through it in a day. Here, I found myself pausing on almost every page, as I absorbed its detail or phrasing.’ Nicholas Lezard, Guardian 
 
**A 2015 Book of the Year – The Economist, The New York Times, GQ and more**

Skyfaring

A Journey with a Pilot

Jennie Gow

'Formula 1 is as complex as it is competitive, existing in a world which has built up a language almost unique to itself. Jennie has been working the Formula 1 pitlanes and paddocks of the world since before many of today’s superstars had even started karting. She knows the sport inside out. There’s nobody better to take you on this alphabetic adventure through the greatest sport in the world.' Will Buxton 
 
'This is a great read for old and new fans of F1, one that will inform, educate and entertain you. A truly comprehensive guide to Formula One - from A to Z (and most importantly, to B).' Valtteri Bottas 
 
'Jennie's job is to go where angels fear to tread. Being in the pit lane and on the grid or even in the F1 paddock is not for the faint of heart. It takes courage and a lot of hard work to know your stuff and ask the difficult questions in F1. Jennie Gow is that gal!' – Damon Hill 
 
'Jennie brings such a great passion to broadcasting on F1.' – Nico Rosberg 
 
Fun, informative and insightful, How to Read F1 is the perfect gift for Formula One fans. 
 
BBC F1 presenter and Drive to Survive expert Jennie Gow covers the key concepts, drivers, teams, tech and rules in an easy-to-read, bitesize format. Featuring bespoke illustrations capturing the sport's famous faces and technical elements, the book is packed with Jennie's unique insights, anecdotes and plenty of trivia. Whether you’re new F1 and keen to learn more or a veteran supporter looking to brush up on facts, there’s something for everyone in this entertaining guide to racing in the fast lane.

How to Read F1

Everything you need to know about racing in the fast lane

Martin Buckley

In this exciting and unusual travel book, Martin Buckley journeys through many places, from Benbecula to Rarotonga, from Sudan to New Zealand, from Corsica to Tucson, Arizona - but the country he explores is a romantic and dangerous place that seduces all who travel there - the sky. 
 
Three years ago, Martin Buckley gained a pilot's licence, and set off to 'hitch-hike' by plane around the world. His encounters with a range of sometimes eccentric and always obsessive pilots led to aid flights through war zones in a UN Cessna, aerobatics in a jet fighter, chasing goats across snowy mountains by helicopter and touching the edge of the stratosphere in a Learjet. 
 
The result is a wholly original travel book, free-spirited and often very funny, weaving a bird's-eye view of aviation's peculiar history into the narrative and offering intimate insights into the passion and perils of the pilot's seat.

Absolute Altitude

A Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Sky

Richard Porter

From the Austin Allegro to the Renault Safrane, and from the MGB to the Volkswagen Beetle, this book brings together 50 of the worst cars ever to grace the roads of Britain. 
 
The book features everything from the aesthetically pathetic to the mechanically misguided and includes tales of the most bizarre and appalling cock-ups in motoring history. 
 
With full-colour photos to illustrate each entry, this chronicle of classically Crap Cars will transport you back to the beige and brown world of the seventies and eighties and your very own Morris Marina.

Crap Cars

Jeremy Clarkson

What Could Possibly Go Wrong... is the eighth book in Jeremy Clarkson's bestselling Clarkson on Cars series. 
 
There's nothing quite like messing about on four wheels. In fact, there's no better way to contemplate the madness of the world than from the driver's seat of something which is zooming by very fast indeed. 
 
Or so Jeremy Clarkson believes. 
 
For he's been pondering some really rather important matters, such as why: 
 
- God has a streak of German perfectionism 
- Crab spread beats Heston Blumenthal's rhubarb mousse 
- Monaco's billionaires are ruining the Grand Prix 
- The back of a dog tastes nicer than marzipan 
 
Someone's got to. And while a full tank and the open road might not quite reveal the meaning of life, there's certainly some fun to be had along the way . . . 
 
'Brilliant . . . laugh-out-loud' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Very funny . . . I cracked up laughing on the tube' Evening Standard 
 
'Outrageously funny . . . will have you in stitches' Time Out

What Could Possibly Go Wrong. . .

Michael Holroyd

Michael Holroyd confronts an army of automobiles in this charming book. Weaving together memoir and historical anecdote, he traces his relationship with cars through a lifetime of biography. 
 
Learning to drive was no easy matter for Michael: the lessons required military precision when practising how to get in and out of his car correctly. His biographical subjects also had their difficulties: Bernard Shaw drove with reckless gusto when overtaking his eightieth year; Vita Sackville-West’s car became a chamber for sudden romantic assignations and getaways; while Augustus John and his family careered through vulnerable villages as the poor vehicle, piled high with bohemian friends, stuttered and jerked along in first gear. 
 
Wry, thoughtful and very funny, On Wheels is an elegy to the glamour of the car. Subtle and perceptive, Michael Holroyd finds surprising ways to understand the past and challenge our view of the future.

On Wheels

Jody Rosen

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023** 
 
'Full of delightful anecdotes and interviews and fascinating historical tales' Mail on Sunday 
 
A panoramic portrait of the wonderous vehicle whose passenger is also its engine. 
 
A toy, a tool, a liberator, or complete nuisance: the bicycle has been many things to many people over the decades, yet it endures as the most popular form of transport in the world. How has such a simple machine achieved so much? 
 
Combining history, travelogue and memoir, Jody Rosen reshapes our understanding of this ubiquitous vehicle from its invention in 1817 to its present-day renaissance as a 'green machine'. Readers meet unforgettable characters: women's suffragists who steered bikes to the barricades in the 1890s, a Bhutanese king who races mountain bikes in the Himalayas, astronauts who ride a floating bicycle in zero gravity. 
 
By examining the bicycle's past and peering into its future, Two Wheels Good forms a joyful ode to an engineering marvel of global importance. 
 
'Funny, precise, surprising' Adam Gopnik 
 
'Love for two-wheeled transport runs through every sentence' Economist 
 
'Wry, rich, deeply researched' Patrick Radden Keefe

Two Wheels Good

The History and Mystery of the Bicycle (Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Sports Book Awards 2023)

Mark Ovenden

London Underground By Design is the beautifully illustrated new book from Mark Ovenden, the acclaimed author of Great Railway Maps of the World, published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Tube in 2013. 
 
Since its establishment 150 years ago as the world's first urban subway, the London Underground has continuously set a benchmark for design that has influenced transit systems from New York to Tokyo, Moscow to Paris and beyond. London Underground by Design is the first meticulous study of every aspect of that feat, a comprehensive history of one of the world's most celebrated design achievements, and of the visionaries who brought it to life. 
 
Beginning in the pioneering Victorian age, Mark Ovenden charts the evolution of architecture, branding, typeface, map design, interior and textile styles, posters, signage and graphic design and how these came together to shape not just the Underground's identity, but the character of London itself. This is the story of celebrated designers - from Frank Pick, the guru who conceptualised the modern Tube's look under the 'design fit for purpose' mantra, to Harry Beck, Tube diagram creator, and from Marion Dorn, one of the twentieth century's leading textile designers, to Edward Johnston, creator of the distinctive font that bears his name, as well as Leslie Green, designer of central London's distinctive ruby-red tiled stations, and the Design Research Unit's head, Misha Black, who in the 1960s rebranded British Railways and created the Victoria line's distinctive style, and Sir Norman Foster, architect of Canary Wharf station. 
 
'Fascinating ... authoritative ... bristles with photographs I've never seen before ... the book does ample justice to a network that - overcrowded and overpriced - is a glorious palimpsest of design' Andrew Martin, Observer 
 
'I wouldn't ordinarily enthuse about one book at such length, but this is an important work...not because it's an entertaining read (it is), but because it identifies the birth of a brand...and records the birth of a new idea - the transport interchange' Kevin McCloud, Grand Designs Magazine 
 
'Mark Ovenden has devotedly documented the designs associated with [the Underground] ... "addictive" for anyone interested in the look of everyday life' Telegraph 
 
'This beautifully illustrated history is a worth tribute [to 150 years of design]' Shortlist 
 
'A wonderful, handsome book ... it makes me want to nerd out, get a travel card and whiz out to the strange ends of Metroland or the UFO shape of Southgate station' Robert Bownes/Andrew Tuck, Monocle Weekly (Radio programme) 
 
Mark Ovenden is a British writer and broadcaster. His previous books are Metro Maps of the World, Paris Metro Style and Great Railway Maps of the World. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and lives in London.

London Underground By Design

Horatio Clare

*A Newstatesman Book of the Year* 
 
‘Nimble, vital, unexpectedly affecting’ Observer 
 
Bestselling travel writer Horatio Clare joins an icebreaker for a voyage through the ice-packs of the far north. 
 
'We are celebrating a hundred years since independence this year: how would you like to travel on a government icebreaker?' 
 
 
A message from the Finnish embassy launches Horatio Clare on a voyage around an extraordinary country and an unearthly place, the frozen Bay of Bothnia, just short of the Arctic circle. Travelling with the crew of Icebreaker Otso, Horatio, whose last adventure saw him embedded on Maersk container vessels for the bestseller Down to the Sea in Ships, discovers stories of Finland, of her mariners and of ice. 
 
 
Aboard Otso Horatio gets to know the men who make up her crew, and explores Finland’s history and character. Surrounded by the extraordinary colours and conditions of a frozen sea, he also comes to understand something of the complexity and fragile beauty of ice, a near-miraculous substance which cools the planet, gives the stars their twinkle and which may hold all our futures in its crystals.

Icebreaker

A Voyage Far North

Chris Harris

'What defines the car-saddo condition is not being able to recall a time when the toy-car-era of your life actually ended. Because for us sufferers, it never does.' 
 
Nobody knows cars like Chris Harris does. He calls it 'unhinged geekery', but the rest of the world call it infectious enthusiasm, adrenaline fuelled escapism and rigorous journalistic integrity. 
 
And then there are his famous skills at the wheel, from city cars to rally cars, not forgetting the Guinness World Record 3.4km sideways in an electric car. 
 
And now for the first time, Harris takes us down the road of his lifelong obsession with the automobile - along surprising diversions, around hazards and obstructions, down the fast lane collecting Gs and back to the lock-up to prep the stock. 
 
From the six-year-old who could recite the stats from What Car? magazine to the YouTube car guru whose honest reviews got him banned by Ferrari. From the Scalextric track of his childhood, to podiums as a racing driver out in the world. From behind his garage doors to the floodlit Top Gear studio. 
 
Variable Valve Timings brings you an incredibly engaging story of adventure and petrolhead joy, told with wit, warmth and disarming honesty. This book is a true one-off, just like Chris.

Variable Valve Timings

Memoirs of a car tragic

Jason Barlow

Guaranteed to rev the engines of car fans everywhere. 
 
Supercars are the purest and most extreme expression of automotive performance there is - and no one knows the territory better than the TopGear team. With ever-increasing power outputs, radical new designs, and eye-popping price tags, this book is a celebration of the supercar in all its fabulous glory. 
 
Supercars also brings this incredibly fast-moving, hi-octane world bang up to date. The world's best writers and photographers explore the latest developments in thrilling style - from the new generation of pure-electric cars that have raised the bar for zero emissions performance, to the crazy machines hell-bent on breaking the 300mph barrier ... this is TopGear Supercars. Buckle up. Are you ready?

Top Gear Ultimate Supercars

Building your own hovervan or brewing your own beer? Get down to the garage. 
 
Looking to store several step ladders or conceal a secret collection of owls? The garage is the place. 
 
Maybe you just want to whistle, drum or shout 'Ow my thumb!' without being told to shut up. The garage is waiting. 
 
This book celebrates the garage and all that happens in it. Even the fires.

Top Gear: Planet Garage

Stuff to do in a world of your own

Richard J. King

Sailing on a boat by yourself out at sea and out of sight of land can be exhilarating or terrifying, compelling or tedious - sometimes it can be all of these things just in one morning. It is an adventure at odds with our normal, sociable lives, carried out floating on a medium wholly inimical to our existence. But the deep ocean is also a remarkable place on which to think. 
 
Richard King's enormously engaging and curious new book is about the debt we owe to solo sailors: women and men, young and old, who have set out alone. Spending weeks and months alone, slowly, quietly and close to the ocean surface is to create the world's largest laboratory: an endlessly changing, capricious and startling place in which to observe oneself, the weather, the stars and myriad sea creatures, from the tiniest to the most massive and threatening. 
 
This is a book for anyone who is fascinated by sailing, solitude and the vast seas that cover so much of our planet.

Sailing Alone

A History

R.A. Saville-Sneath

When this book was first published in 1941, aircraft recognition was far more than just a pleasant pastime; it was often a matter of life and death&hellip; 
 
 This classic text provides a definitive catalogue of the aeroplanes, enemy and friendly, seen over British skies during the Second World War. R.A. Saville-Sneath set out to produce a handy classification guide, with many diagrams, a full glossary and some useful mnemonics, showing how each type of aircraft could be identified quickly and easily. The basic structures, tail units, positions of the wings and engines, and even the sounds made by the different planes, form part of the essential 'vocabulary' for distinguishing Albacores and Ansons, Beauforts and Blenheims, Heinkels, Hurricanes and Junkers, Messerschmitts and Moths, Spitfires and Wellingtons. For anyone interested in aviation the book provides a mine of information about a golden age. For those who lived through one of the most glorious episodes in the history of combat it will prove vividly evocative of those extraordinary days.

Aircraft Recognition

A Penguin Special

William Queen

When veteran law-enforcement officer and lifelong motorcycle lover William Queen penetrated the San Fernando chapter of the notorious Mongols, he was at the mercy of psychopaths who sought to have him prove his fealty by any means necessary, from selling and doing drugs to arms trafficking, driving getaway cars and, in one shocking instance, stitching up the face of a Mongol 'ol' lady' after a brutal beating at the hands of her boyfriend. 
 
Yet despite the constant criminality of the gang, Queen came to see the genuine camaraderie they shared. When his lengthy undercover work totally isolated Queen from his relatives and friends, the Mongols felt like the only family he had left. Under and Alone is a breathless, adrenalin-charged read that puts you on the street with some of the most dangerous men in America.

Under and Alone

Infiltrating the World's Most Violent Motorcycle Gang

Maxwell Roberts

In this gorgeously illustrated collection of airline route maps, Mark Ovenden and Maxwell Roberts look to the skies and transport readers to another time. Hundreds of images span a century of passenger flight, from the rudimentary trajectory of routes to the most intricately detailed birds-eye views of the land to be flown over. Advertisements for the first scheduled commercial passenger flights featured only a few destinations, with stunning views of the countryside and graphics of biplanes. As aviation took off, speed and mileage were trumpeted on bold posters featuring busy routes. Major airlines produced highly stylized illustrations of their global presence, establishing now-classic brands. With trendy and forward-looking designs, cartographers celebrated the coming together of different cultures and made the earth look ever smaller. 
 
Eventually, fleets got bigger and routes multiplied, and graphic designers have found creative new ways to display huge amounts of information. Airline hubs bring their own cultural mark and advertise their plentiful destination options. Innovative maps depict our busy world with webs of overlapping routes and networks of low-cost city-to-city hopping. But though flying has become more commonplace, Ovenden and Roberts remind us that early air travel was a glamorous affair for good reason. Airline Maps is a celebration of graphic design, cartographic skills and clever marketing, and a visual feast that reminds us to enjoy the journey as much as the destination.

Airline Maps

A Century of Art and Design

Tom Nancollas

If Britain's maritime history were embodied in a single ship, she would have a prehistoric prow, a mast plucked from a Victorian steamship, the hull of a modest fishing vessel, the propeller of an ocean liner and an anchor made of stone. We might call her Asunder, and, fantastical though she is, we could in fact find her today, scattered in fragments across the country's creeks and coastlines. This extraordinary book collects those fragments for a profound and haunting exploration of our seafaring past. 
 
In his moving and original new history, Tom Nancollas goes in search of eleven relics that together tell the story of Britain at sea. From the swallowtail prow of a Bronze Age vessel to a stone ship moored at a Baroque quayside, each one illuminates a distinct phase of our adventures upon the waves; each brings us close to the people, places and vessels that made a maritime nation. Weaving together stories of great naval architects and unsung shipwrights, fishermen and merchants, shipwrecks and superstition, pilgrimage, trade and war, The Ship Asunder celebrates the richness of Britain's seafaring tradition in all its glory and tragedy, triumph and disaster, and asks how we might best memorialize it as it vanishes from our shores.

The Ship Asunder

A Maritime History of Britain in Eleven Vessels

E Nesbit

Rediscover the Puffin Classics collection and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this charming new reillustrated edition of The Railway Children. 
 
When Father is taken away unexpectedly, Roberta, Peter, Phyllis and their mother have to leave their comfortable life in London to go and live in a small cottage in the country. The children seek solace in the nearby railway station, and make friends with Perks the Porter and the Station Master himself. Each day, Roberta, Peter and Phyllis run down the field to the railway track and wave at the passing London train, sending their love to Father. Little do they know that the kindly old gentleman passenger who waves back holds the key to their father's disappearance. 
 
One of the best-loved classics of all time, with a wonderful introduction by Jacqueline Wilson.

The Railway Children

Malcolm Gladwell

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'A parable written for the age of technological disruption . . . brilliantly told' Sunday Times 
 
The international bestselling author returns with an exploration of one of the grandest obsessions of the twentieth century 
 
'The Bomber Mafia is a case study in how dreams go awry. When some shiny new idea drops from the heavens, it does not land softly in our laps. It lands hard, on the ground, and shatters.' 
 
In the years before the Second World War, in a sleepy air force base in central Alabama, a small group of renegade pilots put forth a radical idea. What if we made bombing so accurate that wars could be fought entirely from the air? What if we could make the brutal clashes between armies on the ground a thing of the past? 
 
This book tells the story of what happened when that dream was put to the test. The Bomber Mafia follows the stories of a reclusive Dutch genius and his homemade computer, Winston Churchill's forbidding best friend, a team of pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard, a brilliant pilot who sang vaudeville tunes to his crew, and the bomber commander, Curtis Emerson LeMay, who would order the bloodiest attack of the Second World War. 
 
In this tale of innovation and obsession, Gladwell asks: what happens when technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war? And what is the price of progress?

The Bomber Mafia

A Tale of Innovation and Obsession

A Story Set in War

Life is full of complications. 
 
From buying petrol and driving on a motorway to using a microwave oven and becoming a Formula 1 driver, all men have suffered from the stresses and inconveniences of the modern world. 
 
Happily, this handy book will solve all of these problems by applying the unique brand of Top Gear logic to a range of everyday situatons, such as making a ham sandwich, designing a supercar, receiving directions and, of course, how to parachute into a moving car.

Top Gear: How to Parachute into a Moving Car

Vital Survival Tips for the Modern Man

Ambitious but Rubbish reveals the off-camera secrets behind some of Top Gear’s most memorable creations. 
 
 From the challenge of turning a Reliant Robin into a rocket and the genesis of the Hammerhead-i Eagle Thrust electric car to the complexities of building a caravan airship and the inspiration for destruction-testing a Toyota Hilux, this book is packed with the previously untold stories behind dozens of classic TV moments. 
 
 Top Gear has never shied away from trying to answer questions no one has even thought to ask. Questions like ‘Can you make a convertible people carrier?’, ‘Can you cross the Channel in a pick-up?’ and ‘Can you turn a combine harvester into a snow plough?’. Ambitious but Rubbish reveals how those insane ideas came about with remarkable tales of ingenious invention and idiotic engineering. 
 
 This book is essential reading for any Top Gear fan and a terrific insight into the creation of the world’s biggest car show. It’s also a terrifying window into the minds of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. Don’t say you weren’t warned about that last one.

Top Gear: Ambitious but Rubbish

The Secrets Behind Top Gear's Craziest Creations

Just in time for the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic, this graphic deluxe edition compiles first hand accounts, testimonies, and letters by notable Titanic survivors, including Archibald Gracie, Lawrence Beesley, Elizabeth W. Shutes, and the "unsinkable" Molly Brown. Full of historically accurate details and an afterword by the grandson of Lawrence Beesley, Titanic Survivors and author of The Loss of the S.S. Titanic, it will be the gift to give die-hard Titanic buffs. Authoritative, commemorative and in a striking, luxurious package with and introduction by Titanic enthusiast and expert, Tim Maltin, this will be the authoritative work on the disaster.

Titanic: First Accounts (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Daisy Picture Books

The Christmasaurus Picture Book

Mrs Pepperpot Picture Books

Princess Poppy Picture Books

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How to make a picture book

How to write a picture book

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An illustration of a writer sat in front of a huge children's book, with their pencil raised. They are looking down at a small child on their left who is showing them a toy horse.

How to write a children's picture book

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20 soothing bedtime books for kids

A selection of classic children's picture books on a bright yellow background

The best classic children's picture books

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Meet the eight writers joining our WriteNow Children's editorial programme

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14 books that will make under 5s giggle

Christmas gifts for 2025: Books for under 5s

These forgotten childhood books paint a vanishing picture of the UK

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Children’s books loved by the Obamas

9 activity books for kids that love being creative 

5 activity books for kids who love being creative

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Showing results for: ‘picture book’

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