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Gordon Thorburn

    A Century of Air Warfare with Nine (IX) Squadron, RAF
    Remembering the High Street: a Nostalgic Look at Famous Names
    Travelling Art
    Me and My MG
    Pocket Guide to Pubs and Their History
    Lady Anne Clifford 1590-1676
    • Lady Anne Clifford 1590-1676

      • 166 pages
      • 6 hours of reading

      The young Lady Anne Clifford of Queen Elizabeth's Court became Countess of Dorset at the Court of King James, was robbed of her inheritance, widowed, became Countess of Pembroke at the Court of King Charles, a widow again, and beat them all to be the Lady Anne of great estates and fondest memory in the times of Oliver Cromwell and King Charles II.

      Lady Anne Clifford 1590-1676
    • Pocket Guide to Pubs and Their History

      • 192 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      The book explores the quirky world of pub names and the intriguing stories behind them. It delves into the existence of unique establishments like The Toad Rock Retreat and examines towns with pubs boasting the longest and shortest names. Readers will uncover the significance of names such as The Speculation and The Welcome Stranger, as well as the whimsical reasons behind titles like The Geese Have Gone Over The Water. Through a blend of humor and curiosity, it invites readers to appreciate the charm of local drinking spots and their identities.

      Pocket Guide to Pubs and Their History
    • Read about the Berkshire restorer who saw a heap of old iron in the bushes and realized it used to be a 1926 bullnose Super Sports, and the seven year old boy in Norfolk, Virginia, who read a book called The Red Car and knew that, one day, he would have to have a TC, and the Dutch boy who saw an MGB on his way to school and knew something similar.

      Me and My MG
    • The hey-day of the British gypsy caravan was short, only about 70 years, during which period it grew from a simple utility vehicle, blossomed and flourished as a mobile work of art, then disappeared from common sight. These caravans were masterpieces of woodcraft and design, and the best of them cost as much as a small house. Unlike any small house, almost half the cost was in the decoration. This beautifully illustrated book presents the different types of caravan and the great variety of art which was carved and painted upon them and their brothers-in-transport, the old narrowboats. While there were certain rules and conventions of style, the decoration on and in all the types was ultimately governed only by how much money could be spent. The caravan in particular was the supreme status symbol among travelling people and its art the prime means for expressing where one stood in the world. This book seeks to display and explain this specialised art form for future generations

      Travelling Art
    • From early beginnings in wood, wire and fabric kites over France and a pilot armed with a service revolver, to the world's first Tornado squadron in the Gulf wars and Afghanistan, this is the story of the RAF's senior bomber squadron across a hundred years of war and peace.

      A Century of Air Warfare with Nine (IX) Squadron, RAF
    • Luck of a Lancaster

      • 224 pages
      • 8 hours of reading

      The story of one particular lucky Lancaster (W4964) and its pilots.

      Luck of a Lancaster
    • The story of Lancaster Mark III EE136, covering its illustrious career during the Second World War and profiling the impressive crews who flew and manned the aircraft.

      More Luck of a Lancaster
    • For Bomber Command, the term 'Phoney War' never really meant much. Five Blenheims of 107 Squadron were among the blood and bullets the day after war was declared and only one came back. On 14 December 1939, in a disastrous raid on shipping, 99 Squadron lost six Wellingtons with only three survivors out of thirty-six crew. Even worse, in the biggest air battle so far, 18 December, Wilhelmshaven, five Wellingtons of 9 Squadron went down, four of 37 Squadron and two of 149 Squadron. Bomber Command lost sixty-eight aircraft and crews in action in the four war months of 1939, and a further seventy-eight in accidents. In the months up to the French surrender, losses rose spectacularly as the Germans triumphed wherever they went. In a few hours on 14 May, resisting the Blitzkrieg, forty-seven Fairey Battles and Bristol Blenheims were shot from the sky. Through the Scandinavian defense, in France and Belgium, at Dunkirk and, at last, over Germany, for Bomber Command there was no Phoney War. It was real war from the start.

      Bomber Command, 1939–1940
    • Was this the greatest medical disaster of World War Two? Who caused it? This new book has the answers.

      Jocks in the Jungle