In and Around Swindon Works covers further aspects of the famous manufacturing centre of the Great Western Railway during its heyday of 1930 to 1960. This is the second half of a detailed work begun with the book Working at Swindon Works 1930 - 1960. In piecemeal form, much has been written about Swindon Works but many aspects of it have remained, until now, neglected. From ex-employees, both male and female, and printed material such as surviving GWR circulars and internal documents, the ...

Swindon Works 1930–1960 is a fully revised and enlarged edition of Working at Swindon Works 1930–1960, first published in 2007. It describes various aspects of the famous railway works of the Great Western Railway, later British Railways Western Region. Despite the disruption caused by economic depression, the Second World War, nationalisation and the transition from steam to diesel manufacture, the 1930s through to the 1950s was, in many ways, the greatest period in the Works’ long histor...

In this updated edition, Peter Timms leads us on a journey through his adopted city of Hobart, Australia's smallest, most southerly, least prosperous, but arguably most beautiful state capital. He reveals a city in transition, shaking off its dark and troubled past to claim its special place in the post-modern world: 'going boutique, nice and slow', as one overseas visitor notes. From Hobart's convict legacy, its spectacular natural setting, heritage architecture and climate, to crime rate...

MONA has done a lot more than just rescue a flagging tourism economy. It has changed the city's body language, teaching it to stand up straight and look others squarely in the eye, even putting a swagger in its step.Peter Timms leads us on a journey through his adopted city of Hobart, Australia's smallest, most southerly, least prosperous, but arguably most beautiful state capital.From Hobart's convict legacy, its spectacular natural setting, heritage architecture ...

There are certain things we all wish we could forget. The manner in which we forget can shape the rest of our lives - for better or worse ...there are things in his past that Harry Bascombe definitely doesn't want to remember. But when a nosy journalist with a taste for scandal turns up out of the blue, he is forced to confront his memories... An uncertain and diffident boy, Harry struggles to survive a suburban upbringing in the 1950s - the era of Menzies and the menace of Reds und...

Two men started the transformation from sleepy hilltop community into a thriving town. Gooch and Brunel chose the area near Swindon to build a factory for the Great Western Railway and for more than 140 years The Works was renowned for high-quality heavy engineering. Gooch, Armstrong, Dean, Churchward and Collett would be responsible for the design and building of some of the world’s finest locomotives and stock. In 1948 the GWR became British Railways and later diesels replaced steam. In ...

Silliness is to be savoured. It exposes the cracks in our reasoning, raising a gleeful two-finger salute to convention and common sense. In a world awash with stupidity and cruel politics, silliness is childish, anarchic, mischievous, rude and sometimes shocking. But it's not new. This delightful yet informative book reveals the surprisingly rich history of silliness, going all the way back to the madcap plays of Aristophanes in the fourth century BC. Medieval fools and jesters, strange "e...

One morning Ruth wakes thinking a tiger has been in her seaside house. Later that day a formidable woman called Frida arrives, looking as if she's blown in from the sea. In fact she's come to care for Ruth. Frida and the tiger: both are here to stay, and neither is what they seem.Which of them can Ruth trust? And as memories of her childhood in Fiji press upon her with increasing urgency, can she even trust herself?The Night Guest is a mesmerising novel about love,...

WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2013WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS POPULAR FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014WINNER OF THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2014‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’There are books you...

WINNER OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIA PREMIER'S PRIZE FOR AN EMERGING WRITER 2016WINNER OF THE GENERAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD, AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY AWARDS 2015WINNER OF THE MATT RICHELL NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD, AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY AWARDS 2015SHORTLISTED FOR THE DEBUT FICTION AWARD, INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2015SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUSTRALIAN BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION BOOKSELLERS CHOICE AWARD 2015The heart-warming, multi-award-winning Austra...

Don't miss THE SHRINE, the brand new Detective's Daughter mystery - available nowAs winter closes its grip on snow-bound London, a cleaner determines to solve the case that her detective father never could. A Kindle number one bestseller.It was the murder that shocked the nation. Kate Rokesmith, a young mother, walked to the banks of the Thames with her three-year-old son. She never came home.For three decades, the case fil...

A riveting story of courage, hope and extraordinary adventure."You will hardly read a more fascinating account of a convict's voyage to Australia" Australian Book ReviewThirteen-year-old Barnaby Fletch is a bag-and-bones orphan in London in the late 1700s.Barnaby lives on his wits and ill-gotten gains, on streets seething with the press of the throng and shadowed by sinister figures. Life is a precarious business.Wh...