The Beagle has become synonymous with Charles Darwin and his groundbreaking title On the Origin of Species. But how did Darwin come to be on board? For the first time in a single volume all the various strands of the Beagle story have been woven together to reveal the circumstances that set the expedition in motion and the characters who circumnavigated the world together.Enriched with first-hand commentary from personal letters and diaries, and the offic...

In 1968, British Leyland brought together many of Britain's motor manufacturers, with the intention of creating a robust unified group that could equal the strength of the big European conglomerates. But this was not to be. There have been many books about the politics and the business activities of British Leyland, but British Leyland - The Cars, 1968-1986 looks exclusively at the cars that came from the company, both the models it inherited and those it created. The eighteen years of the...

By: James Taylor, Pub. 1889, Reprinted 2024, 442 pages, E-BOOK, ISBN #978-1-63914-907-0. This set of books should be well received as a reprint for the genealogists, family historian or historian. This volume #2 traces the earliest recorded origins of the following Scottish families up to the 19th Century: the Maxwells, the Johnstones, the Stewarts, the Drummonds (2), the Erskines (3), the Grahams (3), the Buccleuch, the Harden, the Hepburns, the Frasers (2), the Gordons (4), the Hays (3),...

A definitive guide to BMW's high-performance classic coupes, tracking their rising success from 1965 to 1989. After the doldrums of the post-war years, BMW had felt the need for a flagship grand touring coupe. The 507 of the late 1950s and the 3200 CS that replaced it in the early 1960s may not have made much money for the company, but they were a reminder of its aspirations. Then in 1964, a striking new coupe emerged from the building blocks of the latest saloon car range. The 2000 and 20...

The thoroughly updated fifth edition of Málaga and Costa del Sol celebrates a popular Spanish region that offers a compelling combination of rich cultural heritage and some of Europe’s most dependable sunshine (300 days a year!), making it a year-round destination. Stretching along the Mediterranean coast of Andalucía, this diverse region is renowned for its beachfront towns, Moorish palaces, whitewashed mountain villages (pueblos blancos), gastronomy and dramatic inland sierras. Few Europ...

BMW, that most performance-oriented of car companies, had no affordable sports roadster in its line-up before 1995. Stung into action by Mazda's revival of the classic two-seater roadster, the Germany company quickly staked its claim with the Z3, a classic long-nose, short-tail design that used existing BMW mechanical hardware to good effect. This new book tells the story of BMW's Z3 and Z4 two-seater roadsters and coupés, which since 1995 have been at the forefront of the affordable sport...

BMW's M5 was a simple concept: a production 5 Series saloon re-developed for high performance by the Motorsport division. The M5 was the car that really initiated the legend of the M-cars from BMW; the letter M had been applied to a high-performance BMW as early as 1978, but that year's M1 was an exotic supercar. It had the right image, but the M1 was never going to bring in major profits. The M5 was much simpler in concept. It was and remains a production 5 Series saloon, redeveloped for ...

Designed by Mercedes's head of design Bruno Sacco, the W124 range immediately became the benchmark by which medium-sized car models were judged in the late 1980s due to its engineering excellence and high build quality. There was a model to suit every would-be-buyer, from the taxi driver through the family motorist and on to those who were willing and able to pay for luxury and performance. This book covers: design, development and manufacture of all models of W124 including estates, cabri...

By: James Taylor, Pub. 1889, Reprinted 2024, 420 pages, E-BOOK, ISBN #978-1-63914-908-7. This set of books should be well received as a reprint for the genealogists, family historian or historian. This volume #1 traces the earliest recorded origins of the following Scottish families up to the 19th Century: the Ancient Earldom of Mar, the Earldom of Menteith, the Douglases, the Angus Douglases, the Keiths, the Setons, the Ruthvens, the Crichtons, the Mackenzies (2), the Hamiltons, the Hamil...

Vauxhalls held a special place in the British motoring scene of the mid-twentieth century. Solid, reliable and respectable, they were carefully designed to meet the expectations of buyers and also to meet the global ambitions of General Motors in America, the company that owned the Vauxhall marque. The book covers just over two decades of Vauxhall history, between the late 1950s and the late 1970s, that saw Vauxhall producing a succession of fondly remembered models, including some genuine...

The Rolls-Royce company acquired Bentley Motors in 1931 and, although models continued to be produced with the Bentley name, they increasingly used many Rolls-Royce components. By the time the Silver Cloud and Bentley S were released in 1955, they were really differently badged versions of the same design. Yet the sporting tradition of the Bentley marque was upheld with the exotic Continental models that were derived from them. The Silver Cloud family represents a pinnacle for the Rolls-Ro...

The W201 was a compact saloon designed to address both concerns about fuel economy generated by the first oil crisis in the 1970s and competition for sales from the BMW 3 Series. Many doubted that Mercedes could deliver a compact car whilst retaining their traditional qualities. But the W201 soon won them over. For here was a car that was a real Mercedes in the tradition of the time - it was just smaller. With around 200 photographs, the book features the reasons behind the need to build a...