When the words Buses of North Staffordshire are used most people will think of PMT, and later First, running through the urban areas of Stoke-on-Trent, with additional vehicles from a few medium-sized family-owned operators thrown in for good measure. Our journey, taken over the last fifty-or-so years, will also feature the vehicles of the many smaller rural operators. Schools services and works contracts have always been an important part of the bus scene, and many of the vehicles feature...

Coach styles at the start of the 1950s were still very traditional. All that was about to change with the introduction of the new underfloor-engined chassis and an increase of maximum length. Improvements in technology helped styles become more adventurous and flamboyant as the decade progressed. The 1960s heralded the motorway age, coaches becoming bigger from 1961 and capable of cruising at much higher speeds. Styles moved with the times and by the end of the decade the maximum length in...

Until the last quarter of the twentieth century Maltese buses had generally had locally constructed bodywork, often a modified chassis of UK or American origin. A variety of liveries was carried. By the mid-1970s, out went the traditional liveries to be replaced by a uniform ‘spray green’ with white roof for route buses, while coaches initially carried a livery of buff and white. The start of the 1980s saw the importation of complete vehicles from the UK. AEC Swifts were sourced from Londo...

“It’s a surefire winner.” — Publishers WeeklyArthur Beauchamp is mortified. A biography of his early career as a lawyer paints him as a dissolute womanizer. So he sweats over a memoir that he hopes will set the record straight about a headline murder case he fought as a starry-eyed young lawyer in 1966. A trial that seemed bound to mark him as a pathetic loser.The background: a young housemaid is violently sexually assaulted by her employer, a call...

“Smart, beautifully written, and really, really, funny satire featuring Arthur Beauchamp.” –– The Globe and MailFinalist for the Stephen Leacock Humour AwardIn this zany political thriller, the leader of the despotic Asian nation of Bhashyistan declares war on Canada after a limo bearing its visiting delegation is blown sky-high in snowy Ottawa. The suspected assassin, Abzal Erzhan, a Bhashyistani revolutionary, disappears. Was he ...

Finally, after 58 years The Body on Mount Royal is back in print, starring hard-drinking private dick, Russell Teed.From the back cover of the 1953 edition: Take a brutally beaten body, a lonely spot on Montreal’s famous mountain, and a buxum brunette whose embrace brings treachery. Add a large dose of vicious gang warfare and a slice of underworld life. Mix these ingredients well and you have a large helping of spicy, fast-paced adventure.An excerpt from the book:...

Complex, fascinating, and fun … Kill All the Judges is a classic crime work, from an author heralded as one of Canada’s best, and with good reason.” — Shelf LifeFinalist for the Stephen Leacock Humour PrizeIs someone systematically killing the judges called to the British Columbian bar? At least one has been murdered and several have disappeared. Arthur Beauchamp returns from retirement once again to take on the case, this...

Arthur Ellis award–winning William Deverell’s 2003 bestsellerIn Mind Games, William Deverell returns to the intriguing territory of the law and lawyers and of human psychology and motivation, and he does so in familiar Deverell surroundings: the streets, courtrooms, and waters of Vancouver.Dr. Tim Dare is a forensic psychiatrist whose life is in a mess: his wife has just left him to find herself; his mother is being sued for libel by a small-town m...

**"[Narrator Henry] Leyva and [author Paul] Doiron are a great combination offering a fast-paced thrill ride." —AudioFile on Almost MidnightGame Warden Mike Bowditch must chase down a cunning and dangerous fugitive in the North Maine Woods in this nail-biter of a thriller from Edgar Award-nominated author Paul Doiron, Pitch Dark.**Legendary bush pilot Josie Jonson can’t believe her luck when a skilled builder just happens to show up after she purc...

From the creator of the TV show Bones, The Seminarian is a twisty murder mystery perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich and Carl Hiaasen.Xavier “Priest” Priestly is a snarky former seminarian turned private investigator. Dusty Queen is a hard-as-nails professional stuntwoman and freelance bodyguard. When Dusty’s girlfriend suddenly disappears, a woman in a strange blue wig tries to assassinate Priest, and a twelve-year-old boy shows up claiming to be...

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben, a heart-pounding thriller about the ties we have to our past...and the lies that bind us together.It's a profile, like all the others on the online dating site. But as NYPD Detective Kat Donovan focuses on the accompanying picture, she feels her whole world explode, as emotions she’s ignored for decades come crashing down on her. Staring back at her is her ex-fiancé Jeff, the man who shattered her heart—and who she ha...

When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes.Given to Armand Gamache as a gift the first day of his new job, the map eventually leads him to shattering secrets. To an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec to places even he is afraid to go. But must.And there he finds four you...