In the tradition of Dava Sobel's Longitude comes sailing expert David Barrie's compelling and dramatic tale of invention and discovery—an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and the daring mariners who used it to explore, conquer, and map the world.Since its invention in 1759, a mariner's most prized possession has been the sextant. A navigation tool that measures the angle between a celestial object and the horizon, the sextant allowe...

With 2014 marking the tercentenary of the Longitude Act, this eloquent celebration of the sextant tells the story of this elegant instrument and explores its vital role in man’s attempts to map the world.This is the story of an instrument that changed the world. In prose as crisp as the book’s subject, David Barrie tells how and why the sextant was invented; how offshore navigators depended on it for their lives in wild and dangerous seas until the advent of GPS – and the sextant’s...

THE SUNDAY TIMES NATURE BOOK OF THE YEAR'A compelling investigation of navigation in the animal kingdom.' Mail on Sunday'David Barrie, who himself has sailed the oceans using a sextant, is passionate about navigation and describes in delightful detail the myriad ways in which animals get around ... eye-opening book.' Frans de Waal, New York Times'Only a sailor could relate the navi...

Sie müssen ohne GPS auskommen und finden doch ans Ziel, ob schwimmend, fliegend oder krabbelnd – Fische und Vögel, Insekten und Meeressäuger auf dem Weg zu Partnern, Nahrung oder ihren Winterquartieren. Die navigatorischen Meisterleistungen der Tiere stellen die Forschung vor Rätsel: Ameisen und Bienen, die mithilfe von Lichtmustern navigieren, Meeresschildkröten und Langusten, die sich am Erdmagnetfeld orientieren, und Wale, die über Tausende von Meilen einen geraden Kurs beibehalten. Fun...

“Just astonishing . . . Our natural navigational capacities are no match for those of the supernavigators in this eye-opening book.”—Frans de Waal, The New York Times Book ReviewPublisher’s note: Supernavigators was published in the UK under the title Incredible Journeys.Animals plainly know where they’re going, but how they know has remained a stubborn mystery—until now. Supernavigators is a globe-trotting voyag...

"Just astonishing . . . Our natural navigational capacities are no match for those of the supernavigators in this eye-opening book."—Frans de Waal, The New York Times Book ReviewPublisher's note: Supernavigators was published in the UK under the title Incredible Journeys.Animals plainly know where they're going, but how they know has remained a stubborn mystery—until now. Supernavigators is a globe-trotting voyage...

A book about animal navigation - how creatures, great and small, find their way and how brilliantly they manage without benefit of maps or instruments - and what lessons there are for human beings.In Incredible Journeys, award-winning author David Barrie takes us on a tour of the cutting-edge science of animal navigation, where breakthroughs are allowing scientists to unravel, for the first time, how animals as various as butterflies, birds, crustaceans, f...

This is the first book specifically devoted to exploring one of the longest-running controversies in nineteenth-century Britain – the sixty-five-year campaign to legalise marriage between a man and his deceased wife’s sister. The issue captured the political, religious and literary imagination of the United Kingdom. It provoked huge parliamentary and religious debate and aroused national, ecclesiastical and sexual passions. The campaign to legalise such unions, and the widespread oppositio...

The study of police history in Scotland has largely been neglected. Little is known about the Scottish police's origins, development and character despite growing interest in the machinery of law enforcement in other parts of the United Kingdom. This book seeks to remedy this deficiency.Based on extensive archival research, its central aim is to provide an in-depth analysis of the economic, social, intellectual and political factors that shaped police reform, development and policy...

The successes of the standard models of particle physics and cosmology are many, but have proven incapable of explaining all the phenomena that we observe. This book investigates the potentially important role of quantum physics, particularly quantum anomalies, in various aspects of modern cosmology, such as inflation, the dynamical generation of the visible and dark matter in the universe, and gravitational waves. By doing so, the authors demonstrate that exploring the links between cosmo...

The life and times of an independent, British family-owned bus company based in Berkshire that rose up following World War I.Between the two world wars and in the years that followed, several generations relied on country buses. In the days when few could afford a car, the bus was the medium to move between homes in often remote villages and the places where they increasingly went to school, worked, and enjoyed their leisure hours.This is the story of one s...

This is a new book, a compiliation of my past experiences, hope you enjoy.