Rob Higgins shows how taking the aerial route gives unique insights into the history and workings of Britain’s railways. The marvels of Victorian engineering in their construction, their relationships to the canals they replaced as the main arteries of transport, and the communities and industry they spawned along their length can all be seen in detail. This book flies from the Scottish Highlands to Cornwall; from marshalling yards in the centre of the UK to lines hugging cliffs and beache...

The Ruskin Pottery operated from around 1898 to 1935. Founded by William Howson Taylor and his father Edward (Superintendent of the Birmingham School of Art) the pottery used simple forms and new glaze technologies in contrast to highly decorated majolica and earthenware that had been popular in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Ruskin Pottery was one of the most important potteries of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and William Howson Taylor was pre-eminent among a group of ‘ch...

This book showcases British decorative tiles from 1945 to 1975. ‘Mid-century Modern’ had its roots in the 1930s, with influences especially from California and Europe. Pioneers include the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the USA and, in Europe, the Milan designers Gio Ponti and Piero Fornasetti, who derived inspiration from artists such as Picasso and Miro. British designers hardly had time to embrace the new style before the Second World War, but the decades after 1945 saw it flourish in ...

William De Morgan was the principal ceramic designer and maker in the Arts and Crafts Movement. Heavily influenced by the art of the Middle East, he was active for nearly thirty years from the 1870s onwards and was never content with an existing technical process if he thought it could be improved. He is famous for his vases and decorative chargers, but it is arguably his tiles – still to be found in homes and museums around Britain and the world – that have made the greatest impact. His t...

The Arts and Crafts Movement was a reaction to the brutality of working life and the sterility of industrial design in Victorian Britain. Although Arts and Crafts was initially a mediaeval revival, the movement was always about the artist craftsman and the appropriate use of materials, rather than any single design tradition. The movement was inspired and led by William Morris, whose company was founded in 1861 and produced a full range of interior furnishings, including tiles. These were ...

Since the eighteenth century, the hospitals of London have played a leading role in the development of modern medicine. Most joined the NHS on the ‘Appointed Day’ (5 July 1948) but, as medical treatments improved and financial budgets became increasingly stringent, many were considered redundant and closed, despite vociferous protests from local residents. Veronika and Fred Chambers are the first to chronicle a rich history of twentieth-century hospitals that has been hitherto neglected, b...

Portmeirion pottery evolved from a souvenir shop in North Wales into a twenty-first-century global business, thanks to the flair and vision of Susan Williams-Ellis.She captured the aspirations of households all over the world, transforming their kitchens and dining rooms from the 1960s onwards by cleverly blending the contemporary and the traditional. Her 'Botanic Garden' pattern, introduced in 1972, combined antique flower prints with contemporary shapes, and havi...

Reconsidering Longfellow is the first collection of scholarly essays in several decades devoted entirely to the work and afterlife of the most popular and widely read writer in American literature. The essays, written by a new generation of Longfellow scholars, cover the entire range of Longfellow’s work, from the early poetry to the wildly successful epics of his middle period (Evangeline, The Song of Hiawatha) to his Chaucerian collection of stories published after the Civil War, Tales o...

A gripping thriller from bestselling author Rob Sinclair. Callum Murphy thought he was happily married to a corporate consultant...But when police show up at Callum’s work site, informing him of his wife Lea’s death – his world starts to crumble. And it turns out, her death was just the beginning…Within a few hours, Callum is told that Lea was, in fact, an MI6 agent who was killed because of intelligence only she had, strangers with g...

Rob takes his pet rock for a walk by the sea with his dad. He runs up a hill, but when he get to the top, the rock is gone! Will Rob be able to find it? Rob and Rock is part of the Galaxy range of books from Rising Stars Reading Planet. Galaxy provides captivating fiction and non-fiction for Pink A to White band. The rich collection of highly decodable books immerses children in a range of cross-curricular topics and genres. Reading Planet books have been carefully levelled to support chil...