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 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...

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 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...

When they visit their Uncle Vince, little do Bridget and her younger brother Robert know that today will be a day like no other as they join him in hair-raising escapades, travelling across infinite space and thousands of years, accompanied by Leonardo, their uncle's Irish wolfhound, the coolest dog in the universe! During this adventure of a lifetime, they soon discover how dangerous life can be in other centuries, and when they become separated from their time machine, the time traveller...

Tales from Soho, eleven entertaining stories from London's famous square mile. Known as a red-light district, with a reputation for sleaze and crime, Soho is also a diverse district, a bohemian area which has been an adult playground for hundreds of years. In these stories you will meet countless motley characters over many decades. In 'The Poet in Soho' a famous Welsh writer goes on a Soho pub odyssey; and in 'The Spieler' a young actor risks a reckoning when he works in an illegal gambli...

Everyone likes to hang out with Freddie Weston. Charming and affable, he knows all the right people. If the showbiz types need the red carpet treatment in any of London’s West End clubs, Freddie’s the man to see – he supplies bouncers for most of the London clubs.An ex-mercenary, Freddie’s tried to keep his nose clean, but he’s still reeling from an attack on his family, perpetrated 40 years ago by an evil East End villain. When he receives proof about what really happened all thos...

Do you know why the ancient Greeks refused to eat beans? How many rowers were required for the largest Greek warships? What is the meaning behind the story of Narcissus? And how many Sophoclean tragedies have survived in complete form to this day?All these questions and more are answered in this fascinating easy-to-read guide to ancient Greece. Whether you are studying the subject and need access to the important information fast, or you are simply interested in a most fascinating period o...

Who can you trust when you can't trust family?Three months after her wedding day, Carol no longer trusts the man she married. Tony, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur, works as a travel agent out of a single shop, yet somehow has the means to live extravagantly: The new BMW, high-end restaurants, designer clothes - only the best for him. Whenever Carol reflects on their relationship, she realises she knows nothing of Tony's past, and there seems to be a darkness in him that scares her. Yet, ap...

Why has life suddenly become so complicated for affable Freddie Weston? He supplies bouncers to London clubs and always puts his family first. But his daughter’s involvement with a rock guitarist ignites an anger in him that could endanger the family home, and his life becomes ever more complicated as he seeks retribution, not only for his daughter but for a father who was killed by an East End gangster more than 40 years ago. Determined to get the truth, Freddie dives deep into London’s d...

Weston and Turner, novice private detectives, are plunged into a nightmare world of murder when they are hired by a young millionairess to solve the triple murder of her family, a crime the police failed to solve more than eleven years ago. As they delve deeper into the case, they soon discover a hired assassin is always one step ahead of them and someone will do anything to stop them learning the terrible truth behind the crime, even if it means bumping off their witnesses. Not only does ...