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...

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...

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...

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),...

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...

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...

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...

A superstar athlete's inspiring autobiography—from his cricket-loving youth to the diagnosis of a career-ending heart condition and its aftermath.James Taylor was born in Burrough on the Hill, Leicestershire, in 1990. A sporting phenomenon from an early age, he chose to forge a life in cricket, establishing himself as one of the country's leading batsmen and an England regular.And then tragedy struck.In April 2016, a serious heart condition left Taylor...

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 ...

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...

James Taylor remembers very well the disappointment among his petrol-head friends when the XJ-S was announced in 1975. It was not a replacement for the legendary E-type; its colours were uninspired; and its interior was drab. All credit, then, to those people at Jaguar who truly believed in the car and, over a period of nearly 20 years, turned the ugly duckling into a swan. From the moment the XJ-S HE arrived in 1981, there seemed to be renewed hope, and from then on, the car went from str...