Ian Mackersey's Books

No Empty Chairs

The Short and Heroic Lives of the Young Aviators Who Fought and Died in the First World War

By: Ian Mackersey

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No Empty Chairs

The Short and Heroic Lives of the Young Aviators Who Fought and Died in the First World War

By: Ian Mackersey

The 1914-18 conflict narrated through the voices of the men whose combat was in the air. 'This moving book uses letters and diaries to evoke the terrible cost of such warfare...Sleepless nights, separated lovers and grieving parents are recalled with painful immediacy in this meticulously researched tribute to those who died or were lucky enough to survive' DAILY MAIL The empty chairs belonged, all too briefly, to the doomed young First World War airmen who failed to return from the terrifying daily aerial combats above the trenches of the Western Front. The edict of their commander-in-chief was the missing aviators were to be immediately replaced. Before the new faces could arrive, the departed men's vacant seats at the squadron dinner table were sometimes poignantly occupied by their caps and boots, placed there in a sad ritual by their surviving colleagues as they drank to their memory. Life for most of the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps was appallingly short. If they graduated alive and unmaimed from the flying training that killed more than half of them before they reached the front line, only a few would for very long survive the daily battles they fought over the ravaged moonscape of no-man's-land. Their average life expectancy at the height of the war was measured only in weeks. Parachutes that began to save their German enemies were denied them. Fear of incarceration, and the daily spectacle of watching close colleagues die in burning aircraft, took a devastating toll on the nerves of the world's first fighter pilots. Many became mentally ill. As they waited for death, or with luck the survivable wound that would send them back to 'Blighty', they poured their emotions into their diaries and streams of letters to their loved ones at home. Drawing on these remarkable testimonies and pilots' memoirs, Ian Mackersey has brilliantly reconstructed the First Great Air War through the lives of its participants. As they waited to die, the men shared their loneliness, their fears, triumphs - and squadron gossip - with the families who lived in daily dread of the knock on the door that would bring the War Office telegram in its fateful green envelope.

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Page Count

344

Publisher

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published Date

ISBN 10

0297859951

ISBN 13

9780297859956

Peter Jackson

From Prince of Splatter to Lord of the Rings

By: Ian Pryor

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Peter Jackson

From Prince of Splatter to Lord of the Rings

By: Ian Pryor

This fascinating look at the now-celebrated director tells of the inspiration that led to the making of the three world-famous Lord of the Rings films - and the six other films that preceded them. This unauthorized biography, Peter Jackson: From Prince of Splatter to Lord of the Rings, traces the journey of a young movie fanatic, from Sunday afternoons spent fooling around with a camera, through low-budget cult movies, to control of the most ambitious film project ever, on what is probably the best-loved fantasy novel ever written. This in-depth biography explores the many talents of the young Peter Jackson: the making of Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, Braindead, Heavenly Creatures, Forgotten Silver, The Frighteners, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story behind the Rings - which tells how Jackson got the rights to make the film and the permission and funding to make three films rather than collapsing the story into just one or two films, interviews, and other behind-the-scenes material from the making of the landmark films. Past and future - in which author Ian Pryor considers Jackson's achievements and possible future - including his remake of King Kong. From casts of zombies, traumatized puppets and murderous teenagers, to deal-making in Hollywood, this book is about following one's visions wherever they might lead.

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Page Count

524

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1466872608

ISBN 13

9781466872608

Railways and Culture in Britain

The Epitome of Modernity

By: Ian Carter

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Railways and Culture in Britain

The Epitome of Modernity

By: Ian Carter

The 19th-century steam railway epitomized modernity's relentlessly onrushing advance. Ian Carter delves into the cultural impact of the train. Why, for example, did Britain possess no great railway novel? He compares fiction and images by canonical British figures (Turner, Dickens, Arnold Bennett) with selected French and Russian competitors: Tolstoy, Zola, Monet, Manet. He argues that while high cultural work on the British steam railway is thin, British popular culture did not ignore it. Detailed discussions of comic fiction, crime fiction, and cartoons reveal a popular fascination with railways tumbling from vast (and hitherto unexplored) stores of critically overlooked genres.

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Page Count

362

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0719059666

ISBN 13

9780719059667

No Empty Chairs

The Short and Heroic Lives of the Young Aviators Who Fought and Died in the First World War

By: Ian Mackersey

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No Empty Chairs

The Short and Heroic Lives of the Young Aviators Who Fought and Died in the First World War

By: Ian Mackersey

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Page Count

344

Publisher

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published Date

ISBN 10

0297859951

ISBN 13

9780297859956

Jean Batten

The Garbo of the Skies

By: Ian Mackersey

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Jean Batten

The Garbo of the Skies

By: Ian Mackersey

Drawing on secret memoirs found after Jean Batten's death and on hundreds of interviews with people who knew her, this biography reveals much about the aviator star of the 1930s, whose sudden disappearance in Majorca in 1982 created a mystery for nearly five years.

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Page Count

465

Publisher

Orbit Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0708853323

ISBN 13

9780708853320

Anatomy of a Killing

Life and Death on a Divided Island

By: Ian Cobain

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Anatomy of a Killing

Life and Death on a Divided Island

By: Ian Cobain

“A concise and gripping history of the Troubles, revealing the people behind the pain and violence” from the award-winning investigative journalist (Vice). On the morning of Saturday 22nd April 1978, members of an Active Service Unit of the IRA hijacked a car and crossed the countryside to the town of Lisburn. Within an hour, they had killed an off-duty policeman in front of his young son. In Anatomy of a Killing, award-winning journalist Ian Cobain documents the hours leading up to the killing, and the months and years of violence, attrition and rebellion surrounding it. Drawing on interviews with those most closely involved, as well as court files, police notes, military intelligence reports, IRA strategy papers, memoirs and government records, this is a unique perspective on the Troubles, and a revelatory work of investigative journalism. “As gripping as a thriller, except that this isn’t fiction but cold, spine-tingling reality.” —Daily Mail “A remarkable piece of forensic journalism.” —Ed Moloney, author of Voices from the Grave “Reads like a work of fiction . . . True and harrowing.” —Irish Sunday Independent (Books of the Year)

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Page Count

196

Publisher

Granta Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1846276411

ISBN 13

9781846276415

Watchman

A Novel

By: Ian Rankin

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Watchman

A Novel

By: Ian Rankin

Miles Flint is a spy whose last assignment led to the death of a foreign official in London, then to a short stint in jail. Convinced there is a mole in British intelligence, he sets out to find him--only to be waylaid by a routine mission to Belfast that may be his last.

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Page Count

258

Publisher

Little Brown & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

031600913X

ISBN 13

9780316009133

Ian Paisley

A Life in Photographs

By: Ian Paisley (Jnr.)

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Ian Paisley

A Life in Photographs

By: Ian Paisley (Jnr.)

The following photographs give you a glimpse of Dr. Paisley's unusual and controversial life. This photographic life is in no way to be regarded as a conclusive biography. Instead, it offers, like any photographer's lens, a snapshot of some of the many moments caught on film, of Ian R.K. Paisley.

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Page Count

106

Published Date

ISBN 10

4192616904

ISBN 13

9784192616904

Watchman

By: Ian Rankin

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Watchman

By: Ian Rankin

Spionroman.

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Page Count

214

Publisher

Jonathan Cape

Published Date

ISBN 10

0370312082

ISBN 13

9780370312088

Veil of Civility

By: Ian Graham

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Veil of Civility

By: Ian Graham

A former Soviet-trained IRA soldier turned businessman finds himself catapulted into his old life when he accidentally witnesses a murder as well as the murderer.

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Page Count

512

Published Date

ISBN 10

0615803733

ISBN 13

9780615803739

Book's by Ian Mackersey

No Empty Chairs

No Empty Chairs

Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson

Railways and Culture in Britain

Railways and Culture in Britain

No Empty Chairs

No Empty Chairs

Jean Batten

Jean Batten

Anatomy of a Killing

Anatomy of a Killing

Watchman

Watchman

Ian Paisley

Ian Paisley

Watchman

Watchman

Veil of Civility

Veil of Civility

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