This book is a geological history of Britain from over 2,000 million years ago to the present day and describes the enormous variety of rocks, minerals and fossils that form this fascinating island. An introductory chapter covers the fundamental principles of geology. Further chapters describe the rocks, minerals and fossils of the recognised periods of geological time, and the areas where they are found today. This book is written for the lay person interested in the great variety of Britain's rocks and landscapes but also includes a wealth of information for students at all levels.
Of German stock dating back to 1530 in Saxony, Eric George Ackermann GM was born on the Isle of Wight in 1919 and became a leading figure in the world of signals and electronic intelligence. As a Junior Scientific Officer at the Telecommunication Research Establishment, Boscombe Down, with an honorary commission in the Royal Air Force, he made numerous flights over occupied territory searching for, monitoring and destroying Germany's Wuerzburg, Knickebein and X Band radar systems. Much of his research was passed to the highest levels of wartime government, and was highly prized, ensuring that tactical plans could be executed that took full advantage of known, top secret German intelligence.??A host of secret missions to assess the enemy's radar capabilities were carried out in North Africa, Gibraltar and Italy. This new and engaging biography explores the various highs and lows of his operational deployment at the vanguard of tactical intelligence operations in these exciting theaters of war. Winner of the George Medal for conspicuous gallantry, his efforts weren't confined to the offices of war. He saw conflict up close and personal, and was therefore aware of the urgency of his endeavours, and the extent to which his findings made a difference.??The end of the war was a cause of great celebration, but it did not signal the end of Ackermann's role, far from it. He was to play a major part in the setting up and implementation of a string of listening stations built along the borders of Soviet Bloc countries which were destined to glean a wealth of invaluable post-war intelligence. Further work in aeronautics and satellite construction in the States followed, meaning the reach of Ackermann's influence could be allowed to stretch yet further.rnrnYet despite the might and scale of his achievement, he has never before been the subject of a book-length study. The authors, Peter Jackson and David Haysom, have made every effort to rectify that in this new publication which is sure to appeal to aviation enthusiasts, as well as the more general reader curious to gain new insights into twentieth century intelligence practices and their often far-reaching consequences.
What becomes of faith in God when bad stuff happens? How do we react when we realise that, for all its glories, this world can be a dark, dangerous and disappointing place? Peter Longson's honest, unflinching exploration of the nature of evil and its consequences for life and faith leads him to some surprising and liberating conclusions about the nature of God.
Islands are special places; they can be havens for unique plants and animals and refuges for wildlife. This book investigates the biogeography of butterfly species over the British islands, particularly the factors that influence their presence on the islands and that have made each island's butterfly fauna distinctive. The book contains a full log of records of species on the islands and much supporting information. The first three chapters set the scene, illustrating the basics of island biogeography theory, their changing circumstances during the current Holocene interglacial, and studies of natural history of British butterflies that mark the islands as the most intensively studied region for wildlife in the world. The book advances by increasing resolution downscale from a European continental perspective, through patterns and changes on the British mainland, a comparison of the two dominant islands of Britain and Ireland, to a close inspection of the dynamics of species on the multitude of offshore islands. Detailed investigations include contrasts in species' richness on the islands and then of the incidences of each species. Case studies highlight the continual turnover of species on islands. Attention is then given to evolutionary changes since the time that glaciers enveloped Europe. A powerful message is conveyed for the maintenance of butterfly species on the smaller British islands now experiencing population losses at a rate unprecedented since the spread of the last ice sheets: the incontrovertible importance of maintaining populations of species on nearby mainland sources for islands as pools for future migrants.
The period covered by this volume, roughly from Purcell to Elgar, has traditionally been seen as a dark age in British musical history. Much has been done recently to revise this view, though research still tends to focus on London as the commercial and cultural hub of the British Isles. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that by the mid-eighteenth century musical activity outside London was highly distinctive in terms of its reach, the way it was organized, and its size, richness, and quality. There was an extraordinary amount of musical activity of all sorts, in provincial theatres and halls, in the amateur orchestras and choirs that developed in most towns of any size, in taverns, and convivial clubs, in parish churches and dissenting chapels, and, of course, in the home. This is the first book to concentrate specifically on musical life in the provinces, bringing together new archival research and offering a fresh perspective on British music of the period. The essays brought together here testify to the vital role played by music in provincial culture, not only in socializing and networking, but in regional economies and rivalries, demographics and class dynamics, religion and identity, education and recreation, and community and the formation of tradition. Most important, perhaps, as our focus shifts from London to the regions, new light is shed on neglected figures and forgotten repertoires, all of them worthy of reconsideration.
This book is designed for all those with a scientific interest in drug treatment and the older population. The authors have all been chosen for their expertise in the field and have been drawn from both sides of the Atlantic and South Africa. The contents fall into two parts ? general principles of drug use as they apply to the elderly, and specific chapters dealing with common clinical areas. The editors aim to provide a concise up to date, evidence-based, resource book.
The first in a new series created to acknowledge the explosion of knowledge in fields related to infectious disesases and clinical microbiology. Thirteen contributions focus on organisms which are of major medical importance in this country or which have contributed to an understanding of pathology.
For 50 years Heavy Weather Sailing has been regarded as the ultimate international authority on surviving storms at sea aboard sailing and motor vessels. The first edition was compiled by Kaines Adlard Coles himself in 1967. Since then technology may have improved, but the weather certainly hasn't. This is the seventh updated edition, edited by racing yachtsman Peter Bruce, ensuring that in its 50th year the book remains as relevant and as essential as it has been for the previous five decades. The book brings together a wealth of expert advice from many of the great sailors of the present, including fresh accounts of yachts overtaken by extreme weather, from Ewan Southby-Tailyour, Alex Whitworth and Peter Cook to Larry and Lin Pardey. It also includes a new Foreword by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Britain's most high profile yachtsman of the past 50 years. The expert advice section has been updated in line with current thinking, and there has been a major update to the chapter focusing on the use of storm sails as well as to the use of drag devices. The technique of taking refuge has been reviewed and updated, and the chapters dealing with preparations for heavy weather and its effect on yacht design have been overhauled. These revisions ensure that Heavy Weather Sailing is as relevant, useful and instructive for today's sailor venturing offshore as it ever was – perhaps more so in the light of tragic disasters like the loss of the Cheeky Raffiki mid-Atlantic on a delivery trip after her season racing in the Caribbean. This is the definitive book for crews of any size contemplating voyages out of sight of land anywhere in the world, whether racing or cruising. It gives a clear message regarding the preparations required, and the tactics to consider when it comes on to blow.
The period covered by this volume, roughly from Purcell to Elgar, has traditionally been seen as a dark age in British musical history. Much has been done recently to revise this view, though research still tends to focus on London as the commercial and cultural hub of the British Isles. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that by the mid-eighteenth century musical activity outside London was highly distinctive in terms of its reach, the way it was organized, and its size, richness, and quality. There was an extraordinary amount of musical activity of all sorts, in provincial theatres and halls, in the amateur orchestras and choirs that developed in most towns of any size, in taverns, and convivial clubs, in parish churches and dissenting chapels, and, of course, in the home. This is the first book to concentrate specifically on musical life in the provinces, bringing together new archival research and offering a fresh perspective on British music of the period. The essays brought together here testify to the vital role played by music in provincial culture, not only in socializing and networking, but in regional economies and rivalries, demographics and class dynamics, religion and identity, education and recreation, and community and the formation of tradition. Most important, perhaps, as our focus shifts from London to the regions, new light is shed on neglected figures and forgotten repertoires, all of them worthy of reconsideration.
Sir, God hath taken away your eldest son by a cannon shot. It brake his leg. We were necessitated to have it cut off, whereof he died.' In one of the most famous and moving letters of the Civil War, Oliver Cromwell told his brother-in-law that on 2 July 1644 Parliament had won an emphatic victory over a Royalist army commanded by King Charles I's nephew, Prince Rupert, on rolling moorland west of York. But that battle, Marston Moor, had also slain his own nephew, the recipient's firstborn. In this vividly narrated history of the deadly conflict that engulfed the nation during the 1640s, Peter Gaunt shows that, with the exception of World War I, the death-rate was higher than any other contest in which Britain has participated. Numerous towns and villages were garrisoned, attacked, damaged or wrecked. The landscape was profoundly altered. Yet amidst all the blood and killing, the fighting was also a catalyst for profound social change and innovation. Charting major battles, raids and engagements, the author uses rich contemporary accounts to explore the life-changing experience of war for those involved, whether musketeers at Cheriton, dragoons at Edgehill or Cromwell's disciplined Ironsides at Naseby (1645).
Since at least the Reformation, English men and women have been engaged in visiting, exploring and portraying, in words and images, the landscape of their nation. The Invention of the English Landscape examines these journeys and investigations to explore how the natural and historic English landscape was reconfigured to become a widely enjoyed cultural and leisure resource. Peter Borsay considers the manifold forces behind this transformation, such as the rise of consumer culture, the media, industrial and transport revolutions, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and the Gothic revival. In doing so, he reveals the development of a powerful bond between landscape and natural identity, against the backdrop of social and political change from the early modern period to the start of the Second World War. Borsay's interdisciplinary approach demonstrates how human understandings of the natural world shaped the geography of England, and uncovers a wealth of valuable material, from novels and poems to paintings, that expose historical understandings of the landscape. This innovative approach illuminates how the English countryside and historic buildings became cultural icons behind which the nation was rallied during war-time, and explores the emergence of a post-war heritage industry that is now a definitive part of British cultural life.
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