David Brandon

Ernest Marples revolutionised three UK government departments. At Transport (1959-1964) he appointed Dr Beeching chairman of British Railways and commissioned him to produce his infamous report, inaugurated motorways and introduced significant regulations for motorists. At Housing (1951-1954) he delivered 300,000 new houses annually and as Postmaster General (1957-1959), he reformed Post Office accounting systems and launched postcodes and Subscriber Trunk Dialling. This first biography of Marples uses newly-available archives to examine public and private transport policy, the growing power of the pro-road lobby and the identification of personal freedom with driving. Railway sentimentalism was no match for these. Marples was lucky not to be implicated in the Profumo Affair which rocked the Conservative Party but his political career was over soon afterwards. Questionable business practices caused his 1975 flight to Monaco hotly pursued by the Inland Revenue. Beeching, unhappy under a Labour government, returned to private industry although he later chaired a Royal Commission. Labour, despite promises, proved little friendlier to the railways but a more positive approach to loss-making passenger services eventually emerged under Barbara Castle. This book should appeal to those interested in Britain's railways and in mid-Twentieth Century British politics.

The adventure begins in 2008 with Dan Russell, the protagonist, who has served as a United States Air Force F-16 pilot for ten years. He is offered a position in the top-secret space command and given one week to decide whether to accept this three-year commitment. Due to its highly classified nature, he has little information on which to base his decision. Despite his concerns, he accepts the offer, drawn by the chance to fly a technologically advanced spacecraft. When Dan arrives for his training, he meets a fellow student, Katrina, a Russian fighter pilot. They begin a romantic relationship. They discover that Space Command's military division, Solar Warden, is at war with an alien group on a ship within Saturn's rings, known as the Galactic Council. After several days of training, they begin to question their decision to join. Within a few weeks they realize that they are on the wrong side of the war. Throughout his odyssey, Dan encounters individuals who challenge his perception of reality. This novel vividly illustrates his transformative journey, captivating readers of all ages and encouraging them to reflect on the concepts and ideas presented.

The adventure begins in 2008 with Dan Russell, the protagonist, who has served as a United States Air Force F-16 pilot for ten years. He is offered a position in the top-secret space command and given one week to decide whether to accept this three-year commitment. Due to its highly classified nature, he has little information on which to base his decision. Despite his concerns, he accepts the offer, drawn by the chance to fly a technologically advanced spacecraft. When Dan arrives for his training, he meets a fellow student, Katrina, a Russian fighter pilot. They begin a romantic relationship. They discover that Space Command's military division, Solar Warden, is at war with an alien group on a ship within Saturn's rings, known as the Galactic Council. After several days of training, they begin to question their decision to join. Within a few weeks they realize that they are on the wrong side of the war. Throughout his odyssey, Dan encounters individuals who challenge his perception of reality. This novel vividly illustrates his transformative journey, captivating readers of all ages and encouraging them to reflect on the concepts and ideas presented.

London has always been a major transport hub. Indeed, it owes its origins to being the location in ancient times of what was then the lowest bridging point of the River Thames. From the 1830s to 1914 it became the focal point of Britain's railway system. In that time a railway network of extraordinary complexity developed, serving the needs of London's citizens and providing access for huge numbers of visitors of all kinds. Here we consider some of the ways in which the railways contributed to London's transformation into a world city, perhaps THE world city of the Victorian and Edwardian period. With an emphasis on the social impact of the railways, the book examines, among other issues, how they contributed to the growth of suburbia, helped to provide London with vital supplies of food and fuel, the way in which the Underground made it quicker and easier to move about, produced huge, luxurious hotels and spectacular bridges and destroyed some of the capital's worst slums. London has always had an underbelly and the coming of the railways created new opportunities for criminal activity. In fictional crime, Sherlock Holmes made frequent use of the railways. Artists found in railways a source of inspiration for their works. Above all, the railways broke down regionalism and helped to develop and reinforce the domination of London over Britain's political and cultural life.

The General Strike was one of the most significant events in twentieth century Britain. The miners were locked out and the mass of rank-and-file trade unionists then came out on strike in their support. With their families and some middle-class sympathisers, the miners and the labour and trade union movement found itself pitched against the political establishment, the apparatus of the state, the powerful mineowners backed by the Conservative Government and most of the media of the time in what was the sharpest form of class conflict short of political revolution. It had always said that the British didn't do general strikes. In 1926 they certainly did! 2026 will mark the one-hundredth anniversary of the General Strike and, under the very different economic, social and political conditions of post-industrial, post-Brexit Britain, it is worth revisiting and examining the complicated coming together of factors which were eventually to lead to those extraordinary days in May 1926 when the fate of the nation lay in the balance. The author examines the economic, social and political processes taking places from the mid-nineteenth century and argues that this major confrontation between labour and capital was probably inevitable. He examines particularly the symbiotic relationship between the coal miners and the railway workers and the troubled industrial relations in those industries. His informed and lucid account should interest students of modern British history, labour history and the fortunes of the railways in this period.

The Making of London explores the rich history of the Metropolis from the Roman settlement established 2,000 years ago in the area that came to be known as the 'Square Mile' and traces the process whereby it eventually emerged as the world's greatest city. London became the capital and seat of government of Britain, a centre of culture, entertainment and retailing, a major port and industrial centre and world leader in international trade, commerce and finance. The focus is largely on central London but necessarily brings in other nearby districts when events involved interaction with these. While examining a selection of major historical events, consideration is also given to some of the more unusual and quirky aspects that have contributed to making London the diverse and fascinating place it remains today. A largely chronological approach is taken which emphasises how the lives of the ordinary people were shaped by the events they witnessed such as invasions, riots and rebellions, fires, smogs, wars, epidemics and pandemics. The story embraces the apparent glamour of areas such as Mayfair and the West End but does not neglect districts stalked by crime, poverty and despair. London has always been a place of paradoxes where flaunted wealth has existed alongside appalling social deprivation. The juxtaposition of extravagance and poverty, of high culture with the lowest of low life is a recurrent theme in London's history. The Making of London will interest newcomers wishing to know about London's past but even those familiar with its history are likely to find something new in its pages.

What if achieving peak performance in terms of appearance, feeling, and performance wasn't just a pipe dream but rather something everyone could do? Sure, some of us manage to perform at our absolute best in one or more areas. For example, there are professional card counters, computer programmers, and race car drivers who spend their days hunched over their keyboards, cards, and steering wheels. They have optimized minds. They also have optimized bodies. Monks and meditators wander the earth with optimized spirits. But in an ideal world, you could have everything: total improvement of the mind, body, and spirit. Ben Greenfield, an expert in health and fitness and the author of Beyond Training, presents a ground-breaking roadmap for overall human improvement in Boundless. This ground-breaking book investigates the cultural norms that prevent resilience in America, particularly our societal propensity to ignore the need for recovery and to detach stress from its potentially severe consequences. It teaches the science behind how to focus our attention so that we may function well under pressure and heal from trauma. Even in high-stress situations, we may obtain agency with training. In truth, any maladaptive habit or response that has been conditioned by stress or trauma can be reconditioned and healed with intention and knowledge. The secret is to employ techniques that engage both the thinking and survival brains. We can increase the window in which our thinking brain and survival brain collaborate by focusing our attention in specific ways. We may access our greatest, most distinctively human traits-our compassion, boldness, curiosity, creativity, and connection with others-when we utilize consciousness to control our biology in this way. By strengthening our resilience, we may teach ourselves to choose wisely and make decisions even in the face of extreme stress, uncertainty, and change.

A succinct, uncompromising study of what it means to help other people, this book, first published in 1978, examines the helping process in the light of the principles of Zen Buddhism. Emphasizing the Zen precepts of true compassion, newness and Taoistic change, it explains how a helper can break down the artificial barriers that serve to separate people and hinder the helping process. As the teachings of Zen demonstrate, real compassion involves a selflessness and respect that can bring helper and helped together.

Between 1835 and the 1850s, railway mania blossomed around Britain. Crime emerged as the railways developed, at first opportunistic crimes such as fare evasion and robberies, but gradually more inventive forms evolved, notably the minor clerk Redpath in the 1850s, whose shameless cooking of the books to live the high life exposed the lack of any kind of accountancy across the railway industry. The first train murder was not until the 1840s, and sparked great fear of foreigners as a German was charged and hanged for the crime. The outcry resulted in the communication cord being introduced to the railway carriages, so that no longer would they exist as completely separate spaces and passengers could alert the driver to any assault within. This fascinating history covers all varieties of crime on the railways and how it has changed over the years, from assaults and robberies, to theft of goods, murder, vandalism, football and other crowd activity, suicide on the line, fraud and white collar crime, and also looks at the use of railway crime in film and literature.

An epic tale of battles and avenging the loss of great friends.

Explore the secret, quirky and curious history of London’s well-known squares. Authors Alan Brooke and David Brandon have made some strange discoveries in these famous places, from the personal dedications on the benches in Berkeley Square to the Grade II-listed cabman’s shelter at Russell Square. There are details on the hidden history of the squares, weird and wonderful incidents and little-known facts about the notable houses and the people who lived there. Fully illustrated with photographs old and new, and with helpful maps for navigation, this book will delight anyone with an interest in the more bizarre aspects of the capital’s illustrious past.

A succinct, uncompromising study of what it means to help other people, this book, first published in 1978, examines the helping process in the light of the principles of Zen Buddhism. Emphasizing the Zen precepts of true compassion, newness and Taoistic change, it explains how a helper can break down the artificial barriers that serve to separate people and hinder the helping process. As the teachings of Zen demonstrate, real compassion involves a selflessness and respect that can bring helper and helped together.

Curiosities of London contains an informative and entertaining selection of walks around well-known and some less-visited parts of London, revealing oddities, bizarre connections and strange stories from the past which echo through the city streets. Brandon and Brooke reveal the urban myths that abound, the origins of wonderful place names such as Bear Gardens and Gin Lane, and shocking Mafia-linked murders, in addition to other tantalising tales. The guide includes Bloomsbury with its literary connections and garden squares; the historic Borough; Whitechapel and Stepney in the East End; Clerkenwell and its associations with monastic orders, prisons and radicalism; the ancient City of London; the stylish Mayfair; Fleet Street, once synonymous with the printing industry, but also with its religious and legal connections; Smithfield, with its gruesome associations with executions, hauntings, plague and debauchery; Bankside, once the home to theatre, bear-baiting and brothels; and the sedate area of Marylebone with its attractive streets and squares. Curiosities of London is the indispensable guide for Londoners and visitors who want to walk, look, be educated and enthralled, and to learn something new about the Big Smoke.

Even after her death, Margaret Thatcher has continued to excite bitter controversy. Her supporters felt that she could do no wrong. Many others condemned her policies as divisive and destructive. Here it is argued that she was a pragmatic rather than a principled politician, that she in fact performed innumerable u-turns, and that she had more luck than she merited. Despite how some choose to portray her now, opinion polls during her time indicated she was one of the twentieth-century's most unpopular Prime Ministers and in each election she fought as leader, more people voted against the Tories, than for them. Eventually she was ditched by her own Conservative Party, when they realised she had become an electoral liability. Much that was wrong with the "broken Britain" that the Con-Dem coalition talked about can be traced back to policies that were initiated during the time that Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. This book is an attempt to put the record straight.

On the south bank of the Thames and demarcated by Blackfriars and Tower Bridges lies the district known as Bankside, the Borough and Southwark. Its origin was in a Roman settlement nestling around the southern end of London Bridge, until the eighteenth century the only bridge across the Thames in London. Being separated only by the Thames from the City of London and outside the City's jurisdiction, it developed as a place for bawdy and disreputable entertainment and leisure - including the Globe Theatre made famous by performing William Shakespeare's plays. It was an area also sought out for its 'stews' which were some of London's most notorious brothels where every taste could be catered for. Borough High Street contained proportionately more inns and taverns than anywhere else in Britain - and some were immortalised by Chaucer and Dickens. The George alone survives to give some idea of what these ancient hostelries were like. From a time when London was a collection of discrete districts and villages, here is the long history of Bankside, the metropolis's disreputable and licentious yet vibrant, cosmopolitan underbelly.

The East Anglian Coast is a place of diversity: it has sandy beaches, shingle and pebble beaches and it has mud. There are crumbling cliffs, striped cliffs and places where sea and sand seem simply to run into each other. It has towns as different as workaday King's Lynn, Lowestoft or Harwich. David Brandon takes you on an entertaining and informative journey, visiting a wide variety of places of historical interest and talking about industries, local heroes and scallywags, battles and disasters, legends and myths and notable buildings. It will surprise and delight anyone familiar with the area.

The story of historic district on the south bank of the Thames and beyond - the original playground of Londoners, complete with inns, bear pits, brothels and theatres. On the south bank of the Thames and demarcated by Blackfriars and Tower Bridges lies the district known as Bankside, the Borough and Southwark. Its origin was in a Roman settlement nestling around the southern end of London Bridge, until the eighteenth century the only bridge across the Thames in London. Being separated only by the Thames from the City of London and outside the City's jurisdiction, it developed as a place for bawdy and disreputable entertainment and leisure - including the Globe theatre made famous by performing William Shakespeare's plays. It was an area also sought out for its 'stews' which were some of London's most notorious brothels where every taste could be catered for. Borough High Street contained proportionately more inns and taverns in its length than anywhere else in Britain - and some of these were immortalised by Chaucer and Dickens. The George alone survives to give some idea of what these ancient hostelries were like. From a time when London was a collection of discrete districts and villages, here is the long history of Bankside, the metropolis's disreputable and licentious yet vibrant, cosmopolitan underbelly.

Edinburgh is now and indeed has for long been a city of stark juxtapositions and piquant contrasts. Historically it is a place of outstanding learning and culture, and yet it has on occasions witnessed uncontrolled mob violence and savagery and the commission of crimes of exceptional brutality, or of such a bizarre nature that they pushed back the boundaries of what was known or thought possible. Even today, the largely sanitised and grossly commercialised Old Town somehow manages to retain corners with a vestigial sense of the skulduggery that has played so significant a role in its past.

Ghosts traditionally make their presence felt in many ways, from unexplained footfalls and chills to odours and apparitions. This fascinating volume takes a look at some of the strange and unexplained hauntings across the length and breadth of Britain’s railway network: signals and messages sent from empty boxes; trains that went into tunnels and never left; ghostly passengers and spectral crew; the wires whizzing to signal the arrival of trains on lines that have been closed for years… Based on hundreds of first-person and historical accounts, Shadows in the Steam is a unique collection of mysterious happenings, inexplicable events and spine-chilling tales, all related to the railways. Compiled by David Brandon and Alan Brooke, acknowledged experts on railways and the supernatural, and including sections on the London Underground and railway ghosts in literature and film, this book will delight lovers of railways and spooky stories alike.

A collection of weird and wonderful tales from York's long and colourful history.