<div><B>An off-the-beaten-path tour of the city&rsquo;s hidden highlights, and the stories behind them.</B><BR />  <BR /> London is full of curiosities. Who knew that beneath the Albert Memorial lies a chamber resembling a church crypt? Or that there are catacombs under Camden? Who would expect to find a lighthouse in East London, sphinxes in South London, dummy houses in West London, or a huge bust of film director Alfred Hitchcock in North London?<BR />  <BR /> How many of those who walk past Cleopatra&rsquo;s Needle pause to consider why a 3,000-year-old Egyptian monument stands beside the Thames? How many know that what was once London&rsquo;s smallest police station can be seen in Trafalgar Square? Or that pineapples are used in the architectural design of so many buildings? Or why there are memorials to the <I>Mayflower</I> and Pilgrim Fathers in Rotherhithe? Learn more about the capital of curiosities in this delightful guide for lovers of history, trivia, and travel.</div>

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London Curiosities

<div>We all know that some of the greatest inventions came from the Victorian age, the successors of which are still with us today. But this book is not entirely about those. Its more about some of the weird and wonderful inventions, ideas and projects  some successful, others less so  that have largely been forgotten. Where well-known inventions or design concepts are included, it is from a perspective not previously appreciated, with details of the ingenious technology and thinking that led to their introduction and success. Here you can read how Victorian innovators were responsible for: the worlds largest glass structure; an electric railway with lines under the sea and a carriage on stilts 20 feet above the waves; a monster globe that visitors could enter to see the worlds land masses, seas, mountains and valleys modelled on the interior; cameras disguised as bowler hats and many other everyday objects; the London Underground as a steam railway; safety coffins designed to prevent premature burial; unusual medical uses for electricity; the first traffic lights, which exploded a month after their erection in Westminster; and the birth and rapid rise to popularity of the cinema ... as well as many other ingenious inventions.</div>

The Ingenious Victorians

<div><B>A detailed look at the British world of science fiction in the 1950s.</B><BR />  <BR /> John Wade grew up in the 1950s, a decade that has since been dubbed the &ldquo;golden age of science fiction.&rdquo; It was a wonderful decade for the genre, but not so great for young fans. With early television broadcasts being advertised for the first time as &ldquo;unsuitable for children&rdquo; and the inescapable barrier of the &ldquo;X&rdquo; certificate in the cinema barring anyone under the age of sixteen, the author had only the radio to fall back on&mdash;and that turned out to be more fertile for the budding SF fan than might otherwise have been thought. Which is probably why, as he grew older, rediscovering those old TV broadcasts and films that had been out of bounds when he was a kid took on a lure that soon became an obsession.<BR />  <BR /> For him, the super-accuracy and amazing technical quality of today&rsquo;s science fiction films pale into insignificance beside the radio, early TV and B-picture films about people who built rockets in their back gardens and flew them to lost planets, or tales of aliens who wanted to take over, if not our entire world, then at least our bodies. This book is a personal account of John Wade&rsquo;s fascination with the genre across all the entertainment media in which it appeared&mdash;the sort of stuff he reveled in as a young boy&mdash;and still enjoys today.<BR />  <BR /><B>&ldquo;Not only a well&ndash;researched book grounded in hundreds of sources, but also an unmistakable labor of love.&rdquo; &mdash;New York Journal of Books</B></div>

The Golden Age of Science Fiction

<div><B>A comprehensive history of the development and use of cameras in recording British military conflicts from the 1850s to the 1950s.</B><br/><br/>Books about war and the pictures that came out of conflict usually concentrate on the picture content. But behind every picture there is a camera—and that’s what this book is about. Profusely illustrated throughout with pictures of the cameras, rather than the pictures they took, it looks at one hundred years of conflict from the Crimean War to the Korean War. It begins in the days when a photographer needed to be more of a scientist than an artist, such were the difficulties of shooting and processing any photograph. It ends with the cameras whose compact dimensions, versatility and ease of use meant that photographers could largely forget the science and concentrate on the art. Some cameras simply recorded events. Others defined and changed the way those events proceeded. These were the cameras that went to war, and this is their story.<br/><br/><B>Praise for <I>Cameras at War</I></B><br/><br/><B>“An amazing collection of superb photographs beginning with some from the Crimean War—coupled with a brilliant narrative that emphasizes the use of photography to record conflict. Where would we be without such evidentiary mementoes?” —<I>Books Monthly </I>(UK)</B></div>

John Wade
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Books By John Wade (4 Books)

London Curiosities

The Ingenious Victorians

The Golden Age of Science Fiction

Cameras at War

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© 2023 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

John WadeFollow this author

Books By John Wade (4 Books)

London Curiosities

The Ingenious Victorians

The Golden Age of Science Fiction

Cameras at War

Get weekly updates and deals from Early Bird Books

More from

Corporate

© 2023 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

John Wade
Follow this author