Bøker av David Brandon

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 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.

A First Political Biography of a Controversial Political FigureResearched from Recently Available Official and Private PapersA New Insight Into the Post War Political EraA Spotlight on Political Nepotism in the 1950s-1960s

Why don't people take more notice of bollards? How often do they stop to look at a coal-hole cover? Why are pub signs largely ignored and Royal Warrants on shops scarcely noticed? Such a grievous situation is about to change with the publication of this, the first book dealing specifically with London Street Furniture. It examines the unconsidered trifles which can be found in bewildering diversity around the streets particularly of the older parts of central London but also elsewhere in the Metropolis. These items help us to understand the growth of London and provide pointers and fascinating insights into its economic and social development as well as the changes in science and technology it has witnessed. Knowing something about street furniture makes a walk around London far more interesting.

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.

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.

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, murder, vandalism, football and crowd activity, suicide on the line, fraud and white collar crime, and also looks at the use of railway crime in film and literature.

London City of the Dead

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.

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.

Olde London punishments

Gripping stories of Bath's haunted locations

In this book the area immediately around Lincoln itself is explored, with reports of dancing stones, roadside apparitions and omens of death in deserted churchyards.

Spooky sightings and strange occurrences on London's busy underground network

London: The Executioner's City

In this stimulating book, the author argues that the only way for radical improvement in our impoverished mental health sector is only achievable if mental health consumers have a much more powerful say in the planning and running of services.