Richard Happer

Ghost towns, empty streets, crumbling ruins and lost empires this book reveals these and other deserted places. Many places featured were once populated and now sit unoccupied, modern day ruins, sitting in decay.

60 Stories of Places Where Time Stopped

Abandoned Places

America is the greatest nation on earth, with an unmatched record of creativity, innovation, scientific advances and sporting sensations. This fact-packed, fun-filled jaunt through the year celebrates all the fantastic achievements of Americans and remembers everything that makes ours a country to be proud of. Which country has won the most Olympic Medals and the most Nobel Prizes? Where were jazz, blues, rap, country and western, and hip-hop first played? Who invented the movies, lasers, cell phones, elevators, the computer you're reading this on and, most importantly, earmuffs? Donuts, hamburgers, hot dogs and Coke may not be healthy, but they sure taste good. And it doesn’t hurt that we produce the world’s highest selling whiskey (Jack Daniel’s) and have the world’s biggest brewery. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Jesse Owens turned their sports upside down they were so talented. We even came up with a few new ones: basketball, snowboarding, volleyball, surfing, skateboarding and Frisbee. Who put man on the moon? You know damn well who. This book tells you the true story behind a fantastic American achievement for every day of the year, and adds a little bit of humor as well. So let the following pages fire up your heart, get your patriot’s blood pumping and remember that you are a citizen of the land of the free and the home of the brave. You are an American, be proud!

Amazing Achievements To Make You Feel Patriotic Every Day

365 Reasons To Be A Proud American

Christopher Riches

Alan Greenwood

Mark Steward

Throughout history there have been brave men and women who dared to go where few had gone before. They broke new ground by drawing on incredible reserves of courage, fortitude and intelligence in the face of terrible adversity. Their endeavours changed the world and inspired generations. Spanning several centuries and united by the common theme of the resilience of the human spirit, this is the ultimate collection of the stories of the intrepid explorers who forged new frontiers across land, sea, skies and space.

Great Expeditions

A collection of wedding poems and readings perfect for weddings.

The Most Romantic Readings from the Best Writers in History

100 Greatest Wedding Poems and Readings

Collins Maps

Royal Observatory, Greenwich

An accessible guide to the solar system and our night skies. Richly illustrated, it provides a comprehensive description of the planets, their moons, and recent space discoveries. It is enhanced by hundreds of striking images of the planets and moons.

Explore the Universe, Planets and Stars

Galaxy

Peter Chasseaud

Follow the D-Day landings through a unique collection of historical maps, expert commentary and dramatic photographs. This is a unique insight into the D-Day landings 70 years on. Over 90 maps demonstrate how the D-Day landings unfolded, along with detailed descriptions of what happened on that momentous day. The Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944 were the greatest amphibious assault in history, requiring almost two years of meticulous planning and the largest co-ordinated mapping effort the world has ever seen. Key maps include: Top-secret maps of Normandy with overprints showing the beach defences. Plans of the Allied deception schemes. Detailed maps of all five landing beaches, including OMAHA and UTAH. Chart of the armada's route across the English Channel. Maps showing the Allied Forces' movements as they pushed across France towards Berlin and VE Day. This collection of incredible maps uncover the events that led up to D-Day, the planning for the assault and the progress of the liberating forces afterwards. Dramatic photographs help to illustrate the key historical events that took place during Operation Overlord.

Over 100 Maps Reveal How D-Day Landings Unfolded

D-Day

Follow the D-Day landings through a unique collection of historical maps, expert commentary and dramatic photographs. This is a unique insight into the D-Day landings 75 years on.The Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944 were the greatest amphibious assault in history, requiring almost two years of meticulous planning and the largest co-ordinated mapping effort the world has ever seen.More than 200 illustrations demonstrate how the D-Day landings unfolded, along with detailed descriptions of what happened on that momentous day.This collection of incredible maps uncover the events that led up to D-Day, the planning for the assault and the progress of the liberating forces afterwards. Dramatic photographs help to illustrate the key historical events that took place during Operation Overlord.

The Times D-Day

365 Reasons To Be Proud To Be Scottish is a year-long scenic route of jolliness taking in the quirky events, inventions, traditions, people, places and characters that make Scotland a country worth celebrating every day of the year. Has there ever been a more eccentric, creative, inventive and passionate race than the Scottish? We don't think so and 365 Reasons To Be Proud To Be Scottish proves it brilliantly. In the book you'll find a historical year's worth of the discoveries, delights and derring-do that make Scotland a place to love and cherish, a place of wonder and a country that attracts 13 million people through its doors each year. From the hallowed halls of St Andrews University – the first in Scotland (and, in 2013, celebrating its 600th birthday!) – to the glorious slopes of Edinburgh’s streets; from the magical monster myths of loch landscapes to the ancient highland whisky makers; from inventors Alexander Graham Bell to brave knights such as William Wallace – Scotland is amazing, every single day of the year. Word count: 35,000

Magical moments in Scotland's history

365 Reasons to be Proud to be Scottish

'...you remember we used to joke how in the next glen we were going to come across some mythically hot European birds, all lost and sweaty and lovely? Well, pack your bags cos I've just found out they really do exist.' Coming from your best friend, this sounds wonderful. Now that the love of your life has left and you got fired, some boys-in-the-hills-action is just what you fancy. But there are problems. There's your upper-class flatmate who gets the shakes if he goes more than half a mile from a delicatessen. And you'll have to take the cat, but he will insist on murdering things. Then there's your best friend himself, a vodka-toting maniac whose last great idea was snorting gunpowder... What's going to happen when you re all up a rainy glen in a leaky tent? How much damage is it possible to do on a distillery tour? Will anyone apart from the cat actually get a shag? There's only one way to find out. Pack your rucksack, lace your boots and head for the hills with the boys... The Hills Are Stuffed With Swedish Girls is the heartfelt and funny tale of three lovesick men who go adventuring on Scotland's beautiful West Highland Way in search of friendly tourist girls.

The Hills Are Stuffed With Swedish Girls

Abandoned Places: 60 stories of places where time stopped

Did you know that in New Mexico it's perfectly legal to have sex in your car, on your lunch break, provided the curtains are closed? Or that in Chester it's still permissible to shoot a Welshman (with a crossbow), so long as it happens within the city walls and after midnight? What about the one about gold fish being able to ride the buses of Seattle in their bowls - so long as they stay absolutely still? We're well into the 21st century, yet still there remain, in our dusty legal books, a string of downright daft laws, injunctions, directives and restraints to make you giggle, scratch your head or - if you're a Welshman visiting Chester - fear for your life. Flick through the pages of The Law is an Ass to stay out of trouble, brush up on your legal knowledge, and laugh out loud along the way.

250 of the World's Daftest Decrees

The Law Is an Ass

Its a well-observed fact that human beings (well, men) can be a grumpy old bunch, always choosing to see that infamous metaphorical glass as constantly half empty rather than half full. Wheres the fun in that? 365 Reasons To Be Cheerful is, well, its exactly that. Its a whole years worth of funny and unique events that happened on each and every day a wild, weird and wonderful journey through the year highlighting the moments that changed the world for the better as well as the delightful, irreverant stories that will simply make you smile. 365 Reasons To Be Cheerful is designed specifically to look on the bright side of life every day of the year the perfect pint-sized pick-me-up in these sobering, sombre times.

Magical Moments to Cheer Up Miserable Sods... One Day at a Time

365 Reasons To Be Cheerful

365 Reasons To Be Proud To Be Scottish is a year-long scenic route of jollyness taking in the quirky events, inventions, traditions, people, places and characters that make Scotland a country worth celebrating every day of the year. Has there ever been a more eccentric, creative, inventive and passionate race than the Scottish? We don't think so and 365 Reasons To Be Proud To Be Scottish proves it brilliantly. In the book you'll find a historical year's worth of the discoveries, delights and derring-do that make Scotland a place to love and cherish, a place of wonder and a country that attracts 13 million people through its doors each year. From the hallowed halls of St Andrews University the first in Scotland (and, in 2013, celebrating its 600th birthday!) to the glorious slopes of Edinburghs streets; from the magical monster myths of loch landscapes to the ancient highland whisky makers; from inventors Alexander Graham Bell to brave knights such as William Wallace Scotland is amazing, every single day of the year. Word count: 35,000

365 Reasons to Look on the Bright Side is full to the brim with good fortune arisen out of the flames of history’s biggest and smallest errors, blunders and miscalculations – one for every day of the year, on the day it happened. This brilliantly quirky book demonstrates that while the old adage of ‘Everyone makes mistakes’ may be true, some gaffes are so monumental that they can end up improving life for everyone else (if not for themselves!). 365 Reasons to Look on the Bright Side has many magical moments of looking on the bright side of history’s most hopeless moments. Here a few to whet your whistle: Thanking Atilla the Hun for creating Venice, crediting Alexander Graham Bell’s mum’s deafness for inventing the telephone, praising Pope Clement VIII for blessing coffee, realizing that without the bubonic plague Newton may never had invented calculus and believing how one particularly big-boobed woman helped invent the stethoscope. Word count: 35,000

Richard Happer

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