A jam-packed puzzle and trivia book about the iconic British National Railways. The Big British Railway Puzzle Book is must-buy gift book for Christmas for puzzle book fanatics, train and travel enthusiasts, history buffs, and the people up and down the country who love their heritage and their regional identity! Featuring a treasure-trove of puzzles about railways and locomotives, using maps, old routes and tracks, engineering designs and all things that delight train lovers, the book also includes mind-boggling brainteasers, navigational tests, word games, code-crackers, anagrams, crosswords, mathematical conundrums and a murder mystery. As well as having over 100 mind-bending puzzles, the book contains historical facts and figures, trivia, and introductions to each section authored by Dr. Thomas Spain, a research associate at the National Railway Museum, about the history of the British Railways. From the National Railway Museum in York!

The new puzzle book from the National Railway Museum in York! Have you got what it takes to travel around Britain solving these 100 train-based brainteasers, word games, number crunchers and puzzles? Escape from your home and put your puzzle-solving skills to the test with these captivating conundrums that will take you on a whirlwind ride through the nation's most extraordinary past and present railway journeys. From the first journeys of legendary locomotives such as The Flying Scotsman and the Penydarren, to record-breaking routes and trips that changed our world, this is the perfect gift for puzzle book fanatics, train and travel enthusiasts, and history buffs! Inspired by the museum's archives this book is jam-packed with a variety of puzzles, from anagrams, crosswords and wordsearches to logic and mathematical challenges. Alongside puzzles to suit all levels, each section also includes an introduction that covers the most fascinating trivia, facts and figures behind the history of our railways, written by Chris Valkoinen from the National Railway Museum's Search Engine. There's a treasure trove of puzzles to be solved - are you ready to climb aboard?

The new puzzle book from the National Railway Museum in York! Have you got what it takes to travel around Britain solving these 100 train-based brainteasers, word games, number crunchers and puzzles? Escape from your home and put your puzzle-solving skills to the test with these captivating conundrums that will take you on a whirlwind ride through the nation's most extraordinary past and present railway journeys. From the first journeys of legendary locomotives such as The Flying Scotsman and the Penydarren, to record-breaking routes and trips that changed our world, this is the perfect gift for puzzle book fanatics, train and travel enthusiasts, and history buffs! Inspired by the museum's archives this book is jam-packed with a variety of puzzles, from anagrams, crosswords and wordsearches to logic and mathematical challenges. Alongside puzzles to suit all levels, each section also includes an introduction that covers the most fascinating trivia, facts and figures behind the history of our railways, written by Chris Valkoinen from the National Railway Museum's Search Engine. There's a treasure trove of puzzles to be solved - are you ready to climb aboard?

Sunday Times History Book of the Year 2015 Currently filming for BBC programme Full Steam Ahead Britain's railways have been a vital part of national life for nearly 200 years. Transforming lives and landscapes, they have left their mark on everything from timekeeping to tourism. As a self-contained world governed by distinctive rules and traditions, the network also exerts a fascination all its own. From the classical grandeur of Newcastle station to the ceaseless traffic of Clapham Junction, from the mysteries of Brunel's atmospheric railway to the lost routines of the great marshalling yards, Simon Bradley explores the world of Britain's railways, the evolution of the trains, and the changing experiences of passengers and workers. The Victorians' private compartments, railway rugs and footwarmers have made way for air-conditioned carriages with airline-type seating, but the railways remain a giant and diverse anthology of structures from every period, and parts of the system are the oldest in the world. Using fresh research, keen observation and a wealth of cultural references, Bradley weaves from this network a remarkable story of technological achievement, of architecture and engineering, of shifting social classes and gender relations, of safety and crime, of tourism and the changing world of work. The Railways shows us that to travel through Britain by train is to journey through time as well as space.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park comes classic historical thriller about Victorian London’s most notorious gold heist. London, 1855, when lavish wealth and appalling poverty exist side by side, one mysterious man navigates both worlds with perfect ease. Edward Pierce preys on the most prominent of the well-to-do as he cunningly orchestrates the crime of his century. Who would suspect that a gentleman of breeding could mastermind the extraordinary robbery aboard the pride of England’s industrial era, the mighty steam locomotive? Based on fact, but studded with all the suspense and style of fiction, here is a classic historical thriller, set a decade before the age of dynamite—yet nonetheless explosive…

Collector's item, landmark in the history of the tour guide, snapshot of Britain in the 1860s – Bradshaw's Handbook deserves a place on the bookshelf of any traveller, railway enthusiast, historian or anglophile. Produced as the British railway network was reaching its zenith, and as tourism by rail became a serious pastime for the better off, it was the first national tourist guide specifically organized around railway journeys, and to this day offers a glimpse through the carriage window at a Britain long past. This is a facsimile of the actual book – often referred to as 'Bradshaw's Guide' – that inspired the 'Great British Railway Journeys' television series, possibly the only surviving example of the 1863 edition. It is an exact copy with a removable belly-band.

A beautifully illustrated introduction to the mindful pleasure of pebble spotting Hidden in plain sight along every shoreline, these amazing consequences of wind, sea, and time all tell stories of our landscapes. In this spirited guide to pebbles, richly illustrated throughout, passionate geologist and pebble spotter Clive J. Mitchell gives practical advice on how to identify 40 pebbles and where to find them, making a trip to the beach or riverbank all the more interesting. The pebbles he introduces range from the humble flint to feldspar veins, serpentinite, granite ovoids, and the holy grail of pebble hunting, the rare rhomb porphyry. The book includes a space for the reader to ruminate on their own findings, taking note of the treasures that they pick up along the way. This is the perfect introduction to everything there is to know about the mindful pleasure of pebble spotting--and there is much treasure to find.

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist: A “compelling chronicle” of the science, politics, and business of blood (The Wall Street Journal). Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save lives and transmit deadly infections. Each one of us has roughly nine pints of it, yet many don’t even know their own blood type. And for all its ubiquitousness, the few tablespoons of blood discharged by 800 million women are still regarded as taboo: menstruation is perhaps the single most demonized biological event. Rose George, author of The Big Necessity, takes us from ancient practices of bloodletting to the breakthrough of the “liquid biopsy,” which promises to diagnose cancer and other diseases with a simple blood test. She introduces Janet Vaughan, who set up the world’s first system of mass blood donation during the Blitz, and Arunachalam Muruganantham, known as “Menstrual Man” for his work on sanitary pads for developing countries. She probes the lucrative business of plasma transfusions, in which the US is known as the “OPEC of plasma.” And she looks to the future, as researchers seek to bring synthetic blood to a hospital near you. Spanning science and politics, individual’s stories and global epidemics, Nine Pints reveals our life’s blood in an entirely new light. One of Bill Gates’ Recommended Summer Reading Titles “Stellar . . . An informative, elegant, and provocative exploration of the life-giving substance . . . A wondrously well-written work.” —Booklist (starred review) Both fascinating and informative . . . George packs her book with the kinds of provocative, witty, and rigorously reported facts and stories sure to make readers view the integral fluid coursing through our veins in a whole new way.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “George charges down wholly unexpected avenues of medical history and global injustice, leaving the reader by turns giddy and appalled. And always, always in awe of the writing.” —Mary Roach, author of Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War “A very good book.” —The New York Times

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Provocative and appealing . . . well worth your extremely limited time." —Barbara Spindel, The Wall Street Journal The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks. Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and “life hacks” to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks. Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.

An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, from concrete and steel to denim and chocolate, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science.