Creator: Robin Evans
Publication date: 2000-06-01
Dewey code: 910
RRP: £7.99
Price: £3.78
Review French Flea Bites (Mill of the Flea) / La Puce Publications:
Authors
- Betty Radice
- Peter Abelard
Edition: Revised edition
Publication date: 2003-11-27
Dewey code: 189.4
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.46
Review The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Classics) / Penguin Classics:
Authors
- Wayne W. Dyer
- Immaculee Ilibagiza
- Steve Erwin
Dewey code: 282.092
RRP: £10.99
Price: £3.30
Review Left to Tell: One Woman's Story of Surviving the Rwandan Holocaust / Hay House Inc:
Edition: Definitive Ed
Publication date: 1997-02-06
Dewey code: 940
RRP: £20.00
Price: £4.50
Review The Diary of a Young Girl: Definitive Edition / Viking:
Edition: Ill
Publication date: 2006-10-16
Dewey code: 932.010099
RRP: £19.95
Price: £11.60
Review Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt: From Early Dynastic Times to the Death of Cleopatra (Chronicles) / Thames & Hudson Ltd:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 1992-09-23
Dewey code: 947.0842092
RRP: £11.95
Price: £6.90
Review Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1929-41 / W. W. Norton & Co.:
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2004-06-03
Dewey code: 950
RRP: £10.99
Price: £5.24
Review Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai / Penguin:
Publication date: 2008-09-01
Dewey code: 955.053092
RRP: £19.95
Price: £16.35
Review The Life and Times of the Shah / University of California Press:
Publication date: 2000-05-30
RRP: £4.95
Price: £2.80
Review Land Girls at the Old Rectory / Old Pond Publishing Ltd:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 1999-07-01
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £8.99
Price: £4.49
Review The Common Years / Corgi Books:
Publication date: 2008-09-18
Dewey code: 909
RRP: £18.99
Price: £11.98
Review The Spy Who Came in from the Co-op: Melita Norwood and the Ending of Cold War Espionage (History of British Intelligence) / The Boydell Press:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2007-03-15
Dewey code: 940.5421092
RRP: £8.99
Price: £3.72
Review Troop Leader: A Tank Commander's Story / Sutton Publishing Ltd:
Publication date: 2002-05-30
Dewey code: 192
RRP: £7.99
Price: £2.69
Review Hobbes: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) / Oxford Paperbacks:
Creator: Donald Mitchell
Publication date: 2008-05-29
Dewey code: 780.92
RRP: £45.00
Price: £28.53
Review Letters from a Life: 1952-1957 v. 4: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976: 1952-1957 v. 4 (Selected Letters of Britten): The Selected Letters ... 1913-1976: 4 (Selected Letters of Britten) / The Boydell Press:
Publication date: 2008-02-01
RRP: £8.99
Price: £4.94
Review Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution / Aurum Press Ltd:
Publication date: 2008-04-03
RRP: £25.00
Price: £14.44
Review The Bin Ladens: Oil, Money, Terrorism and the Secret Saudi World / Allen Lane:
Creator: Julian Symon
Edition: New edition
Publication date: 2000-03-30
Dewey code: 910
RRP: £8.99
Price: £3.50
Review Homage to Catalonia (Penguin Modern Classics) / Penguin Classics:
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 2004-08-16
Dewey code: 941
RRP: £7.99
Price: £3.51
Review A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the World's First Office Computer / HarperPerennial:Whether you like a good story, social history, computers, or are just nostalgic about Joe Lyons' "caffs", A Computer Called LEO is an appealing tale, illustrated with black and white photos, about the advent of the first computer. Georgina Ferry conjures up the image of some 300 female accounts clerks, clacking away continuously on their Burroughs mechanical calculators checking bills against takings for the 250 or so J Lyons & Co high street teashops in the 1930s. The manager of the accounting operation in pre-war times was a bright young man called John Simmons. According to Ferry, as Simmons surveyed the room "all he saw was a waste of human intelligence" and he began to dream of the day when machines would be invented capable of doing all this work automatically. Within 10 years he made the first stage in that dream a reality by persuading the board of Lyons that their company must become the first in the world to build its own electronic digital computer. A Computer Called LEO is the wonderful story of this one remarkable man's ambition and success in achieving it. Ferry interweaves LEO's story with the history of computing. British mathematicians have played an integral role in this development ever since the days of Charles Babbage (1792-1871). Like Simmons, Babbage had been interested in improved factory management. The ultimately tragic figure of Alan Turing and the wartime development of computers at Bletchley Park also figure in the lead up to LEO. [+]Development was delayed by World War II and Ferry expertly goes on to tell how, on November 29, 1951, LEO took over Bakery Valuations and became the first computer in the world to run a routine office job. But it wasn't until 1954 that LEO was judged reliable enough to finally take over from the clerks. By the following year, John Simmons had fulfilled his dream and was able to declare that "LEO leaves clerks free to use their brains to their own greater benefit and the service of the community". One needs to add that to Lyons & Co's great credit this was achieved without any compulsory redundancies; indeed employment increased. Britain led the world in computer development at the time and there was considerable potential for the turning of a cottage industry in to an international money-maker, but that required considerable investment. The end of Ferry's story of LEO tells of how Britain let an advantage slip from their grasp as US money, muscle, management and determination took over and IBM went on to win the day. -Douglas Palmer.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publication date: 2000-04-27
RRP: £20.00
Price: £12.00
Review Elizabeth / Chatto & Windus:The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess; Elizabeth I holds a unique place in the English imagination as one of the nation's most powerful, charismatic and successful monarchs. Elizabeth is usually imagined as the icy, untouchable figure memorably recreated on screen by Bette Davis and Judi Dench, but that vision of Elizabeth ignores the turbulent years of her early life, from her birth as the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in 1533, until her accession to the throne in 1558 following the death of her sister Mary. It is these early years which are the subject of David Starkey's fascinating Elizabeth I, written to accompany his television series about the life of Elizabeth. Starkey argues that in her first 25 years Elizabeth "had experienced every vicissitude of fortune and ever extreme of condition. She had been Princess and inheritrix of England, and bastard and disinherited; the nominated successor to the throne and an accused traitor on the verge of execution; showered with lands and houses and a prisoner in the Tower". He draws on his skills as a respected Tudor historian to produce a deft account of the religious, political and dynastic maelstrom of mid-16th century England that reads "like a historical thriller". The book carefully picks its way through the finer points of contemporary religious conflict and the peculiarities of Tudor court ceremony, whilst also exploring the formation of Elizabeth's character in relation to a murdered mother, a charismatic father, a tortured sister, and a predatory guardian. Highly readable and written with verve and pace, this is a fascinating account of the young Elizabeth. -Jerry Brotton.
Publication date: 2007-06-07
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £10.99
Price: £5.52
Review Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation / Penguin:
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Models & Brands:
French Flea Bites (Mill of the Flea), The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Classics), Left to Tell: One Woman's Story of Surviving the Rwandan Holocaust, The Diary of a Young Girl: Definitive Edition, Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt: From Early Dynastic Times to the Death of Cleopatra (Chronicles), Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1929-41, Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai, The Life and Times of the Shah, Land Girls at the Old Rectory, The Common Years, The Spy Who Came in from the Co-op: Melita Norwood and the Ending of Cold War Espionage (History of British Intelligence), Troop Leader: A Tank Commander's Story, Hobbes: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions), Letters from a Life: 1952-1957 v. 4: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976: 1952-1957 v. 4 (Selected Letters of Britten): The Selected Letters ... 1913-1976: 4 (Selected Letters of Britten), Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, The Bin Ladens: Oil, Money, Terrorism and the Secret Saudi World, Homage to Catalonia (Penguin Modern Classics), A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the World's First Office Computer, Elizabeth, Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation |
