Over the last twenty-five years there’s been a quiet revolution going on in British archaeology. During this time, the evidence from archaeological excavations has been joined by objects discovered by members of the public. These have been recorded of through...

There are, at a rough estimate, around 1,575 former Royal Observer Corp facilities scattered throughout Great Britain. The one at the top of Mill Hill in my home village of Brancaster in Norfolk had always held a grim fascination for...

I am not Truro born, nor do I live in the city, and my knowledge is confined to its most iconic buildings and celebrated sons.  A survey of the many books about the city, websites and a walking tour with...

When Amberley Publishing emailed me out of the blue to ask if I would be interested in writing a book for them, it came as a bit of a surprise. It turned out that a commissioning editor had seen some...

This book has been about 15 years in the making. Back in 2005, I was Director of Communications for a drug charity called DrugScope. The world of illegal drug use and drug addiction is an extremely emotional and polarised environment...

Over the centuries, wearing make-up has often been mocked as little more than frippery, on occasions applied with intent to deceive and, in more god-fearing times in history, even downright evil. The truth is cosmetics have always been important. In...

In an extract from his book Blithe Spirits: An Imaginative History of the Poltergeist, SD Tucker asks whether or not ghosts might be better thought of as being funny than as frightening. We do not think of ghosts as being...

He was an extraordinary man, living in extraordinary times. I had previously heard of Nicolò Costanzi and marvelled at the beauty of his patented ‘swan neck’ bow and intriguing hybrid stern designs, but it was in researching my first book...

I was born in 1929 so over the years have witnessed great technical, social, and cultural change. Railway operation and management styles have kept pace with these changes. With my lifelong interest in railway practice, in particular the construction and...

My character, you could say, is unscrupulous, selfish, disloyal, given to lying and drawn to criminal behaviour. Well, not my own, though some who know me might disagree with that, but the character of Oswald John Job, the subject of...