Secrets of Central London's Squares


Book Description

Delves into the strange, quirky and curious histories of London's famous squares.




London's Secret Square Mile


Book Description

The streetscape of London's historic square mile has been evolving for centuries, but the City's busy commercial heart still boasts an extensive network of narrow passages and alleyways, secret squares and half-hidden courtyards. Using his wealth of local knowledge, historian David Long guides you through these ancient rights of passage – many dating back to medieval times or earlier – their evocative names recalling old taverns, notable individuals and City traditions. Hidden behind the glass, steel and stone of London's banks and big business, these survivors of modern development bear witness to nearly 2,000 years of British history.







The Secret Language of Churches & Cathedrals


Book Description

Who is depicted in that stained glass window? What is the significance of those geometric figures? Why are there fierce-looking beasts carved amidst all that beauty? Is there a deeper purpose behind the play of light and space in the nave? Why is there a pelican on the lectern and ornate foliage on the pillars? The largely illiterate medieval audience could read the symbols of churches and cathedrals and recognise the meanings and stories deliberately encoded into them. For worshippers these were places of religious education and an awe-inspiring feast that satisfied both the senses and the soul. Today, in an age less attuned to iconography, such places of worship are often seen merely as magnificent works of architecture. This book restores the lost spiritual meaning of these fine and fascinating buildings. The Secret Language of Churches & Cathedrals provides a three-part illustrated key by which modern visitors can understand the layout, fabric and decorative symbolism of Christian sacred structures - thereby bringing back to life their original atmosphere of awe and sanctity. Part One is an analysis of structural features, outside and in, from spires and domes to clerestories and brasses. Part Two is a theme-by-theme guide, which identifies significant figures, scenes, stories, animals, flowers, and the use of numbers, letters and patterns in paintings, carvings and sculpture. Part Three is a historical decoder, revealing the evolution of styles - from basilicas through Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic and beyond. For all those who seek to know more about Christian art and architecture, this richly illustrated book will instruct and delight in equal measure.




City and Shore


Book Description

Certain settings have long been a common element in British mystery and detective fiction: the quaint village; the country manor; the seaside resort; the streets of London. More than simply providing background, physical setting--in particular the city of London and the British seashore--takes on an added dimension, in a sense becoming a player in the mysteries, one that symbolizes, intensifies, and illuminates aspects of the British mystery novel. The first section examines 18 British mystery novels set in the city of London; the second covers 15 novels set by the sea. The novels span the twentieth century; among the authors whose works are included are Agatha Christie, Graham Greene, G.K. Chesterton and P.D. James. The book includes a short biography and listing of primary works for the authors covered, and appendices offer suggested fiction utilizing the two settings, and critical nonfiction covering the genre.




Historic Streets and Squares


Book Description

In this picturesque exploration of Britain’s constructed landscape, an array of medieval lanes, Georgian crescents and Victorian squares make an appearance, together with the people – famous, infamous and unfamiliar – who designed, built and lived in them. From Bedford Square and Portobello Road in London, through to Grey Street in Newcastle and Charlotte Square in Edinburgh, Historic Streets and Squares takes you over the doorstep of some of the country’s most familiar addresses. Melanie Backe-Hansen takes us beyond the facades, delving into the evolution of ancient streets, the aspirations of builders and architects, and the extraordinary lives of past residents. She also reveals the fascinating stories of how some of our oldest and most valued crescents, lanes and avenues have survived into the twenty-first century, and the twists and turns of their journey along the way. Taken together, these fifty examples tell us much about Britain’s urban development over the centuries, while also highlighting more recent attempts to preserve our architectural heritage. The history of our streets, avenues, lanes and squares reveals more than just changes to architectural style, but offers a doorway into the heritage of our nation.




Secret Missions of the Suffragettes


Book Description

Over two evenings in March 1912, more than 250 women – old and young, rich and poor, strong and delicate – were arrested and charged with using hammers and stones to smash the windows of shops and offices across London. The youngest amongst them was 19-year-old teenager glass-breaker and Kent working maid, Ethel Violet Baldock, while the eldest was 79-year-old Mrs Hilda Eliza Brackenbury, owner of suffragette safe house, Mouse Castle, in Campden Hill Square. These two evenings would later become known as the Women’s Social and Political Union’s window smashing Great Militant Protest. The protest, driven by WSPU leader Emmeline Pankhurst, was against the government and their refusal to include women in their reform bill, which would give women the right to vote. Secret Missions of the Suffragettes examines these two evenings in great detail, before going on to explore 'behind the scenes' of the movement; the safe houses and rest homes used by the history-shaping women involved, together with stories of the women themselves, as well as their self defense training and use of disguises and alias names, all of which were needed to be a part of such a militant campaign. Discover their stories, motives, plans, tactics and antics as Jennifer Godfrey explores the connections, friendships and collaborations that would help change the course of history for women in Britain.




The Secret Agent


Book Description

'An impenetrable mystery seems destined to hang for ever over this act of madness or despair.'Mr Verloc, the secret agent, keeps a shop in London's Soho where he lives with his wife Winnie, her infirm mother, and her idiot brother, Stevie. When Verloc is reluctantly involved in an anarchist plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory things go disastrously wrong, and what appears to be 'ASimple Tale' proves to involve politicians, policemen, foreign diplomats and London's fashionable society in the darkest and most surprising interrelations.Based on the text which Conrad's first English readers enjoyed, this new edition includes a critical introduction which describes Conrad's great London novel as the realization of a 'monstrous town', a place of idiocy, madness, criminality, and butchery.




The Secret Agent: Ultimate Spy Collection (77 Books in One Volume)


Book Description

DigiCat presents to you this unique collection, designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. The World's Greatest Military Spies and Secret Service Agents (George Barton) My Adventures as a Spy (Robert Baden-Powell) Novels: Robert W. Chambers In Secret The Dark Star The Slayer of Souls The Flaming Jewel John Buchan: The 39 Steps Greenmantle Mr Standfast The Three Hostages The Island of Sheep The Courts of the Morning The Green Wildebeest Huntingtower Castle Gay The House of the Four Winds The Power-House John Macnab The Dancing Floor The Gap in the Curtain Sick Heart River Sing a Song of Sixpence E. Phillips Oppenheim: The Spy Paramount The Great Impersonation Last Train Out The Double Traitor The Spymaster Ambrose Lavendale, Diplomat The Vanished Messenger The Pawns Court The Box With Broken Seals The Great Prince Shan The Devil's Paw The Zeppelin's Passenger The Kingdom of the Blind The Illustrious Prince The Lost Ambassador Mysterious Mr. Sabin The Betrayal The Colossus of Arcadia Erskine Childers: The Riddle of the Sands Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent John R. Coryell: The Great Spy System William Le Queux: The Great War in England in 1897 The Invasion of 1910 Whoso Findeth a Wife Of Royal Blood Her Majesty's Minister The Under-Secretary The Czar's Spy Spies of the Kaiser The Price of Power Her Royal Highness At the Sign of the Sword Number 70, Berlin The Way to Win The Zeppelin Destroyer Sant of the Secret Service Fred M. White: The Romance of the Secret Service Fund By Woman's Wit The Mazaroff Rifle In the Express The Almedi Concession The Other Side of the Chess-Board Three of Them James Fenimore Cooper: The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground Arthur Conan Doyle: His Last Bow Talbot Mundy: Jimgrim and Allah's Peace The Iblis at Ludd The Seventeen Thieves of El-Kalil The Lion of Petra The Woman Ayisha Affair in Araby A Secret Society Moses and Mrs. Aintree The Mystery of Khufu's Tomb...




Secret Margate


Book Description

Secret Margate explores the lesser-known history of the Kent seaside town of Margate through a fascinating selection of stories, unusual facts and attractive photographs.