Peter Thomas's introduction to the county's pubs opens with a brief chapter about the history of brewing and pubs, and a short history of pub signs in Yorkshire. Most of the book is dedicated to a round-up of interesting inns - their history and architecture, ghosts and legends associated with them, and famous and infamous landlords and landladies.
For hundreds of years, the public house in its many guises, from urban gin palace to wayside coaching inn, has been a charming and quintessential feature of British life, and hence the names and signs associated with pubs are a constant reminder of our history, cultural heritage, folklore and local identity.The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pub Names is a fascinating compilation containing nearly five thousand absorbing entries and can be dipped into for fun or consulted on a serious level for intriguing and amusing information not readily available elsewhere. The local pub is an institution unique to the British Isles, but since English literature abounds with references to hostelries past and present, real and imagined, and no tourist's itinerary is complete without a visit to one or several on their route, its virtues are celebrated worldwide and readers everywhere will enjoy an affectionate and, perhaps, nostalgic browse through the pages of this entertaining dictionary.
Nestled amidst the windswept moorlands of the South Pennines, Halifax has always had a wild reputation: ‘From Hell, Hull and Halifax, good Lord deliver us’ ran the ‘Beggars’ Litany’. But was it just a grisly fate at the hands of the Halifax Gibbet, England’s last guillotine, that they feared? From historical boggarts to modern poltergeists, the region teems with intruders from beyond the veil: they stalk the gritstone crags and the austere chapels, the tumbledown mills and the ancient taverns. Haunted Halifax & District explores the manifestations and territory of these unquiet spirits, all in the light of the area’s colourful history and wider folkloric context. Including such highlights as the spectre of Emily Brontë and a headless coachman with two two headless horses, it will intrigue visitors and residents alike.
'Sheer, magnificent pointlessness' Marcus Berkmann, Spectator gift guide Reader reviews: 'The perfect stocking filler for fans of our four-legged friends and great British pubs alike' - Richard Attwood 'Bought one copy for myself and now I have come back another three times to buy it as presents for other people.' - Chris Moon 'A perfect Christmas present!' 'Glorious photos and some very funny commentary' 'What an awesome collection of pub dogs' 'Beautiful pictures of a range of public house pooches the length and breadth of Britain' - Carl Morris 'A beautifully crafted book giving a perfect insight into British culture' - Jill Monum 'Great book, well thought out and beautifully produced' This beautifully photographed collection tells the stories of the much-loved dogs, of all kinds, that live in pubs all over Great Britain, not least the Pub Dog Capital of Britain, Whitstable. Locals love their pub dogs and landlords often say that people come in as much for the dog as for anything else. Dogs make a pub feel like home for regulars. Fleckney and Lucas chronicle the incredible variety of dogs that actually live in, rather than simply visit, Britain's pubs. They showcase the dogs with their beautiful photographic portraits and tell their stories, too. In feel, this is very much a 'family album' of British pub dogs.
What happens when you want to take a holiday or even just pop out for a drink and your dog looks up at you with expectant eyes? Do you know which pubs welcome muddy paws with a bowl of water and a dog biscuit? Or where you and your dog can both enjoy a comfortable overnight stay? From the editors of the UK's No 1 travel guide, the much loved Good Pub Guide, comes the latest edition of the Good Guide to Dog Friendly Pubs, Hotels and B&Bs. Featuring fully updated information, the guide provides you with hundreds of wonderful places in the UK to drink, eat and stay with your pet. With this book to hand there's no need to leave your dog at home. Faithful friends deserve a break too!
Oxford professor, best-selling author, preeminent literary critic, playwright, screenwriter, and novelist, Terry Eagleton knows all about the claims of competing worlds. One of his earliest roles growing up Catholic in Protestant England was as "the gatekeeper"-the altar boy who at reverend mother's nod literally closed the door on young women taking the veil, separating the sanctity of the convent from earthly temptations and family obligations. Often scathingly funny, frequently tender, and always completely engaging, The Gatekeeper is Eagleton's memoirs, his deep-etched portraits of those who influenced him, either by example or by contrast: his father, headmasters, priests, and Cambridge dons. He was a shy, bookish, asthmatic boy keenly aware of social inferiority yet determined to make his intellectual way. "Our aim in life," he writes of his working-class, Irish-immigrant-descended family, "was to have the words 'We Were No Trouble' inscribed on our tombstones." But Eagleton knew trouble was the point of it all. Opening doors sometimes meant rattling the knobs. At both Cambridge and Oxford, he gravitated toward dialectics and mavericks, countering braying effeteness with withering if dogmatic dissections of the class system. The Gatekeeper mixes the soberly serious with the downright hilarious, skewer-sharp satire with unashamed fondness, the personal with the political. Most of it all it reveals a young man learning to reconcile differences and oppositions: a double-edged portrait of the intellectual as a young man.
What happens when you want to take a holiday or even just pop out for a drink and your dog looks up at you with expectant eyes? Do you know which pubs welcome muddy paws with a bowl of water and a dog biscuit? Or where you and your dog can both enjoy a comfortable overnight stay? From the editors of the UK's No 1 travel guide, the much loved Good Pub Guide, comes the Good Guide to Dog Friendly Pubs, Hotels and B&Bs. Featuring a fantastic new easy-to-use page-layout and fully updated information, the guide provides you with hundreds of wonderful places in the UK to drink, eat and stay with your pet. So don't leave your dog a treat and take your faithful friend on holiday too!