The Celebrated Pedestrian and Other Historical Curiosities
The Celebrated Pedestrian and Other Historical Curiosities

Author: BBC History Magazine

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2013-11-30

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1448142091

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Who is the Downing of Downing Street? What did the first illuminated adverts in Piccadilly Circus advertise? Was Oliver Cromwell actually Welsh? Questions like these and many more are answered in this, the first ever miscellany from the editors of BBC History Magazine. The Celebrated Pedestrian - the title refers to people in Victorian times who walked for sport - collects a wide variety of historical facts and curiosities, helping to uncover little-known truths (Who was the richest man who ever lived?) and debunk myths (Was there one man who survived both the sinkings of the Titanic and the Lusitania?) from ancient times to the present day. Also including a collection of fascinating lists (Top 10 famous riots! Top 10 writers who were banned by the Vatican!) and 'This Day in History' features, The Celebrated Pedestrian is the perfect gift for trivia fans and history buffs alike.

The Rings of Saturn
The Rings of Saturn

Author: W. G. Sebald

Publisher: New Directions Publishing

Published: 2016-11-08

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 081122130X

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"The book is like a dream you want to last forever" (Roberta Silman, The New York Times Book Review), now with a gorgeous new cover by the famed designer Peter Mendelsund A masterwork of W. G. Sebald, now with a gorgeous new cover by the famed designer Peter Mendelsund The Rings of Saturn—with its curious archive of photographs—records a walking tour of the eastern coast of England. A few of the things which cross the path and mind of its narrator (who both is and is not Sebald) are lonely eccentrics, Sir Thomas Browne’s skull, a matchstick model of the Temple of Jerusalem, recession-hit seaside towns, wooded hills, Joseph Conrad, Rembrandt’s "Anatomy Lesson," the natural history of the herring, the massive bombings of WWII, the dowager Empress Tzu Hsi, and the silk industry in Norwich. W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants (New Directions, 1996) was hailed by Susan Sontag as an "astonishing masterpiece perfect while being unlike any book one has ever read." It was "one of the great books of the last few years," noted Michael Ondaatje, who now acclaims The Rings of Saturn "an even more inventive work than its predecessor, The Emigrants."