A trip to Budbrooke

Yesterday, i took a train to Warwick Parkway which, as the name implies, is a railway station near to Warwick (Parkway stations are usually outside the actual town). The reason i went there though was to revisit the village of Budbrooke.

Budbrooke is a small village and parish near to Warwick. Budebroc was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and the parish church of St Michael has a Norman origin, dating from the 12th century. The village was hit hard by the Black Death with most of the villagers dying, even the church was left to fall into ruin.

The centre of the parish was moved to Grove Park, home of the Dormer family. The nearby village of Hampton-on-the Hill became the main settlement in the parish. St Michael's church was restored after the establishment of Budbrooke barracks nearby and became the battalion church of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

The barracks were closed in 1960, with the modern housing estate of Hampton Magna built on the site. This modern village is now, by far, the largest settlement in the parish. As mentioned above, Budbrooke is served by Warwick Parkway railway station, the Grand Union Canal also passes through the parish, next to the railway line.

A nice place indeed surrounded by farm land. You can see my photos here (or a selection below).

Convair

I admit i am a sucker for an old jetliner with four podded engines under the wing, as God intended. Nowadays, of course you don't see such exotica around (apart from the odd DC-8, mostly around the Caribbean) though i do remember seeing the occasional 707 going into Birmingham Airport in my youth.

My favourite four engine jetliner however, wasn't a Boeing or Douglas job, it wasn't even a jetliner i have ever seen in real life. It was the Convair CV-880, the mostly unsuccessful competitor to the 707 and DC-8, which sold in the tens instead of the hundreds like it's competitors. This excellent book by Martyn Chorlton covers the CV-880, it's bigger brother the CV-990 plus a load of military types such as the F-106 and the bad-ass B-58 Hustler.

Convair built some excellent looking aircraft, the company being born out of the merger of Consolidated and Vultee Aircraft. Unfortunately, the company name died in the early 1990s but they had a great legacy including the Atlas rocket which carried the first American astronaut into orbit, and of course the CV-880.

A very well illustrated and written little book.

Stratoship H.22 (2) : Destination New York

Tintin went to the Moon, Herge's other characters Jo, Zette and Jocko have to settle with the slightly less distant New York but it is an epic journey all the same.

At the end of part one, the two children and their pet chimp were flying off in the experimental high-speed aircraft Stratoship H.22 - built to win a flying competition - to evade evil competitors bent on stopping them no matter the cost. In this concluding part of the story, they end up first on a desert island and then in the Arctic.

Like the earlier volume the adventure runs at break neck speed with a heavy dose of luck and coincidence. The limitation of Jo and Zette of course was that they were children and not an enterprising adult like Tintin. Therefore, for a lot of the time, their fates are not in their own hands but in adults who handily are around to save them at every turn. 

This does not detract too much from the story however. The plot is engaging and involves some intrigue, i think this is probably the best of the three Jo, Zette and Jocko volumes i have read to date.

It is beautifully drawn like part one, some of the best examples of ligne claire artwork i've seen and beautifully reproduced.

Introducing CB Greenfield

A tale of crime in small town USA, the story by Lucille Kallen also establishing the newspaper owner CB Greenfield and his long sufferiing main reporter Maggie who does most of the work. 

The initial crime (a hit and run) is fairly low-key but this soon leads to other more serious crimes as secrets are gradually unravelled involving a number of families in the town...

The story is a little slow to get going but nicely swerves the reader as the main crime turns out to be not quite as expected. The story is ultimately enjoyable despite the lead named character Greenfield being somewhat annoying. 

Stick with it for Maggie though who is great!

Motive power recognition 3: DMUs

The diesel multiple unit or DMU is one of the workhorses of the British railway network, even more so since this book by Colin J Marsden was written in 1982 in fact. This details the first generation of DMU which entered service in the 1950s, going class by class and trying to show how to tell the classes apart. This wasn't always the easiest of tasks.

Unfortunately, all of the photographs in this book (apart from a couple on the cover) are in black and white and some of the reproduction is a bit grubby, this can make seeing some of the minute differences to aid recognition a bit tricky.

Interestingly, this book was released just before the second generation of DMU led by the Sprinter and Pacer were about to enter service and would change everything. Apart from the HSTs at the end of the book everything in this book has now been withdrawn from service. Therefore, this is an interesting view of these vital but unsung heroes of the railway before they were swept aside to the scrap yard (well this would take a quite a few more years actually).

Many first generation DMUs still work on preserved lines though, as the photos below show.

Quick Curtain

"Quick Curtain" by Alan Melville is another Golden Age detective novel republished by the British Library. Alan Melville was better known as a broadcaster (including on Call My Bluff) and playwright, but he also wrote a number of novels including some crime stories in the 1930s. 

As might be apt for someone who wrote a number of plays, the theatre is where this book is set, the murder taking place during a performance where the fake bullet in a stage shooting is switched for a real one.

Inspector Wilson is set to solve the case with the help of his adventurous and frequently scolded son. The book is a witty delight, not to be taken too seriously as a crime novel but works much better when you accept this is more a satire on showbusiness.

That is not to say the book hasn't got a decent plot and some interesting sleuthing. Credulity is stretched a bit far though but you don't mind because of the enjoyable way the story has been put together.

The Pigeon House

Monks Risborough is a lovely village in Buckinghamshire near to Princes Risborough. It is at the foot of the Chilterns and has been in existence since pre-Norman times. Not quite as old as that but still very interesting is a building near the church of St Dunstan (originally between the church and a farmhouse) that dates from the 16th century.

This is the Pigeon House which now stands in a recreation ground. Pigeons were bred for food in the house though later the house was used by the nearby farm as a cattle shelter. One curiosity of the building is a door on the northern side of the house which does not match the rest of the architecture and may have been originally part of another building.

Rupert the Bear Annual 1979

As a young child i loved Rupert the Bear, well of course why not? I used to get the Rupert annual every year for Christmas, these collected together Rupert stories which had appeared in the newspaper years before. When i got a little older i moved more to the Beano and later 2000AD but my Rupert annuals were not thrown away and i have a good collection of them now which i have fallen in love with again. This is the annual from 1979.

Now, the Rupert stories are typical of the style of British comic stories from the mid-20th century, there arn't any speech bubbles for dialogue or inline boxes driving the narrative but a text box below the images. So, it is more like a children's story with accompanying illustrations.

The stories are of course a delight with the air of a fairy tale. Rupert stories are a mixture of the innocent and the surreal. Rupert, himself, is an anthropomorphic bear who wears clothes, a red jumper and yellow trousers with a yellow scarf in winter. The other characters are a mixture of other animals in clothes, a few humans including wizards and mages but also elves and pixies and other enchanted folk!

The book starts with Rupert and the Penguins where Rupert following a mysterious pipe leads him into an adventure where he must find some suitable presents for the King of the Penguins! The other stories have the same whimsical and nostalgic feel. It really is great.

Luftwaffe Emergency Fighters

An interesting book about aircraft which, mostly, never got to fly. It is late in the Second World War and the Luftwaffe are planning for the coming threat of newer Allied bombers, especially the B-29. A new more powerful turbojet is being developed and this will be used to power a second generation of jet fighters...

Well as we all know, the War ended before any of these types could enter service, or even fly. One major reason for this was the Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet. This was a more advanced design but by the time the Nazis were defeated only 19 had been built not the hundreds needed for the new wave of fighters.

The most notable of these fighters, and the one which came closest to actual reality was the Messerschmitt P.1101. A notable feature of this fighter was the swept wing, the geometry of which could be changed before flight. When the war ended the P.1101 was found in an uncompleted state but the design was adapted into the Post-war US experimental aircraft the Bell X-5 which was the first aircraft to have a swing wing.

So, this is a look at what might have been if the war in Europe had continued into 1946. It is to the usual standard of an Osprey book, well written and illustrated.

Reading to Basingstoke

Another in the Middleton Press series detailing the history of a country railway route. This one, as usual written by Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, is about the Reading to Basingstoke Line. This starts in Reading in Berkshire and ends up in Basingstoke, Hampshire. Along the way it passes through some beautiful countryside but, unlike some of the other Middleton Press books in this series, not that many stations.

We do have the delights of Mortimer though, a very good looking station with it's Brunel designed buildings. We also have Reading West which... isn't that good looking, though does have an interesting history. There is a section on a Ministry of Defence depot near Bramley too, this has now closed as a depot though is still used as an Army training site.

The book is the usual high standard from these authors and is crammed with interesting history and details of the railways in the area.

Reading

Reading West

Mortimer

Basingstoke

Gary Glitter Annual 1976

Everyone who was everyone had an annual released about them in the 1970s, including disgraced former pop star sex offender Gary Glitter. This book is a glimpse from back when it wasn't weird at all to leave a middle aged man alone with children.

The annual is darkly unintentionally humorous in many ways, and contains a huge amount of cheese. The annual includes the usual features of such a book: profile information, child pics (of him i should add!), his influences et cetera. There are also photo features of Gary in the kitchen, Gary's driving lessons and Gary on stage. It is all the Gary Glitter you could ever want (which is quite likely not a huge amount these days).

The funniest thing in the annual is a comic strip detailing how Glitter nearly gave it all after a low point early in his career (oh if only he knew!) The comic version of Glitter looks nothing like him of course and is curiously low energy. It was probably drawn by someone who had met him.

So, a very odd collection of nonsense indeed about a very awful man.

Tom & Jerry Annual 1971

Another collection of Tom & Jerry cartoons from the 60s (or earlier) and also some stories from Droopy and a Professor Putter too. If you haven't read one of these Tom & Jerry annuals before you are in for a treat as they are very different to the cartoons, and often enter a quite surreal turn of events.

Stories in this annual include Jerry and Tuffy joining a circus (disguised as baby elephants natch), Tom being terrorised by a toy woodpecker and all three of our friends hitching a ride down south to avoid the winter in a box car.

One of the best stories involves Tom trying to get some maple syrup for his pancakes and being thwarted at every turn by Jerry, Tuffy and a bear. Its all great fun with a sprinkling of hep cat lingo.

The Godwin Sideboard

In more modern days Collins Crime Club novels covered a lot of different cross-genres and crimes solved by the most unlikeliest of detectives. This novel by John Malcolm mixes crime and the antiques business!

Tim Simpson is an antique expert working for an investment firm which advises people who want to invest in art and antiques. Tim also becomes a reluctant amateur detective in trying to discover why his friend was killed while trying to locate an Edward Godwin sideboard.

Tim gets involved in the murky antiques trade which, as we know from the days of Lovejoy, is full of rogues. A young American woman becomes involves with Tim but how exactly is she involved with the crimes?

A highly enjoyable read, you probably don't need to know much about the world of collectable art and antiques to enjoy the story though it might help a bit with some of the more technical details. 

The second in a series of novels about Tim Simpson, there were fifteen in total and we will be exploring more of this series in the days to come.

A Scream of Murder

A crime drama with a touch of the science fiction about it, by the incredibly prolific John Creasy.

After an ear splitting scream which nearly causes a woman to crash her car, a dead body is soon found nearby. As the dead body was someone who the police were very keen to bring in Patrick Dawlish of the Crime Haters, some kind of multi-national elite police unit, is bought in. It appears the man was killed by sound.

A plot involving a mysterious group in an old monastery, a plan to forge British currency and a sound weapon that can kill hundreds is gradually revealed. All pretty entertaining and pulpy it is too, though some of the twists near the end seem to come really out of nowhere.

A lean and undemanding read and this i don't mind, the book gets to the point without endless chapters of padding. It is perfectly acceptable if unexceptional. However, if you didn't like it you can always try one of the author's six hundred other books!

Warfare in the Classical World

Back in my youth, my best friend and i were obsessed with expensive ways of killing people collecting military books (well we still are to be honest). 

The Blue Riband of these books were the large format books published by Salamander which covered all sorts of military topics from the latest warships to the Chinese war machine.

My favourite of the series however covers warfare of a much earlier vintage, Classical Greece and Rome. Warfare in the Classical World by John Warry covers warfare from the heroic semi-mythical Greek age to the last days of Rome (in the West anyway). 

Published in 1980, the book is quite out-of-date nowadays ironically as there have been many new discoveries and interpretations since but i still love this book. 

It is a wonderful book to browse, richly illustrated with photographs and diagrams.

The Ten Teacups

Part of the British Library Crime Classics, this story by Carter Dickson promises to be a classic impossible crime tale. These were common during the Golden Age of crime fiction and included crimes in locked rooms and the like which. at first glance, seem to be impossible though the story later reveals the cunning method used to commit the crime.

Indeed, this story starts with a murder in a locked room and the mysterious clues of antique teacups left in the crime scene. 

So, it starts off with a great impossible crime premise... then the books seems to largely forget about it until the end. Too much time spent with dreary characters, events you wonder what relevance they are, and a themed murder party which seems pretty awful.

When we finally solve the impossible crime itself, the solution is pretty implausible. The dialogue throughout the story is not very good either, though some of the police characters are well sketched out. Not a great book overall. Impossible crime stories can be great but you can't win them all.

Slough to Newbury

Middleton Press have published hundreds of books, most of them written by Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith - including this one, covering the railway routes in this country, and abroad. I have many of them in my collection too, i especially like to get books which cover lines which i have travelled such as the Reading-Newbury Line which i explored last year. Therefore, many of the stations in this book i have visited.

These include the major railway centre of Reading and stops along the way to Newbury including Aldermaston and Midgham. Middleton Press books are always very enjoyable, though i wish they had used page numbers. As someone who spent years wrestling with MHRA references while doing my History masters, the lack of page numbers does hurt me somewhat.

This is a minor niggle though, Middleton Press books are always worthwhile. Well researched and written, often with a little wry humour. Historic photographs and maps make the books a wealth of information.

Some of my photos of stations along the route covered in this book are below.

Aldermaston

Theale

Reading

The Sweeney 3: Regan and the deal of the century

So, let us explore another Sweeney novel. I've skipped #2 in the series as it appeared to be set in New York, and to be honest i want my Sweeney set in good old ultra-violent 1970s London. 

A good part of this book by Ian Kennedy Martin is set in France, however. As with book #1 the Regan in this story is a self-destructive loner who fights against his own colleagues as much as the criminals. Again, this is a shame as it was the bromance with Carter in the TV series which really made the series to me, and the Sergeant hardly appears in this one.

The story is well written but also of its time, casual racism and sexism rather jarring to a modern reader. The plot though is oddly relevant today as it involves a hard up West willing to flog anything they can to the Arabs. The French in this book wanted to sell nuclear technology, these days we've basically sold London to them.

Transatlantic Airships - an Illustrated History

Airships are one of my obsessions and books on them i hungrily consume. Transatlantic Airships is not a general history of airships though does cover a great deal of their heyday and some more recent developments. 

The book concentrates on the airships that crossed the Atlantic Ocean, seen as the great barrier in early aviation. Transatlantic passenger flights were seen in the 1920s as the great commercial opportunity for airships like the famous zeppelin, able to take passengers in comfort and for long distances. This was something the fixed wing aircraft of the time were far away from being able to match.

In his well written and brilliantly illustrated book John Christopher describes the early history of the airship, both rigid and non-rigid and the advances in technology sparked by the First World War, with the German zeppelins gaining longer and longer legs. 

However, the first airship to cross the Atlantic non-stop was British. R34 crossed from east to west in July 1919 but it was not the first aircraft to make it. Alcock and Brown crossed in the other direction in their former Vickers Vimy bomber just two weeks beforehand, though R34 did make the first return crossing by an aircraft. R34's epic journey is covered in great detail as are a number of other crossings, the book throughout is well illustrated with excellent photographs and period graphics and maps.

Despite the British lead (whose interest in airships was finally destroyed in the R101 crash) it was the German zeppelins who made passenger flights across the Atlantic their own, with airships of increasing size and complexity culminating in the Hindenburg. The airship was holding its own in its special niche in the 1930s despite increasing competition by aeroplanes. The level of comfort in the air that could be offered was unmatched until the arrival of the wide-bodied jet airliners of the 1970s (albeit for the rich only). Of course the airship was a lot slower but when you are rich enough to fly in one maybe the time to travel does not matter too much, not as much as having a smoking room or a grand piano, as the Hindenberg had, anyway. The Hindenburg disaster killed off the commercial airship business, though by then it was largely restricted to the zeppelin Atlantic trade.

If the Hindenburg had not blown up on that dreadful day in May 1937 it is interesting to consider for how much longer the zeppelins would have crossed the Atlantic. It is likely they could have continued for a few more years but the disaster and the Second World War killed off the dream. That was not the end of the story however, as the wartime exploits of the US Navy's blimp squadrons (or blimprons), which on occasion crossed the Atlantic to get to their assignments in Europe, are also included. The book ends with a look at recent airship developments including the Zeppelin NT, though airships crossing the Atlantic carrying passengers in decadent comfort is probably a dream that will never live again.

Dreams are something the book covers well. Many futuristic (and outlandish) designs for airships were made either side of the war, even nuclear powered airships being considered at one stage but all of these dreams came to nothing. But it is good to dream after all, even if the dream is ultimately doomed.

The Double Image

How do you like your espionage dramas? Complicated, intricate, realistic and dark? 

Well you are in luck with this story by Helen MacInnes which details the adventures of young archaeologist John Craig who is drawn into a plot involving double agents and ex-Nazis. He is recruited by the professionals to assist them with the search for an ex-SS colonel who is now working for the Soviets...

This is a dense tale, set mostly in Paris and on the Greek island of Mykonos. The story is very slowly bought to the boil as the plan involving many actors (probably too many to be honest) comes to fruition. At times the story is a little too slow but the main characters are well fleshed out, especially John Craig and unwitting Soviet pawn Veronica.

A very enjoyable story.

Miniature Railway Locomotives and Rolling Stock

Railways come in all shapes and sizes, and these ones are pretty small! This lovely book by Royston Morris covers a range of railways from 15 inch gauge down to 3 1/2 inch. Any larger than this and you are in the realm of narrow gauge railways, any smaller and they are not really suitable for carrying passengers. Trains like this can commonly be seen at visitor attractions.

This is a really nice collection of photographs showing dozens of these railways, from all gauges. The custom made locomotives and rolling stock are also well covered. 

I remember at primary school, the caretaker used to build live steam miniature railway locomotives. He had at least two in his workshop. At the end of term a short track was laid down and he used to take the children on little trips behind the locomotives. I wonder what happened to him and those locomotives?

Here are a few examples of miniature railways in the UK.

Southern Electric Album

Whilst most of the railway network stayed with predominantly steam powered trains until the 1950s, the railways of the south of England went for electrification early on. By the 1930s, hundreds of miles of track were electrified using the Southern Railway's electrified third rails and to this day the majority of railways in the south and south-east are powered by this method.

This is a lovely photographic album published in 1977 and written by Alan Williams covering all aspects of the railways of the south from the earliest days through to the present (well mid-1970s anyway). A lot of historical and quite obscure rolling stock is included such as the original Waterloo & City Railway stock (which until the 1990s was part of the national network not London Underground). A great book full of atmospheric shots, though all in black and white.

These photographs of mine showing vintage and preserved Southern electric stock are in colour though!