Dark Days

Day Days by Hugh Conway is set in the late 19th century (and was written then too) and is a piece of Victorian melodrama. Dr North falls in love with the beautiful Philippa. Or, should i say, he becomes a love sick puppy over her.

Unfortunately for him, she marries someone else. Dr North is therfore heartbroken and escapes away to the countryside to bury himself in his work. Then a few years later, Philippa comes back into his life, unhappy in her marriage. Dr North hopes that she will finally come away with him but then we discover she has murdered her abusive partner and now needs Dr North's help to covering up her crime...

Overall, this is a reasonable read and has some interesting ideas and a good plot, though the overt emotionalism of the love-sick narrator (North) can be a bit off putting at times, especially early on.

Inspector West kicks off

An enjoyable, if not very deep, crime novel by John Creasey. Inspector West investigates the death of a man and this leads him down a rabbit hole involving a mass conspiracy to steal food (when this book was released, 1949, food rationing was still going on in the UK so that probably resonated) and re-sell it on the black market.

The criminal gang use specially printed football programmes with codes embedded in them, to distribute at football grounds to the various members in the greater conspiracy. To be honest this seems a bit of a odd way to do this, though obviously this book was written a long time before WhatsApp!

West gets into plenty of action here, beaten up a few times and even shot, but he pulls through to brings down the whole criminal enterprise. The murder that took place at the start of the book is also solved, though it did seem to become a bit of an afterthought.

Not a bad story at all, not very challenging but very readable. A couple of the main characters who often are seen acting suspicious, end up being innocent so that is a nice little twist at the end.

The Hand of Death

This is a rather murky crime novel by Margaret Yorke. It details the antics of a depraved man who seeks to escape his dreary existence selling antiques seeking sex, however soon it is rape and murder he has committed and he wants to get into the pants of the schoolgirl who works at his shop...

The story is interesting in being told largely through the points of view of the criminal and the victims (including the poor innocent bloke who is the police's suspect). The female characters are very well written, the male characters - including the criminal - are a bit one dimensional.

It isn't a bad book, certainly reads well. However, the plot is a bit basic.

Payoff

"Payoff" by Hartley Howard is an unsubtle tale of a hard boiled private investigator who sweats a lot and takes a lot of taxis. 

The story is fairly enjoyable, if not that unique. The story never quite manages to reach top gear but a creditable fourth perhaps. There is a good mix of crime and spy drama.

The main problem with the story though is the predictability. It isn't a bad read and will certainly pass the time of day but you probably won't want to ever read it again.

The Affair of the Blood-Stained Egg Cosy

Although set in the Golden Age, and often has the look and feel of such this was written in the 1970s by James Anderson and is the first of a series of novels set in the same country house. Therefore, it is a pastiche but don't let that put you off as it is indeed pretty good.

The story is complicated and has all the tropes you expect from a Golden Age mystery. It is set in a dark country house and includes a cast of toffs, flappers, a bumbling (but ultimately efficient) police detective, perky keen amateurs and plenty of red herrings and puzzles. There is even a map!

The book is well written and an enjoyable read, which just about manages to err on the right side of parody though at times a close run thing. A great send-up and celebration of a genre.

The Rogues’ Syndicate

An enjoyable murder mystery from the Collins Detective Club by former police detective Frank Froëst. This first hand knowledge of actual police work and the workings of Scotland Yard is well used in this story.

A young man is handed a package by a strange woman in the London fog. Soon, he finds himself accused of killing the woman's father and being involved in a larger conspiracy. Of course he is innocent and the real criminals are an organised gang. Can detective Menzies sort things out and find out what is really going on?

This is a solid police procedural, it might be a little dated (being written during the First World War) and has a little bit too much of an international flavour with some American characters in old London town (some with rather ridiculous names). However, it's a solid enough read without being too memorable.

Bash Street Kids Annual 1991

Time for another collected volume of Bash Street Kids stories, originally published weekly in the Beano comic of course. Part of the fun of these volumes (well for me anyway) is trying to work out when the stories may have been originally published. This annual is actually pretty easy to date to around 1982, one of the stories features the World Cup and it took place in that year. Another story has the Kids dress up for a disco and Smiffy looks like Adam Ant!

So, i probably read these stories in the comic as i was a weekly reader back then though i don't really remember them. But it was a long time ago.

This is a good collection of stories, the Kids were on top form. Unlike their exam results of course.

The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent (part 2)

Blake & Mortimer books usually have sumptuous covers but they have really gone to town on this one, it is a classic of comic art. The ligne claire artwork inside is pretty good too, being to the usual B&M standard. The artwork is very well drawn and accurate depicting an idealised view of the world of the 1950s, beautifully coloured... and of course (as it is a B&M story) with plenty of words!

The story continues the one begun in part 1, which involved a mysterious Indian living god launching an electrical attack on the Brussels Universal Exposition. In part 2 our heroes travel to Antarctica to track down the source of the attacks. If you like secret bases at the South Pole and mysterious retro-future technology then you will be sure to love this. It is packed full of action and weird science...

The best part of the story though, to me, is the backstory these two volumes have provided to Professor Mortimer. Part 1 showed us some of his adventures in India as a young man and this all comes to a conclusion here where his past and present collide.

Skeleton in search of a cupboard

Another enjoyable crime novel by Elizabeth Ferrars, who has fast become one of my favourite authors. This is not a book in one of her series with recurring characters though, it is a stand alone story involving a young couple and their rather large family. The family have gathered for their step-mother's 80th birthday but thats when things start to go wrong.

The step-mother's house catches fire, a couple of her valuable paintings go missing, but worst of all: in the smouldering debris of the house a hidden cupboard is revealed which contains a female skeleton! The investigation into crimes in the past and the present day (a number of murders) begins.

A good story that, once it got going, was very easy to read however, i did not think this was Ferrars' best book. A lot of the story, especially at the end, seems rather overly convenient and the actions of the characters are often a bit strange. For example, one of the characters - a young pregnant woman - implies she has gone off to kill herself and no one seems bothered to try and stop her.

The concept - the discovered skeleton - is great but the story itself did not quite live up to it.

Prime target

Prime target by Martin Russell is an intriguing tale of crime, psychology and terrorism. Our main character Pitt starts to get confused when people begin mistaking him for someone else. This continues for some time and he starts to question his own sanity and his reality.

Finally, it is revealed that it is all a trick (a somewhat elaborate one to honest) to unnerve and ultimately control him, and he is the captive of terrorists who want him to plant a bomb in Downing Street!

The story has many twists and turns though some are a bit obvious in the end, such as Karen. However, a dog saves the day and that always makes a good story even better.

The London Underground Electric Train

There are many books on the development of the rolling stock of London Underground, quite a few of them are really good too and this is another one to add to that list. Maybe even the best, certainly one of the most technical.

This excellent book by Piers Connor approaches the subject from a novel direction: instead of a standard history of the London Underground network and its rolling stock, this book instead describes the development of the many technologies that went into the London Underground train as we know it and how the technologies all fitted together. So, starting with the earliest electric traction in the first Underground trains we see how electric motors and control systems, bogies, bodywork, brakes et cetera developed over the decades.

The book is well illustrated throughout, with a number of diagrams that explain how the various systems work. The London Underground was the first deep-level underground system in the world but it owes so much to early developments in the United States as well as decades of evolution and different paths (not all of which worked). Much development work is ongoing and the book is very up-to-date with the latest details of the future tube trains which will finally replace my beloved 1972 Stock in the late 2020s (perhaps).

Railway stations in Warwickshire

I have already seen the proofs of course but it is not until you hold the finished printed book in your hands that you truly feel that the project is over. I received complimentary copies of my second book a couple of days ago. The book is a survey of the railway stations of Warwickshire and took a lot of work to complete last year, including a 5am train from Birmingham in order to get to Polesworth for the one train a day!

It will be available on sale in all good bookshops from next month, though you can buy it online now!

The Fenokee Project

The Fenokee Project by Roy Lewis takes place mainly in the frozen wastes of Canada and takes quite a while to get going. This is a slow moving tale of a cold (in more ways than one) case.

A man tries to find out how his wife died eight years before. What may have seemed an accident now seems to be mixed up in something murkier, with paid off witnesses and big business corruption.

It takes a while to warm up but when it does you are rewarded by a complicated but logical plot.

Book 3 emerges

With my second book now just weeks away from hitting the shelves, focus can turn to book 3. This is also on railway stations, but this time in the West Midlands. My publisher sent me a draft of the cover of the book yesterday. I don't think it will be released until the late Summer or early Autumn but the cover looks pretty good.

American Warplanes

I love a big Salamander book, they were the backbone of my book collection when i was in my teens. This volume by Bill Gunston is on American military aircraft from the earliest of days until the 1980s. 

So, this is standard fare for a Salamander book. Aircraft profiles with good information, technical specifications and plenty of photographs and illustrations. As the book was by Bill Gunston then you know it is informative and very well written.

This is an interesting book, covering all types from the famous like the Mustang and Eagle to the obscure. The latter are more fun of course. By now the book is very dated of course but still very enjoyable.

Gently where the roads go

After a man is brutally murdered by a maniac with a sten gun, Superintendent George Gently is bought in to investigate a murky tale of stolen military supplies, enemy agents and a fair amount of sleaze. Gently also finds himself in danger as the gun man tries to cover his trail by also filling Gently with lead.

This is quite a respectable crime romp by Alan Hunter, though at times the story is a little dense with clues and plot points, some of which seem to be going nowhere fast. It is well written and pretty gritty. The ending is a surprise though, but not completely in a good way. The resolution did surprise me though as i was becoming pretty sure the culprit was one of the characters, but in the end they only had a supporting role.

I have a few other George Gently books in my large to-read pile, and i am looking forward to them.

22 Pans

I have a big pending list of fiction books to read so of course the most natural thing is to greatly increase it! I have bought a job lot of 22 Pan paperbacks from the 1960s. They include some authors i am familiar with such as John Creasey though a lot that are new to me. Exploring them will be fun, when i finally get around to them. That may be some time!

The Gondwana Shrine

This Blake & Mortimer volume follows on from the excellent Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent two-parter, although it can't quite be considered "part 3" it does follow up on quite a lot of the plot... though everything is recapped so you can read this on its own and understand whats going on!

At the heart of this story is that staple of books of Blake & Mortimer's ilk : lost civilisations. Though in the case of the Gondwana Shrine, the civilisation is truly very ancient (as in millions of years old) and that does stretch credibility a bit. 

Professor Mortimer takes the lead in this story though of course Blake is never far away and a certain persistent villain also makes a reappearance. To be honest it would be nice for Blake & Mortimer to have some other enemies to face...

As with all Blake & Mortimer books, it has a dense storyline and full of intrigue and adventure, and of course very well drawn. However, as the central concept of the story is a little too far-fetched it did detract from the story a little but it is still well worth your time.

Portrait of a Murderer

"Portrait of a murderer" by Anne Meredith is an excellent Golden Age mystery. A gentleman is murdered on Christmas Eve. One of his six children has killed him. However, this isn't a whodunnit. We witness the murder, then examine each of the children in turn, looking into their backgrounds and lives, creating characters with depth.

Therefore, the story stands out from a lot of it's peers. This is more of a psychological study of murder and motive than the standard detective yarn of the period, and explores how the culprit tries to avoid being discovered. It may lack in suspense but makes it up with good characterisation.

The interesting premise may though be the best part about the story, the initial part especially is a bit of a slog though it does pick up later on.

The Rainbird Pattern

At first this book by Victor Canning is a bit strange, and hard to get into. It has two separate plots which seem to be completely unrelated to each other, but once you realise just how they are related you can't wait to see how this thriller turns out!

One plot involves the kidnapping and ransoming of VIPs by a highly professional couple. The Secret Service are completely flummoxed as to who the kidnappers are but suspect they are planning their big job. Indeed, they kidnap the Archbishop of Canterbury and want a fortune in diamonds for his release.

The other plot involves a medium and her lover / assistant who are employed by a rich older woman to find her long-lost nephew. Trying to find this nephew is very difficult but they finally do succeed... but you can guess who it turns out to be!

A good book, a slow start is ultimately very rewarding. The characters are well written and the demise of one of them hits hard. The book ends on a pretty dark note as well. Interestingly, the story was adapted into a film called Family Plot, which was Alfred Hitchcock's last film.

Obelix and co.

There is an irony that arguably the best Asterix story of all (in my opinion of course) is named after his well-covered if thin-skinned friend Obelix! 

This book is a hilarious satire on capitalism and marketing. Caesar sends his young protege Preposterus to Gaul to corrupt the Indomitable Gauls using the profit motive. He creates a fake demand for menhirs and begins to corrupt Obelix and later other villagers in the pursuit of profit...

This is utterly wonderful stuff, packed full of nonsense and often biting satire. We have the memorable scene where Preposterus (who is said to have been based on a young Jacques Chirac!) tries to explain the concept of marketing to Caesar, the gaudy fashions of the nouvelle rich villagers and the Romans trying to get a piece of the menhir action.

Naturally it all ends happily ever after and our friends return to their simple rustic lifestyle of hunting and eating boar and fighting, uncorrupted by bags of money! Goscinny and Uderzo were at the height of their powers here, it is a shame that this was the last book written by Goscinny to be published before he passed away.

Liverpool to Runcorn

Another Middleton Press volume, this one covering the London & North Western Railway line south from Liverpool across the Mersey to Runcorn, nowadays part of the West Coast Main Line. 

This is still a busy line now, both for passenger and freight traffic though a lot of the industry has gone now and some of the intermediate stations between Liverpool and Runcorn are also no more.

The line ran past a parkland near where my Uncle and Auntie lived in south Liverpool. When i was a little kid and we went up there, i always liked to go up to where the railway line was and hear, if not really see, the frequent trains going past. I've been past on train now many times. I always think of those times.

Liverpool Lime Street, Liverpool South Parkway (a more recent addition) and Runcorn are interesting stations which are well worth a visit.

The House Opposite

The House Opposite by J. Jefferson Farjeon is apparently the second Ben the Tramp story. 

Ben is the main character of this tale, a good old gentleman of the road who stumbles upon mysterious, and even murderous, goings on in the house opposite the one he is squatting in.

Ben is reluctantly drawn in to try and solve the mystery. The story is fairly unusual, and the main character is quite novel, but at times i found the story a bit hard going. I've always found dialogue written in a strong dialect is a bit tedious to read but i suppose it makes Ben more authentic. Once the story gets going its worth the read but getting there (without giving up) takes a bit of effort.

Bash Street Kids Annual 1993

The Bash Street Kids comic strip from The Beano began appearing in collected volumes in 1980, old strips from the comic accompanied by some new features and artwork. Part of the fun of the annuals is (well for me anyway) trying to work out when the comic strips appeared in the Beano originally.

Early on in this annual there is a hint, the story TV or not TV features the kids as TV mad and watching breakfast TV. It is likely this is mentioned due to breakfast TV being new and novel at the time, that would put the stories in this annual around the 1983 time frame. 

Olive also appears as the cook and she did not feature until 1981, earlier annuals had different and unnamed school cooks (though just as inept!)

This is a good annual anyway, not quite as good as the annuals released in the 1980s which featured strips from the 1960s and 1970s, a true golden age.

Plutarch's Staff

"Plutarch's Staff" is a prequel of sorts, the events of the book deal with the end of WW2 and the start of WW3 which was covered in the Secret of the Swordfish saga (which began the Blake & Mortimer series back in the 1950s) so the strip can be considered as having travelled full circle.

Though to be honest i'm finding the current pop culture obsession with filling in gaps and continuity-porn a bit tiresome, as it was with this volume and a number of other volumes in the series. It would be nice for future volumes to explore new territory. "Plutarch's Staff" does cover some interesting origin details though, especially for one of the series' major characters.

The criticisms aside, the story is very good, and drawn beautifully of course. This story sees Blake more to the fore and so is less mystical and more action and intrigue based. 

At the risk of contradicting myself in the previous paragraph the events that lead up to Secret of the Swordfish are very interesting indeed and fit in perfectly well with the later stories even though they were written by another author (the original master Edgar P. Jacobs of course) and over 60 years before.

Book 2 is available to pre-order!

I have happy to announce that my second book, Railway stations in Warwickshire, is due to be out in mid-April and is now available to pre-order on the Amberley website. 

This book is a survey of the railway stations of Warwickshire from Atherstone to Wootton Wawen. It details the history, architecture, operations and railway services each station has. All with lots of photographs from yours truly!

This is the first in a series i have been commissioned to create for Amberley. The second on the railway stations of the West Midlands should be out later this year. The third on the stations of Herefordshire & Worcestershire is now in the early stages, a fourth is also on the horizon...

Hitler's Luftwaffe

I love a good Salamander book me, and this is one of the best ones i have got. This excellent volume by Tony Wood and Bill Gunston covers the many aircraft types operated by the Luftwaffe from the early 1930s till the end of the Second World War.

The book has two halves, the first covers the history of the Luftwaffe after Hitler's take over, and throughout the war from glory to collapse. The second part is a directory of types used and is very comprehensive covering many obscure types as well as the famous aircraft like the Stuka and Bf109. Each entry in the directory contains technical information, colour artwork, and photographs. Major types also get full cutaway illustrations.

The book dates from the mid-1970s so some information may be out-of-date nowadays as archives have become more readily available but this book can only be very highly recommended indeed.

Death Knows No Calendar

This is an excellent locked room mystery by John Bude. An artist is found dead in her studio, apparently murdered by someone but the room was locked from the inside so how did it happen?

As usual, the crime is mostly investigated by an amateur detective (as it is a Golden Age novel), in this case it is Boddy, a former Army officer. He begins to investigate a varied set of suspects, who all possibly had competed for the artist's affections, including a missing priest and the victim's partner.

An interesting murder mystery, though maybe not one for many surprises. The mystery works more for it's ingenuity of how the fairly obvious culprit carried out the crime than anything else but it a perfectly decent story.

Star Wars #54

Years ago (a lot of years ago in fact) i used to get the Star Wars comic every week. We're talking back in the late 1970s and early 80s here. Like much else from my childhood, the comics have now long gone as i didn't have the foresight to know that one day people would pay good money for such things on a global visual network yet to be created. 

However, one comic did survive as it was left at my Grandmothers' house and years later i made sure i would keep this one...

Star Wars #54 then was released on Valentine's Day 1979 and includes a Star Wars comic strip and two other stories (The Micronauts and The Warlock which i wasn't that interested in back then and not so much now either). The Star Wars comic started off a weekly comic telling of the first Star Wars movie but once they blew up the Death Star, and Darth Vader went spinning off into space, they had to continue the comic with an early example of the Extended Universe at least until Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980.

The story here concerns Luke, Leia and Tagge who appears to be some kind of galactic mafia boss who hates Vader. Luke and Leia are trying to discover why and how Tagge can fly TIE fighters into the atmosphere of the gas giant Yavin, while at the same time evading Tagge's TIE fighter patrols. Of course, the story here was set between the two films and no one but George Lucas knew that Luke and Leia were siblings, so we get a little bit of mild incest.

The cliffhanger has their ship under attack by TIE fighters and the intriguing teaser that next week is called "R2 D2 Casualty Of War", as to what happened in Star Wars #55, i can't remember, but obviously R2 was fine as he made the next film OK...

Jane's Freight Containers 1975-76

My book collection contains well over a thousand books covering many subjects, often obscure. Perhaps the most niche is this one which is one of Jane's famous large reference volumes. This one is dedicated the logistics which power world trade: shipping containers, ports and operators.

Where would we be without the shipping container, so much of the world's freight is now carried in these things by boat, train and truck. The ships and ports sections are probably the most interesting, though of course much of the information contained in here is a bit out of date.

But the humble shipping container still rules the roost, being transported around the world daily in the thousands. Quite a few end up repurposed for use as storage, or just abandoned to rust away.

Lifeboat Directory

The sort of book which really appeals to me, in more ways than one. Lifeboat Directory by Nicholas Leach and Tony Denton is, as the name implies, a directory of boats which have been operated by the RNLI (whom i have always strongly supported) in British waters.

The book includes the full range of lifeboats from sailing boats to modern motor boats and even hovercraft! Every boat has a small profile and photograph. This really is an excellent book packed full of information and very lavishly illustrated.

Highly recommended.

Asterix & the Picts

This Asterix adventure was the first in which the original creators of the indomitable Gaul (Goscinny and Uderzo) did not have a hand in the creation of.

The Asterix saga was at a major turning point therefore. The creators were either too old to continue or had already passed away, the only way the franchise could continue was with new blood at the helm. You can imagine that the team of Ferri and Conrad, who created this story, felt a huge amount of pressure when they were putting Asterix and the Picts together...

NuAsterix (a term i invented, feel free to borrow) could well have lived or died on how good this story was. If it had been bad then there might not be much chance to keep the characters going for much longer. Luckily, Asterix and the Picts is actually pretty good!

I wouldn't say its the best Asterix book ever but it is definitely the best for some time, and certainly better than most of the ones Uderzo wrote and drew on his own after the passing of Goscinny. Not that i am as down on Uderzo's version of Asterix as some people are, the books are still pretty fine or at least OK but they lack the subtlety and warmth of the older books.

Asterix and the Picts takes a bit of a middle ground, it still has some of the more slap stick graphically heavy humour of Uderzo's Asterix but also some more of the word play and puns of the original version. The story gets off to a bit of a clumsy start but then starts to find its feet and includes a few genuine laugh out loud jokes. 

In truth, the book was a bit safe and maybe lacks a clear identity but you can understand that because of what was riding on it. I suspect NuAsterix is now safe for the foreseeable future and a number of other volumes have followed. By Belanos what a relief!

Called Back

In Called Back by Hugh Conway, a blind man witnesses (not by sight of course) a terrible crime, a murder. 

Later on, his blindness is cured and he falls in love with a mysterious woman. However, he knows that she was involved in the murder but is not sure exactly how...

Although the book was a success when released in the late 19th century, and was adapted into a stage play, i found this a troublesome and frequently annoying read though the premise is pretty interesting.

The story moves on at a decent pace, though i found it rather melodramatic and the plot a bit too fanciful, though this was a common fault/feature (delete depending on your point of view) of the time.

Signed: Olrik

The thirtieth (and so far latest) Blake & Mortimer adventure, originally created by Edgar P Jacobs but in this instance by Yves Sente and André Juillard. Blake & Mortimer's eternal enemy Olrik is in prison, but due to overcrowding he receives two new prison chums, who turn out to be sepratists who want independence for Cornwall!

Olrik gets involved with their plot, devised by the shadowy Grand Druid (the identify of whom is pretty obvious early on in the story), who seeks the sword Excalibur and the treasure hoard of King Arthur. Both are thought to be buried underground somewhere in Cornwall, they need Professor Mortimer's latest invention which can tunnel through solid rock like it isn't there, nothing at all like the Mole from Thunderbirds oh no...

So, this is a fine Blake & Mortimer adventure, as usual mixing mad science, a past reimagined and a dose of the mystic. However, it is by no means the best volume in the series. Blake & Mortimer is somewhat notorious for heavy use of word panels to explain the story. Whilst this can be a wordy story too there were times where it was a little unclear what was going on, maybe a little more explanation was needed in this instance! Still, great fun to read.

A Murder Too Many

Part of Elizabeth Ferrer's series about retired botany professor Andrew Basnett who seems to get involved with investigating murders! The professor heads up to one of his old academic haunts for a conference, one of his old colleagues wants some advice from him but not on botany! A member of the university was killed a couple of years before but the colleague has doubts that the man who was tried and convicted for the murder was the right man and he hopes Basnett can investigate.

The professor is pretty reluctant to do this, having tired of being an amateur detective, but soon finds himself embroiled in a rather complicated situation with various suspicious characters, and also another murder!

This isn't the best Basnett book, he is maybe a little too jaded and reluctant to give the story much energy, and it needed some due to the number of characters introduced. The unveiling of the culprits is also rather low-key, taking place in the background. However, as with all of Ferrer's books it was still an enjoyable read.

Hi Fella

A while ago I began a long term project to clear my Mum's loft out of all the junk that has accumulated up there over the last few decades. There is a lot of stuff up there too, much of it I am unclear as to why it is up there, including dozens of computer magazines from the early 1990s! 

One thing I did find up there was a children's book my Mum bought me to read when i was a child many years ago. I'm glad I did not throw this away.

"Hi Fella" by Era Zistel is the story of a puppy who gets lost when the box he is being transported in falls over the side of a truck. He has to learn how to survive, at first with a raccoon and then a cat, until he can find his way home. Wherever or whatever that is. 

It is a delightful story and I am glad it was dumped up in the loft along with everything else instead of being thrown away. Sometimes hoarding is good.

Erich von Däniken - Descent in the Andes

Erich von Däniken (who has just died) was one of the best known exponents of the Ancient Astronaut theory, this is the one that aliens visited Earth in the distant path and helped mankind developed into the intelligent being he is (apparently), and built stuff like the pyramids with exotic alien technology et cetera. 

When i was a kid i used to love this stuff, though of course much of it was nonsense and i later found out that von Däniken was rather shameless in falsely presenting doctored evidence to support his claims. 

However, it was a popular thing in the 1960s and 1970s and a fun aspect of the craze in the 1970s was the publication of a series of comic books about a group of aliens led by Ais and Zen who have come to Earth in the distant past to change the biology of primitive ape-men to create homo sapiens. This is a great science fiction adventure romp. In this first volume the aliens arrive on Earth and begin their plans...

Not really to be taken that seriously like many of the Ancient Astronaut works really should be, though unfortunately many have.

Cromford & High Peak

A slightly different Middleton Press volume in their Country Railway Routes series. It covers railways which only normally carried freight up in the Derbyshire Peak district, supporting the Cromford Canal and the many mines and industries in the region. 

Many of the railways were cable hauled due to the steep inclines, including at High Peak Junction where a wharf for transfer between canal and railway and the railway's workshops can be visited as part of the many visitor attractions in this beautiful part of the world.

Thus, this is pretty different from the usual Middleton Press volume, as there arn't any stations which you can take trains to today and you can compare the past pictures against. Instead, it is a fascinating look at industrial railways and how they coped with often very difficult terrain and circumstances.