A series of personal accounts by highly trained helicopter pilots, including those with distinguished careers in the military and commercial flying, who with divers, ensured that essential staff could operate in North Sea oil exploration and oil supply. They were the vital link in the process and operated in the most challenging circumstances, often in high levels of danger and sometimes with loss of life, for example, the Piper Alpha Disaster which made national news. And the ferrying of essential personnel and supplies could involve rescues as well routine flying missions. The narrative is often technical but written to ensure good understanding for lay readers and it will, of course, appeal to the many with flying experience in the forces, in commercial flying and government service. Above all, it is a series of graphic personal stories as recounted by individuals faced with extremes of climate, weather, technical, engineering and aeronautical problems and often with human life at stake. The people come to life and with domestic and social concerns and interests are ‘real’ and believable people. It is history of the North Sea oil episode in UK political and economic history and in conjunction with international oil politics is of huge importance to Britain’s economy. This is a period of progress to domestic oil independence by about 1984 and so a key period with subsequent importance even to the present. All aspects of the operations are covered within individual stories, and include the broader questions of company policy, regulation, and trade union involvement.

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During the second half of the nineteenth century, Moseley, a small hamlet just south of Birmingham, developed into a flourishing middle-class suburb. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, Janet Berry’s ambitious research asks why and how this particular suburb grew and who was instrumental in its development. What influenced the types of houses that were built and the styles of their gardens? How did residents experience life in the new suburb? How did they create a community?

In analysing an extraordinary quantity of records, Dr Berry builds a notably nuanced portrait of a place and its people that goes beyond stereotypical images of the Victorians. The suburb was a physical, social, cultural, and psychological space where people conveyed messages about their identity; relationships, lived experiences, and responses to change are all revealed.

The economics of buying or renting accommodation in Moseley are addressed, showing what was involved in setting up a single-family home, the key marker of belonging to the middle class. Aspects of this, such as how the interiors of homes were demarcated, decorated and furnished, have not previously been considered in the context of suburban studies to any extent. Additionally, this book has a particular focus on the suburban middle-class woman, her achievements and opportunities, roles and responsibilities, both inside and outside the home.

By the first decades of the twentieth century Moseley had become part of the metropolis of Birmingham. This engaging account of the process from village to fully integrated suburb will be of particular interest to urban historians.

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Lacing cultural criticism, Victorian literature, and storytelling together, Too Much explores how culture corsets women’s bodies, souls, and sexualities – and how we might finally undo the strings.

Written in the tradition of Shrill, Dead Girls, Sex Object and other frank books about the female gaze, Too Much encourages women to reconsider the beauty of their excesses – emotional, physical, and spiritual.

Rachel Vorona Cote braids cultural criticism, theory, and storytelling together in her exploration of how culture grinds away our bodies, souls, and sexualities, forcing us into smaller lives than we desire. An erstwhile Victorian scholar, she sees many parallels between that era’s fixation on women’s ‘hysterical’ behavior and our modern policing of the same; in the space of her writing, you’re as likely to encounter Jane Eyre and Lizzie Bennet as you are Britney Spears and Lana Del Rey. This book will tell the story of how women, from then and now, have learned to draw power from their reservoirs of feeling, all that makes us ‘too much’.

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Written by Chris Woodyard, the author of The Victorian Book of the Dead, A is for Arsenic is a guide to the the basics of Victorian mourning and death all illustrated by the incomparable Landis Blair. Each entry includes a pen and ink illustration along with 19th century anecdotes ranging from macabre stories to jokes from the Victorian press. (Plus sinister little poems in homage to Edward Gorey.)

“A is For Arsenic” covers topics including post-mortem photography, embalming, bodysnatching tips, what to wear when in mourning, and how long to mourn for someone who has left you money in their will. The book also debunks several Victorian mourning myths.

There are 26 alphabetical entries-from Arsenic to Zinc, (see below) along with an informative glossary, appendix, and detailed bibliography. Here are the topics: A – Arsenic; B – Bier; C – Crape; D – Death Token; E – Embalming; F – Fisk Burial Case; G – Gates Ajar; H – Hearse; I – Ice Box; J – Jet; K – Keen; L – Lychgate; M – Mute; N – Necropolis; O – Obelisk; P – Post Mortem; Q – Queen Victoria; R – Resurrection Men; S – Shroud; T – Tear Bottle; U – Undertaker; V – Veil; X – Sexton; W – Weepers; Y – Churchyard; Z – Zinc

Appendix: Mourning Etiquette

Glossary

Bibliography

Chris Woodyard, author of The Victorian Book of the Dead, answers your dead-serious questions including:

How long should you mourn for someone who left you money in their will?

Why did body snatchers strip a body beforecarrying it away?

What was a coffin torpedo?

Were mourning clothes poisonous?

What is inheritance powder?

Who killed off keening?

What is dead water?

An A to Z delight for lovers of the macabre!

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There are many books which tackle the political developments in Ireland during the nineteenth century. The aim of this book is to show what life was like during the reign of Queen Victoria for those who lived in the towns and countryside during a period of momentous change. It covers a period of sixty-four years (1837-1901) when the only thing that that connected its divergent decades and generations was the fact that the same head of state presided over them. It is a social history, in so far as politics can be divorced from everyday life in Ireland, examining, changes in law and order, government intervention in education and public health, the revolution in transport and the shattering impact of the Great Famine and subsequent eviction and emigration. The influence of religion was a constant factor during the period with the three major denominations, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian, between them accounting for all but a very small proportion of the Irish population. Schools, hospitals, and other charitable institutions, orphan societies, voluntary organisation, hotels, and even public transport and sporting organisations were organised along denominational lines. On a lighter note, popular entertainment, superstitions, and marriage customs are explored through the eyes of the Victorians themselves during the last full century of British rule.

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‘Crime loomed large in the minds of Victorian Londoners. All over the city, watches, purses and handkerchiefs disappear from pockets, goods migrate from warehouses, off docks and out of shop windows. Burglaries are rife, shoplifting is carried on in West End stores and people fall victim to all kinds of ingenious swindles. ‘Pornographers proliferate and an estimated 80,000 prostitutes operate on London’s streets. The vulnerable are robbed in dark alleys or garroted, a new kind of mugging in which the victim is half-strangled from behind while being stripped of his possessions…’ Discover Victorian London’s grimy rookeries, home to thousands of the city’s poorest and most desperate residents. Explore the crime-ridden slums, flash houses and gin palaces from a unique street-level view and meet the people who inhabited them. Ross Gilfillan uncovers London’s lost criminal past in this fascinating account of nineteenth century low-life. Come face to face with pickpockets snatching pocket watches; pornographers peddling guides to lewd London; swindlers deluding the unwary and murderers whose deeds made the headlines and shocked their readers; right through to the consequences of their crimes – prison, transportation, or the gallows!

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bVery Short Introductionsb: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring /b

The Victorian period may have come to an end over 120 years ago, but the Victorians continue to be a vital presence in the modern world. Contemporary Britain is still in large part Victorian in its transport networks, sewage systems, streets, and houses. Victorian cultural legacies, especially in art, science, and literature, are still celebrated. The first to have to grapple with many of the challenges of modern urban society, we continue to look to the Victorians for inspiration and solace. And we are increasingly aware of the ways their global actions shaped, often for ill, the world around us. Much mythologised, inexhaustibly controversial, the Victorians are an inescapable reference point for understanding the modern histories not just of Britain and its empire, but of the world.

In The Victorians: A Very Short Introduction Martin Hewitt offers a guide through the thickets of judgement and debate which have grown around the period and its people, to offer a historical overview of the Victorians and their legacies. He seeks to answer five crucial questions. Why have the Victorians continued occupy such a prominent place in the cultures of not just the anglophone world? How far does it make sense to think of a 64-year period arbitrarily given an identity by the longevity of the Queen as an identifiable historical period in a general sense? How justified are the value-laden versions of the Victorians which argue for the existence of a particular world view called ‘Victorianism’? Beyond ideology, what was Victorian Britain actually like – and in particular, what was distinctive about it? Who were the Victorians – not just the eminent few, but the population as a whole? And finally, how far and with what results did the Victorians and their culture spread across the globe?

In answering these questions, Hewitt cautions against some long-held orthodoxies, throws a light on some less well-known aspects of the period, and urges the importance of understanding the Victorians on their own terms if we are to effectively engage with their legacies.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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