Book Review
~ Wartime & Miscellaneous Books by Leicester & Leicestershire Authors ~
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Synopsis
Describes the work of the War Office Y Group at Beaumanor Hall in Leicestershire during WWII. The Hall was one of the UK's most important wireless intercept (Y) Stations. Really two tales in one: the first is a very touching and personal account by Joan Nicholls, then a teenager, of her own experience of joining the Army, undergoing selection for secret service and working, in the most demanding circumstances, as a morse intercept operator tasked against German military targets. The second goes into some detail about the organisation of a war time Station, briefly discussing its technical features and considering its place in the overall, national, Signal Intelligence effort.
Synopsis
Born in a three up and three down terraced house in Aylestone Park, Leicester, Pearl Brotherton�s life got off to an inauspicious start when her father, in a drunken stupor, registered her under the wrong name. It was the beginning abuse at the hands of cold self-absorbed parents and various children�s homes which made a mockery of the term �in care.� Separated from her beloved older brother and confined to institutions from the age of four, Pearl gives a harrowing account in her book of the authority figures who used their positions of power to afflict the most mental and physical cruelty on their vulnerable young charges.
Synopsis
The author, Chris Lymn, a regular contributor to " The Fox," and a lifelong supporter, captures the very essence of the club and its traditions. With a ground that looks like it has borrowed a stand from every other division, and a team with the same never say die attitude as the fans, Leicester City continue to be a thorn in the side of many of the so called bigger clubs. The reader of this entertaining book is not just force fed the normal stats of similar publications, but is given an insight into many other aspects of the club's history, including ex-managers, supporters and past favourite players. - from an amazon.co.uk review by Shaun Patrick of Bruntingthorpe.
Synopsis
This book aims to capture and present a selection of recollected experiences, attitudes and activities which took place within the county of Leicestershire, during WWII. Collated from an extensive pool of recorded interview's, during the mid 1980's, these results reveal a personal view of what Leicestershire people actually thought during the war, as opposed to the official accounts of how the public was supposed to act, as portrayed through contemporary films and posters of the time. The result is a book, which is now an invaluable addition to any social historian embarking on a study of Leicestershire's social environment, during WWII.
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Put On Your Boots And Your Parachutes
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Synopsis
"Birds Eye Wartime Leicester" reproduces photographs of bomb damage in and around Leicester during the Second World War and a central map sets out to plot where each and every bomb fell on the city. Leicester did not suffer the horrendous bombing as did Coventry, Birmingham and other large cities. In fact, it was generally believed that the bombing of Leicester was a mistake or was the result of bombers simply jettisoning there bomb load. However, ex-German Luftwaffe crew members who were taken prisoner and who remained in this the UK after the war, claimed that target maps had been prepared for the City and had been issued to air crews. The booklet goes on to show the sites used by the USA's famous 82nd Airborne in the run up to D-Day.
Synopsis
This addition to the "Britain in Old Photographs" series brings together a collection of black- and-white pictures spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawn from family albums, local collections and professional photographers, they show the way things were and how they have changed. Every photograph is captioned, providing names and dates where possible, revealing historical and anecdotal detail and giving life to the scenes and personalities captured through the camera lens. Bringing together all aspects of daily life - celebrations and disasters, work and leisure, people and buildings - the collection should inspire memories, as well as serve as an introduction to visitors.
Synopsis
The title for this book about the famous 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army is taken from the unit's song The All American Soldier: Put on your boots, boots, boots / And parachute- chutes- chutes / We're going up, up, up / And coming down, down, down / We're All American and proud to be for we're the soldiers of liberty.
Elements of this Division were stationed around Leicester before D-Day: the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment was stationed on Beeby Road in Scraptoft; the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment was stationed on Wood Lane in Quorn; the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment was stationed on Shady Lane, Evington; Braunstone Park was the site of the Division Headquarters camp.
Synopsis
Author Joseph Wambaugh tells of the first time DNA testing (developed at Leicester University) was used to catch someone. Two girls from the Narborough area are dead. Years pass and the police remain baffled. Enter Scotland Yard with a new tool: DNA testing. In an unexpected Orwellian move, the police are prepared to DNA type every male in the area between the ages of 12 and 79 in an effort to find the elusive killer. Certain such evidence would be declared inadmissible, the investigators are also confident a match would enable them to extract a confession. When an investigator refuses to submit his own sample, his peers grow suspicious. The sophomoric cat and mouse that follows points in only one direction.
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Aviation In Leicestershire And Rutland
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Synopsis
For Chris Moore, the Great War developed from a childhood fascination to a full-blown obsession, both with the actuality of the war - its archives and its archaeology - and its abiding influence on English language, manners and customs. Exasperated with the emphasis most war literature places on the officers and political leaders, Moore set out to trace the wartime experiences of one man - one personal history among the 6,000,000 voiceless ranks of Britons in uniform. He chose Private Walter Butterworth, 5th Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, an obscure infantryman in a disparaged outfit of amateurs that somehow managed to win one of the greatest battles of history - who also happened to be Moore's grandfather. In this book Moore retrieves his grandfather's war-song by following (with reluctant family in tow) the three-year march of the 5th Leicesters through France and Flanders.
Synopsis
1994 Leicester City Council Living History
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Working Class Life In Victorian Leicester
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Synopsis
This little book is based on a series of ten broadcast talks given on BBC Radio Leicester in the winter of 1968-69. A great many opinions have been expressed of Victorian Leicester, by, people living at the time and since. Many of those who grew up there looked at it with pride - a sense of purpose, of achievement. Others were apt to rail at it: the sensitive, the unsuccessful, the professional grumblers - there were plenty of them then, as there are still.
Today, as we look back at it, and at the Victorian age as a whole, our views too are divided. We can see much in it that was crude; harsh, callous, brutal, ugly in every sense of the word. But we can also see much to admire, in the energy, the power, the sheer achievement and the speed at which it was brought...
Synopsis
Since the arrival of Ugandan Asians in 1972, Leicester has become the location of one of the most thriving Asian communities in Britain. A history of Asians in Leicester and the city's transformation from a prosperous East Midlands market town to the leading multicultural city in Europe. This title chronicles the lives of Asian settlers - their work, leisure and housing as well as environmental impact, festivals, religious institutions and the arts. The experience of ordinary members of the Asian community, such as barbers, industrial workers, teachers, women's groups and shopkeepers as well as businessmen, broadcasters and doctors are recorded. This visual record will be of interest to anyone interested in race, politics and local history.
Synopsis
For the first time, two experienced journalist delve into the case of Frank Beck, a residential care home manager for Leicestershire County Council who sexually and physically abused more than 200 children in his care in a reign of terror that lasted fourteen years. The book relates the astonishing series of events by which a man with no relevant qualifications and against whom there were numerous complaints, was able for so long to wield absolute power over so many disturbed or delinquent children. Beck was convicted in 1992 and received five life sentences, but died mysteriously in prison. This text also examines the network of abusers with whom Beck worked and charts the subsequent careers of the victims.
Synopsis
The aim of this book is to present an account of Working-class life in Victorian Leicester. It is based on the detailed Annual Reports of the Leicester Domestic Mission, written by Joseph Dare between 1846-77. Annual Report Examples: Because there were regular outbreaks of smallpox in Leicester in the period, in 1864, Dare described in detail how one such epidemic spread rapidly in the poorest districts in the town. In 1866, drawing attention to the increase of measles, fever and consumption in the town, Dare noted the indifference of landlords to improve working- class living conditions.
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Leicester - A Pictorial History
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Synopsis
Cinema In Leicester 1896-1931 by David Williams. Thorough research into the early cinemas in the City of Leicester - fully illustrated.
Synopsis
Full Title:
The Tigers - The Leicestershire Volunteers in the First
World War by Matthew Richardson
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History of Leicestershire and Rutland
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Synopsis
The Illustrated History of Leicester Railways. A "local lad made good" was the photographer S W A Newton. About one hundred years ago, he voluntarily set himself the task of photographing the whole of the construction of the then new Great Central Railway for which students of the Railway have been grateful ever since. His negatives are now the preserve of the Leicester Museum Service and evidence of some of his work is contained within these pages. Author John Stretton has been addicted to this facet of the hobby for many years, attracted initially by the lure of the steam engine and its shed scenes, recording the changing panorama in the local environment. Together with the other photographers featured in this volume, he shows that no amount of writing can portray as vividly as pictures just how drastic have been the developments changing the traditionally romantic railway into a clinically slick business, and how the permanent way can so easily and speedily lose its permanence.
[Lynda Page] [Sue Townsend] [Julian Barnes] [Max Wade-Matthews] [Clive Collins]
[Jane Adams] [Patricia Wendorf] [Joe Orton] [Colin Wilson] [John Thomas Edson]
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