Showing titles in Library & Museum Studies

Throughout the 20th century, the seaside service posters of Britain's railways promised fresh air and frivolity to millions of urban dwellers with the phrase: 'To the sea by train'. A staple of modern British life, the seaside getaway was intertwined with the train, in whose compartments holidaymakers were shunted from smog-choked cities to sandy coves.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts written and read by Christopher de Hamel. This is a book about why medieval manuscripts matter. Coming face to face with an important illuminated manuscript in the original is rather like meeting a very famous person...

Churches are many things to us - they are places of worship, vibrant community hubs and oases of calm reflection. To know a church is to hold a key to the past that unlocks an understanding of our shared history. Andrew Ziminski has spent decades as a stonemason and church conservator, acting as...

Property developer Vivien Young thought she’d finally rebuilt her life. After a messy divorce, she’s returned to her childhood sanctuary, the grand Georgian home she now shares with her ageing father. Landing the contract to redevelop the Valley Park housing estate feels like the icing on the cake – a chance to prove she can succeed and keep her floundering business afloat.

After the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, many railways were 'rationalised' and gradually shut down. Rural communities were isolated without ready access to the main lines, and steam trains slowly gave way to diesel and electric traction. But some people were not prepared to let the romance of train travel die. Thanks to their efforts, many of these lines passed into community ownership and are now booming with new armies of dedicated volunteers. Andrew Martin goes out to meet these enthusiasts and find out just what it is about preserved railways which makes people so devoted.

Do multiple versions of ourselves exist in parallel universes living out their lives in different timelines? In this follow-up to his best seller, The Simulation Hypothesis, MIT computer scientist and Silicon Valley game pioneer Rizwan Virk explores these topics from a new lens: that of simulation theory. Bringing his unique trademark style of combining video games, computer science, quantum physics, and computing with lots of philosophy and science fiction, Virk gives us a new way to think about not just our universe, but all possible timelines in the multiverse!

When Cathy and Noah first got together neither saw children in their future. Eight years later, they're happily married - and Cathy isn't so sure. With Noah's tolerance for his wife's ambivalence waning, her widowed mother in a world of her own and her best friend yearning for a second baby, Cathy feels increasingly adrift. Escaping into her work in the conservation studios of the National Gallery, she chips away at the layers of overpaint on a canvas from the collection. Will the discovery of an unexpected truth help her find the clarity she craves?

As Hitler was attempting to conquer the western world, his armies were methodically pillaging the finest art in Europe, from Michelangelos to Vermeers, all stolen for the Führer. The Monuments Men had a mandate from President Roosevelt to find these artworks, but no vehicles, typewriters, or authority. In a race against time to save the world’s greatest cultural treasures from destruction at the hands of Nazi fanatics, each man constructed his own treasure map....

Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children's drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident. In this, the first major history of its kind, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library

Build intelligent LLM-powered applications with agentic workflows and tool-based agents. AI-powered applications are rapidly becoming the new normal. Personal productivity assistants, coding agents, smarter search, and automated reporting tools are popping up everywhere. The LangChain ecosystem, and standards like MCP are driving this new gold rush. This book helps you claim your spot.

What if the British Museum isn't a house of learning, but a vast sinkhole of still-bubbling historic injustice? What if it presents us not with a carefully ordered cross section of history but is instead a palatial trophy cabinet of colonial loot swarming with volatile and errant spirits? When artist and writer Noah Angell first heard murmurs of ghostly sightings at the British Museum he had to find out more. What started as a trickle soon became a landslide as staff old and new brought forth testimonies of their inexplicable supernatural encounters.

'I loved this book. What a joy to read a craftsman so clearly in love with his craft' SIMON JENKINS 'A wonderful read' DOUGALD O'REILLY 'Literary prize juries need look no further for a worthy winner' MAX HASTINGS 'In a world of AI, steel and concrete, books like this have never felt more...

In How to Read People like a Book, we will go deep into exploring body language - not just to understand people, but to also connect with them. After all, why do we find the need to interpret and understand what people say and do? Because, we want to connect with them, create relationships, and be part of a community.

Bloomsbury presents Patch Work by Claire Wilcox, read by Antonia Beamish. A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 'I am overwhelmed by this book. It is an absolute masterpiece. A book of such beauty and profundity, of such poetry in its emotion and observation ... I found my sense of life transformed by...

Growing up in 19th-century London, England, Ada is curious about absolutely everything. She is obsessed with machines and with creatures that fly. She even designs her own flying laboratory! According to her mother, Ada is a bit too wild, so she encourages Ada to study math. At first, Ada thinks: bleh! Who can get excited about a subject without pictures? But she soon falls in love with it. One day, she encounters a mysterious machine, and from that moment forward, Ada imagines a future full of possibility - one that will eventually inspire the digital age nearly 200 years later.

Real-World Cryptography teaches practical techniques for day-to-day work as a developer, sysadmin, or security practitioner. There’s no complex math or jargon. You’ll learn building blocks like hash functions and signatures, and cryptographic protocols like HTTPS and secure messaging. This audiobook is a joy to listen to - and it might just save your bacon the next time you’re targeted by an adversary after your data.

'Marvellous . . . I read it with astonished delight . . . It is equally scholarly and entertaining.' - Jan Morris 'Quirky and compelling.' - The Times Once we've learned it as children, few of us think much of the alphabet and its familiar sing-song order. And yet the order of the alphabet, that...

With this book, you can learn how people like Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates are able to get superhuman amounts done every day, with the same 24 hours everyone else has. Discipline is how you turn want into have. Discipline is the difference between a dream and a reality. Discipline separates winners from the losers. Every minute you waste is another minute you don’t progress towards your dream. Break the pattern and get started! Discipline awaits within!

When you're leaving Education, the Forces or seeking to switch careers, the Audiovisual industry may not immediately spring to mind. You might be missing a trick. This high-tech, innovative, fast-growing industry is often overlooked or misunderstood as being 'just part of' the IT sector. It is in fact — while closely aligned with IT — its own industry with its own opportunities and a wide range of companies and roles. The Audiovisual industry is in need of new talent bringing professional and personal skills. Many people say they 'fell into' Audiovisual and are very glad they did.

Unlock the secrets of art history and decode centuries of cultural evolution during your daily commute or evening walk. Journey from the firelit walls of ancient caves to the shimmering gold of medieval manuscripts and the bold experiments of modern abstraction. This immersive audio experience...