Transport

53 YEARS OF MOTORING MEMORIES

by L S Ives

read by Fred Parker

running time 5hrs

In these recollections of a vintage motorist, the author describes, with some humour, a collection of motoring memories.

75 EVENTFUL YEARS

by Tony Ross (editor)

read by Barry Stamp

running time 21hrs

A tribute to the Royal Air Force 1918-1993.

AMELIA EARHART: A BIOGRAPHY

by Doris L Rich

read by Derina Dinkin

running time 13hrs

Amelia Earhart died mysteriously before she was forty, disappearing in the South Pacific on an around-the-world flight attempt in 1937. She was the best-known female aviator in the world, and set the record for the first trans-Atlantic solo flight by a woman, a flight that launched her on a double career as a fighter for women's rights and a tireless crusader for commercial air travel. And as her dream has persisted through the decades, so has her story, and her spirit.

BLOOD, IRON & GOLD: HOW THE RAILWAYS TRANSFORMED THE WORLD

by Christian Wolmar

read by Michael Tudor Barnes

running time 15hrs

Christian Wolmar describes the vision and determination of the pioneers who developed railways that would one day span continents, as well as the labour of the navvies who built this global network.

CONCORDE

by Mike Bannister

read by Mike Bannister

running time 12hrs 30mins

October 24th, 2023 will mark 20 years since Concorde disappeared from our skies. Yet still Mike Bannister, the last Concorde Chief Pilot, faces the same questions: Why is she no longer flying?, Where is her replacement?, And what really happened on that tragic afternoon in July 2000, when the crash of Flight 4590 grounded the Concorde forever? Concorde is an enthralling personal account of what it takes to fly planes faster than the speed of sound, and of the events that lay behind 114 needless deaths—the 113 victims of the crash and, ultimately, Concorde herself.

DEEP SEA AND FOREIGN GOING

by Rose George

read by Wendy Denison

running time 11hrs

There are 100,000 freighters on the seas. Between them they carry nearly everything we eat, wear and work with. In this unique investigation, we join the crew of a container ship to chart the murky waters of international shipping to reveal the hidden industry upon which our world turns and our future depends.

ELEVEN MINUTES LATE

by Matthew Engel

read by Jim Swingler

running time 12hrs 15mins

Britain gave railways to the world, yet our own network is plagued with unreliable and overcrowded trains - not to mention sky-high ticket prices. Matthew Engel explores the history of Britain's railways by talking to everyone from politicians to platform staff.

FATE IS THE HUNTER

by Ernest K Gann

read by Tim Verity

running time 15hrs 30mins

Aviation writer, Ernest K Gann, describes his years working as a pilot from the 1930s to 1950s, starting at American Airlines when civilian air transport was in its infancy. He's flown in both peace and war, and come close to death many times. Here he reveals the characters he's known and the dramas he's experienced, portraying fate as a hunter constantly in pursuit of pilots. This is a fabulous account of both the history of aviation and one man's life in the air.

GEORGE AND ROBERT STEPHENSON

by L T C Rolt

read by Sandy Morison

running time 14hrs 45mins

The life stories of George Stephenson and his son, Robert, run parallel with the history of steam engines and the development of the railways. The drama of the railway age is brought to life by the author.

HIGH TEA ON THE CUNARD QUEENS

by Paul Curtis

read by Bob Rollett

running time 5hrs

This amusing insight into Cunard’s legendary liners begins more than fifty years ago when the author joined the original Queen Mary as an entertainments officer. Over a Cunard high tea in the Queens Room, Paul recounts the stories of these iconic ships. His frank and funny account mixes Cunard history with personal anecdote and vividly reveals how passenger and crew life have changed over the years across the Cunard liners.

IDLE WOMEN

by Susan Woolfitt

read by Sheila Stewart

running time 10hrs

Amusing encounters for women working on a barge on Grand Union and Oxford Canals during World War II.

THE LAST JOURNEY OF WILLIAM HUSKISSON

by Simon Garfield

read by John Hunter

running time 8hrs 30mins

After eight years of struggle by engineers the world's first passenger line, the Liverpool - Manchester Railway, was opened. Watching the ceremony William Huskisson was killed when he accidentally stepped out in front of Stephenson's Rocket. As the opening descended into gruesome farce, this accident proved how breathtaking but dangerous trains could be.

MAIDENS' TRIP

by Emma Smith

read by Angela Holland

running time 7hrs 30mins

In 1943 Emma Smith joined the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company under their wartime scheme of employing women to replace the boaters. She set out with two friends on a big adventure, freed from a middle-class background, learning how to handle a pair of 72 foot-long canal boats.

NARROW DOG TO INDIAN RIVER

by Terry Darlington

read by Steve Hodson

running time 8hrs 50mins

No-one had ever sailed an English narrowboat in the US before, but Terry and Monica Darlington and their whippet, Jim, take us on a dangerous, surprising and always entertaining journey. A thousand miles of the little-known South-East Seaboard unfold at six miles an hour- the golden marshes of the Carolinas, the incomparable cities of Charleston and Savannah, and the lost arcadias of Georgia and Florida.

THE OLD PATAGONIAN EXPRESS

by Paul Theroux

read by Norman Dietz

running time 16hrs 45mins

Paul Theroux depicts a train journey down the length of North and South America, from ice-bound Massachusetts to the arid plateau of Argentina’s most southerly tip. He describes the people he encountered – the tedious Mr Thornberry in Limón and reading to the legendary blind writer, Jorge Luis Borges, in Buenos Aires.

PARALLEL LINES: OR, JOURNEYS ON THE RAILWAY DREAMS

by Ian Marchant

read by Fred Parker

running time 13hrs

Travelling all over Britain, Ian Marchant examines the history of the British railway and meets those who still hold the railways close to their hearts - the model railway enthusiasts, the train-spotters, the steam enthusiasts. He swaps stories with commuters at the far reaches of London suburbia, he travels to deserted railway museums, and smokes cigarettes on remote, windswept stations in the furthest corners of Scotland, turning his characteristic eye for character, humour and surprise to one of the great shared experiences of the British nation.

RAIL, STEAM AND SPEED

by O S Nock

read by George Griffin

running time 7hrs 0min

The story of life on the footplate, and the competition for speed in the railways' age of steam.

THE SHIP ASUNDER: A MARITIME HISTORY OF BRITAIN IN 11 VESSELS

by Tom Nancollas

read by Jonathan Keeble

running time 11hrs

In his moving and original new history, Tom Nancollas goes in search of eleven relics that together tell the story of Britain at sea. From the swallowtail prow of a Bronze Age vessel to a stone ship moored at a Baroque quayside, each one illuminates a distinct phase of our adventures upon the waves; each brings us close to the people, places and vessels that made a maritime nation. Weaving together stories of great naval architects and unsung shipwrights, fishermen and merchants, shipwrecks and superstition, pilgrimage, trade and war, The Ship Asunder celebrates the richness of Britain's seafaring tradition in all its glory and tragedy, triumph and disaster, and asks how we might best memorialize it as it vanishes from our shores.

THIRTY SECONDS TO IMPACT

by Maria Burkill & Peter Burkill

read by Bob Rollett

running time 8hrs

When Peter took charge of the flight deck of the 777 from Beijing airport, there was nothing to suggest that this trip would be anything other than a routine flight - until moments before landing at Heathrow Airport. It was suddenly likely that the plane would plough into a built-up area outside the airport, with the loss of all lives on board…

WALK THE LINES: THE LONDON UNDERGROUND, OVERGROUND

by Mark Mason

read by Roger Stephens

running time 10hrs 25mins

Mark Mason's informative and whimsical account of his quest to walk the entire London Underground system overground. Over the course of several hundred miles, he comes to understand a sprawling metropolis that never ceases to surprise.

THE YELLOW MOTORBIKE

by Paul Quinn

read by Jim Swingler

running time 5hrs 45mins

The adventures of an AA patrol man in the 1960's.