Do motorists pick up a phantom hitchhiker on Blue Bell Hill during stormy nights? Does Satan appear if you dance round the Devil's Bush in the village of Pluckley? Do big cats roam the local woods? And what happens if you manage to count the 'Countless Stones' near Aylesford? For centuries strange urban legends have materialised in the Garden of England. Now, for the first time, folklorist and monster-hunter Neil Arnold looks at these intriguing tales, strips back the layers, and reveals if there is more to these Chinese whispers than meets the eye. Folklore embeds itself into a local community, often to the extent that some people believe all manner of mysteries and take them as fact. Whether they're stories passed around the school playground, through the internet, or round a flickering campfire, urban legends are everywhere. Kent Urban Legends is a quirky and downright spooky ride into the heart of Kent folklore.

Brighton & Hove On This Day revisits all the most magical and memorable moments from the two towns' pulsating history, mixing in a maelstrom of quirky anecdotes and legendary characters to produce an irresistibly dippable Brighton and Hove diary - with an entry for every day of the year. From Brighton's first market in 1313 and 7,000 Brightonians feasting at the first unofficial Brighton Festival in 1817, to bear-baiting in Bear Road and digging the deepest well in the world at Woodingdean - here are the people and events that have helped shape our marvellous cultural melting pot, long synonymous with creativity, music, hedonism, freedom and tolerance. Read Brighton & Hove On This Day, and you'll discover hundreds of nefarious, salacious, humorous, ridiculous, statistical, whimsical and historical things you never knew you needed to know about the nation's favourite seaside resort.

A Financial Times Best History Book of the Year A surprising account of frontier law that challenges the image of the Wild West. In the absence of state authority, Gold Rush miners crafted effective government by the people-but not for all the people. Gold Rush California was a frontier on steroids: 1,500 miles from the nearest state, it had a constantly fluctuating population and no formal government. A hundred thousand single men came to the new territory from every corner of the nation with the sole aim of striking it rich and then returning home. The circumstances were ripe for chaos, but as Andrea McDowell shows, this new frontier was not nearly as wild as one would presume. Miners turned out to be experts at self-government, bringing about a flowering of American-style democracy-with all its promises and deficiencies. The Americans in California organized and ran meetings with an efficiency and attention to detail that amazed foreign observers. Hundreds of strangers met to adopt mining codes, decide claim disputes, run large-scale mining projects, and resist the dominance of companies financed by outside capital. Most notably, they held criminal trials on their own authority. But, mirroring the societies back east from which they came, frontiersmen drew the boundaries of their legal regime in racial terms. The ruling majority expelled foreign miners from the diggings and allowed their countrymen to massacre the local Native Americans. And as the new state of California consolidated, miners refused to surrender their self-endowed authority to make rules and execute criminals, presaging the don't-tread-on-me attitudes of much of the contemporary American west. In We the Miners, Gold Rush California offers a well-documented test case of democratic self-government, illustrating how frontiersmen used meetings and the rules of parliamentary procedure to take the place of the state.

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross and listen to the tales of this ancient county. Hear how a King and his knights were turned to stone at the mysterious Rollright Stones; how Dragon Hill got its name; take the Devil's Highway to the End of the World - if you dare; or spend a night on the weird Ot Moor; listen in on the Boar's Head Carol; walk the oldest trackway in Europe in the footsteps of a Neolithic pilgrim; pause to try the Blowing Stone; leave a coin for the enigmatic blacksmith to shoe your horse at Wayland's Smithy; eavesdrop upon the Inklings in the Eagle and Child; and meet that early fabulist, Geoffrey of Monmouth in the city of dreaming spires. This collection will take you on an oral tour across the county - on the way you'll meet gypsies, highwaymen, cavaliers, a prime minister and a devilish mason.

Haworth parsonage and village will forever be linked inextricably with one nineteenth-century literary family. For it was here, in 1821, that Patrick Bront, an Irish Anglican clergyman, came from Thornton to be curate. He brought his three young daughters and son to Haworth, and it was here that the sisters grew up to become quite the most remarkable literary phenomenon of the century. As children, they knew the streets and the houses, the moors and the people. And, as Michael Baumber shows, many of the characters in the Bront novels were based upon real Haworth folk - some of whom recognised themselves in the women's novels and were not at all happy with how they had been portrayed - while the moors above the village figure prominently and famously as the haunt of the brooding Heathcliff in Emily's greatest work "Wuthering Heights". Patrick Bront the curate was himself a notable character in the history of the village, and his role in the social, public and religious life of the village is explored at several points. Surprisingly, the Bront novels mention little about the textile industry which by that time had become such a dominant force in the district's economy. Indeed, the industrial development of the region was such an important and all-consuming fact of life in early Victorian Haworth that it forms a major subject of this new book. The Bront's did, however, describe life in the district's rural homes, schools and communities at a time of particularly harsh living conditions and appalling death rates in the new industrial community of Haworth. The village's public health record was poor well into the twentieth century, and Patrick Bront endured the deaths from tuberculosis (or other illnesses aggravated by it) of all four of his children between 1848 and 1855. Yet, as Michael Baumber's highly readable new book shows, the history of Haworth actually stretches back millennia: his book tells the whole story of the Haworth district from the early Mesolithic right up to the popular tourist magnet that the village now becomes during the summer months. The book also features the hamlets of Near and Far Oxenhope and Stanbury, providing a clear and illuminating account of how Haworth developed in the particular way that it did. Fully illustrated, with many rare old photographs, this book offers many new insights into the village and also its occasionally ambivalent relationship with its most famous literary residents.

Discover hidden gems around Brighton with 20 walking routes. Featuring 20 walks in and around the city, including lesser-known circuits and details on popular walks. Accompanied by guided walking instructions and written by a local expert, A-Z Brighton Hidden Walks is the perfect way to explore the city in a new light. Small enough to fit in a bag or pocket, this handy guidebook is ideal for tourists or locals looking to discover more about the city. Each route varies in length from 1 to 6 miles (1.6 to 9.6 km), and is clearly outlined on detailed A-Z street mapping. 20 walking routes with instructions and maps Full-colour photographs of hidden gems and city attractions Key sights and locations clearly marked on map Information such as start/finish points, nearest postcodes, distance and terrain included More from the A-Z Hidden Walks series: A-Z Birmingham Hidden Walks A-Z Bristol & Bath Hidden Walks A-Z Edinburgh Hidden Walks A-Z London Hidden Walks A-Z Oxford Hidden Walks A-Z York Hidden Walks A-Z Brighton Hidden Walks A-Z Cambridge Hidden Walks A-Z Manchester Hidden Walks A-Z Liverpool Hidden Walks

Observations on the new American republic by an early president of Georgetown University Father Giovanni Antonio Grassi was the ninth president of Georgetown University and pioneered its transition into a modern institution, earning him the moniker Georgetown's Second Founder. Originally published in Italian in 1818 and translated here into English for the first time, his News on the Present Condition of the Republic of the United States of North America records his rich observations of life in the young republic and the Catholic experience within it. When Grassi assumed his post as president in 1812, he found the university, known then as Georgetown College, to be in a "miserable state." He immediately set out to enlarge and improve the institution, increasing the number of non-Catholics in the school, adding to the library's holdings, and winning authority from Congress to confer degrees. Upon his return to Italy, Grassi published his News, which introduced Italians to the promise and contradictions of the American experiment in self-governance and offered perspectives on the social reality for Catholics in America. This book is a fascinating work for historians of Catholicism and of the Jesuits in particular.

From its beginnings in Seattle nearly fifty years ago, El Centro de la Raza has been translated as "The Center for People of All Races." In Seattle's El Centro de la Raza: Dr. King's Living Laboratory, Bruce E. Johansen, with valuable aid from Estela Ortega, executive director, and Miguel Maestas, Housing and Development director at El Centro, explores how the center has become part of a nationally significant work in progress on human rights and relations based on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s concept of a "Beloved Community" that crosses all ethnic, racial, and other social boundaries. Johansen's examination of the history of the center highlights its mission to consciously provide intercultural communication and cooperation as an interracial bridge, uniting people on both a small and a large scale, from neighborhood communities to international relations. Scholars of Latin American studies, race studies, international relations, sociology, and communication will find this book especially useful.

Orkney lies only 20 miles north of mainland Scotland, yet for many centuries its culture was more Scandanavian than Scottish. Strong westerly winds account for the scarcity of trees on Orkney and also for the tradition of well-constructed stone structures. As a result, the islands boast a large number of exceptionally well-preserved remains, which help us to form a detailed picture of Orcadian life through the ages. Sites and remains to be explored include settlements from the Stone Age, stone circles and burials from the Bronze Age, Iron Age brochs, Viking castles, the magnificent cathedral of St Magnus in Kirkwall, Renaissance palaces, a Martello tower from the Napoleonic Wars and numerous remains from the Second World War. In this updated edition of her best-selling book, Caroline Wickham-Jones, who has worked extensively on Orcadian sites for many years, introduces the history of the islands and provides a detailed survey of the principal places and sites of historic interest.

Take a virtual tour of Northern Arizona. More than 300 postcards show the character and history of popular travel destinations like the 270 million-year-old Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, Oak Creek Canyon, and the Petrified Forest. Experience the early Fred Harvey Hotels, explore Arizona's Route 66 towns and roadside attractions, and learn about the culture and history of Northern Arizona's Native Americans. Postcard collectors will also find this book a useful resource guide.

Gloucestershire's stories go back to the days of Sabrina, spirit of the Severn, and the Nine Hags of Gloucester. Tales tell of sky-ships over Bristol, the silk-caped wraith of Dover's Hill, snow foresters on the Cotswolds, and Cirencester's dark-age drama of snake and nipple. They uncover the tragic secrets of Berkeley Castle and the Gaunts' Chapel, a lonely ghost haunting an ancient inn, and twenty-first-century beasts in the Forest of Dean. From the intrigue and romance of town and abbey to the faery magic of the wild, here are thirty of the county's most enchanting tales, brought imaginatively to life by a dynamic local storyteller.

Did you know? A new species of cat-like dinosaur, yet to be named, was discovered on the Isle of Wight in 1988. Darwin began his world famous 'On the Origin of the Species' while staying at the Kings Head Hotel. There are 21 tourists to every Island resident. The Little Book of the Isle of Wight is a funny, fact-packed compendium of the sort of frivolous, fantastic or simply strange information which no one will want to be without. The Island's most eccentric inhabitants, blood-curdling murders and literally hundreds of facts combine to make this required reading for locals and visitors alike. Illustrated with humorous cartoons and delivered with wit and flair, this captivating compendium is almost impossible to put down.

"A remarkable act of personal history: brave, revelatory and unflinchingly honest" WILLIAM BOYD "There is no-one writing in English like this: engaged humanity achieving a hard-won wisdom" DAVID MILLS, The Times Lord of All the Dead is a courageous journey into Javier Cercas' family history and that of a country collapsing from a fratricidal war. The author revisits Ibahernando, his parents' village in southern Spain, to research the life of Manuel Mena. This ancestor, dearly loved by Cercas' mother, died in combat at the age of nineteen during the battle of the Ebro, the bloodiest episode in Spain's history. Who was Manuel Mena? A fascist hero whose memory is an embarrassment to the author, or a young idealist who happened to fight on the wrong side? And how should we judge him, as grandchildren and great-grandchildren of that generation, interpreting history from our supposed omniscience and the misleading perspective of a present full of automatic answers, that fails to consider the particularities of each personal and family drama? Wartime epics, heroism and death are some of the underlying themes of this unclassifiable novel that combines road trips, personal confessions, war stories and historical scholarship, finally becoming an incomparable tribute to the author's mother and the incurable scars of an entire generation.

Religious guilds or fraternities proliferated throughout England until their dissolution in the late 1540s, yet remarkably few of their records have survived. Amongst the survivals are the last twenty-one years of the accounts of the Luton Guild of the Holy Trinity, hitherto unpublished in full. The accounts record several hundred transactions each year, including rents for the guild's properties, and expenditure on wages to priests and clerks and dirges sung for deceased members of the guild. Purchases of food and hiring of cooks, kitchen helpers, utensils and entertainment show what extraordinarily lavish provision was made for the annual feast. The quantity of building materials which was purchased for the guild's properties suggests not only repairs but also modernisation and may be sufficient to attempt to reconstruct some of the houses. The majority of 'brothers and systers' of the guild were drawn from a radius of about twenty-five miles of Luton and included the towns and villages in neighbouring Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. A small, but noticeable, group were from London, Canterbury, Boston and Kendal. The guild was prosperous, well-connected and active, and its accounts provide an insight into daily life in mid-sixteenth-century south Bedfordshire and the surrounding area. The book contains a complete transcription of the accounts and an introduction presenting an overview of the guild's activities. It is fully indexed. Barbara Tearle is a retired librarian, formerly working at the Bodleian Law Library, Oxford, and is currently engaged in local history research with the Oxfordshire Probate Group and as editor for the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society.

Nestled between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, and stretching from Hampton Roads to Assateague Island, Virginia's Eastern Shore is a distinctly southern place with an exceptionally southern taste. In this inviting narrative, Bernard L. Herman welcomes readers into the communities, stories, and flavors that season a land where the distance from tide to tide is often less than five miles. Blending personal observation, history, memories of harvests and feasts, and recipes, Herman tells of life along the Eastern Shore through the eyes of its growers, watermen, oyster and clam farmers, foragers, church cooks, restaurant owners, and everyday residents. Four centuries of encounter, imagination, and invention continue to shape the foodways of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, melding influences from Indigenous peoples, European migrants, enslaved and free West Africans, and more recent newcomers. Herman reveals how local ingredients and the cooks who have prepared them for the table have developed a distinctly American terroir--the flavors of a place experienced through its culinary and storytelling traditions. This terroir flourishes even as it confronts challenges from climate change, declining fish populations, and farming monoculture. Herman reveals this resilience through the recipes and celebrations that hold meaning, not just for those who live there but for all those folks who sit at their tables--and other tables near and far.

This City Now sets out to retrieve the hidden architectural, cultural and historical riches of some of Glasgows working-class districts. Many who enjoy the fruits of Glasgows recent gentrification may be surprised and delighted by the gems which Ian Mitchell has uncovered beyond the usual haunts.

by local artist John Clark Mayden. Bronze Winner of the Foreword INDIES Award for Photography by FOREWORD Reviews Baltimore native John Clark Mayden's photographs are distinctive to the city and specific to black life there, lingering on the front stoops and in the postage-stamp backyards of Charm City row houses. But these pictures are far from nostalgic. Informed by the photographer's deep commitment to both social justice and storytelling, they strip Baltimore of pretense and illusion and show the city's veins. Baltimore Lives gathers 101 of Mayden's best photographs in print for the first time. Taken between 1970 and 2012, these photos illuminate the experiences of life throughout the predominantly African American city, capturing the relaxed intimacy of community, family, and the comfort of home in contrast to the harsh sting of social injustice, poverty, and crime. In Mayden's work, we meet people who are not expecting us. We bear witness to their lives-their emotions, gestures, and faces that often reveal more than they conceal. But regardless of the camera's presence, people go on waiting for the bus, catching a breeze on their front steps, slogging through the snow to work and school, and, every so often, returning the photographer's gaze with a sly grin, a backward glance, a curious frown. Including a brief biography of John Clark Mayden written by his sister, Ruth W. Mayden, and an essay by art historian Michael Harris on how Mayden's work fits into larger trends of black photography, Baltimore Lives is a stunning visual history of the spatial and human elements that together make Baltimore's inner city.

Passed down from generation to generation, many of Derbyshire's most popular folk tales are gathered together here for the first time. Ranging from stories specific to the region, such as 'The Derby Ram', to others which are local versions of well-known classics, like 'Beauty and the Beast', all of the tales in this collection are rooted in Derbyshire's past. Written to recreate the oral traditions that made these anecdotes popular, this book provides entertainment for all. Richly illustrated with original drawings, accounts of love, loss, heroes and villains are all brought to life through vivid descriptions that have survived for several centuries. These tales have been adapted to make them accessible, enjoyable and, at times, very relevant to contemporary readers. Pete Castle has lived in Derbyshire for over twenty years, and is a professional storyteller with over thirty years of experience. For the last ten years he has been editor of Facts & Fiction, the UK's only storytelling magazine.

Known as "The Mayor of Castro Street" even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk's personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.
Harvey Milk has been the subject of numerous books and movies, including the Academy Award-winning 1984 documentary, "The Times of Harvey Milk. " His life is also the basis of a 2008 major motion picture, "Milk, "starring Sean Penn. " " Randy Shilts was born in 1951, in Davenport, Iowa. One of the first openly gay journalists hired at a major newspaper, he worked for the "San Francisco Chronicle" for thirteen years. He died of AIDS in 1994 at his home in the Sonoma County redwoods in California. He was the author of "The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk "(1982), "And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic "(1987), and "Conduct Unbecoming: Lesbians and Gays in the U.S. Military "(1993). He also wrote extensively for many major newspapers and magazines, including "The New York Times, Newsweek, Esquire, The Los Angeles Times, "and "The Advocate."
"The Mayor of Castro Street "is Shilts's acclaimed story of Harvey Milk, the man whose personal life, public career, and tragic assassination mirrored the dramatic and unprecedented emergence of the gay community in America during the 1970s. His is a story of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassination in City Hall and massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.

Using original material and letters from the First World War, this captivating and eye-opening account uncovers the unnerving realities of the First World War and the impact it had on the town of Tunbridge Wells. It looks at world events, which ultimately determined the outbreak of the war, and how these same events affected the small town in Kent and the people who made up the community. From an early stage the hostilities of the war became very real for the people of Tunbridge Wells. Because of its geographical location, close proximity to major ports and rail links, the town became the headquarters of the nations Territorial Army, which brought with it 5,000 troops from all over the country. Out of nearly 3,000 people from Tunbridge Wells who enlisted in the military between 1914-1918, a staggering 801 did not return, and out of those who did, many suffered terrible wounds and injuries, both physically and mentally. Many moving stories are illustrated throughout, such as that of Private William Starks Vidler of the Royal Marines Light Infantry who became the town's first casualty of the war when his ship, HMS Amphion struck a mine and sunk.Ironically, eighteen others who died in the disaster were German sailors who had been rescued by the Amphion when their ship was sunk by the British Royal Navy. The book looks at letters sent from husbands and sons, who had seen action in the war, and how they were received by families on the Home Front, who were anxiously waiting for new of their loved ones. It documents the triumphs and tragedies of Tunbridge Wells' people as they sought to find normality amongst a reality far removed from anything they had ever known before.

The work that launched the picturesque movement and changed our ways of looking at landscape forever. A witty, elegant, opinionated pilgrimage of taste. Complete with 17 aquatints drawn by Gilpin as examples of perfected landscape. Introduced by Richard Humphreys, who was Curator of Programme Research at Tate Britain and lead curator of their A Picture of Britain exhibition.