Heritage Science is emerging as a discipline that brings together chemists, physicists, microbiologists, conservation scientists, archaeologists and conservators. Its scope, precise boundaries and the interfaces between its component disciplines may be in a state of flux but, above all, its interdisciplinary nature offers understanding of the causes, control and protection of heritage from ever-present environmental challenges. In particular, the activities of microbes play a central part in shaping the natural world of our planet but this awesome power constitutes a serious threat to the integrity of our most precious art, heritage artefacts, monuments and cultural treasures. Heritage artefacts that have been recovered from water, or that exist near the sea in maritime conditions, pose special conservation problems due in main to the combined effect of microbial activities and physical/chemical assaults that the environment can offer. This book is a result of the invited and updated papers from HMS2005: Microbes, Monuments and Maritime Materials and forms a comprehensive volume that addresses key topical areas of heritage science and discusses the threats to a wide range of heritage materials and monuments by biological and chemical agents of decay. Key features of the book include: " Up-to-date summaries on the conservation of internationally-important artefacts and monuments " Clear outline of molecular techniques to identify microbes in environmental heritage samples " Wide range of case studies covering wood, stone, cave and cave paintings " Contributions presented as fully referenced research publications giving useful technical details and identification of areas for future study " Informs conservators about the threats from microbes to a range of materials " Extensive range of case studies of important world heritage artefacts and monuments as well as an overview of in situ preservation of historic ships " Provides background knowledge on the use and application of modern analytical techniques in conservation " Contains detailed information on molecular and synchrotron techniques to assist with identifying biological and chemical threats to heritage artefacts and monuments The book also provides up-to-date information on subjects covering the component field of heritage microbiology, molecular and chemical analytical techniques, and the mechanisms of degradation and deterioration of historic ships and buildings. The book details state-of-the-art techniques for the study of large and small heritage objects, and their conservation. Techniques cover the use of GIS image processing, molecular biological analysis of environmental samples including FISH, electrophoresis to remove corrosive ions and synchrotron radiation to detect chemicals present in artefacts. Several authors have developed their methods through involvement in international collaborative projects such as BIOBRUSH, BACPOLES and Save the Vasa. Extensive emphasis is placed on case studies and there is a valuable section on historic ships covering the preservation of HMS Victory, ss Great Britain, Vasa and the Mary Rose. This book provides an indispensable guide and reference source for those working in all areas of historical conservation, biodeterioration, microbiology and materials science.

Mary Cranson had done the walk many times before, but now had simply vanished from Dartmoor near the prominent landmark called Haytor. Her boyfriend raises the alarm when she doesn't meet him as arranged in the local pub. For the investigating officer, Detective Inspector Richard King, the intriguing aspect is that many of her friends knew she would be on the moor as she had told them of her intentions the previous evening. King and his small team of detectives begin the arduous task of interviewing the people who would have known her whereabouts that fateful afternoon. Could she have been consumed by one of the notorious bogs on the moor or is the reason for her disappearance something more sinister? The detectives are also dealing with thefts of vehicles and machinery, mainly from farms across Dartmoor. These have continued undetected for over six months and questions are being asked in the local media about the lack of progress in catching the thieves. The profile of these cases increases significantly when a theft goes disastrously wrong. King is also made aware of a barn fire close to Haytor, but is this connected to the other cases? Pressure is mounting on the wily detective from the chief constable who wants progress on both the thefts and the missing woman.

Two seemingly upstanding couples find their friendships enveloped by scandal and tragedy, as the facade of wealth and privilege falls away and details of their indiscretions emerge.

Julian Mitchell's fifth novel, first published in 1966, is the story of Martin Bannister, whose lonely bachelor life in Manhattan is transformed by a meeting with desirable redhead Henrietta Grigson and her husband Freddy, with whom he embarks on a heady social whirl. But Martin has a surprise in store - a plot twist the real-life inspiration for which Julian Mitchell divulges in his new preface to this Faber Finds edition. 'A comedy that is delightfully human, played by characters who have the edgy vitality of real life.' Evening Standard 'Mitchell is a writer of the most supple technical accomplishment.' Telegraph 'Ingeniously constructed and excellently written.' Listener

'[The White Father] was to be a State of the Nation novel, about the end of Empire, contrasting the last generation of men who'd served it, and the new one which was just breaking out from the long dullness of the post-war years, but didn't really know where it was going...' Julian Mitchell, from his new Preface Mitchell's fourth novel, published in 1964, earned him both the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award. Its protagonist Hugh Shrieve is District Officer in charge of the Ngulu, a small tribe in an African colony on the verge of independence. Fearing 'his' tribe will be overlooked in the politics of a constitutional conference set to take place in London, Hugh returns to England for the first time in years. But there he soon feels lost in his own country. 'An impressively accurate account of British society in the sixties.' Montreal Gazette

As Far As You Can Go was Julian Mitchell's third novel, first published in 1963. Its protagonist is Harold Barlow, a young stockbroker, on his way up in the world - but easily bored, desiring adventure. He accepts a commission to travel to America; and the further west he goes, the more he discovers in the way of wide open spaces and freedoms. There is, however, a limit. In an introduction written especially for this edition, Julian Mitchell describes his interest in writing 'a reverse Henry James novel, about a European discovering America rather than vice-versa.' 'Like Nabokov, but without his cynicism, Mr Mitchell sets the geography of the United States in motion.' Anthony Burgess, Observer 'This raid on the American psyche, so hilarious, yet so horrific in its implications, proves Mr Mitchell a first-rate satirist.' Telegraph

Imaginary Toys (1961) marked the literary debut of the then 26-year-old Julian Mitchell, who would eventually set aside his prizewinning career as a novelist and achieve wider renown as a dramatist, most famously with Another Country (1981). Imaginary Toys is a novel of Oxford after World War Two, where class consciousness has become newly acute, and a quartet of narrators wrestle with their studies and their more personal difficulties - among the four a coalminer's son and the daughter of a solid bourgeois family, who fall in love to the discomfort of their respective friends. In the first of a sequence of reflective, autobiographical new introductions composed especially for Faber Finds' reissues of his early novels, Julian Mitchell recalls the atmosphere of mid-1950s Oxford, and the path he took to a literary vocation.

The Welsh Boy, a lusty tale of youthful passion, is a scintillating rediscovery of one of the hidden gems of eighteenth-century literature bringing back to life a true story of passionate love and outrageous sexual scandal. Jem Parry is blessed with a wonderful singing voice that has allowed him to escape his humble origins in South Wales. Mary Powell is the richest heiress in the district - also its loveliest, and its most daring. When Mary engages Jem as her music master their lessons at the spinet turn into tutorials in the most heavenly pleasures. But love is one thing, sex another and marriage yet a third. The Welsh Boy is Based on The True Anti-Pamela, the personal diaries of James Parry which he had published as an act of revenge against his former lover Mary Powell. He saw their torrid affair as a direct inversion of Samuel Richardson's contemporary best-seller, Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded, with himself in the role of lowly-born innocent and his lover the aristocratic villain of the piece.

Retired entrepreneur William invites his four grown-up children to visit his beautiful converted barn in the Welsh Borders to celebrate his birthday. They all join with William’s carer Solomon to toast another year, but each of them has their own business in mind... Warm, intelligent, witty and moving, Family Business is the world premiere production of Julian Mitchell’s new play, looking at the complex relationships that underpin family life.