'Richardson writes beautifully about his return to the land, about listening to the soil and about understanding the ancient world.' - The Spectator Each new field is hope, each old one reality. There are things below the surface that pull people together in a shared love of history, landscape and the hope that, this time, something incredible will be unearthed. When a travel writer is stuck on home soil in the middle of a pandemic he tries his hand at metal detecting - and is instantly addicted. This all-consuming hobby takes him around the country, back through history and deep into the psyches(his own included) of those hooked on 'happy bleeps'. The Accidental Detectorist is a big-hearted dig into a pastime sometimes mocked but always enticing. *** When locked-down travel writer Nigel Richardson is looking for a travel story close to his country cottage he turns to a leading metal detectorist with an infectious passion for the hobby. Before he knows it the mysteries of the fields are leading him on, into a world that casts the history of these isles and its people in an intriguing new light. Sifting Britain's soil from Portsmouth to Edinburgh, Nigel yearns to lose his detectorist's virginity by finding a 'hammered' coin - while learning that the search for treasure comes with a serious responsibility to our common heritage. As he immerses himself further in the world of metal detecting, exposing the shady activities of 'nighthawks', attending rallies and making lifelong friends, a change comes over him. This country beneath his feet, these people who scour it for clues and tokens - they are the home he's been looking for.

Edward Thring on Education Edward Thring (1821-1887), who founded the Headmasters' Conference of prominent schools in Britain in 1869, was the best-known headmaster of his generation. Formed by a nature-loving childhood in rural Somerset, survival in the notorious Long Chamber at Eton, a fellowship at King's College Cambridge and a harrowing curacy in the slums of Gloucester, he developed the conviction that education was God's work. This in turn led him to a passionate belief in the potential of every child. From 1853, over 34 years, Thring transformed a small grammar school in Uppingham into a widely-celebrated boarding school with an international clientele. He battled against intransigent governors, growing debts and the encroachment of government control over every type of school. After facing potential disaster from a series of typhoid outbreaks, he relocated his staff and pupils to Borth in Wales, returning only after securing radical improvements in Uppingham's drainage and water supply. Although dismissively labelled "the enthusiast Mr Thring" by the Cambridge philosopher Henry Sidgwick and King of Boys by other critics, his social conscience led to the founding of a mission in London's East End, the first venture of its type. Through two books, Education and School (1864) and The Theory and Practice of Teaching (1883), Thring provided a blueprint for high-quality boarding schools, a broad curriculum and child-centred teaching methods. This is the first modern biography of this multi-faceted and emotionally complex man.

One man's accidental journey into uncovering Britain's underground obsession. A fascinating and engaging tale of metal detecting history and Britain for fans of The Detectorists. "Richardson writes beautifully about his return to the land, about listening to the soil and about understanding the ancient world." - The Spectator There are things below the surface that pull people together in a shared love of history, landscape and the hope that, this time, something incredible will be unearthed. When a travel writer is stuck on home soil in the middle of a pandemic he tries his hand at metal detecting - and is instantly addicted. This all-consuming hobby takes him around the country, back through history and deep into the psyches(his own included) of those hooked on 'happy bleeps'. The Accidental Detectorist is a big-hearted dig into a pastime sometimes mocked but always enticing. When locked-down travel writer Nigel Richardson is looking for a travel story close to his country cottage he turns to a leading metal detectorist with an infectious passion for the hobby. Before he knows it the mysteries of the fields are leading him on, into a world that casts the history of these isles and its people in an intriguing new light. Sifting Britain's soil from Portsmouth to Edinburgh, Nigel yearns to lose his detectorist's virginity by finding a 'hammered' coin - while learning that the search for treasure comes with a serious responsibility to our common heritage. As he immerses himself further in the world of metal detecting, exposing the shady activities of 'nighthawks', attending rallies and making lifelong friends, a change comes over him. This country beneath his feet, these people who scour it for clues and tokens - they are the home he's been looking for.

After the Public Heath Acts of 1872 and 1875, British local authorities bore statutory obligations to carry out sanitary improvements. Richardson explores public health strategy and central-local government relations during the mid-nineteenth-century, using the experience of Uppingham, England, as a micro-historical case study. Uppingham is a small (and unusually well-documented) market town which contains a boarding school. Despite legal changes enforcing sanitary reform, the town was hit three times by typhoid in 1875–1876. Richardson examines the conduct of those involved in town and school, the economic dependence of the former on the latter, and the opposition to higher rates to pay for sanitary improvement by a local ratepayer "shopocracy." He compares the sanitary state of the community with others nearby, and Uppingham School with comparable schools of that era. Improvement was often determined by business considerations rather than medical judgments, and local personalities and events frequently drove national policy in practice. This study illuminates wider themes in Victorian public medicine, including the difficulty of diagnosing typhoid before breakthroughs in bacteriological research, the problems local officialdom faced in implementing reform, and the length of time it took London ideas and practice to filter into rural areas.

Monarch Airlines was founded in June 1967 and began operations from Luton Airport in April 1968, using two Bristol Britannias to fly charter flights for package holidays. Supported by Cosmos Tours, Monarch expanded during the 1970s to become one of the UK’s largest charter airlines in the 1980s, supporting the growing inclusive tour business. In 1986, Monarch began to operate scheduled flights, marking its gradual transition from primarily a charter airline to a predominantly scheduled operator as customers started to organise their own travel arrangements. A modified low-cost approach was adopted in 2004, and, by 2008, Monarch firmly promoted itself as a low-cost airline. However, significant financial losses were encountered in 2009 and 2011 and, despite several finance rescue packages from the owners, the Monarch Group was sold to private investment company Greybull Capital in 2014. This resulted in a significant downsizing of operations, combining a reduction in fleet size with a shift to Monarch becoming an entirely scheduled low-cost carrier flying only short-haul leisure routes. Although bankruptcy was avoided in September 2016 through major investment in the company, financial problems resurfaced a year later and Monarch Airlines went into administration at the beginning of October 2017. With over 130 images, this book describes the history of Monarch Airlines from its inception in 1967 to its eventual demise 50 years later in 2017.