Isambard Kingdom Brunel had strong associations with South Wales; chief engineer of the GWR at just 27, he was the same for the South Wales Railway Co., taking the railways across South Wales. This illustrated history focuses on Brunel's contribution to the maritime world, from his work on dry docks and shipping facilities to his steamships, including his 'great leviathan'. For PSS Great Eastern, Brunel chose Milford Haven as a home port where she would spend many years, still the largest ship in the world but sadly without work after her pioneering role laying telegraph cables under the world's oceans. The Great Britain steamship sailed from Penarth, a dock associated with the later work of Brunel's son, Henry Marc Brunel who would be responsible for the largest dock system built in Wales, at Barry. Other dock works include Briton Ferry which Brunel designed to handle the output of the VNR and the SWMR. One of his last engineering projects was a steam railway ferry across the river Severn, a unique work that was superseded with the opening of the Severn Tunnel. This illustrated history delves deep into Brunel's legacy.

Communications and Coal looks at Brunel's return after the completion of the Taff Vale Railway, which included schemes for an alternative Irish route through mid- and north Wales and a direct crossing of the River Severn. The latter was intended for his broad-gauge South Wales Railway, on which his pioneering Wye Bridge at Chepstow and his longest timber work at Landore would be built. The final choice of the SWR terminus at Neyland was not without problems for Brunel who was also engaged on the 'insurmountable' difficulties faced by the Vale of Neath Railway, tramroad conversions in the Forest of Dean and the final phase of the broad gauge in south Wales which included the Llynvi Valley Railway and the South Wales Mineral Railway.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel is famous for many things - the Great Western Railway, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, timber viaducts and the steamships Great Western, Great Britain and Great Eastern - but his work in South Wales has been largely overlooked. Yet South Wales provided the landscape in which many of his innovative works were pioneered and Brunel the engineer is represented there at virtually every stage of his career. Many of these engineering landmarks survive and are still in use to this day. This is the first in a series of three volumes examining the achievements and legacy of Brunel in South Wales (reaching into Mid and North Wales, Bristol and the Borders), beginning with the historic background of the Merthyr ironworks and Richard Trevithick. It will look at railways, docks, piers and other connections, including his great ships which had strong links with South Wales, despite not having been built there. Born in Cardiff, Stephen K. Jones writes and lectures on local and industrial history, photography and Brunel and his works.