Isambard's Kingdom by Judy Jones
Nearly 400,000 BBC TV viewers named Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the son of a French royalist, as the greatest ever Briton, second only to Winston Churchill. The visionary Victorian engineer and driving force of the Great Western Railway undoubtedly still occupies a special place in people's hearts and minds. Hundreds of streets and shopping malls, pubs and car parks, open spaces and public buildings bear the name of Brunel or the Great Western in honour of his magnificent bridges and viaducts, tunnels and station buildings. To mark the bicentenary of Brunel's birth, Judy Jones trekked 500 miles from Paddington to Penzance to explore the legacy of his railway revolution. Tracking the route of the GWR via footpaths, bridleways and country lanes with her energetic border collie Fly, she explored towns, villages and rural backwaters of southern England and the West Country to discover its impact on contemporary life. Isambard's Kingdom reveals a hidden world of dedicated railway enthusiasts who are breathing new life into abandoned branch lines and old railway buildings, and sketches the people, landscapes and wildlife encountered on the way.
Judy Jones is a freelance journalist, having previously been a staff correspondent on the Independent and the Observer. Her broadcasting experience includes national TV and radio interviews, while she has also spoken at the Edinburgh and Dartington book festivals. Judy's previous book was Getting a Life (Hodder, 1997), republished as Downshifting in mass-market editions (1997, 2004); this has now sold around 40,000 copies. Since 1997 Judy has lived in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, where she was until recently a town councillor.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780750942829 |
| ISBN 10 | 0750942827 |
| Title | Isambard's Kingdom |
| Author | Judy Jones |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | The History Press Ltd |
| Year published | 2006-04-20 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |