A brilliant, beautiful account of how British boffins triumphed across the decades in creating everything from computer games to Martian landers. The book contains chapters on the Beagle II, Elite - the 80s computer game, the Blue Streak missile, Concorde, mobile phone technology and the Human Genome Project, among others. Britain is the only country in the world to have cancelled its space programme just as it put its first rocket into orbit. Starting with this forgotten episode, 'Backroom Boys' tells the bittersweet story of how one country lost its industrial tradition and got back something else. Sad, inspiring, funny and ultimately triumphant, it follows the technologists whose work kept Concorde flying, created the computer game, conquered the mobile-phone business, saved the human genome for the human race - and who now are sending the Beagle 2 probe to burrow in the cinnamon sands of Mars. 'Backroom Boys' is a vivid love-letter to quiet men in pullovers, to those whose imaginings take shape not in words but in mild steel and carbon fibre and lines of code. Above all, it is a celebration of big dreams achieved with slender means.

London in the Blitz - the story of The Wayward Wife continues in this compelling saga of love and war. Susan Cahill enjoys her job at the BBC - until a bomb destroys the building and brings unwelcome responsibilities and an autocratic new boss, Walter Boscombe. He has no time for ambitious young women from Shadwell and seems determined to break Susan's spirit - and her heart. Breda Hooper, Susan's widowed sister-in-law, and her small son are rescued from the East End's shattered docklands by Danny, Susan's estranged husband. Settled in a shabby caravan in the Vale of Evesham, Breda soon finds herself entangled in village affairs in more ways than one, with only her quick wits, her new friends and the ever dependable Danny to keep her out of trouble. For Susan and Breda, jeopardy comes not from the skies but in the terrible price each must pay for falling in love with men who are not all that they seem to be and who, even in the midst of all out war, will change their lives forever.

The passenger liner the Star Queen, suffered mysterious damage to its jump engines and emerged from hyperspace, close to the sun, at half-light speed on a collision course with Earth. Distress signals were sent out as the ship scorched into the Earth's atmosphere to explode devastatingly just before impact. 600 years later, and 600 light years away, the distress call is intercepted by a warship of Her Majesty's Star Fleet. The distress call is a radio signal, presumably because of an FTL coms failure, and it is soon realised that its origin is the start of the twentieth century, before space travel was discovered.

A “thoughtful, loving, and thorough portrait” of the pioneering musicians behind Steely Dan, featuring interviews, essays, reviews and more (PopMatters). At its core, Steely Dan is a creative marriage between guitarist Donald Fagen and keyboardist Walter Becker. It recorded several of the cleverest and best-produced albums of the 1970s, making them one of the most successful bands to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Major Dudes collects some of the smartest and most revealing interviews Becker and Fagen have ever given, along with intelligent reviews of—and commentary on—their extraordinary songs. Compiled by leading music critic Barney Hoskyns, Major Dudes features contributions from the likes of Sylvie Simmons, Fred Schruers, and the late Robert Palmer; plus rare interviews and reviews of Steely Dan’s early albums from Disc, Melody Maker, and Rolling Stone. With an introduction by Hoskyns and an obituary for Walter Becker by David Cavanagh, Major Dudes is essential reading for any rock afficionado.

Science fiction for blokes – that’s what you get. If you’re a bloke and you want action and adventure and the odd joke to liven things up this series is designed to keep you entertained as it follows a group of enhanced humans and aliens through various adventures; all entities are represented as normal people doing reasonably normal things at one moment and travelling through dimensions, Time and galaxies the next.

From the concert stage to the dressing room, from the recording studio to the digital realm, SPIN surveys the modern musical landscape and the culture around it with authoritative reporting, provocative interviews, and a discerning critical ear. With dynamic photography, bold graphic design, and informed irreverence, the pages of SPIN pulsate with the energy of today's most innovative sounds. Whether covering what's new or what's next, SPIN is your monthly VIP pass to all that rocks.