Early postcards offer a fascinating visual insight into history. This book illustrates just some of the wide variety of iron churches, missions halls and chapels built by the early Victorian engineers to satisfy the needs of the religious revivals of the 19th century. Corrugated iron provided one of the best ways of erecting temporary buildings and manufacturers were quick to identify its potential. As we can see today, many of these 'temporary' buildings managed to survive far longer than their builders.

A crystalline and poignant epistolary novel from the author of ASH BEFORE OAK.

This masterpiece of war literature that will change your perspective on life and humanity.** Follow the journey of Paul, a young German soldier who enlists in World War I with his friends, full of enthusiasm and patriotism. But soon, he faces the horrors of the trenches, where death, disease, and despair lurk at every corner. He witnesses the brutality and futility of war, and he vows to resist the hatred that makes him kill his fellow human beings, who are just like him, except for their uniforms. This book is a powerful and moving portrait of the suffering, the courage, and the longing for peace of a generation that was sacrificed for a senseless conflict. It is widely regarded as the best war novel of all time, and it has been adapted into an Oscar-winning movie that you can watch on Netflix.

Orkney's Italian Chapel was built by Italian POWs held on the island during the Second World War. In the sixty-five years since it was built it has become an enduring symbol of peace and hope around the world. The story of who built the chapel and how it came into existence and survived against all the odds is both fascinating and inspiring. Author Philip Paris's extensive research into the creation of the Italian Chapel has uncovered many new facts, and this comprehensive new book is the definitive account of the chapel and those who built it. It is a book that has waited to be written for sixty-five years.

A classic examination of superb design through the centuries. Widely regarded as a classic in the field, Experiencing Architecture explores the history and promise of good design. Generously illustrated with historical examples of designing excellence—ranging from teacups, riding boots, and golf balls to the villas of Palladio and the fish-feeding pavilion of Beijing's Winter Palace—Rasmussen's accessible guide invites us to appreciate architecture not only as a profession, but as an art that shapes everyday experience. In the past, Rasmussen argues, architecture was not just an individual pursuit, but a community undertaking. Dwellings were built with a natural feeling for place, materials and use, resulting in “a remarkably suitable comeliness.” While we cannot return to a former age, Rasmussen notes, we can still design spaces that are beautiful and useful by seeking to understand architecture as an art form that must be experienced. An understanding of good design comes not only from one's professional experience of architecture as an abstract, individual pursuit, but also from one's shared, everyday experience of architecture in real time—its particular use of light, color, shape, scale, texture, rhythm and sound. Experiencing Architecture reminds us of what good architectural design has accomplished over time, what it can accomplish still, and why it is worth pursuing. Wide-ranging and approachable, it is for anyone who has ever wondered “what instrument the architect plays on.”