Strangest
3 total works
Welcome to the weird, wonderful and two-wheeled world of cycling. Though this isn't the usual side of professional cycling the newspapers report. This is the real world of cycling, the strange and twisted nooks and crannies of the sport's bizarre history!
Cycling is nearly two hundred years old. The velocipede invented by Baron Karl von Drais in 1817 started the craze for the two-wheeled machine that has had a renaissance few would have predicted. During those decades, bicycles have thrown up more than their fair share of extraordinary and bizarre stories. Iain Spragg has trawled the bicycle history books to give you the most fascinating collection of stories, from the first bicycle trip across the globe (an Englishman on a penny farthing in 1886, of course), the 1904 Tour de France winner who was disqualified when it emerged he had caught the train, the 1937 Japanese invasion of China spearheaded by 50,000 bicycle-mounted troops, and the Japanese enthusiast who stayed stationary on a bike for 5 and a half hours in 1965. With stories from amateur and professional cycling, this is a thoroughly entertaining collection of tales for any two-wheeled enthusiast.
London's Royal Palaces are still some of the most visited places in England. A great deal of their official histories are well known. But London's Strangest Tales: Historic Royal Palaces reveals the bizarre, funny and surreal events and episodes that have occurred over the centuries on the grounds of these beautiful buildings. It gives an alternative history: from the wandering inebriated zebras at the Tower of London, the cricket ball that probably killed a king, and the mystery of Kew's disappearing mosque.
This is a wonderful collection for anyone with an interest in the history and heritage of our palaces and in London life generally.
The 19th-century MP John Burns described the Thames as 'liquid history' and ever since the Romans founded Londinium in 43 AD, the river has played a key cultural and economic, political and social role in the history of England. London's Strangest: The Thames reveals the bizarre, funny and surreal events and episodes that have occurred over the centuries on, beneath and along the banks of the famous waterway. From appearances of the world's first submarine to the raid on the Sex Pistols river concert, Lord Nelson's final journey to John Prescott's watery protest, and even the recent escapades during the floods, the River Thames really has witnessed it all.