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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2017

        Cultures and caricatures of British imperial aviation

        Passengers, pilots, publicity

        by Gordon Pirie, Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie

        The new activity of trans-continental civil flying in the 1930s is a useful vantage point for viewing the extension of British imperial attitudes and practices. Cultures and caricatures of British imperial aviation examines the experiences of those (mostly men) who flew solo or with a companion (racing or for leisure), who were airline passengers (doing colonial administration, business or research), or who flew as civilian air and ground crews. For airborne elites, flying was a modern and often enviable way of managing, using and experiencing empire. On the ground, aviation was a device for asserting old empire: adventure and modernity were accompanied by supremacism. At the time, however, British civil imperial flying was presented romantically in books, magazines and exhibitions. Eighty years on, imperial flying is still remembered, reproduced and re-enacted in caricature.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        Air empire

        British imperial civil aviation, 1919–39

        by Gordon Pirie, Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie

        Air empire is a fresh study of civil aviation as a tool of late British imperialism. The first pioneering flights across the British empire in 1919-20 were flag-waving adventures that recreated an era of plucky British maritime exploration and conquest. Britain's development of international air routes and services was approved, organised and celebrated largely in London; there was some resistance in and beyond the subordinate colonies and dominions. Negotiating the financing and geopolitics of regular commercial air service delayed its inception until the 1930s. Technological, managerial and logistical problems also meant that Britain was slow into the air and slow in the air. Propaganda concealed underperformance and criticism. The study uses archival sources, biographies, industry magazines and newspapers to chronicle the disputed progress toward air empire. The rhetoric behind imperial air service offers a glimpse of late imperial hopes, fears, attitudes and style. Empire air service had emotional appeal and symbolic value, but disappointed in practice.

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        May 2022

        Expansion rebellion

        Using the law to fight a runway and save the planet

        by Celeste Hicks

        This is a story of hope in the face of widespread consternation over the global climate crisis. For many people concerned about global warming, the 2018 vote by UK parliamentarians to proceed with the plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport was a devastating blow. Aviation was predicted to make up some 25% of the UK's carbon emissions by 2050 and so the decision seemed to fly in the face of the UK's commitment to be a climate leader. Can the UK expand Heathrow airport, bringing in 700 extra planes a day, and still stay within ambitious carbon budgets? One legal case sought to answer this question. Campaigning lawyers argued that plans for a third runway at one of the world's busiest airports would jeopardise the UK's ability to meet its commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. This book traces the dramatic story of how the case was prepared - and why international aviation has for so long avoided meaningful limits on its expansion.

      • Fiction

        The Psychedelic Traveller

        Short Stories

        by ANTHONY JAMES

        A collection of short stories from adventures and fantastic imaginings aroud the world.  Each story is set in a different country, from Brazil to Siberia, from new Zealand to India. Each story is a cameo in itself, each one of a different mood, be it playful, or dark, of conflict or good humour. Stories will remind those who travel widely of the pitfalls and opportunities and remind all the readers that there is nothing more wonderful than this wonderful world and the ppeople in it.

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