{"title":"Books by John Christopher","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780141190174","title":"The Modern Classics the Death of Grass","description":"\u003cb\u003eA thought experiment in future-shock survivalism' Robert MacFarlane\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Gripping ... of all science fiction's apocalypses, this is one of the most haunting' \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA post-apocalyptic vision of the world pushed to the brink by famine, John Christopher's science fiction masterpiece \u003ci\u003eThe Death of Grass \u003c\/i\u003eincludes an introduction by Robert MacFarlane in Penguin Modern Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt first the virus wiping out grass and crops is of little concern to John Custance. It has decimated Asia, causing mass starvation and riots, but Europe is safe and a counter-virus is expected any day. Except, it turns out, the governments have been lying to their people. When the deadly disease hits Britain, society starts to descend into barbarism. As John and his family try to make it across country to the safety of his brother's farm in a hidden valley, their humanity is tested to its very limits. A chilling psychological thriller and one of the greatest post-apocalyptic novels ever written, \u003ci\u003eThe Death of Grass\u003c\/i\u003e shows people struggling to hold on to their identities as the familiar world disintegrates - and the terrible price they must pay for surviving.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn Christopher (1922-2012) was the pen name of Samuel Youd, a prolific writer of science fiction. His novels were popular during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably \u003ci\u003eThe Death Of Grass \u003c\/i\u003e(1956)\u003ci\u003e, The World in Winter \u003c\/i\u003e(1962), and \u003ci\u003eWrinkle in the Skin \u003c\/i\u003e(1965), all works depicting ordinary people struggling in the midst of apocalyptic catastrophes. In 1966 he started writing science-fiction for adolescents; \u003ci\u003eThe Tripods\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy, the \u003ci\u003ePrince in Waiting\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy (also known as the \u003ci\u003eSword of the Spirits\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy) and \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eLotus Caves\u003c\/i\u003e are still widely read today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIfyou enjoyed \u003ci\u003eThe Death of Grass\u003c\/i\u003e, you might like John Wyndham's \u003ci\u003eThe Day of the Triffids\u003c\/i\u003e, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201427243186,"sku":"9780141190174","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141190174_657c08d5-c0a4-4749-8a8a-d25dd37ed63d.jpg?v=1786011641"},{"product_id":"9780141379241","title":"Tripods: The White Mountains: Book 1","description":"\u003cp\u003eNobody knows how long it has been since the Tripods came. Nobody remembers life on Earth before they enslaved it. Humans live in scattered farms and villages, kept quiet and obedient by the mind-controlling Caps implanted when they reach their teens. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWill Parker's time is fast approaching - but a chance encounter with a madman convinces him that it may still be possible to resist the alien masters. So begins an epic tale of survival and defiance - and Will's journey to the White Mountains.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56224766460277,"sku":"9780141379241","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141379241_5cecce44-8269-416e-947f-ed1e530875a9.jpg?v=1786011134"},{"product_id":"9780194790697","title":"Oxford Bookworms Library: Level 2: Return to Earth","description":"The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story.David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56225861927285,"sku":"9780194790697","price":10.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780194790697_ba1caaac-4e50-4875-a62f-98b5a3922388.jpg?v=1786011036"},{"product_id":"9780752456041","title":"The SS Great Britain Story","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe SS Great Britain Story\u003c\/em\u003e is a concise account of one of the most famous steamships ever built.\u003c\/strong\u003e The great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel embraced the latest innovations, including an iron hull and a screw-propeller, to create an ocean liner that was decades ahead of its time. Launched by Prince Albert in 1843, the \u003cem\u003eSS Great Britain\u003c\/em\u003e was nearly lost three years later when she ran aground in Dundrum Bay, Ireland. Fortunately she weathered the winter storms and went on to enjoy a long and chequered career. She spent many years transporting emigrants to Australia, served as a cargo vessel, and almost ended her days stranded on the Falkland Islands. Following an incredible rescue mission in the 1970s, fully documented here, she was returned to dry-dock in Bristol, where she was originally built, and is now the centrepiece of a fascinating and ongoing restoration project.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294669287797,"sku":"9780752456041","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780752456041_358bb312-84d0-46a5-bf52-4068f7ad1513.jpg?v=1786016344"},{"product_id":"9780750963060","title":"Brunel's Kingdom","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIsambard Kingdom Brunel changed the world as we know it.\u003c\/strong\u003e He was responsible for building the Great Western Railway main line, introducing regular steamship travel across the Atlantic, building the first tunnel under a major river, and constructing docks, harbours and bridges that enabled Britain to expand and grow as the powerhouse of the world. Without his foresight and imagination, it is possible that nineteenth-century Britain might have been very different. There have been many books written about the man himself, but this book concentrates upon the structures, buildings and legacy of Brunel, introducing the reader to this great engineer and embarking upon a tour around Britain that reveals the many locations with a Brunel connection.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299406524789,"sku":"9780750963060","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780750963060_251e4e53-2ac5-4fdd-9dbb-8095786254a0.jpg?v=1786015307"},{"product_id":"9781445609195","title":"Mini Moke","description":"Intended for the British Army as a contract for a small, Jeep-like, air-portable vehicle, the Mini Moke was a failure at this role and found its success as a fun, sunshine toy, equally at home on the beach as in the mountains. Over 50,000 were made and many still survive. Its most famous role was in the cult TV series The Prisoner. The Moke was manufactured in Britain and later in Australia and Portugal. With Mini running gear, the Moke is a practical and fun vehicle for the summer and this explains why so many survive to the present day. John Christopher tells the story of the Moke and the varieties from development to preservation.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299757044085,"sku":"9781445609195","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781445609195_0bb71a09-b2a7-4571-966a-0f088e2752d4.jpg?v=1786020744"},{"product_id":"9781445618593","title":"Brunel in Cornwall","description":"Cornwall marks the extreme south-western extent of Brunel’s kingdom and the county is surprisingly rich in his works. The Royal Albert Bridge, which crosses the River Tamar, connected the broad gauge network with the Cornwall and West Cornwall railways – both engineered by Brunel – to take the trains coming from Paddington all the way to Penzance via a series of over sixty spectacular timber viaducts. The original viaducts have gone now, either modified or replaced over the years, but in many cases the masonry piers remain like rows of monolithic sentinels. As a result there is much to reward the Brunel hunter, including the branch line to Falmouth and many surviving examples of his railway stations. There are other connections, literally. His Great Eastern steamship was the first vessel to successfully lay a telegraphic cable to connect Europe and the USA – a story told at the historic Porthcurno Telegraph Museum near Land’s End. John Christopher, an acknowledged expert on Brunel, takes us on a tour of Cornwall, exploring his works in the county. This is the latest in a series of books which are about rediscovering Brunel’s works in your area.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299757273461,"sku":"9781445618593","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781445618593_d6c35ad6-d513-4381-9c20-c8e93a6dc5dc.jpg?v=1786020771"},{"product_id":"9781445602509","title":"Wren's City of London Churches","description":"LONDON needed rebuilding after the great fire of 1666. Eighty-eight churches had been destroyed and a grand plan to rebuild them was started by Sir Christopher Wren. In the end, he designed fifty-one new churches and the splendour that is St Paul's Cathedral. Of the fifty-one churches, many have been lost, either to a combination of Victorian indifference, fire, subsidence or German bombs. Twelve Wren City churches survive in their original form, while many of the remaining churches have been rebuilt or substantially altered. Wren left an amazing legacy and John Christopher takes us on a tour of the churches, showing them as built and showing us a comparison scene of today.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299933729141,"sku":"9781445602509","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781445602509_c323e5c0-3e2c-4bd5-80af-06a156f88b05.jpg?v=1786020713"},{"product_id":"9781445638560","title":"Organisation Todt: From Autobahns to Atlantic Wall","description":"Based on a confidential wartime British Government report, this in-depth dossier details the inner workings of Organisation Todt, which not only built the Reichsautobahns, but also Germany's Siegfried Line and the Atlantic Wall. Founded by the charismatic Fritz Todt, the OT was responsible for the construction of all of the major military works across Europe  -  from the Siegfried Line and Atlantic Wall, to the U-Boat pens and V1 and V2 weapon sites. When Fritz Todt died in a fl ying accident in 1942 he was succeeded by Hitler's chief architect, Albert Speer, who was also appointed as Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production. Although the OT was not a military organization as such, it literally underpinned the Nazis' stranglehold on the occupied territories. Not just through the fortifications but also through the systematic and highly controversial use of enforced labour drawn from the populations of the vanquished countries. At its peak the OT consisted of a force of almost two million men and women, and it is through the depth of detail revealed in this handbook that we discover the largely untold human story.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56300014961013,"sku":"9781445638560","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781445638560_8e95bf4c-b82f-48d3-be2e-1f006ec894e2.jpg?v=1786020791"},{"product_id":"9781848689633","title":"Isambard Kingdom Brunel Through Time","description":"Isambard Kingdom Brunel was Britain's greatest engineer, he was the man who built everything on a huge scale, he built Britain's biggest ship, some of Britain's most spectacular bridges, a tunnel under the Thames and the finest railway line in Britain, the London to Bristol route of the Great Western Railway. Everything he did was on a scale not seen before, not just in Britain, but in the world.  Brunel left a legacy of industrial architecture and design, from the vaulted roof of Paddington station to the SS Great Britain, the first true ocean greyhound, from the Clifton Suspension Bridge to the Tamar Bridge, which bears his name on its approaches. His life was one of superlatives - bigger, wider, taller and faster. Nearly drowning in the Thames Tunnel, he eventually suffered a stroke aboard his Great Eastern, the world's largest vessel for almost half a century, and died two days before her maiden voyage. As the historian Dan Cruikshank put it, Brunel was quite simply 'a one-man Industrial Revolution'.  Here, John Christopher tells the story of the man and his tunnels, bridges, railways, ships and buildings, with many new illustrations accompanying the old, showing the changes time has made to Brunel's greatest legacy - the things he designed and built that we still take for granted and use every day, over a century and a half since his death.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308360675701,"sku":"9781848689633","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848689633_db01ddf5-5eb8-4478-a728-521af18cfc44.jpg?v=1786029253"},{"product_id":"bradshaws-guide-the-railways-of-ireland","title":"Bradshaw's Guide The Railways of Ireland","description":"Bradshaw’s Guide of 1863 was the staple book on what’s what and where’s where for the mid-Victorians and it gives the modern reader a unique insight into the world of the nineteenth-century railway travellers. Built primarily to provide a passenger service, the railways of Ireland would go on to open up the country to tourism in new ways. They also brought communities closer together and many journeys that once took days to complete could now be undertaken in hours. This illustrated guide records the sights to be seen in the towns and cities encountered along the various routes.John Christopher and Campbell McCutcheon take us on the railways of Ireland, using contemporary Victorian and Edwardian photographs and postcards to illustrate the scenes that the readers of Bradshaw’s Guide to the Railways would have experienced. This volume covers several of Ireland’s railways at the time, including the Great Southern Railway, the Dublin \u0026amp; Kingstown Railway, the Great Southern \u0026amp; Western Railway, the Midland Great Western Railway, and including those of Northern Ireland.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484101878133,"sku":"9781445638669","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781445638669.jpg?v=1786266134"},{"product_id":"bournemouth-through-time","title":"Bournemouth Through Time","description":"Bournemouth Through Time is a wonderful collection of old and new photographs of Bournemouth. The older images are printed alongside a contemporary full colour photograph, which illustrates the same scene. The contrasting illustrations show how the area has changed and developed during the last 100 years. The photographs illustrate shops, schools, garages, churches, houses and street scenes.As you browse through the photographs, you will notice the increase in the number of vehicles on the roads and the number of residents, how shops and other businesses have evolved and the changes and developments in modes of transportation and the architecture of the area.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484413436277,"sku":"9781445603537","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781445603537.jpg?v=1786266568"},{"product_id":"the-pool-of-fire","title":"The Pool of Fire","description":"\u003cb\u003eWill must defeat the Tripods once and for all in this third book of a classic alien trilogy ideal for fans of Rick Yancey’s \u003ci\u003eThe 5th Wave\u003c\/i\u003e and Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Shadow Children series.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter being held captive in the City of Gold and Lead—the capital, where the creatures that control the mechanical, monstrous Tripods live—Will believes that he’s learned everything he needs to know to destroy them. He has discovered the source of their power, and with this new knowledge, Will and his friends plan to return to the City of Gold and Lead to take down the Masters once and for all.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAlthough Will and his friends have planned everything down to the minute, the Masters still have surprises in store. And with the Masters’ plan to destroy Earth completely, Will may have just started the war that will end it all.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504948224373,"sku":"9781481414791","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781481414791.jpg?v=1786953867"},{"product_id":"wotton-under-edge-through-time","title":"Wotton Under Edge Through Time","description":"Wotton-under-Edge, standing at the foot of the Cotswolds and tracing its roots back to Saxon times, has seen much change over the last 150 years. The industrial revolution, and the transformation of the transport industry, has greatly affected both the architecture and everyday practices of the town. Some of these changes have been small and gradual, some monumental.  Once-empty streets are now cluttered with parked cars, new housing estates have spread outwards and the old woollen mills have found new life for a variety of businesses. This book will take readers on a photographic guided tour of Wotton-under-Edge, past and present, and highlight some of the startling changes and stolid similarities of the town.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57705603268981,"sku":"9781848689640","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848689640.jpg?v=1793377282"},{"product_id":"brunel-in-gloucestershire","title":"Brunel in Gloucestershire","description":"Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Britain's greatest engineer is perhaps best known for his ships and the Bristol-London main line, but he also designed many structures in Gloucestershire too. Most notable of the local designs include the tubular bridge crossing the Wye from England to Wales at Chepstow, which was the precursor of the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash. Brunel oversaw the construction of the line from Swindon to Gloucester, and the Broad Gauge goods shed at Stroud station, as well as the station in Cirencester, now surrounded by a car park. Other notable structures include the Mickleton and Haie Hill tunnels, Brunel was heavily involved in the surveying of the major rail routes in the county too, being the engineer for the Bristol to Gloucester route, which opened in 1844 and undertook surveys of the Gloucester-Birmingham railway line too. John Christopher, an acknowledged expert on Brunel, with numerous books to his name, takes us on a tour of the county, showing the effect that Brunel had on the railways, roads and rivers and the transport network of Gloucestershire.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57705607037301,"sku":"9781445607818","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781445607818.jpg?v=1793377306"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-john-christopher.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}