Peter Smith

The story of Icarus leaves us wishing to equip our children with the character and skills to navigate through life and change course when flying too close to the sun. In today's world, young adults face unprecedented distractions and instantly gratifying messaging that challenge anyone's ability to focus, decide and/or execute a game plan for launch. Students, parents, mentors, and mentees may find themselves disoriented. "Icarus 2.0, parachute included"...

Convicted killers don't often ring their local newspapers from behind bars. Hard-nosed Canadian crime reporter Ben Ludlow took one such phone call which plunged his life into the blood-thirsty world of multiple murders. Soon other killers called him from behind bars. Before long he had a murderers' hot line going. Who was out there sparking these scary killers to call him? They themselves were evil monsters. They had each been convicted of bludgeoning...

The V 1, or Doodlebug or Flying-bomb came into use in June 1944 and, together with the V 2 Rocket, was Hitler’s final hope in face of the advancing Allied forces sweeping across Europe towards Germany. Of the 8,000 that were launched within the first 80 days, some 2,300 reached the London area where they caused more death and destruction to its population and buildings. As the front line moved eastwards, many of the ground-based launch ramps became...

The Sex Pistols exploded onto the music scene in 1976, paving the way for the deluge of punk rock that would change the face of modern rock music forever. Their debut album, “Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols”, proved one of the most important rock albums of all time, fusing slammed rock chords with searing vocals. The Sex Pistols simply, and seemingly effortlessly, blew away all that had come before them, setting an entirely new...

How does science work? Does it tell us what the world is "really" like? What makes it different from other ways of understanding the universe? In Theory and Reality, Peter Godfrey-Smith addresses these questions by taking the listener on a grand tour of one hundred years of debate about science. The result is a completely accessible introduction to the main themes of the philosophy of science. Intended for undergraduates and general audiences with...

The 21st century saw the naval power of Great Britain rise from that of an obscure island to that of a world-wide empire. British shipping and seamen dominated the globe for four centuries and the ships that explored the world and those which guarded them represent a unique treasure-trove of maritime history, unrivaled anywhere in the world. This book serves as an enthralling trawl through the heritage of the British shipping tradition, featuring...

Peter Duggan-Smith was born in 1916 to an actress mother. As she was always on the move he was brought up by two maiden aunts until he was accepted to train for a sea-going career on the cadet ship H. M. S. Conway. It was on the last of several voyages to New Zealand as a Merchant Navy apprentice that his life of adventure began - though it did not always turn out as he had planned! The one constant in Peter's life was his love of flying; by the end...

Peter C. Smith presents us here with the second release in his visually splendid Cruise Ships series. Whilst his first book concerned itself with the large-scale ships currently cruising through our seas (those weighing 40,000 GT and more) this volume focusses on the other end of the market; the ships that weigh in at less than 40,000 GT, but which are often much more stylish and aesthetically pleasing than their larger-scale counterparts. The elegant...

The stunning elegance and luxurious interiors of today’s vast fleet of cruise liners remains unrecorded in all but holiday brochures. This book gives a complete overview of the cream of these ships, today’s queens of the sea. Each liner is illustrated and described with color illustrations of external and interior views. Details of the design, building and service history of each vessel are provided with vital statistics of the ship and its facilities. Among...