Glancey, Jonathan – The Bell Bookshop

V-Force

Emma — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As World War II came to an end and America’s nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki shocked the world, it became clear that the nascent Cold War would be as different a conflagration from WWII as that war was from WWI. Believing that the UK was extremely vulnerable to nuclear attack, it was quickly determined that only ‘the threat of large-scale damage from similar weapons’ could prevent a Soviet attack. And, thus, V-Force was born.Entered into service between 1955 and 1957, the three models of V class bombers that made up Britain’s strategic nuclear strike force – the Vickers Valiant, Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor – were modern marvels of machinery. Capable of both high- and low-level attack with their slick delta wing designs, and supremely quick despite the massive bomb loads they carried, these aircraft were central tenets of Britain’s nuclear weapons development.Despite a fall as precipitous as their rise when the Royal Navy took over Britain’s nuclear deterrent role in 1968, like a phoenix from the ashes, the V bombers enjoyed a second life as conventional bombers: the Valiant gaining fame in the Suez Crisis; the Victors in the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, and the Vulcans undertook the longest bombing raid in history for Operation Black Buck in the Falklands Campaign of 1982.V-Force is both an ode to these most resilient and beautiful of British aircraft, and a lens through which to view Britain’s Cold War experience.

Operation Bowler

Emma — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

21st March 1945. 1530 hours. Bursting through a hazy sky, dozens of Allied fighters and bombers sweep over German-occupied Venice.

Their mission – destroy Germany’s strategic outposts nestled along the port, while leaving the floating city unscathed.

As bombs rained down upon Europe, flattening city after city, Venice – La Serenissima; home of Titian and Veronese; immortalised in the serene landscapes of Canaletto – remained sacrosanct. Its artistic and architectural treasure too considerable, too precious to risk destruction.

But, as the push up through Italy reached its final, gruelling months, the Allies were confronted with a terrible dilemma. The ancient city of Venice was now closer and closer to the line of fire. As casualties mounted, the value of art, of history seemed diminished – just a month earlier Allied bombers had reduced the ancient hilltop abbey of Monte Cassino to a stony husk.

In a gripping tale, bestselling author Jonathan Glancey reveals the thrilling history of ‘Operation Bowler’. Joining audacious Wing Commander George Westlake DFC and his elite team, Operation Bowler explores how an unlikely squad of pilots executed one of the most meticulous and complex air raids of the Second World War, sparing not only Venice, but its people.

Modern architecture

Emma — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Explore over 500 masterpieces of modern architecture in this celebration of the most iconic buildings in the world.

Written by acclaimed architecture expert Jonathan Glancey, Modern Architecture is a beautifully illustrated guide to the key styles, architects and movements that have defined our skylines since the dawn of the twentieth century. From the dizzying heights of the Shard to the exquisite curves of the Sydney Opera House, and from Frank Lloyd Wright to Sir David Adjaye, this is the essential handbook to the creative discipline that shapes our world.

‘His comments are always informative, unashamedly partisan and often enjoyably tart’ – Sunday Telegraph

‘One of the finest architectural writers in contemporary Britain’ – Scotland on Sunday

Wings Over Water

Emma — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Announced in 1912, the Schneider Trophy was a series of glamorous air contests, popularly known as races, that captivated both sides of the Atlantic. While there were many other aviation competitions, the Schneider proved to be, after a rocky start, by far the most memorable attracting a hugely popular and glamorous following whether Trophy races were held in Monaco, the Venice Lido, the Solent or Chesapeake Bay. The Schneider Trophy was a focus not just of remarkable aircraft, derring-do pilots and swooning public attention, but also of fierce rivalries between the competitors: Britain, France, Italy and the United States. It gripped the imaginations of pioneering manufacturers and two of the world’s finest aircraft designers Ã¯ ¿ ½- Reginald Mitchell and Mario Castoldi – who worked feverishly hard to outdo one another. Perhaps inevitably, the dynamism of rival engineering and politics led to the most potent military fighters of World War Two with Reginald Mitchell’s record-breaking Supermarine seaplanes morphing, one way or another, into the Spitfire. Wings Over Water not only tells the story of the Schneider Trophy afresh but also examines the backdrop and legacy of these legendary air races, which became a driver and celebration of speed and engineering prowess for both sea and ground-based aircraft. It is an exhilarating tale of raw adventure, public excitement, engineering genius and the fortunes of flying boats and seaplanes.

Architecture: A Visual History

Emma — Thu, 27 May 2021 15:52:48 +0000

From airports to Ziggurats, this title explores the world's greatest buildings, covering 5000 years of architectural design, style, and construction.

The Journey Matters: Twentieth-Century Travel in True Style

Emma — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

What was it really like to take the LNER’s Art Deco Coronation streamliner from King’s Cross to Edinburgh, to cross the Atlantic by the SS Normandie, to fly with Imperial Airways from Southampton to Singapore, to steam from Manhattan to Chicago on board the New York Central’s 20th Century Limited or to dine and sleep aboard the Graf Zeppelin? In the course of The Journey Matters, Jonathan Glancey travels from the early 1930s to the turn of the century on some of what he considers to be the most truly glamorous and romantic trips he has ever dreamed of or made in real life.Each of the twenty journeys allows him to explore the history of routes taken, and the events – social and political – enveloping them. Each is the story of the machines that made these journeys possible, of those who shaped them and those, too, who travelled on them.