Books with author Jonathan Wall

Between 1939 and 1945, the civilian population in Britain was exposed to the grim and dangerous realities of war to an unprecedented degree. Yet many remember those years as bringing fulfilment, a sense of adventure, even exhilaration, and found the common danger gave their lives a shape and purpose that they have been unable to recapture in peacetime. Others see the wartime as essentially a time of nothing more valiant than endurance, of 'making do', a dismal episode of their lives remembered above all for its deprivations, restrictions and tedium. Yet others found that, while there was certainly intensity, it was to be found in the frustrations and disappointments they experienced, perhaps through an ambition being thwarted, a relationship abruptly severed, an education cut short, a childhood missed.This book gathers the personal stories of 35 people, drawn from all walks of life, and evokes as never before, the reality of life in Britain during the Second World War. Here is a uniquely personal portrait of a nation at war, with contemporary photographs, diaries, letters, poems, and other memorabilia belonging to the men and women whose wartime lives fill this absorbing book.

Part ode to building something with one’s hands in the modern age, part celebration of the beauty and function of boats, and part moving father-daughter story, How to Build a Boat is a bold adventure.Once an essential skill, the ability to build a clinker boat, first innovated by the Vikings, can seem incomprehensible today. Yet it was the clinker, with its overlapping planks, that afforded us access to the oceans, and its construction has become a lost art that calls to the do-it-yourselfer in all of us. John Gornall heard the call. A thoroughly unskilled modern man, Gornall set out to build a traditional wooden boat as a gift for his newborn daughter. It was, he recognized, a ridiculously quixotic challenge for a man who knew little about woodworking and even less about boat-building. He wasn’t even sure what type of wood he should use, the tools he’d need, or where on earth he'd build the boat. He had much to consider…and even more to learn. But, undaunted, he embarked on a voyage of rediscovery, determined to navigate his way back to a time when we could fashion our future and leave our mark on history using only time-honored skills and the materials at hand. His journey began in East Anglia, on England’s rocky eastern coast. If all went according to plan, it would end with a great adventure, as father and daughter cast off together for a voyage of discovery that neither would forget, and both would treasure until the end of their days. How to Build a Boat celebrates the art of boat-building, the simple pleasures of working with your hands, and the aspirations and glory of new fatherhood. John Gornall “tells the inspiring story of how even the least skilled of us can make something wonderful if we invest enough time and love” (The Daily Mail) and taps into the allure of an ancient craft, interpreting it in a modern way, as tribute to the generations yet to come. “Both the book, and place, are magical” (The Sunday Telegraph).

Undoubtedly, getting to Mars is not going to be easy. The voyagers will face extreme physical danger--from asteroids and massive Martian dust storms to erupting giant volcanoes. Could humans survive the Red Planet?Drawing on the latest scientific research, and delving into humankind's fascination with Mars, Jonathan Webb creates a lively picture of what a Mars expedition would be like--from life aboard a Mars habitation module, how the astronauts wouldexplore the planet's surface, to their triumphant return to Earth.

Now available as a separate book to Welcome To Being Human (All-In-One Edition).Imagine a story written for adults, but told through 3 separate children's stories. One bedtime story for parents to read to a child. One story for a child learning to read. One story for children to read to parents. This is just what is included in the Children's Edition of Welcome to Being Human - the highly acclaimed book that has gripped adults young and old alike. How many times have you heard, "Life doesn't come with an instruction book?" But what if it did? And what if you wrote that instruction book before arriving on Earth so that one day, in your human form, you would find it and be able to look upon your life with an entirely different perspective? Ever since humans arrived on Earth, they have - for better or worse - bounced around the planet without any sense of direction. It would be almost comical if it wasn't reality. I mean, how many times have you asked a question and heard an answer like, "I don't know why, but that is what it says?" Or even better... "That's just the way it is." After all, the greatest minds on planet Earth have only a small understanding of something much, much greater than can be explained through science, math, and history. This is why Welcome to Being Human will find the rhythm to your heart. For the first time, one book answers the great questions about life that have gone unanswered for so long! It is a story humorously written by you, for you, to help you remember all that's been forgotten... an instruction book to being human. Welcome to being human!

Was the country really united in the face of the common enemy? Did people actually put the community’s needs before their own? Or were such ideas simply a series of myths created at the time and nurtured ever since. The recollections of this book, first published in 1989, attempt to answer such questions by evoking the reality of life on the home front during the war years. Here is a uniquely personal portrait of a nation at war, extensively illustrated with photographs, diaries, letters, poems, and other memorabilia belonging to the men and women whose wartime lives fill this absorbing book. This title will be of interest to students of history.

Was the country really united in the face of the common enemy? Did people actually put the community’s needs before their own? Or were such ideas simply a series of myths created at the time and nurtured ever since. The recollections of this book, first published in 1989, attempt to answer such questions by evoking the reality of life on the home front during the war years. Here is a uniquely personal portrait of a nation at war, extensively illustrated with photographs, diaries, letters, poems, and other memorabilia belonging to the men and women whose wartime lives fill this absorbing book. This title will be of interest to students of history.