Located deep beneath the heart of Greater London, the Underground is awash with more strangeness than you can shake your prepaid train card at. So, pack up your day bag and travel stop-by-stop with us on this strange and fantastic journey along the Northern, Picadilly, Metropolitan, Jubilee, Hammersmith & City, and District Line, and explore the Underground as you've never seen it before with this treasure trove of the humorous, the odd, and the baffling—an alternative travel guide to the Underground's best-kept secrets.

    This revised edition includes newly discovered sites and full-color illustrations of real-life scenes from "National Geographic."

    . .'Tucked away along a shady path towards the north-east edge of Hampstead Heath is a sign: Women Only. This is the Kenwood Ladies' Bathing Pond. Officially opened to the public in 1925, it is the only wild swimming spot in the UK that is reserved for women.Created centuries ago, the Heath's chain of ponds are one of the sources of the River Fleet that runs subterraneously through London. Swimming in the Ladies' Pond's green, silty, silky waters, it's hard to avoid the feeling that you are moving through history and outside of time.On a hot summer's day, thousands of swimmers from eight to eighty-odd can be found queuing to take a dip before sunbathing in the adjoining meadow. In the cooler months, when the water temperature plummets, the Pond is still visited daily by hardy regulars, many of whom have been swimming there for decades.Combining personal reminiscence with reflections on the history of the place over the years and through the seasons, for the first time this collection brings together writers' impressions of the Pond.

    Walking in the footsteps of Byzantine emperors and Ottoman sultans, you’ll explore the city where Europe meets Asia. With this up-to-date advice, you’ll make the most out of your time and money, and have your pick of good-value hotels and restaurants. Self-guided walking tours lead you through historic mosques, ancient mosaic-speckled churches, bustling bazaars, and artifact-packed museums. You’ll find out where the locals go for sea-food and for the tastiest Turkish delight candies. In this guide, Lale Surmen Aran and Tankut Aran team up with Rick Steves to bring you the best of Istanbul.

    She has been back to London countless times since, through the pages of books and in person, and now, in Imagined London, she takes her own readers on a tour of this greatest of literary cities. While New York, Paris, and Dublin are also vividly portrayed in fiction, it is London, Quindlen argues, that has always been the star, both because of the primacy of English literature and the specificity of city descriptions. She bases her view of the city on her own detailed literary map, tracking the footsteps of her favorite characters: the places where Evelyn Waugh's bright young things danced until dawn, or where Lydia Bennett eloped with the dastardly Wickham. In Imagined London, Quindlen walks through the city, moving within blocks from the great books of the 19th century to the detective novels of the 20th to the new modernist tradition of the 21st. With wit and charm, Imagined London gives this splendid city its full due in the landscape of the literary imagination. Praise for Imagined London: Shows just how much a reading experience can enrich a physical journey." -New York Times Book Review

    With a stunning, brand-new look, Eyewitness Travel Guides are essential reading for vacation, business, or armchair travel. Consistently chosen over the competition in national consumer market research, Eyewitness Travel Guides include up-to-date information on local customs, currency, medical services, transportation, and much more.

    London grew from a backwater in the Classical age into an important medieval city, a significant Renaissance urban centre and a modern colossus.

    The fully updated guide includes unique cutaways, floor plans, and reconstructions of the must-see sights, plus street-by-street maps of cities and towns. DK's insider travel tips and essential local information will help you discover the best of this country region-by-region, from local festivals and markets to day trips around the countryside. Detailed listings will guide you to hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops for all budgets, while practical information will help you to get around by train, bus, or car. With hundreds of full-color photographs, hand-drawn illustrations, and custom maps that brighten every page, "DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Poland" truly shows you this destination as no one else can.

    has been fully revised. Packed with 75% new material, L.A. Bizarro boasts scores of fresh discoveries plus original photos presented in luscious, lurid color. Connoisseurs of the weird and wonderful, Anthony Lovett and Matt Maranian steer readers into a world of culinary curiosities, morbid museums, sexual sideshows, and dipsomaniacal dives. From pet cemeteries to piata district, hundreds of odd and outr delights are laid bare for visitors and Angelenos alike.

    "Eyewitness Travel Guide: China" provides insider tips every visitor needs from taking the Trans-Siberian railway to seeing Hong Kong from a traditional sail boat. There are comprehensive listings of the best hotels, resorts, restaurants and nightlife in each region for all budgets, as well as 3D cutaways and floor-plans of all the must-see sites, from the spectacular Forbidden Palace to China's splendid temples and palaces plus street-by-street maps of all the great cities and towns of China. With up-to-date information on getting around by train, car, walking in cities, scenic tours and all the sights, beaches, parks and gardens listed town by town, "Eyewitness Travel Guide: China" explores the culture, history, architecture and festivals of this diverse country not missing the best in shopping and entertainment in the major cities.

    Take your eye off it for more than a moment and you're lost.'Robert Elms has seen London change beyond all imagining: the house he grew up in is now the behemoth that is the Westway flyover, and areas once deemed murder miles have morphed into the stuff of estate agents' dreams, seemingly in a matter of months.Elms takes us back through time and place to myriad Londons. He is our guide through a place that has seen scientific experiments conducted in subterranean lairs, a small community declare itself an independent nation and animals of varying exoticism roam free through its streets; a place his great-great-grandfather made the Elms' home over a century ago and a city that has borne witness to epoch- and world-changing events.

    Passionate, witty and moving, the voices of the Lennox sisters reach us with immediacy and power, drawing the reader into their remarkable lives, and making this one of the most enthralling historical narratives to appear for many years

    From Boudicca's savage raid on Roman London in 60AD to the bombing of 7/7, here is the 2000-year story of one of the world's greatest cities.

    Its triumphs and disasters are instantly familiar, from the Norman Conquest to the two world wars, but to fully understand their significance we need to know the whole story.A Short History of England sheds light on all the key individuals and events, bringing them together in an enlightening and engaging account of the country's birth, rise to global prominence and then partial eclipse.

    It is by far the most famous building in the world and the lady who lives there, Queen Elizabeth 11, is easily the most famous woman on the planet. Her Majesty employs some 1,200 men and women, full and part-time, permanent and temporary in her various Royal residences with over 400 working for her at Buckingham Palace alone. So, what is she like to work for? Is she a generous employer? Does she encourage friendliness among those whose salaries she pays or does she prefer to keep her distance? Is it true she hates her servants to have facial hair – beards or moustaches? Why do the housemaids have to vacuum while walking backwards at all times? How are the servants told to react when they meet the Queen or any member of her family? What’s the money like? In many ways Her Majesty is a model employer, providing food, drink and accommodation, at the best address in London, to her staff, but one thing she does not offer is high wages. So why do most of them stay for many years? This book gives all the answers from the inside. Brian Hoey has written 26 books about Britain’s Royal Family and as a former reporter and presenter with BBC Television and Radio he has interviewed Prince Charles, Princess Anne ( whose official biography he wrote), the Duke of Edinburgh and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Hoey was a television commentator at the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981 and again, sadly, in 1997 at the funeral of Diana, He has also interviewed many of Hollywood’s Royalty including; Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Ray Milland, Cary Grant, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons and he conducted the final TV interview with Charlie Chaplin.