Home Latest News How To Order Brunel Trail Contact Us Links Akeman Press Akeman Press was established in 2003 to produce a range of high-quality historical books, with especial emphasis on the city of Bath. Details of the titles published so far are listed below. All books can be ordered directly from Akeman Press. There is no charge for postage within the UK. Overseas postage is reduced by the UK postage costs for each order. NEW BOOKS FROM AKEMAN PRESS: The Year of the Pageant by Andrew Swift and Kirsten Elliott The story of the Bath Pageant - and much more besides. The Bath Pageant of 1909 - with over 3,000 performers - was an astonishing achievement. Using hundreds of archive photographs - many never before published - as well as personal testimonies and original documents, this fascinating book lifts the lid on what it was like to live through this momentous year. £15 ISBN: 9780956098900 Published 2009 I'm Not Prepared to Accept That!:My Tussle with Polio by Philip Whitmarsh The story of one's man battle with childhood polio and its after-effects to become Mayor of his home town - sometimes sad, often funny and always relevant. Paperback £10 ISBN: 9780954613884 Published 2008 Childhood Memories:Growing up in Kingsmead and Weston by Pauline Forrest Pauline Forrest's account of a working-class childhood in Bath in the 20s and 30s evokes a city of tramcars, lodging houses, street vendors, and charabanc trips. Although set in a specific time and place, her story captures the dreams, adventures and woes of every child. Funny, moving and sad, it is a vivid picture of life between the wars. Paperback £6.50 ISBN: 978-0-9546138-9-1 Published 2008 Somerset Pubs by Andrew Swift & Kirsten Elliott From Chard to Chewton Mendip and from Witham Friary to Withypool, Somerset Pubs is a journey into the past, with photographs of over 140 pubs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Coaching inns rub shoulders with back-street beerhouses, time-worn taverns with roadside hostelries. Although many are still open, the way of life captured in these photographs is one that has gone forever, destroyed by the onward march of time. Yet this is not just a wistful look at the past. After decades of rationalisation and standardisation, local pubs and breweries are making a comeback, while farmhouse cider is more popular than ever. Somerset Pubs celebrates a tradition that, despite all the efforts of the multinationals, never quite went away. This virtual pub crawl into the past is not so much an exercise in nostalgia as an inspiration for the future ñ and for journeys in seach of Somersetís pub heritage. Paperback £8.50 ISBN: 978 095461386 0 Published 2007 Somerset Follies by Jonathan Holt From the breathtaking to the bizarre, Somerset Follies takes a fascinating look at dozens of follies throughout the old county of Somerset, including the area around Bath, the most densely follied city in the land. Some have gone, some lie hidden in the undergrowth, others have been magnificently restored by a new generation of folly lovers ñ but all have a story to tell and all have that air of mystery that only something completely purposeless can acquire. Somerset Follies sifts fact from legend and takes a sideways look at the people who put up an astonishing array of buildings purely for pleasure. This comprehensive survey, drawing on extensive new research and including many previously unpublished archive photographs, offers a compelling guide to some of Somersetís most celebrated landmarks ñ and some of its most neglected. Paperback £10 ISBN: 9780954613877 Published 2007 The Ringing Grooves of Change:Brunel & the Coming of the Railway to Bath by Andrew Swift Few people have had as great an impact on Bath as Brunel. The Ringing Grooves of Change tells the story of Bathís invasion by an army of navvies, drinking, whoring and fighting in shanty towns on the edge of the city, while armed Chartists massed in the streets and local elections descended into drunkenness and anarchy. It was against this turbulent background that Brunel brought the railway to Bath. With a section devoted to the building of Box Tunnel and a new Brunel Trail from Keynsham to Box, The Ringing Grooves of Change tells the gripping story of how a great man changed a great city for ever. Paperback £12 ISBN: 978-0-9546138-5-3 Published 2006 All roads lead to France:Bath and the Great War by Andrew Swift Interweaving letters from men at the front with stories of life at home, and illustrated with over 300 photographs, this book describes the Great Warís impact on the city of Bath. It is a story of grief, suffering and anger ñ but there is laughter too. And although Andrew Swift tells the story of one community, this could be, with minor variations, the story of hundreds of other British towns and cities as they lived through the time when all roads led to France. Hardcover £30 ISBN: 978-0-9546138-3-9 Published 2005 The Lost Pubs of Bath by Andrew Swift & Kirsten Elliott Weighing in at 400 pages, with over 500 entries and 500 illustrations, The Lost Pubs of Bath brings the Bath Pubs trilogy to a triumphant conclusion. Paperback £15 ISBN: 978-0-9546138-4-6 Published 2005 Awash With Ale:2000 Years of Imbibing in Bath by Kirsten Elliott & Andrew Swift Drinking has reached crisis level ñ or so we are told. The truth is that drinking has been at crisis level for centuries. This is the story of how Britainís first pleasure resort coped with our ancestorsí relentless desire to drink more than was good for them. From the Gin Epidemic to the Beerhouse Boom, from the Cider Rebellion to the Drunken Election ñ Awash with Ale tells the story of Bath in a way youíve never heard it told before. Paperback £12.99 ISBN: 978-0-9546138-1-5 Published 2004 The Myth-maker:John Wood 1704 - 1754 by Kirsten Elliott John Wood was not only one of the eighteenth centuryís most famous architects, but also one of its most assiduous mythmakers. From a desire to restore Bath to its former position as a centre of Druidic culture, his researches led him into Rosicrucianism and alchemy. He even completed the first accurate survey of Stonehenge ñ or Choir Gaure as he called it. In this lavishly illustrated book, Kirsten Elliott attempts to provide the key to a re-evaluation of one of the eighteenth-centuryís most fascinating figures. Paperback £10 ISBN: 978-0-9546138-2-2 Published 2004 Bath Pubs by Kirsten Elliott & Andrew Swift Taking the waters - that's the reason visitors have flocked to Bath for centuries. Other books about Bath focus on this abstemious activity. This book offers a different history and a different tipple. Beer has a long and honourable tradition, and Bathís pubs are just as much part of the cityís story as the Roman Baths and the Assembly Rooms. The tale the authors tell is one of high life and low life, where temperance campaigners rub shoulders with sozzled soldiers, and magistrates deal out punishment to hat-removing harlots. Paperback £12.99 ISBN: 978-0-9546138-0-8 Published 2003 © Akeman Press 2005-7