Jan Dobrzynski – författare

In 1838 Thomas Edmondson, an employee of the fledgling Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, revolutionised the ticket issuing process in Britain and left an enduring legacy: the Edmondson ticket.Purchased as proof of the contract between passenger and railway company, the ticket was a receipt, travel pass and an ephemeral record of almost every train journey ever taken in the British Isles, reflecting the nostalgia of the railways and a period of history when the movement of millions of people brought together England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The railways printed millions of tickets for every conceivable journey and category of passenger.Most were destroyed after use, but remarkably many survive, in the care of libraries, museums and collectors, and form the basis of a fascinating hobby.

Flowing for nearly 100 miles through gently rolling countryside at the very heart of England, the Avon is one of the most quintessentially English rivers in the country. Visiting places such as Naseby, Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Evesham and Tewkesbury, this book captures visions of the river as it used to be, from ye olde battlefields through to Edwardian tourism with, of course, plenty of Shakespearian history. A companion volume to the authors' A Postcard from the Severn and A Postcard from the Wye, this book takes the reader on a journey in words and pictures through the five counties traversed by the Avon, using images from more than 250 postcards drawn from the authors' collections - many posted to friends and relatives by some of the innumerable visitors to the river and its world-famous associated attractions. It is a record of how the river and its surroundings once appeared, and how they were immortalised by earlier generations of photographers and artists, printers and publishers.

This book takes the reader on a pictorial journey along the entire length of the Dee in over 200 old picture postcards, accompanied by informative captions. Our journey starts in North Wales, high above the village of Llanuwchllyn, by a stream which flows from ancient rocks into a sheet of still, deep water called Lake Bala. It is from this source that the River Dee flows. The river wanders through the former counties of Merionethshire and Denbighshire, and eventually reaches the town of Llangollen, home of the international Eisteddfod. With romantic views of the ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey and Castell Dinas Bran, and scenes of the Dee as it flows over Telford's Horseshoe Falls, we leave Wales and head into England. Crossing the border, the Dee meanders through low-lying farmland into Cheshire where it encounters the historic city of Chester. We now accompany the Dee on the final leg of our pictorial journey as it turns through the Cheshire and Flintshire countryside and emerges into the estuary to form the natural coastal boundary between the Wirral peninsula and North Wales.

The Mersey’s 70-mile journey to the Irish Sea starts with the merging of the rivers Goyt and Tame at Stockport in Greater Manchester. At Irlam the course of the Mersey is briefly diverted into the Manchester Ship Canal, where its waters combine with another captive river, the Irwell. Soon released from this manmade constraint the Mersey continues to flow unimpeded for the remainder of its journey – flowing past Warrington and through the Runcorn Gap – into the throat of Liverpool Bay. For centuries the Mersey has served as the natural boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire, its tidal flow washing through the developing conurbation of Merseyside which comprises the port of Liverpool, Birkenhead and the former coastal resort of New Brighton at the mouth of the estuary. This book takes the reader on a journey in words and pictures along the lower reaches of the river, its navigable companion the Manchester Ship Canal and the coast of Liverpool Bay, using more than 200 old photographs. It is a record of a major waterway with its ports, docks, warehouses, cargo ships and ocean liners immortalised by past generations of photographers for the benefit of visitors and travellers from around the world.