This Month - Up, Up and Away - Alberto Santos-Dumont, pioneer of airship design- contributed by Tim

At the end of the nineteenth century a small, dapper young man took to the skies above Paris in a hired gas balloon. He ensured that he was adequately provisioned for his first ascent - with a lunch of roast beef, chicken, ice-cream, cakes, champagne, coffee and chartreuse! The flight made a huge impression on him and that night he enthralled sophisticated Parisians with descriptions of his adventure - “no dining room is so marvellous in its decoration”. The man's name was Alberto Santos-Dumont and his development of .....Read More.

Featured Book - Rich Mixture - A Motorcycle Miscellany by Phil Irving - contributed by Jane

Philip Edward Irving OBE, C.Eng., M.I.Mech.E., M.S.A.E., born in 1903, was an Australian engineer and author, most famous for the Repco-Brabham Formula One and Vincent motorcycle engines. He also authored the books 'Tuning For Speed' and 'Motorcycle Technicalities' as well as writing a column in Motor Cycling magazine under the pseudonym 'Slide Rule'.

The aptly titled 'Rich Mixture', first published in 1976, comprises a collection of articles written by Irving ....Read the full article.

 

This Month's photo is of the spectacular woodland flowers around Tintern with wood anemone now being replaced by wild garlic and bluebells