Revolution, war, machine breaking, assassination and abduction; how one wronged inventor and his family navigated the tumultuous change and challenges of the industrial revolution. The Life and Times of Samuel Crompton looks at this period of history in terms of the people that played their part in it.

Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule which heralded the factory system, allowing Britain to grow as an industrial power. His life became a fight for recognition. How could a principled man deal with a duplicitous and calculating world and gain a just reward for his invention?

The reader is taken on a journey from the early days of mercantile trade to beginnings of industrial change, then through Georgian England and beyond with insights into the nature of business partnerships and the struggles of working people, Myths, legends and events are interwoven to create the feel and spirit of the times. Cotton and Samuel Crompton’s invention are brought back into the foreground of our understanding of industrial and social change.

All of this is based on detailed research using a unique archive, the Crompton Papers.

This biography is different because it has the exploration of human behaviour at its heart.

Circumstances lead Anthony to emigrate to America aged eighteen. Working in lowly jobs in New York he falls in love with an older woman, moves to Chicago and lives in the African-American quarter of South Chicago.

In London he enters the advertising industry and then joins an expedition driving to Australia. In Australia, the ‘lucky country’, life teaches him drinking ‘Australia style’. Then he joins an Aussie and two Americans to drive through Africa.

Back in London, now an advertising copywriter, he earns reasonable money and unreasonable drinking habits. He fathers a child and, once again, moves on.

In Kenya he starts a company, gets married and has two children. He gets his hunting licence and goes on safaris. He travels extensively in East Africa enjoying the hedonistic lifestyle of the European in Africa. His wife parts from him and back in England he joins Time Magazine.

Time Magazine sends him back to South Africa with his new wife, and then to Holland and Scandinavia with a lifestyle of conspicuous entertainment. Although successful he becomes more dependent on alcohol. The low points are frequent and disaster looms. This is the story of his journey and final redemption.

Gerald Eugen Marcuse, a contemporary of Marconi, enjoyed similar fame during the early years of radio.

Marcuse’s amazing exploits in the 1920’s had earned him an international reputation as a radio experimenter and broadcaster but subsequently he became less wellknown.

In this superbly researched volume, Marcuse’s achievements are set out in detail, including numerous ‘firsts’, made through his brilliant understanding of the technology of the day and his perception of what was needed and what was to come.

First to contact South America, California, Australia & New Zealand by radio, he was instrumental in the foundation of formal ‘Ham’ Radio organisations, making contact with the Hamilton-Rice expedition and assisting both the Police and Ambulance services to set up mobile communications.

He shared his experience with other ‘Hams’ by giving advice and sending them vital components.

Marcuse was issued with a licence to broadcast entertainment from his home in Caterham. He battled with the legal authorities, especially the inertia of the Post Office (the legal body responsible for issuing amateur radio licences) and the BBC which hadn’t accepted the best operating frequencies that should have been used to broadcast overseas successfully.

A household name in the 1920’s but now almost unknown.

A remarkable career but with no official recognition.

After graduating from High School in Toronto, Canada in 1966, David was licenced G8CDQ in 1967 then G4JSZ in 1968.

He was appointed Technical Assistant at the BBC Engineering Department in 1968 at Evesham, Skelton (World Service Transmitters) & Droitwich.

David graduated in 1973 to teach Maths & IT at Droitwich High School. Here he established a vibrant radio club, coaching several students through the Radio Amateur’s exam and is still in contact with some of them.

He was appointed Head of IT at Shrewsbury Girl’s High from 1990-2006 then left to build a successful picture framing business.

David’s first book was based on a diary that Marcuse kept as an engineering student in Einbeck, Germany in 1903.