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On Roads: A Hidden History [Hardcover]

Joe Moran (Author)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

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Product details

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Profile Books; first edition, edition (11 Jun 2009)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1846680522
ISBN-13: 978-1846680526
Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 3.2 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 215,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

`Truly wonderful...every minute devoted to this book is richly rewarded.' --David McKie, author of 'Great British Bus Journeys'

'Wonderful. Joe Moran is the master of turning the mundane realities of everyday life into the stuff of history.' - Dominic Sandbrook
--Dominic Sandbrook

'Terrific... he takes numerous diversions into subjects that really shouldn't be interesting, but which he makes fascinating... entertainingly contrarian' - Robert Macfarlane, The Guardian
--Robert Macfarlane, The Guardian

'Packed with fascinating detail' --Brian Morton, Glasgow Herald

`Expansive, unexpected cultural history... it's loaded with strange and delightful details ... I've got many pages folded over' --Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic

`This is a part-bonkers, part-brilliant book, as many of the best books are.' --Jonathan Wright, The Tablet

`The optimism and sense of wonder of the era is evoked brilliantly... an elegant piece of scholarship... engrossing' --Alasdair Reid, Sunday Herald

`Books of the Year 2009: A beautifully written, funny and original book to place alongside the psychogeographies of Iain Sinclair.' --Harry Eyres, FT

`One of the most surprisingly enjoyable and informative books of the year, a highly original work' --Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times Books of the Year 2009

`A pretty fascinating read... full of memorable passages.' --Roddy Wooble, Books of the Year - Sunday Herald

Review

`Wonderful. Whoever could have known that roads were so fascinating?'

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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful, engrossing book which needed to be written and deserves to be read, 7 July 2009

Dilberto (Deepest Darkest Central London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Roads: A Hidden History (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful, engrossing book which needed to be written and deserves to be read. Funny, engaging, incredibly well-researched and impressively broad in its scope, On Roads tells the fascinating - and it is, truly - postwar history of British roads and the British motorist and is peppered with the sort of extraordinary facts and trivia I can't resist. Bob Geldof working on a roadgang on the M25, a quarter of a million fish being rescued before they started building Spaghetti Junction, and why migrating birds love the A34. Fantastic.

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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A whole new take on motoring, 30 Jun 2009

Book Lover - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Roads: A Hidden History (Hardcover)

I bought this book to give as a present but became too engrossed to give it away. I've always wondered why you tend to see so many kestrels and kites when you're driving along the motorway - and this book explains it all. This is a completely fascinating look at something I - like many other people I'm sure - tend to take for granted. Highly recommended.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A1!!!, 30 Aug 2009

sausagesandwich (Yorkshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Roads: A Hidden History (Hardcover)

The reviews I read elsewhere for this book were right-it is a well-researched, topical and absorbing record of all things road-related, with some fantastic observations on our habits on the road, both good and bad. The attention to detail belies the author's age...I think I managed to work it out from an early passage in the book! A must for anyone that travels on the road a lot (that'd be a "motorist" then?!) and especially the motorway network; those boring stretches of landscaped tarmac and concrete will never seem quite as dull again-who'd have thought that motorway services have a social history all of their own?! Amazon take Pole Position for offering the hard-back edition of this book on one of its promotions; I only wish I'd ordered the soft-back as well-that way I could have kept it in the glovebox of the car to read next time I'm in those roadworks on the M1!

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› See all 19 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars On Roads
I gave the book to a friend for Christmas and she tells me that she is really enjoying it. It is witty and full of interesting facts about our highways. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Spud

5.0 out of 5 stars Mind how you go
If you ever go on a road you need this book. It combines hilarious facts (the AA made Ribbentrop an honorary member; they liked the Nazi's autobahns; returning First World War... Read more

Published 10 months ago by D. Cheshire

5.0 out of 5 stars On Roads - a review
This book is a veritable cornucopia of facts and figures connected with our roads and at times mind boggling when one considers how and from where he has garnered them. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Mr. D. G. Morgan

1.0 out of 5 stars A history of modern roads, by an author who doesn't like them
Despite the cover depicting a country lane or track, the book's subject is predominantly major roads (esp. motorways) built since WWII. Read more

Published 15 months ago by J. Robson

4.0 out of 5 stars A roadmap of social history
Moran views roads not simply as transport routes, but as a focus for charting social history. Over the last century, roads have formed the battleground between safety lobbies and... Read more

Published 15 months ago by ceriithomas

4.0 out of 5 stars King of the road
I gave 'Queuing for beginners' five stars and thoroughly recommend it. When I happened upon this Joe Moran offering I thought I had to read it and bought it in the same batch as... Read more

Published 17 months ago by Rob Sawyer

5.0 out of 5 stars 'On Roads' Joe Morab
As someone living on Teesside a big irony is that the one single thing that put us well and truly on the world map - the opening of the world's first proper passenger railway from... Read more

Published 17 months ago by WALSHY

4.0 out of 5 stars the road less travelled...
what makes anyone decide to pick up a book about roads and read it? - probably that they are someone who has spent a considerable proportion of their lives to date on them and... Read more

Published 18 months ago by tortoise girl

3.0 out of 5 stars WELL REASEARCHED BOOK
This was a very interesting and well researched book. It gave a very clear perspective on roads and the befefits and disadvantages these feature play in our everyday lives. Read more

Published 19 months ago by bibliophile

4.0 out of 5 stars Everything you never knew about roads
This is a really good book with lots of details about things you see every day as you travel around our road network but never think about. Read more

Published 22 months ago by David Canning

› See all 19 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

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